Yeah I know.

I'm actually writing this on 1/7, but I know Blogger won't update the date. Up. So, I know how much you've missed the words that dance from my fingers like so many little Fred Astaires and Ginger Rogerseseses sailing across a freshly waxed ballroom floor. But time away from the computer was soooo glorious that my brain is being very relaxed about getting back into it.

So here's the bit I wrote on 12/30 whose post I am adapting now. I didn't get very far with it.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

I resolve that I will always help George Clooney take care of his mentally handicapable son Owen when he asks me, even if he doesn't show up to the classical concert where I'm waiting with the kid and instead sends a chorus girl to bring Owen back to his father.

Yo yo monkey

Howdy from home, my monkey friends! A quick salud from Chet's house, in case anybody's listening. Karla is here too. We had a marvelous and expensive meal at Toro and now here we are just delighting the hell out of each other. Say hello, guys!

Hi! I don't smell like bacon today!!! -- Chet

Chet is the cutest puppet I have ever seen. And I was a HUGE sesame street fan. and a huge muppets fan. I feel like I have betrayed Grover by saying this. -- Karla

So here's hoping you're all having days of joy and nights of gladness. See you in a few days. Happy new year!

See.

minuterice:
sometimes, though not often, when you go into her room after she wakes up, she starts clapping when she sees you
minuterice:
my thoughts went from "gah, gotta change a diaper that is probably gonna have poop in it and then wrestle her into some jeans and socks on her feet and then drive and listen to [gwen] prattle on about nothing" to "EEEEEEE!"


How awesome, to be clapped for upon entering a room.

Another one down

Our bachelor of the day today was Jeff. Jeff had impressed the committee with his intelligence and wit in e-mail/profile and with his profile name, which was taken from the movie “Mystery Men.” In person, Jeff was not funny. In fact the jokes he made were painful, and his laugh was annoying. Other than that he was nice; normal conversation was quite pleasant. He has two cats and seems to be the right sort when it comes to animals.

And then he’d make a joke and laugh and extend the joke and laugh and I’d try to laugh while looking away because you just can’t look someone in the eye when they’re doing that. And I couldn’t keep up the forced laughter as long as his extended laughing.

He did pay. No one else has done that yet. Perhaps there is friendship to be had. (He's an economic anthropologist or something, a fellow at Cornell for the year. Goes to Africa a lot for field work.)

Your UB update

I just talked to the director at UB, and they went with someone who has more experience actually writing proposals (since I have none), but she said they were all very impressed with me and my experience and would like to consider me for some more hiring they’ll be doing in the coming year -- like campaign communications stuff and a position she’s pushing for that would involve a lot of editing. My plan was to ask to be considered for future hiring anyway, so there we have it.

I REALLY wasn’t ready to move yet anyway and would probably like one of those other jobs better.

An interesting evening

Friday Johnny Panic turned 30 and was kind enough to invite me to her birthday festivities. I was sitting at her kitchen table wondering how soon I could politely bolt (experiencing panic in the face of multiple people I didn't know but who all knew each other) as people trickled in through the kitchen door (the door she never told me was the one I should use! I came in a different one altogether! I KNOCKED EVEN! No one else knocked! Oh fickle fickle birthday girl!) when two guys came in.

I recognized one of them and promptly Whirled around to face the other direction. It was a guy who had written me on Match, the second e-mail I think I read after joining -- some of you will remember him as the one with longish curly blondish hair. I never wrote him back because, for one thing, something in his eyes just didn't quite look right.

(Johnny doesn't know any of this yet, to my knowledge, though Dave may have told her.)

As soon as he opened his mouth I knew I didn't want to talk to him, but I ended up in a conversation with him because it was the thing to do. Fortunately my photo on Match is deliberately vague, and of course he would only know me by my profile name, which, you will be surprised to learn, includes the word "Monkey."

We introduced ourselves. I said I was a writer, and he immediately and forthwith launched into describing the book he wants to write. I played my part (actually the subject is pretty interesting: a great-great-grandfatherish type of his who was in the Civil War/War Between the States/War of Secession [there, did I get everyone?] and became governor of Pennsylvania) and watched for my chance to bring someone else into the circle of conversation. Before long I was able to step back and include Dave, and shortly after THAT I ducked away to "get more water."

I didn't want to tell Johnny since she was very drunk and I didn't know if she would make something of it (especially with the guy). I did tell Dave, who'd ended up listening to him longer than I had. His response: "Oh, the crazy guy?!"

I did have a really good time, BTW, Johnny. See, it surprises the hell out of me when people actually seem to want to talk to me, or at the least to not hate it. But that's another post for another day.

The best sentence I've heard all day:

"I’ve got plenty of sauce left from Saturday night so I just have to make more pudding."

Cool words

Crepuscular
Provenance

What's taters, precious

Somehow Shutterfly managed to eat 6 hours of my time today, as well as money I'm not sure I have for Christmas spending. Hrumph.

But I DID gat to talk to T-Bone, which was awesome.

Earlier I felt like watching Casablanca or Notorious -- and guess what turned out to be on TCM tonight: both! If only I could harness my power for some sort of actual good.

And with that, I guess my brain is fried.

Oh to be in England now that war is here

I am happy as a freaking clam today, all because I finally have a full weekend of no obligations and total isolation from all but the feline and ornithological varieties. I may go buy a few small trees tomorrow, the kind that come in pots. I might've today if I'd gotten up before almost noon. Today I'm going to do the Shutterfly things I've been meaning to for over a month now.

I've heard nothing from UB but did apply to that Cornell job. I feel rejuvenated about being in Ithaca right now, even though I still want to leave sometime in 2008. Now I can at least start getting my ducks in a row.

Meanwhile, I know it's small taters, precious, but tell me which you like better, this current template setup or this one, to whose first post I've added some extra hard returns (I'm sure there are ways to manipulate it more, but I don't really have time to learn it or seek it out right now). Do the extra returns take care of the clutter? Or is it still too much?

Hope you have/had a marvelous weekend. Love, PBSCMNP

Oh this is annoying.

I like the look of the "Scribe" template, but it's too confining (thank thee, Jenny). Nuts.

Bob's your uncle.

Bryce (03:05 PM) :
what is it with you and monkeys
ShireMonkey (03:06 PM) :
if you have to ask.

So I've gotten tired of talking about it.

That's the main reason I haven't written about the job interview and stuff. And I don't want to cross my bridges, because if I am anything it is a bridge-crosser. I am sitting here today doing nada. I should just finish the darned Cornell cover letter.

Jessica did buy me a petit-four. That was nice. At Brotchen. Put an umlaut over the O. We had Thai for lunch and I was still hungry.

OK, everyone who's sick of me and my stupid journally writing, raise your hand! *can't type with both in the air*

Look! Browncoats!

(just seemed appropriate for the template)

Yo

I have returned from Interview #2 for the development writer position at UB. I met with 7 people -- actually 8; the VP or something got tacked on quickly at the end. I really liked everyone a LOT. Sue, the director, said they wanted to make a decision by the end of the week, early next at the latest. As I understood it before, they were doing two second interviews. I might not need to even wonder about it, of course, so I'll wait till I hear from them before I do. But I WILL SEEK all your input, every one of you. Because you are wise and full of good advice and perspective. And some of you, pudding.

In the meantime I'm applying for an editor position at Publications and Marketing in University Communications at Cornell (I'm in Alumni Affairs now; that would be much broader, and much better suited to me than AAD, methinks).