She sat tending to the refreshment table half listening to the actor pretending to be Shakespeare. Since his back was to her and the acoustics of the museum were very bad, she could barely understand him anyway. She resented the new staff changes that had placed two people above her in the chain of command. They had been here longer, but she didn't respect them or their experience. As far as she was concerned they knew next to nothing about museums and possessed little creative vision. She actually liked them both as people and especially found the curator to be interesting to speak with, but professionally they fell short of what she expected in her co-workers. The actor droned on, from what she could see of the audience's faces they seemed interested except for the children. Perhaps the references were too obscure for them. She was at this First Night event to represent the museum. She thought it was important for someone to be here and as PR Director she supposed it was her job. She was uncertain how she'd ended up in PR. It was not something she has pursued or trained for. She had been an art major, had gotten her MFA at the School of Visual Arts, but when her sweet girlfriend had moved from NYC to upstate NY to take a tenure track job, she had felt she must follow. After she had spoken to an astrologer and he had confirmed that it was a good move, or at least a move that would not harm her, she had sent out her resume and landed the job at the museum.

She missed NYC terrifically--it was hard to be away from her good friends and a job she loved. Since moving to upstate NY a year ago, she purchased a house and she and her girlfriend were very happy and she was able to get her artwork done and pic up creative writing and with any luck she was going to work on her yoga practice (that was her New Year's resolution). But despite her hard work in these areas, there was no guarantee that she'd be successful and make a name for herself. The possibility that she would do nothing distinguised in her life hung over her like a heavy weight ready to drop. Perhaps she should go back to school to get her MA in museum studies, if only to insure her advance in the museum world. But it was not how she wanted to spend her money. She preferred to pay off her credit card debt and pay on her mortgage, not to spend extra funds on an education she wasn't sure she wanted. She was roused from her thoughts by applause. Shakespeare was done and next up was a middle-aged poet who was standing to the side of the perfomance space with her husband, smiling and wringing her hands.

What question does Godard raise in his films, but never answers?

What is a reoccuring theme in Hitchcock films that never gets resolved?

(questions on a film test that occured in her dreams, 6/3/2000)