Famous Instructor Dings Mercedes? Fat Insecure Danish Male?

Yesterday I took the bus and the train and my feet up to the city - that would be San Francisco, for those of you not from the area and therefore not familiar with our weird tendency to refer to SF as if were were farmers from a small conservative town in Iowa seeing off the prettiest girl in town, heading to the big city on a midnight train to be a star instead of marrying the sweet but unexciting farmer's son she'd dated since 7th grade, off to learn life's lessons the hard way, and, while she's at it, wear a lot of ripped tights and make friends with the hard-edged Latina city girls.

I had an "informational interview" at FIDM, pronounced Fidum by those in the know (which now includes me). That stands for the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, if you are among the 90% of people reading this who know nothing, and care even less, about the fashion industry. I could be really excited about it - they have a great 15-month postgraduate program, a great reputation, a great career center, great connections, a great campus, and a great history of placing graduates at great places. The only problem is the same thing that's ALWAYS a problem for me: they also charge a great price. And I mean "great" as in "huge, enormous, stupendously large, elephantine," not "great" as in "good."

So I'm trying to be practical and not get too excited about it, even though it seems like it could be perfect for me. (I totally resisted the urge to say it could be "great" for me, aren't you proud?) But it was a good interview and this school is one of the best fashion schools in the country, so I'd be lying if I said the little seeds of hope and ambition and excitement haven't already been sown. (I ALSO just resisted the urge to make a lame sown/sewn fashion-type joke there. I think that shows great maturity.)

So, everybody cross your fingers that my parents/fairy godmother/the California State Lotto/some bank will come through and enable me to pay for it. (Also, buy me a present because my burfday is in 11 days! Yay!)