getting closer

yesterday i was working in the ceramics studio (cleaning kilns, mixing clay, and mixing glaze) and at lunch time i decided to call Shauna and ask her to check the mail because i was expecting to get a letter from the graduate admissions department. she went to the mail room to check and the mailwoman was still there and said it would be ten minutes... about ten minutes later Shauna called me back. the letter was from the painting and drawing department and was an invitation to come to an interview in March!!!! HOORAY! i still have two other letters that will probably come in a few weeks (one from Printmedia and one from Ceramics (those two departments don't do interviews so those letters will be yes or no)). my friend Brad who is in the same situation as i am also received a letter of invitation to interview for painting and drawing which was a surprise for him (he was expecting to only get a positive letter from a more technology related department because his work is mostly technology based)! so, we had to celebrate! we (Shauna, me, Brad and his wife Cassia) all went to a late dinner together. Brad/Cassia picked us up in there car and we started the drive to the restaurant. at some point, Cassia asked which restaurant we were headed to and i told her "AVEC" (which is a mediteranian restaurant that i found in restaurant rating book (Zagat) ). She was a little bit of fake angry with me or choosing it because she didn't think she was dressed appropriately, but was very excited because it was supposed to be "fantastic"!!! IT WAS FANTASTIC! a really great celebratory meal! some of the things we ate: Roasted lima bean puree crostini with fried orange slices, mahon and rosemary vinaigrette; Wood-oven braised pork shoulder with chestnut-bacon dumplings, buttercup squash, puff pastry and fresh herbs; Fermin serrano ham with honeycomb, orange zest, marcona almonds and black peppercorn vinaigrette. we also shared a really great bottle of wine (i don't know what it was but it left my mouth tasting like i had just had a piece of good bread with lots of butter on it!!!). we didn't get any good pictures because we didn't have the camera but here is a picture of the salami we had to start (from the restaurant website):