5/12/12

So, I have a real, grown-up job.  Finally.  And it is just the best.

It dropped in my lap on March 1st, and I started it right away.  I haven't written about it because I'm still a little self-conscious of the flighty, deadbeat, one-thing-to-the-next way I've spent the last few years.  So I needed to settle in first, and make sure it stuck.

I absolutely adore the work (civil rights stuff); the people (it's a tiny non-profit, so hippies like me!); the location (downtown, I can even take the bus); and all the little extras (4 day work week, yay!)  Seriously, the Hubs set the job-satisfaction bar in our household so very high, I thought I'd never find something that was as good a fit for me as his job is for him, but this totally is.  The only drawback *was* that it was funded through a grant set to run out a year from now, and there was no guarantee for any funding beyond that.

But this week, my boss happily told me that the next grant came through, so my position is all set and funded for another year, which means I'm good to go until May of 2014, which means yay!  Having been unemployed for such an embarassingly long time, I'm less concerned than most would be at the prospect of my position eventually ending, but because this job is pretty much the shit, I'm very happy that I get to keep it for at least two whole years.

Speaking of the shit, have you READ the Hunger Games?!  Go ahead, I dare you to finish the trilogy without winding up majorly crushing on Katniss Everdeen.  What a rockstar; the anti-Bella, if you will.  It's about time adolescent girls had a ruthless, badass survivor to emulate.  I finally got out to see the movie this afternoon, and it pretty much rocked as well.

Love, J

3.15.12

This video is

1.) The best part of my day because it's so funny; and

2.) The worst part of my day because the show it's advertising isn't real, and that is just tragic.



Love, J

3.14.12

I'm not purposely on a Maurice Sendak kick, this just fell into my lap on Facebook.

It's over 9 minutes but oh, so worth it.



Love, J

2/5/12

The Colbert Report
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Love, J

2/4/12

The Colbert Report
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Love, J

Cooler evenings

From Harvest, by Nicola Smith:

People started to make dark noises about winter coming, the end of light and warmth, and the beginning of cold and privation, when the land shrank back into itself and humans retreated to their houses and the animals began to seek shelter. It was a perverse thing -- and quite Yankee, a vestige of the Puritans' Calvinist outlook -- the way people, basking in September warmth weeks before the snow came, began to lower expectations and anticipate trouble and make unhappy predictions as if pleasure was not an end in itself but a foolish indulgence, an open invitation to hard times and harder weather.

We're still basking in September's warmth, the bunnies and I, but the nights have cooled off considerably, and I can certainly smell autumn each morning when I open the windows.

Normally this would not concern me, but I've only enjoyed a smattering of ripe tomatoes - none of them my beautiful, long-awaited chocolate stripes - so I do need the heat to hang on just a bit longer this year.

Oh all right, I admit it, deep down I'm quite greedy and hoping for this last hot snap to last a good 6 weeks.

Is that so wrong?

Love, J

Love listing

Our wireless isn't working for some reason, and it's way less fun to kill time online when I'm stuck back in the office, rather than on the couch in all the action.

But just for the sake of checking in, here's a little love list for you:

1. This weekend = Dad and other family in town for Bloomsday. Out dancing Friday. Then probably more dancing Sat., at brother-in-law's wedding.

2. I got a heat mat with a birthday gift card, and now my starts are popping up like gangbusters. The greenhouse is filling up with a few new baby plants every day!

3. The peas in the garden have sprouted.

4. Oo, and I've got a new project. The library in my neighborhood is sort of lame small, but I recently realized that it's teeniness may make it possible for me to eventually work my way through all of its books. Or at least the novels (and I'm skipping anything too macabre). (Our internet issue is helping me move through books very fast, since it also nixes any TV watching.)

5. The hubs got his summer schedule assigned this morning and it's waaaay better than his winter hours have been. We may actually be able to hang out together in the daylight at some point!

Love, J

Lily on a shelf, and an update

Not much news-wise around here, but I thought I'd pop in to say 'hi.'

Hi.

We've gutted the house top to bottom for the new year, bagging LOTS of stuff and packing it off to Goodwill. It's how we complete our household's consumerism circle of life, since everything comes from thrift shops to begin with.

I read the final Harry Potter book last weekend. And if "Twilight" made me feel like writing on a larger scale was an accessible, not-impossible thing to do, "Harry Potter" has had the opposite effect. JK Rowling knows her shit.

I've settled into the dream job right nice, though I'm still pinching myself every once in a while. And I'm learning that housing law is a tad more complicated than I'd counted on. Apparently there's a lot more to it than the landlord/tenant gimme-back-my-deposit questions I fielded as an intern.

Oh, and I've begun my first quilt. I think. The fabric I'm using is unusual and inconsistently textured, so it will be quite a lucky thing if it all turns out. But I'm having fun trying! Pictures soon, next time I'm home when it's light out.

Love, J

They can't all be winners

As pleased as I was with the way Christmas-gift-making went this year, the two projects I was most excited for were complete disasters.

First, the river rock bath mat for Aunt Micky, for which I've been planning and saving good stones for a year. I had them all plotted out on their plastic backing, glued them down right nice, and was mighty pleased with the results. Until I went to wrap it and the second I picked it up, the rocks began to fall right off. I suppose I needed better backing and stronger glue.


And second, this great idea, which I was totally stoked about. I even went out and bought a metal stamp set retail, which you all know indicates that I meant business.


But alas, though G and I scoured 3 different thrift shops, we couldn't find spoons flimsy and soft enough to be stamped. So now I have a lot of flat, unlettered spoons. I think the trick here is using real, old, at least partly silver spoons. We had a bit more success with the fancier spoons we tried.

At least they make really nice, heavy duty bookmarks!


Love, J

PS~ How good are the Harry Potter books?! I finally started the series last week, and am much loving them! And I don't at all regret waiting until now to read them, because it was easy for me to get all 7 from the library, and I would have hated not being able to grab the next book as soon as I'd finished the last, if I'd been reading them one at a time as they were released.

Thank you note

Dear Jessica,

A while back, I wished for a good book. Within days, you stuck a package in the mail, shipped it all the way from Sin City; my new favorite book.

The Help.

So. Good.

Jessica, you should know that I read it right up, and then lent it to my grandmother, who called me the next day to mock-scold me for depriving her of her beauty rest. It was so good, she couldn't put it down.

And then it was passed along to my step-dad, who read it pretty fast too, which was special because up until now the only books we've both read and enjoyed have revolved around Chuck Norris or Bigfoot. (Chuck Norris = The Man. But everyone knows that.)

G even made it about a chapter in, before the Hubs saw she was taking reading material suggestions and distracted her with a paperback about sharks.

And now it's sitting on my vanity, waiting to be handed off to a friend who is recovering from surgery and is bored sitting at home on bed rest.

So thank you, Jessica. You are a very good friend, and I just wanted you to know that your sweet little gesture has been a gift that's kept on giving.

Love you bunches, J

Be still, my heart

Check out what goes on sale in TEN DAYS:


G went to a midnight release of the 'New Moon' DVD last night (which I did finally see - gag).

A midnight release party for this book would be more up my alley.

Can you imagine how many nerds would show up for a party like that?

(Probably no more than for the 'New Moon' party, now that I think about it.)

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go get a rag to wipe the drool off my keyboard.

Love, J

"Committed" book review - Post edit

Yesterday I read "Committed," by Elizabeth Gilbert. I wasn't much taken with her "Eat, Pray, Love." I wanted so badly to love it, but I got bored and quit less than halfway through. "Committed," on the other hand, held my rapt attention all day and I was able to finish it in one sitting.

I didn't agree with everything Gilbert said, but a lot of it rang pretty true. At least as true as any generalization can ring with someone who's had a finite number of life experiences. It was fun to spend the day really thinking about the institution of marriage, which I don't think I've ever done. I think about my own marriage often enough, but not Marriage in the universal, everyone's-doing-it, how-does-it-work-and-also-why-not, sense. Plus now I have a nice little book to refer people to when they ask why I'm hesitating on the kids/no kids threshold. Because man, does she make the case for 'no kids.'

And in other 'couples' news, the bunnies seem to be settling into a truce-like area. There were a few knock-down, drag-out fights yesterday, but I also caught them doing this mid-afternoon:





Love, J

PS ~ Probably I should finally admit that the job I started last weekend lasted all of two days before I quit. I'm back to job-hunting/goofing off - basically having days like yesterday, where I spend 10 straight hours reading.

POST EDIT:

1. I just realized this isn't at all a 'book review,' it's just an endorsement. But you know what? I'm not in school anymore. If you want to know what it's about/like, you should read it. No more English papers for me.

2. I began my volunteer work with the local fair housing agency this afternoon and I LOVE it. So I've got something to fill my days after all.

Have a good weekend!