the gods must be smiling OR best monday ever

I'm still giggly and excited by the amazing chain of events today. After several weeks of general thesis proposal frustration, trouble sleeping, etc., I supposed I was due for some good news. But all this? Too good to be true, and yet...It wasn't!

First, my advisor (who, strangely enough, is now my friend on Facebook) approved the bazillionth draft of my thesis proposal. Hooray! Cleared for thesis launch!

Second, after basking in the glow of that accomplishment, I checked my e-mail and discovered that the director of a place for which I'd reallllllly like to work come May asked me to come in for a second interview this week. Woohoo!

Third, by now excessively giggly and giddy, I headed down to Quick Pita with Katy and Nick for a pre-class shawerma when just a block away from our department's building we encountered police cars, a crowd, and...movie trucks? Then that little item that's been nagging me since I saw it in Friday's Post -- George Clooney is in town filming the latest Coen Brothers movie. OMGOMGOMG -- I SAW GEORGE CLOONEY! It was a quick take. He jogged up the hill at 35th as a black sedan rushed past. But I SAW HIM. (And consequently was reduced to the blubberings of a teenage girl.) Katy tried pointing out that as a Southern Californian, it shouldn't be such a big deal, and it wouldn't be if it wasn't GEORGE F'ING CLOONEY! Siiiigh. Vahan, just a warning, if I see him tomorrow, I will propose marriage.

As if that couldn't be topped (and in further proof that my nerd-dom was fully restored only a few short hours later), I attended an honorary degree ceremony for one of my new favorite authors, Orhan Pamuk, who won last year's Nobel Prize for literature and is one of the many Turkish intellectuals who have the courage to speak the truth about what happened to the Armenians in Turkey. If you haven't read Snow, do so. You can thank me later.

Hooray for the best day ever! Now, I'm going to make some tea and eat a slice of pumpkin bread and gloat to myself.