Instead, first of all, I need to congratulate my brother Isaac and his wife Katie on the birth of their new son, Hudson. I have two nieces and two nephews now and another one is expected in a couple of months. Hudson was born a whopping 9 lbs. and, as legend has it, already able to hold up his own head. He was born 11 days overdue and he must have spent that extra time doing crunches. Hudson looks just like his dad to me--dark hair, Isaac's nose. I hope to see him really soon. Anyone want to buy my train ticket?!
Second, turns out I am a finalist in the application process for the Ph.D program at Penn State. Professor Beebee of their Comparative Literature department called me early last week to schedule a phone interview for the following day. He had tried to reach me by e-mail but the power had been knocked out. I was fairly excited and nervous in the intervening 24 hours, especially since PSU has the best program of the three to which I applied. The interview actually seemed fairly informal and conversational. Part of it was in Portguese, at which I felt rusty but still fairly fluent. I think it went well overall and I'm excited to hear back from them. But It will be sad to go; I feel rather attached to D.C. now, but I know that this is the right direction for my career.
