Thank you all for your encouragement to apply and for your crossed fingers, toes and other body parts. And Robin, thanks for your non-advice pmail. It counted quite a bit in my decision to apply. As did a conversation with my boss. I start in three weeks!

Do you know how hard it is to take a photo like this of yourself? (I'm sure many of you do, but I must rant.) The camera was 10 1/2 feet away. I had to set the timer, focus on the music stand with a brown book on it, fire the camera, run over put down the stand, move it out of the photo, holding this camera, grab the light meter, trigger the flash repeatedly in hopes of catching it once in the 1/4s exposure the Coolpix was giving me, pose myself nicely, and try to look happy. 20 attempts. This was the last one. How did you pull your shot off Elizabeth? The one on the ball. That must have been even harder! I know I didn't need to use the flash, but I wasn't happy with the darker look of the modeling lamp, and I wasn't using enough props. You know, maybe I should have set the camera in flash mode and let it fire the strobe by slave. Doh! Next time I'll try that. Anyhow, April Fools. I haven't heard a peep out of them two weeks since the application period closed. It was worth trying. I need more experience I'm sure.

My New York City gallery is up. Take a look, if you're interested.