So, how goes it?

I love my job! Never thought I would love a job, but it doesn't feel like a job. I now know what it is to be fulfilled. Hallelujah! Everything is falling into place and I haven't felt the need to be crabby or sarcastic or anything negative in over a month. Which is one reason I've not posted an entry. I do think I'll consider either giving up this blog or changing directions with it. Then maybe I can get back some of my readers! I haven't had time to read my favorite blogs in weeks, either.

I now have a Georgia driver's license. When I got it in the mail last week, Pete realized my birthday is wrong on it, so I'm going to go take care of that this week, but other than that, there have been no snafus regarding this move. The weather has been wonderful, so far, but I've been warned about a thousand times that it's hot as hell here for a very long time since we're practically in Florida, only I haven't experienced it yet. I'm thinking skirts and sandals from here on out with those little pantyloons to keep the friction down between my thighs and thus not such a bad heat rash. Yes, I'm writing about my fat thighs rubbing together because that's just how it is. Even if I weighed ninety pounds I'd have this wad of fat between my legs that rubs together. Have always had it, and short of liposuction, I always will.

Now, how about some beautiful photos of our state park? It's only five or six miles from where we live and we love it:

Guess what?

I got the job. Moving Monday. Things are nuts here.

Georgia on My Mind

I drove to southwest Georgia last week for a job interview at a public library. It was a long drive (1,800 miles) but I loved the experience. Now, I'm waiting for THE CALL. The library director who interviewed me called today with a few more questions, which means he didn't cross me off his list just yet. I am on pins and needles and cannot concentrate on anything while I'm waiting.

I promise to come back and post some new sewing, decorating, and crafting blogs next week. I keep finding so many and am really having fun reading them. They do get me inspired to create.

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Well, it got even colder than my last post stated, but now we're getting a little warmer weather, with lots of fog. I love fog.

Dooley has made a miraculous recovery. We are all so relieved and also quite surprised that he is doing so well. I'm so happy for Reece, who has a birthday in a couple of weeks and now he can celebrate with his beloved dog!

I'm buying a sewing machine later today. I've been wanting one for a while and feel the need to be creative. Plus, I want to make some cloth napkins and grocery bags. Pete and I have been using cloth napkins, but we run out before laundry day, so I'm going to sew some more. We've also stopped using paper towels, and added another recycle bin to the trash bin collection so that we can be better about recycling the paper we do use. Whenever we shop, we always consider the packaging now and we are generating less trash. We are trying!

I am obsessed with decorating and crafting/creative blogs. I need to add some to my blog list so you can look at some of them if you're interested. I'll try to do that later.

I finished this book last week and recommend it. I'm going to buy a copy for my mom for her birthday. I loved it. THIS is what I'm reading now. Can hardly put it down, it's that interesting.

Need to go get dressed now and be at least somewhat productive on my holiday.

"Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart."

Martin Luther King Jr.
1929-1968

Sixteen degrees. No kidding.

What a day to stay in and snuggle with a blanket and a cup of tea! Short of a tornado, it's as windy as I've ever seen it and it's spitting snow outside. I don't want to stick my nose out there only to have it frozen off. I'm thinking I should make a pot of chili and some brownies and just gaze at the Christmas tree for the rest of the afternoon.

Here are some pics I took when I went to Arkansas to visit in October. The first one is Reece and his beloved dog, Dooley. For the past five years, Dooley has been Reece's best buddy. Dooley is the sweetest, friendliest dog. Sadly, Dooley is very ill and we're not sure if he's going to make it much longer. He's not responding to treatment and my brother and sister-in-law were told that they might have to make a tough decision about Dooley within the next week. My heart breaks for Dooley and the family, and especially for Reece. He's being very mature, and trying to accept the possibility that he may lose his dog, but he's also extremely sad. I wish there was something I, or anyone, could do.





I love this one of Reece, Emily, and Dooley:



Emily was trying to show us Dooley's teeth and his "mean" look - but he is too sweet and is having quite an effect on Emily:




One more thing: the link below is for a website I enjoy. Take a look and enter their contest if you'd like.

Cold December Day!

So. I really had good intentions to start posting more often. Really. But life keeps getting in the way.

I've been watching a lot of old movies lately, particularly Bette Davis movies. "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte" and "The Letter" were the last two I watched. Just love the overly-dramatic acting in those old movies. Also watched "Mildred Pierce," one of the best Joan Crawford movies. Anyone else in love with Netflix Instant? It's so simple with an HDMI cable. In fact, Pete and I called and canceled our cable yesterday, because we never watch network television anymore. As long as I have the internet I'm good.

Almost finished with the Christmas shopping. We put up the tree earlier this week, and I wrapped all the gifts, so now we are thinking about doing some baking! Pete bought some cookie cutters and I've been looking up recipes.

Speaking of food, we had a fabulous Thanksgiving meal! I worked for a week on it, and Mom and Don came up to celebrate with us. We had a good time eating and shopping at flea markets. Don bought a very old dresser and took it back to Arkansas and refinished it. It looks wonderful from the photos he sent me. Pete and I refinished a table and a chair recently. Found a Danish Modern end table at the Salvation Army that I want to refinish now. I'm having fun doing that, and I'm looking to buy a sewing machine so I can learn how to sew and make some fun stuff. I don't know where this creative bug came from, since I hardly ever did anything creative or crafty in the past.

Still, still, still looking for a library job. I start a part-time job on campus next week, so I'll have a paycheck again and an excuse to get out of the house, but I'm still job hunting for a library position. I'm planning to apply for the Ph.D program for next fall, which will give me something to fall back on if I'm not hired someplace by then.

I'll be back sooner than later. Promise to try to post more frequently, but right now I need a nap.

I forgot how to post.

Luckily, I use Mozilla and it remembers my password(s) for me, so I was able to log on to post this worthless entry.

I am sick of everything.

I am bored and not productive.

But,

tomorrow is my day to turn over a new leaf.

I figured if I posted that, I might actually do it.

I'll be back in a day or so, NO, not a month or two, really, to write about what's been going on and some of the crazy ideas I've been juggling in my mind about my future and stuff.

Keep Your Fingers Crossed

I have a telephone interview tomorrow with a university library. Wish me luck.

This is how I'm going to feel tomorrow, but hopefully not how I'm going to act:

Seriously

I know. I haven't posted anything in a month. Didn't want to bore you, but here goes:

Lately, all I do is look for jobs, send resumes, sell some books on eBay, go to flea markets, and play games on Facebook.

Just about finished with this book, then it's on to the next one, but I'm not sure which one yet.

Been watching this series and it's quite funny.

Spending lots of time with my new roommate. Remember the new boyfriend I wrote about? Yes, now he's my roommate, too, and we are having a blast hanging out together. I have decided to keep him and he is learning to pick up his dirty clothes so as not to annoy me.

So, things are okay, just wish I could find a job and I'm trying not to get discouraged. It is a bit disconcerting, however, when I spent all this time working on a master's degree for a promising job market and I continually receive rejection letters. But, I'll keep looking.

And, I'll be back in a week or two.

This one is worth the 4.52 minutes.

While I'm waiting for the storm to pass:

I found THIS.

Reece is taking a shower, and when he's dressed we're going to find every pet store in town and look at mice. Then we're going to the Army Surplus store. Again.

Midnight tonight: Harry Potter. Wish me luck.

The Boy

I returned last night from a week's visit to Arkansas and I brought Reece with me! He's staying until Friday, which is the longest visit he's ever had with me, and he's excited to be here. He told me last night before we went to sleep that he couldn't wait to wake up tomorrow and "do stuff." So, that's what we'll be doing: STUFF.

He's so funny. We picked up sandwiches at a nearby sub shop last night and I'd ordered a veggie sub, and he ordered turkey, ham, and cheese. While we were eating, he asked, "you are eating a sub with no meat on it?" When I answered yes, he said, "that's just wrong."

Just in case you were wondering:

It was on this day in 1937 that SPAM came onto the market. The canned meat product from Hormel Foods Corporation was given its name by a contest winner; the prize for his ingenuity was $100. On one occasion, a Hormel spokesperson said the name was short for "Shoulder of Pork and Ham"; on another, a company official said it was a conflation of the words "spice and ham." All sorts of parodic acronyms have circulated over the years, including "Something Posing As Meat." The original recipe, still sold as the "Classic" flavor, contains pork shoulder and ham meat, salt, water, sugar, and sodium nitrate. There's a gelatinous glaze on top, which forms like that after the broth cools down.

Spam sold in the Americas is mostly produced in Austin, Minnesota — "Spam Town USA" and home of the SPAM museum. Hawaii's residents consume more Spam per capita than the residents of any other state, and the canned meat has been nicknamed "The Hawaiian Steak." Spam is the main course in the Israeli Defense Force's combat meal kits, but the pork is replaced by beef so that it's kosher.

There's a Monty Python sketch that came out in 1970 where the actors go into a café and try to order breakfast, but almost everything on the menu contains Spam. One woman doesn't want Spam in her breakfast and gets into an argument with the waitress, who tells her that the menu consists of "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, baked beans, Spam, Spam, Spam, and Spam." It's from this Monty Python sketch that "spam" acquired the use so familiar today: unwanted or unsolicited e-mail. The first recorded use of the word in this way is in 1993. It's also become a verb in the English language, for the action of sending out spam.

And the word "spam" itself, untranslated, is now a noun in French, Portuguese, and Vietnamese. The verb "to spam" in German is "spammen"; in Czech the verb is "spamovat"; and in Italian it's "spammare." There's a new Monty Python's musical, SPAMALOT, currently playing in San Francisco.

No explanation needed if you're an AD fan.

Buster: And I'm going to continue dating, Mom.

Michael: It sounds a little bit like 'dating Mom'.

Buster: It's starting to feel a little like it.

Happy Holiday

Can't wait to see this girl next week! She's in Florida now, but will be home about the time I drive down to Arkansas. Planning to stay a week and visit, then I'm bringing Reece back to Columbia with me for a week. We have tickets for the first showing of the new Harry Potter movie on the 15th at midnight. I don't know which feature excites Reece more: the movie or the fact that he's getting to go to a midnight movie. This old auntie will have to drink a couple of espresso shots to stay awake that late.

Free entertainment? You just have to know where to look.

I've been looking at Craigslist a lot lately, mainly searching for a desk for my future office, but also to waste time that I should be spending cleaning closets or something. Anyway, under the "Rants" section in my local Craigslist, I've been reading a topic called "Weird Neighbors," which is hilarious. The best entry I've read so far is this one, and I promise I copied it exactly as it was posted, only I added some paragraph breaks for clarity. This person should be a writer:

Ours is Earl - not exactly a neighbor, but up the road a bit.

Earl lives in 2 trailers, parked up next to each other so that the back door of one is at the front door of the other. (?)

Earl got a head injury a few years ago because he fell down a staircase that wasn't there while working on a house under construction.

He caught himself on fire one time using gasoline in the wood stove.

He doesn't have running water.

Women actually live with him sometimes.

He had a yard sale that has been there so long, we now tell people to just drive on past the flea market.

He leaves his laundry on the line for weeks at a time. I suppose that's how he washes it.

You can see where all the junk is in the yard, he mows around it, including the old broken down mower.

Earl is our local meth head/alcoholic but we know when he's gotten clean because there is a giant piece of plywood painted with "Jesus Loves You" out in the yard sometimes. He generally gets clean after a jail stint. He's using again when it's gone.

Earl is the nicest person in the world. He'd give you the shirt off his back, if you should want it.

Update on the Unemployed Wannabe Librarian, or "Hire Me!"

You would think that someone who just graduated and is looking for a job would post more often on her blog, wouldn't you?

Let's see, Emily visited, then Sherry and Sophie came, then they came back two weeks later. Then I cleaned house again in time for my mom to come up for a visit. Now Reece is wanting to come up and I'm trying to figure out a good time for that and somehow incorporate it with a visit to Arkansas sometime in July.

Still applying for jobs, and it's ridiculously time-consuming and I hate it.

It was 99 degrees here yesterday, according to my car's thermometer display. It felt like it was 110 with all the humidity. Today wasn't as bad, but geez! It's not even July yet? Do we really have to put up with this for two more months or longer?

I'm applying for a job in Anchorage. (See above paragraph for reason why.)

Books:

Read this one a couple of weeks ago. If you like biographies about Georgian society members, you'll love it. I tried to watch the Stanley Kubrick movie based on Thackery's story of this event, but only made it through two hours, which was half of the movie. I'm going to attempt the second half one day when I'm hyped up on caffeine.

This book was beautiful writing. I even wept a little. Didn't want it to end. One good thing about being a bum is all the reading I'm able to do now.

Here is what I'm reading now. I fell in love with it after about three pages.


This one is next. Again, loving all this spare reading time!

My mom brought me this book when she came to visit last weekend. I've been wanting it for such a long time and now I own it. Thrilled is the word.

Tired of inserting hyperlinks.

Movies I've watched recently:

"Revolutionary Road" - doesn't live up to the book, but still a good one. The best actors you'll see today. If you like Mad Men, you should see this.

"Gran Torino" - first half was funny, then it got poignant and then predictable, but I still liked it and would recommend it, but it is somewhat violent. Clint Eastwood: still a bad ass.

"Mrs. Henderson Presents" - love Judi Dench and this is her most feisty role ever. And, it's based on a true story, so if you watch it, be sure to watch the special features for the history of the event.

"I've Loved You So Long" - should have been titled "So Long, You're Boring." Kristen Scott Thomas can speak French. That's about all there is to this one.

"The Reader" - how many time have I written this: not as good as the book - ? I think it would have been difficult to follow if I had not read the book.

"Rescue Dawn" - Don loaned it to me because I have been obsessed with the Vietnam War and its movies and literature for years and hadn't seen this movie. One-word description: tense.

"The Secret Life of Bees" - again, not as good as the book, but a good cast and it was enjoyable. Except, in a movie starring Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, and Alicia Keys, you'd think they'd break out singing just once so we could hear their exceptional voices! And, Dakota Fanning's Southern accent was as bad as Olympia Dukakas's in Steel Magnolias. British actors can nail an American accent, and American actors can do the same to British accents, but why can't a Yankee ever get it right when trying to be a Southerner? It bugs me.

I finished all three seasons of "Arrested Development". Oh, lordy, they were funny. Buster was my favorite character, but they were all equally evil/creepy/endearing.

Season Four of "Weeds" is on its way to me from Netflix. Can't wait.

That looks like a lot of movie viewing and book reading, but hey, it's hot outside.

Okay, okay, I'm also playing a lot of Scrabble to break up the monotony.

That's all I've got.

Happy Birthday, David

Dear Dave,

You're such a good brother and one of my very best friends. I have been blessed to have you in my life for all these years, which are too many to count. We're getting old, you know? I hope you know how much I appreciate you as a brother and as a person. I see how people light up when you walk into a room because they all know their friend has arrived. Yes, you're a friend to everyone and I don't know a soul who doesn't like you. Thanks, too, for marrying Dawn and having such amazing children. Looks like you inherited the best from our gene pool and passed it along to Emily and Reece. My teeth are now aching from all this sweetness.


Seriously, you didn't think I'd let your birthday slide without a little public humiliation, did you? (I love the way Bera is looking at you in this photo.)

Love Having Company

Lots going on, and I am the busiest unemployed person I know. Where does the time go? All the little projects I've been planning to tackle this summer? Not even begun. I look for jobs and apply for jobs and look for more and then I take a break and read a book or watch a movie. But, mostly, I've been entertaining!

Mom and Don didn't get to come up for a visit, but Emily came on Memorial Day and stayed until Thursday. Dawn met me at the halfway point on Monday and then again on Thursday to pick her up, and that time she had Reece with her, so we had lunch and I got some good, sweet hugs from the boy, who is as tall as his mother now. I swear he's cuter than the last time I saw him, too.

Emily and I had such a good time hanging out, watching movies, shopping at the flea market and vintage stores. We scored a beautiful white linen dress for Emily at one of the shops. It still had the tag on it and it was an incredible bargain and Em looked gorgeous in it, so we had to buy it! We had dinner at the wonderful Mexican place Emily loves and Pete joined us. Emily wanted to inspect the new boyfriend and she approved my dating him. I love that girl. Didn't want her to leave.

The next day, Friday, Sherry and Sophie arrived and stayed until Sunday. We had a great time, too. Sophie is the sweetest 13-year-old, and I had fun spoiling her like I do Emily and Reece. Sherry and I stayed up until 4am and 3am both mornings talking, which left us dragging our butts during the day, but we had so much to talk about! They're coming back to spend next weekend with me on their way home from Omaha, so I'm looking forward to that.

Sandy and I went to a conference earlier this week at Osage Beach. It was a good conference, mostly, and the food was great and it was nice spending time with Sandy. We had a two-bedroom suite and we both wished we could have stayed an extra night but we had to get home. I tripped on some uneven gravel the first night and hurt my already broken toe, which made walking difficult, but I managed to get around okay. Toe's better, but I'm still not ready to resume my walking every morning.


Next up: visits from Reece, Don, and Mom, but not sure in what order. I just know that they all need to get a visit in before I leave this place.

I'll return tomorrow for a birthday post for a dear brother of mine.

So, later.

I Are a Graduate Now!

I just looked back at my archived posts for a short story David wrote about going to the Christmas Parade with Reece in 2005, and I started reading some of my older posts, and some of them were funny. I am not funny anymore. And I rarely post even a boring entry! I guess that's what grad school does to a person - sucks the very life from her.

So, I now officially have TWO master's degrees. And no job. I'm looking, though, and have several prospects, so I'm not the least bit discouraged right now. Job-hunting takes a lot of time, too! I spend hours online writing letters and sending them and tweaking my resume and blah, blah, blah.

And, on top of all that, I have a broken toe. My right great toe, as a podiatrist would say. If it isn't broken, it's sprained at the very least, and it hurts to walk on it, so I'm limping around my apartment. How did it happen? I tripped going in the door of my new boyfriend's house and took a dive right into his living room. Oh, I haven't mentioned the boyfriend? He's a real one, and I like him, just don't like his front door. He has this great cat, however, that I'm dying to introduce to Abby. hee hee Anyway, the boyfriend is Pete and we met last month and are unbelievably compatible. It's still too early to know, but I think he might have some staying power. We will see. And, I'll keep you updated.

I'm having a girls' night Thursday night and we're going to have wine and something easy, like pizza. It's Keila, Whitney, and Brett, my "adopted nieces" who are coming over and I can't wait to see them and get caught up with them.

Mom's coming up Friday and spending a few days with me, too. We're planning a casino trip (of course) and some shopping and lots of coffee-drinking. Don is going to try to come with her, but he might not be able to make it.

My friend, Sherry, and her daughter, Sophie, are going to come up the next weekend and spend a night or two on their way to Omaha to visit family. They are going to bring Emily with them if we can work it out with her schedule. That will be so much fun. Emily can then spend a few additional days with me and we can have some much-missed alone time. She's really into photography, now, and we will have to find some interesting places to shoot while she's here.

So, I need to clean house! Better get with it.