Very nice rejection, if that's possible

So I just received the official "no thanks" from Missouri. I was suprised that at the bottom of the form letter, the director of graduate studies, with whom I had wanted to do research, hand wrote the following note to me:

I'm so sorry, Lauren. I wish we had space for you - best of luck in all your studies, and I look forward to seeing you at conferences down the line!

Isn't that the nicest thing? When he emailed me about the wait list over spring break, he implied that the scholars in my area of study were bucking for my admission, but the list was just too long with really good candidates from all areas. I'm thinking that's because he's really good friends with one of my recommenders. But still. I feel really good about this rejection.

It's amazing how far a real note, no matter how long, can earn one respect and appreciation. In fact, this is my day for hand-written notes, apparently. Today, I also received a blank card with a really nice note from an old college buddy. Yes, Ma, this is exactly what you have always taught us about "keeping in touch" and making small, but sincere gestures of appreciation. It really works.

long lost cousins

Barry Manilow and Rod Stewart - anyone else see the resemblance?

a Jewish wedding story

Back in Tally for about a week. Had a wonderful time at Jamie's wedding and got to see all my Elon buds, minus one. So this was my first Jewish wedding to attend. I got to hold the chuppah, hear the rabbi sing, see Jeff stomp on the glass, etc. Very cool. Interestingly, the first Christian wedding Jamie had attended was my roommate, Jenn's, two summers ago. Anyway, the rabbi explained each component of the ceremony and the reasoning behind each symbol, like drinking the wine, the significance of a simple ring, and the marriage contract. He even conducted the ceremony in both Hebrew and English.

I have to say, the reception was probably the most interesting. We had tons of hors d'oeuvres before a sit-down lunch. Needless to say, we were stuffed! Before lunch got started, though, we all had to do the round dances, which were pretty fun. Jamie and Jeff were tossed up in their chairs, while there were concentric circles of dancers going in different directions. The funniest part about all the dancing throughout the afternoon, though, was the sheer number of New York Jewish people there. Lemme tell you, they love nothing better than to dance. In a way, it kinda reminded me of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, only Jewish style. There weren't any crazy aunts to tell us about the "bibopsy" which produced evidence of a twin, but there were lots of interesting personalities. Anyway, long story short, had a blast and can't wait to get back up to Carolina for good!

La fashionista

It's good to be back in J-town for a bit. Went shopping today and had a pretty good stroke of luck - bought the first thing I tried on! I'm headed up to NC at the end of next week for a wedding, so I thought I'd try to clean up a bit. Check out the new dress. I also bought a couple of books, surprise surprise.

Quote of the Day

For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?

~True words, spoken by a one Mr. Bennet, in Pride and Prejudice