Here is my latest update.
I have had a crazy couple of months - I lost confidence in the program I was in and took leave of absence. Then I was going to start a similar program in archiving through the library school at Queens College (City University of New York), but there was a delay with my transcript from Vista & Laney College, and CUNY has some administrative issues (or else they're just slow), so that didn't really work out.
I finally got accepted to the library school for the fall, and was going to take a summer class, but then they didn't have any financial aid for me. I think I'm already not so impressed with CUNY. I'm also planning to tell NYU that I'm not coming back.
In the semester I had off, I've been working full time as an Education Assistant (I help the Education Director) at a major Synagogue on the Upper East Side (Park Avenue Synagogue), which I'm enjoying. One of my friends sort of got me the job, and I share an office with her, which is really fun (Dina Mann is awesome!!!).
I also joined a writing group and wrote a full length play (typically for me, it's about audience / reception theory and includes an entire Yiddish wedding). I've been sending it out to different theaters, mostly in California and New York, to see if anyone is interested in staging it.
I was thinking about applying to Playwriting MFA programs, but when I was looking into those, I found this program in the Yale Drama Department that sounds amazing. It's a MFA & Doctor of Fine Arts in Dramaturgy & Dramatic Criticism. They train you to work as the Artistic or Literary Director for a theater, or to be a Drama Critic for a newspaper or magazine, or to be a Professor of Drama (or related fields).
I'm really hoping I can get in, maybe for the next academic year (Fall a year from now). It just sounds fun and I like the idea of having a Fine Arts doctorate. I think it might be useful if I ever teach Jewish Studies on the university level, because I think that sort of field, which used to be Literature and History only, is starting to open up and recruit people from other areas of the humanities.
Anyway, that's my academic goal for the moment. I'm still living in the same place in Brooklyn, with the bunnies. Or at least one of the bunnies I brought from Berkeley, Bubba. He has a new spouse, Bonnie, who looks a lot like his first spouse, Bella, only in miniature.
The people I adopted Bonnie from (they rescue abandoned or endangered rabbits) came by two weeks ago and installed an air conditioner for us so the bunnies wouldn't get too hot over the summer. It was fantastic! - one of them gave us an air conditioner that she doesn't use.
My roommate says the bunnies are better hooked up than we are. My roommates both moved out last month - one got married & the other went back to Berkeley to be closer to her family. I have two new roommates. They're both really laid back, we all get along and hang out a lot. One is getting a teaching credential, the other works at a non-profit. My other roommates moved out before the lease ended, so they found the new roommates. It worked out really well, and we've just signed a new lease together.
I love the apartment, with its decorative ceilings and polished wood floors. The land lady refurbished it right before I moved in two years ago. It's also really airy and has a lot of space for a brownstone type of building - we each have our own rooms and two fairly large common areas and the kitchen. The location is great too, right near Prospect Park and subway stops.
My cousin from New Zealand is getting married in New Zealand in September, so I might be in Berkeley for a few days some time around then. If you're around, I would love to see you if you live around there.
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LynleyShimat L.
Moving Image Archivist
718-916-8015
lynley.shimat@gmail.com
http://lynleyshimat.weebly.com/
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