We went to the annual holiday function that the colleges holds where they invite a lot of people from the community who have loose ties to the colleges. I got mom dressed in a nice blouse and her silk Chinese jacket. She looked pretty spiffy. The walk to the Scandling Center almost ended in bloodshed. It is about 500 yards from our front door to the front door of the Scandling Center. It took us fifteen minutes. Grrrr. And mom ran out of Kleenex before we got there - good thing that I had stuffed my pockets full just in case!
We did arrive and luckily the building had an elevator - as the event was happening on the second floor. When we arrived, it was already fairly crowded. I parked mom at a table for two and got us each a drink - soda water for mom, a beer for me. An hors d'ouvres server wandered past and fed us some fancy version of pigs in a blanket. Others followed. Unbeknownst to me, there was a huge ballroom filled with tables, food and fun, which I eventually discovered. I loaded a plate full of food and split it, upon my return, with mom. We didn't see a lot of people we knew. Or rather, we saw them, but didn't speak with them. Justin, our erstwhile handy-person, came and said hello. We did not, unfortunately, meet his wife. Lowell Bloss came up and spoke with mom while I was away, apparently. And I did see Jimmy and Julie from the opera who were performing songs and arias. I didn't, however, parade mom through the main ballroom, to her chagrin later. In fact she has mentioned it a few times since then. Even days afterwards!
The walk home seemed to take less time and less aggravation. Yay!
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Friday, December 14, 2012
Quick NYC Triplet!
Mom and I took a triplet - three days sort of - to NYC - sort of. Here's the scoop for those interested.
We headed out Monday afternoon, driving to Kingston. That is, according to my GPS, a 3.5 hour drive. Unfortunately, the whole trip down was in the rain - with occasional dry patches. And in the dark - even though we got out at 2 pm, the sky was almost as dark as night. Not fun.
"Why Kingston?", a few of you may ask. My brother and sister-in-law live there. We arrived in time to glimpse said sister-in-law as she went off to rehearse for a concert (she plays cello). Dinner was yummy beef stew, biscuits and salad. Yay!
Poor mom did not have a comfortable night. She poked her head into the room where I was staying at 10 in the morning saying that she had frozen all night. Sadly she didn't wake me when she first discovered her chilled state. I am sure we could have rectified it. I got up and eventually helped my brother with stringing some festive Christmas lights in a magnolia tree in the front yard. This entailed climbing ladders and flinging lights! Yay light flinging!
We had a small repast of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before mom and I hit the road to go into NYC. The GPS said 1.5 hours, but I was banking on 2 hours. We only hit a small bottle neck of traffic on the journey, where the highway turned into a road with stoplights and narrowed to one lane briefly. Not to terrible for getting into NY. I was a little taken aback that it cost $13 to drive through the tunnel! Eeek! Next mission, find the theatre where Kristen was performing. And find it we did, actually circling around the area a few times, looking for it and looking for parking. I was vainly hoping for free, street parking, but that didn't happen. We ended up in a parking lot that had elevators for the cars. Scary!
The parking place was about a block from the theatre, which we visited briefly. I was a smidge concerned about how tickets worked, since all I had was a receipt from my online purchase. Turned out I didn't even need that - just my last name, which I keep with me most of the time. Phew! Mom and I spent a few minutes looking at the gift shop of a museum which is currently homeless - Dahesh? A Lebonese man's collection that was spirited out of Lebanon back in the 70s. We didn't end up buying anything. Yay! One card there cost $7!
It was 3:30 pm and the show wasn't until 8. Mom doesn't really like to walk much, which in NYC makes life a bit challenging. At one point she actually admitted that she could no longer imagine living in NYC. Sad moment. We did walk into Greenwich Village looking for someplace to hang out for a couple of hours. It turned out that Kristen's cast had been called in for a pre-show rehearsal, so I hoped for a get together with her before the performance. I scanned our vicinity both with my eyes and with my GPS - I had forgotten where to find the bars/pubs listing - turns out it was under entertainment not restaurants. Eye balls won - finding the Broome Street Bar.
Nice place! A corner bar, very comfortable inside, though the chairs are not made for multi-hour use according to mom. The host/manager was an older, long haired gentleman. Our server was quick and attentive. The owner, who we did not get to see, is a 92 year old man who has been the only owner so far! He still works two shifts a week. Anyway, we ordered some chili nachos to eat. Not bad but not great. And I ordered a pint of Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA. Does anyone want to guess how much that cost? Anyone? I was dismayed to see that it cost $8.50! Wowser! They also sold wine for the same price per glass. Something is not right with this picture. Anyway, we spent a couple of hours just hanging there. I could spend hours watching the world pass buy in NYC. Apparently the current style for women is leggings, mid to high boots and a very short skirt. Just sayin'.
Eventually we made our way out of the bar and hooked up with Kristen. She didn't have the full time to spend with us, as she had other people to hang out with who were also attending the show. She did have time to dine with us, though! We went to Reuben's Empanadas - less than a block from Broome Street Bar. Trying to keep the walking to a minimum. I guess it can be done in NYC as long as one is amenable to what is available. An empanada is an Argentinian dish that is like a calzone or pasty turnover. This place had a list of maybe 20 different kinds. Kristen had a chicken and a broccoli - mom and I shared a spinach. I wasn't very hungry, mom later didn't remember eating hers. I liked mine and will have to empanada again one day. Kristen left for her other assignation and mom and I headed to the lounge at the theatre.
I thought the lounge was pleasant. Mom sat on the sofa - in the exact middle. I guess she didn't want me joining her. Whatever. I got her a lemon tea, since I was trying to avoid caffeinating her so late. And we each got some dessert. I didn't finish my red velvet brownie. Time did pass pretty quickly while we waited for the doors to the theatre to open.
When they did, mom and I went in and chose to sit in the front row. That was there would be no one sitting in front of us, something that mom does not enjoy.
The theatre was a black box theatre, set up in a proscenium sort of way. Very small, maybe 20 feet across and maybe 12 feet deep. Most of the stage was dominated by a fake trailer as one might find in a trailer park. To the left of the stage (from the house) there were a lot of empty beer cans. Apparently when they first opened the production, the beer was free. Sadly, not the case that evening. As one review suggested, the beer might have made the show more palatable. Not that it was a bad show. Just not as awesome as it could have been. 8 dancers and Chris March in drag as Clara. I didn't know who Chris March was before learning about this production from my niece. He was on project runway and is known for his outlandish costumes. That wouldn't have been apparent to me from just seeing the show.
Kristen was our reason for going to see the show. And she got a workout! Although the choreography was not all that exciting, there was a lot of it. Dancing Spam Cans, bowling pins, Hasidic Jews etc. I guess my main problem was that there was so much potential and yet no rhyme nor reason. If they had done a more direct spoof of The Nutcracker that would have been one thing. But there were also bits tossed in from ads and from other Christmas "traditions" like from The Christmas Story (not a piece of my Christmas tradition). It was fun, just not great.
After the show, we drove Kristen uptown to her abode, letting mom see some of the Christmas lights in NY as we drove. After dropping her - and much to my and mom's chagrin, not waiting for her to get into her building (a car was looming behind us I felt) we drove back to Kingston for the night.
The next morning, I got mom up and out in a reasonable time and we toodled back to Geneva! Yay! A quick, fairly painless and somewhat fun trip! Huzzah! Pictures to follow.
We headed out Monday afternoon, driving to Kingston. That is, according to my GPS, a 3.5 hour drive. Unfortunately, the whole trip down was in the rain - with occasional dry patches. And in the dark - even though we got out at 2 pm, the sky was almost as dark as night. Not fun.
"Why Kingston?", a few of you may ask. My brother and sister-in-law live there. We arrived in time to glimpse said sister-in-law as she went off to rehearse for a concert (she plays cello). Dinner was yummy beef stew, biscuits and salad. Yay!
Poor mom did not have a comfortable night. She poked her head into the room where I was staying at 10 in the morning saying that she had frozen all night. Sadly she didn't wake me when she first discovered her chilled state. I am sure we could have rectified it. I got up and eventually helped my brother with stringing some festive Christmas lights in a magnolia tree in the front yard. This entailed climbing ladders and flinging lights! Yay light flinging!
We had a small repast of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before mom and I hit the road to go into NYC. The GPS said 1.5 hours, but I was banking on 2 hours. We only hit a small bottle neck of traffic on the journey, where the highway turned into a road with stoplights and narrowed to one lane briefly. Not to terrible for getting into NY. I was a little taken aback that it cost $13 to drive through the tunnel! Eeek! Next mission, find the theatre where Kristen was performing. And find it we did, actually circling around the area a few times, looking for it and looking for parking. I was vainly hoping for free, street parking, but that didn't happen. We ended up in a parking lot that had elevators for the cars. Scary!
The parking place was about a block from the theatre, which we visited briefly. I was a smidge concerned about how tickets worked, since all I had was a receipt from my online purchase. Turned out I didn't even need that - just my last name, which I keep with me most of the time. Phew! Mom and I spent a few minutes looking at the gift shop of a museum which is currently homeless - Dahesh? A Lebonese man's collection that was spirited out of Lebanon back in the 70s. We didn't end up buying anything. Yay! One card there cost $7!
It was 3:30 pm and the show wasn't until 8. Mom doesn't really like to walk much, which in NYC makes life a bit challenging. At one point she actually admitted that she could no longer imagine living in NYC. Sad moment. We did walk into Greenwich Village looking for someplace to hang out for a couple of hours. It turned out that Kristen's cast had been called in for a pre-show rehearsal, so I hoped for a get together with her before the performance. I scanned our vicinity both with my eyes and with my GPS - I had forgotten where to find the bars/pubs listing - turns out it was under entertainment not restaurants. Eye balls won - finding the Broome Street Bar.
Nice place! A corner bar, very comfortable inside, though the chairs are not made for multi-hour use according to mom. The host/manager was an older, long haired gentleman. Our server was quick and attentive. The owner, who we did not get to see, is a 92 year old man who has been the only owner so far! He still works two shifts a week. Anyway, we ordered some chili nachos to eat. Not bad but not great. And I ordered a pint of Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA. Does anyone want to guess how much that cost? Anyone? I was dismayed to see that it cost $8.50! Wowser! They also sold wine for the same price per glass. Something is not right with this picture. Anyway, we spent a couple of hours just hanging there. I could spend hours watching the world pass buy in NYC. Apparently the current style for women is leggings, mid to high boots and a very short skirt. Just sayin'.
Eventually we made our way out of the bar and hooked up with Kristen. She didn't have the full time to spend with us, as she had other people to hang out with who were also attending the show. She did have time to dine with us, though! We went to Reuben's Empanadas - less than a block from Broome Street Bar. Trying to keep the walking to a minimum. I guess it can be done in NYC as long as one is amenable to what is available. An empanada is an Argentinian dish that is like a calzone or pasty turnover. This place had a list of maybe 20 different kinds. Kristen had a chicken and a broccoli - mom and I shared a spinach. I wasn't very hungry, mom later didn't remember eating hers. I liked mine and will have to empanada again one day. Kristen left for her other assignation and mom and I headed to the lounge at the theatre.
I thought the lounge was pleasant. Mom sat on the sofa - in the exact middle. I guess she didn't want me joining her. Whatever. I got her a lemon tea, since I was trying to avoid caffeinating her so late. And we each got some dessert. I didn't finish my red velvet brownie. Time did pass pretty quickly while we waited for the doors to the theatre to open.
When they did, mom and I went in and chose to sit in the front row. That was there would be no one sitting in front of us, something that mom does not enjoy.
The theatre was a black box theatre, set up in a proscenium sort of way. Very small, maybe 20 feet across and maybe 12 feet deep. Most of the stage was dominated by a fake trailer as one might find in a trailer park. To the left of the stage (from the house) there were a lot of empty beer cans. Apparently when they first opened the production, the beer was free. Sadly, not the case that evening. As one review suggested, the beer might have made the show more palatable. Not that it was a bad show. Just not as awesome as it could have been. 8 dancers and Chris March in drag as Clara. I didn't know who Chris March was before learning about this production from my niece. He was on project runway and is known for his outlandish costumes. That wouldn't have been apparent to me from just seeing the show.
Kristen was our reason for going to see the show. And she got a workout! Although the choreography was not all that exciting, there was a lot of it. Dancing Spam Cans, bowling pins, Hasidic Jews etc. I guess my main problem was that there was so much potential and yet no rhyme nor reason. If they had done a more direct spoof of The Nutcracker that would have been one thing. But there were also bits tossed in from ads and from other Christmas "traditions" like from The Christmas Story (not a piece of my Christmas tradition). It was fun, just not great.
After the show, we drove Kristen uptown to her abode, letting mom see some of the Christmas lights in NY as we drove. After dropping her - and much to my and mom's chagrin, not waiting for her to get into her building (a car was looming behind us I felt) we drove back to Kingston for the night.
The next morning, I got mom up and out in a reasonable time and we toodled back to Geneva! Yay! A quick, fairly painless and somewhat fun trip! Huzzah! Pictures to follow.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Trials and Tribulations of Audio CDs
As those who have read my blog for a while know, and now you know too, I like to listen to books on CD. This is a pre-emptive strategy on my part for when I am so old and feeble that I can't read anymore in any format - book, magazine, tablet etc. Not that I foresee this happening soon. I just like to be prepared. The main place that I listen to books used to be my car. I listened to them when commuting while living in NC. And for longer drives - especially the drive from NC to NY and back. 11 hours or so gets a lot of listening done. I had many issues with the various cd players or lack thereof in my cars. My first car had no CD player, so I had a device that allowed me to attach a "tape" to my CD player that I plugged into my car's tape player. That worked well, but was a pain in the butt when I had to change a CD. The next two cars I don't remember what their CD stories were. I only had each of them for a bout a year. Long, sad stories there. Moving on, I got my current car a few years (five or six) ago and haven't had too many issues with the CD player. Except when it is really cold. Then the CD player won't work for a while. Or when it is too hot. Sigh.
Now, I don't drive far often without mom in the car. And trying to listen to a CD book when mom is the car is a no-go. She has a tendency to start talking at any time. I for one, find it hard to listen to two different things at the same time. Usually one doesn't get enough attention and things are missed. When I do drive without mom in the car, I am usually toodling around Geneva, which means drives of about 5 minutes at a time. Kinda silly to listen to a book for five minutes at a time...
So, the place I listen now, mostly, is the kitchen. I find myself in the kitchen quite a lot. Not barefoot, thank you very much. Washing dishes, preparing meals, putting away groceries and sometime eating a meal there gives me quite a bit of time to listen. The first CD player in there died an unfortunate death. Maybe from over playing. There were others in the house which I tried. One didn't play audio CDs at all. Weird. Another didn't like playing audio CDs. Skipped and hemmed and hawed all the time. And if I paused a CD for more than five minutes, it turned off. Finding my place again wasn't easy, especially when a CD was not broken up to small tracks - because the CD player didn't have a scan feature, just a jump to track feature. Finally, I found a CD player that seems to work. Yay!
Why am I writing about this you may ask. Well, first because I thought it was mildly interesting. And second, because I realized that I left the latest book paused in the kitchen, while mom and I are on a trip to NYC. Eeeek! I hope it doesn't explode. Or worse, stops playing audio CDs.
Now, I don't drive far often without mom in the car. And trying to listen to a CD book when mom is the car is a no-go. She has a tendency to start talking at any time. I for one, find it hard to listen to two different things at the same time. Usually one doesn't get enough attention and things are missed. When I do drive without mom in the car, I am usually toodling around Geneva, which means drives of about 5 minutes at a time. Kinda silly to listen to a book for five minutes at a time...
So, the place I listen now, mostly, is the kitchen. I find myself in the kitchen quite a lot. Not barefoot, thank you very much. Washing dishes, preparing meals, putting away groceries and sometime eating a meal there gives me quite a bit of time to listen. The first CD player in there died an unfortunate death. Maybe from over playing. There were others in the house which I tried. One didn't play audio CDs at all. Weird. Another didn't like playing audio CDs. Skipped and hemmed and hawed all the time. And if I paused a CD for more than five minutes, it turned off. Finding my place again wasn't easy, especially when a CD was not broken up to small tracks - because the CD player didn't have a scan feature, just a jump to track feature. Finally, I found a CD player that seems to work. Yay!
Why am I writing about this you may ask. Well, first because I thought it was mildly interesting. And second, because I realized that I left the latest book paused in the kitchen, while mom and I are on a trip to NYC. Eeeek! I hope it doesn't explode. Or worse, stops playing audio CDs.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Tastes Change
It is interesting to see mom's tastes change. She still likes fish, but she no longer can do sushi. The seaweed is too much for her. Also, last night, I offered her two dressings for her salad: blue cheese and ranch. She actually said she preferred ranch! What? Who is this woman? For years and years and decades and decades, blue cheese has been her dressing of choice. And she now likes pistachio ice cream, whereas her staple from years gone past was coffee. Who knows how her tastes will continue to evolve/devolve...
Friday, December 7, 2012
Time Frikken Warner
Isn't there some sort of law against monopolies? Anyway, I was running errands yesterday. Has anyone else had the experience where errands (things) take just a bit (or a lot) longer than anticipated? Sure, I have also had the corollary - where everything seems to go much smoother and faster than planned. (I love the first Celestine Prophecies book, still.) One of the stops on my list was the Time Warner HQ in Geneva. I thought, silly me, that no one would be there. Ha. Lots of people. When I got there, three cars drove up. Luckily I was faster on my feet than two of them! Got inside only to find that there were already two people in line for the one available counter person. Luckily things moved fairly quickly. The first person exchanged one little doohickey for a whole pile of doohickeys. The next had to pay a bill. And then there was me. I had intended to do three things - update my internet modem - well, mom's internet modem - see about what upgrading the different services would cost - oh, my, god - $35 to go up to the next level of internet - which would put it at around $60 a month for internet service. This seems exorbitant to me. Anyone? $30 to go up to the next level of TV service. Which would put that at $55 a month. So, to go from what mom has now, almost nothing to decent service the bill would go from $80 a month to $150 a month. Not going to happen. And the third thing I was going to do was to check to see how to cancel my service in NC, but they couldn't handle that there.
Back home, I plugged everything in and hoped. And it mostly worked. Except for the phone. That didn't work. I dreaded calling Time Warner Tech Support because sometimes the waits are excruciatingly long! But I took the plunge and was pleasantly surprised that my wait time would be "up to 5 minutes." Yay! Soon, I had a nice customer service person who couldn't solve my issue - so I was transferred to a telephone specialist. He took control of my modem and found that it needed some software updates - which he went ahead and started doing. I asked how long the whole process would take. He said about 5 minutes. And sure enough, in five minutes, I had dial tone! Yippee!
So, it would be nice to end the story on an upnote. Sadly, that isn't the case. For some reason, my internet all seems a lot slower than it was before I got the new-to-me modem. Sigh. Maybe I will call technical support. Or maybe I will just wait until next week to worry about it. Time Frikken Warner.
Back home, I plugged everything in and hoped. And it mostly worked. Except for the phone. That didn't work. I dreaded calling Time Warner Tech Support because sometimes the waits are excruciatingly long! But I took the plunge and was pleasantly surprised that my wait time would be "up to 5 minutes." Yay! Soon, I had a nice customer service person who couldn't solve my issue - so I was transferred to a telephone specialist. He took control of my modem and found that it needed some software updates - which he went ahead and started doing. I asked how long the whole process would take. He said about 5 minutes. And sure enough, in five minutes, I had dial tone! Yippee!
So, it would be nice to end the story on an upnote. Sadly, that isn't the case. For some reason, my internet all seems a lot slower than it was before I got the new-to-me modem. Sigh. Maybe I will call technical support. Or maybe I will just wait until next week to worry about it. Time Frikken Warner.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Glowy Clock
My brother Ernst has given my mom a few clocks over the years. At least I think it was Ernst. He is great about giving gadgety gifts. Anyway, there were two of these clocks sitting in the living room, not really doing much of anything for anyone. One of them has a laser like projection system so that the time can be shone on the wall or the ceiling or whatever. At one point, I brought my plate clock (clock plate?) back from North Carolina to hang in the kitchen in Geneva. Unfortunately it stopped working. New battery and everything. (I hope to take it to be fixed soon.) Then I brought a clock that an ex-girlfriend arted up - but that also stopped working. Next I brought in the light up my life clock, but the light was so dim it couldn't be seen when the lights were on. So, I had an epiphany - we like those - it would be great to use in my room, so that at night, when I woke up in the middle of the night, I could easily see what time it was when I wasn't sleeping! And it works greatly! I love it! I can see that it is 4:32 am. Yippee!
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Christmas Shopping
Being underfunded again this year, I think there will not be much shopping going on from the 81 St. Clair St. Schoen-Rene's. I have gotten a few things for mom - and am working on one more. The things I have gotten are a night gown - she can always use a few more flannel like nightgowns - constantly complaining of cold as she is - a copy of Madagascar 3 complete with Afro Circus Wig (can't wait to get a picture of her wearing that) and a box of marzipan - which doesn't mean that others can't send her marzipan too. The thing I am working on is a picture book of our trip to Oregon and back that we took during the summer. I just finished culling the 1000+ photos down to 350+. Yippee! I plan to print it out on my printer and get it bound in some way at Staples or someplace like that. Yay plans!
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Mom and buying
I do think that we learn some of our tendencies from our parents. Since I mostly only had mom growing up, many of my tendencies come from her. I have always been curious about the whole nature/nurture thing. Anyway, my mom tends to buy things in a spontaneous sort of way. She can be extremely parsimonious and then turn around and buy an expensive item "just because." I have had the same tendency, though have mostly curbed it. Yay.
Anyway, the other day, we got a catalog in the mail from Puritan Pride, a supplement company. Mom wanted to buy some supplements. I said, ok, when you finish the ones you already have, we can talk about getting more. She said - what? I don't have any supplements. So I showed her the six bottle of fish oil etc that I had found. Oops. I am of two minds about supplements. I think they aren't a bad idea. I also think that as long as you eat decently, you can get most of your requirements that way. And taking pills to supplement one's diet just seems weird to me. I haven't started giving mom all of the supplements that she has lying around. Any thoughts?
Anyway, the other day, we got a catalog in the mail from Puritan Pride, a supplement company. Mom wanted to buy some supplements. I said, ok, when you finish the ones you already have, we can talk about getting more. She said - what? I don't have any supplements. So I showed her the six bottle of fish oil etc that I had found. Oops. I am of two minds about supplements. I think they aren't a bad idea. I also think that as long as you eat decently, you can get most of your requirements that way. And taking pills to supplement one's diet just seems weird to me. I haven't started giving mom all of the supplements that she has lying around. Any thoughts?
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Not All the time
So, the plan is that this will be a sporadic thing. I hope it will be daily, but life isn't that way, is it? There may be days when I choose not to write her. Maybe I will write someplace else. Maybe I will be driving for ten hours. Maybe I just won't feel like it. I am trying to keep stress out of my life. I think life can be stressful enough (if one let's it) that self-imposed added stress just isn't necessary. Or a good idea.
Phew! I feel better!
Oh, I got myself a new computer desk. I think part of the reason my arm started hurting (yes, it still does) is because of the crappy posture I adopted while typing on my computer in bed. I bought this nifty desk that has wheels and is sort of adaptable to where I am and what I am wanting to do. Yay! Hopefully, I will slowly bring my arm back to happiness. Did anyone know that in NYS one has to have a doctor's permission to go to a physical therapist? What kind of crap is that? Oh well, I guess I will have to find a chiropractor to go to up here.
Mom and I went to see Life of Pi yesterday. I don't think she followed it, but it was so visually striking that she enjoyed it. Definitely see it in 3d if you have that option. I thought it was a great adaptation of the book. And yet again it makes me want to go visit India. I wonder if any of my lottery tickets have made any money. I buy them and then don't check them. Weird? Fear of success?
Still hoping that people will get back to me with suggestions on how to further my cause in getting the job at Hobart in the theatre department...
Phew! I feel better!
Oh, I got myself a new computer desk. I think part of the reason my arm started hurting (yes, it still does) is because of the crappy posture I adopted while typing on my computer in bed. I bought this nifty desk that has wheels and is sort of adaptable to where I am and what I am wanting to do. Yay! Hopefully, I will slowly bring my arm back to happiness. Did anyone know that in NYS one has to have a doctor's permission to go to a physical therapist? What kind of crap is that? Oh well, I guess I will have to find a chiropractor to go to up here.
Mom and I went to see Life of Pi yesterday. I don't think she followed it, but it was so visually striking that she enjoyed it. Definitely see it in 3d if you have that option. I thought it was a great adaptation of the book. And yet again it makes me want to go visit India. I wonder if any of my lottery tickets have made any money. I buy them and then don't check them. Weird? Fear of success?
Still hoping that people will get back to me with suggestions on how to further my cause in getting the job at Hobart in the theatre department...
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Where was I...
So, where was I when I was so rudely interrupted. Hmm, let's see. It was at the end of September and I was feeling pretty low - my housemate had screwed me over (and has continued to do so). My mom, well, enough said about that. My arm was not functioning well. Money looked really, really bad and life in general seemed fairly dismal. And, honestly, I was tired of whinging electronically. See, I don't complain out loud all that much. Unless you call blogging about it "out loud." My mom says that her uncle used to say, "I suffer, but I do not complain." I wonder if that is a quote from somewhere. Let's see, shall we? Can't find any top tier results that leap out at me. Anyway, I like to view the world as an overflowing glass. (Who the heck is going to clean up that mess? One, two, three, "Not it!") And try to live my life that way.
So, what has happened since the end of September. Well, two months have passed. I have taken two trips to North Carolina. Mom spent a week in Maine without me. I have seen a few movies, seen a few plays, worked at the Smith, applied for a theatre position at Hobart and generally puttered around. What? Applied for a position at Hobart? Yes, yes I did.
An academic position would be perfect for my situation. The hours are not onerous out of the house, which would let me be here for mom. The pay is decent, which would be a great help. But on top of that, I would be following in the footsteps of both my dad and my mom. And I would be great. Just thinking about the possibilities makes me almost giddy. Sadly, I do not think I have a bat's chance in a baseball cage. Or something like that. Academics tend to want to hire their own kind, not someone who has been out and about in the real world for 20+ years. Still, I am hoping that my cobbled together vita, my somewhat passionate interest letter and three wonderful letters of recommendation ought to get me an interview at least. And if it is an interview with a committee, I ought to be able to demonstrate my commitment and passion sufficiently to put me on the short list. I haven't wanted a job this badly since, well, never.
Anyway, that is it for this post. I am sure there is more I could write. And less. And pictures. And such.
So, what has happened since the end of September. Well, two months have passed. I have taken two trips to North Carolina. Mom spent a week in Maine without me. I have seen a few movies, seen a few plays, worked at the Smith, applied for a theatre position at Hobart and generally puttered around. What? Applied for a position at Hobart? Yes, yes I did.
An academic position would be perfect for my situation. The hours are not onerous out of the house, which would let me be here for mom. The pay is decent, which would be a great help. But on top of that, I would be following in the footsteps of both my dad and my mom. And I would be great. Just thinking about the possibilities makes me almost giddy. Sadly, I do not think I have a bat's chance in a baseball cage. Or something like that. Academics tend to want to hire their own kind, not someone who has been out and about in the real world for 20+ years. Still, I am hoping that my cobbled together vita, my somewhat passionate interest letter and three wonderful letters of recommendation ought to get me an interview at least. And if it is an interview with a committee, I ought to be able to demonstrate my commitment and passion sufficiently to put me on the short list. I haven't wanted a job this badly since, well, never.
Anyway, that is it for this post. I am sure there is more I could write. And less. And pictures. And such.
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