Friday night movies & a busy weekend

I'm going to go see Argo with friends tonight, I can't wait, very excited to sit with them as I know they will enjoy this film as much as I did when I saw it in Toronto at TIFF last semester. It was an incredible honor to have Ben Affleck present his film to us at TIFF, so my friends will just have to settle for film previews and milk duds. Then afterwards, we'll go to the neighborhood pub for drinks and chat for a bit. I usually go to my Bikram yoga class on Friday night, so I'll do that on Saturday morning instead.

Meanwhile, I just read the latest EMU Graduate newsletter and they announced that it's application time for a financial award program based on merit. As I'm a 2nd year grad student, one has to have a 3.8 GPA in order to qualify, and since I have a perfect 4.0, I hope I can win this honor and receive a little bit of money for the Fall 2013 semester, which will be my last semester. As I reviewed my loan status from undergrad and now graduate work earlier this week, my nose almost started to bleed. I don't want to take out a loan for the fall, but if I have to, I'll take the smallest amount. So whatever help I can get from The University Fellowship program, I would greatly appreciate it:

The University Fellowship

is a distinction of honor awarded to

select graduate students on the basis of academic merit.

Fellowship awards may range from $500 to $4,000 per year.

Requirements:

•

New graduate students = 3.6 cumulative undergraduate

GPA.

•

Current students = 3.8 GPA in your program of study.

•

Awards for part-time enrollment may be based on merit and

a 3.0 GPA.

*

Priority is given to students not receiving other kinds of aid such as a G.A.

Awards are competitive and distributed among all graduate academic

programs.


In the past year, I have had on my mind about the Take Your Seats program through the Detroit Film Theater (DFT) which is a part of the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). You can buy a seat and have a bronze plate with your name or someone else's name on it and that seat will be yours for the next 30-40 years. What a great way to memorialize someone who is a film lover right? Well I'm thinking about doing this for my late sister Suzy, who passed away in 2008 from cancer. She loved movies just like me and I cannot think of a better way to honor her for what will be for a very long time. The starting price is $500 and it goes up to $2500! But as I'm a member of the DIA and a supporter friend of the DFT, I can take advantage of a special sale of a seat for $325 only through Jan. 31st. As a poor grad student who really wants to do this, I'm going to purchase a seat for Suzy and I need to go visit the DFT to select a seat in the theater. I am anxious to do this so I may go this weekend to finalize the purchase. However, I have already planned to go next weekend to the DFT to see a film, so I may wait until then. I'm waiting for the program manager to contact me so I can schedule an appointment.