What work?

Not that you asked, but...
Have I mentioned that I like the work I do? I get lots of practical program evaluation research experience. I'm learning SPSS, attending meetings, and writing reports. I have done observations and interviews. I am a member of the program evaluation team. Very official. But don't try to call me, because I don't have a phone.

My workspace does leave something to be desired. It's my second straight day of sitting at the fall 05 version of my office desk. I cleaned and rearranged things yesterday, for a fresh start. I can't rearrange much, pitching the tired old computer out the window is not possible (the windows don't open), and adding noise would intrude on others. I have no phone, no personal drawer, and practically no office supplies. I have pencils but cannot find a pencil sharpener in the office (this will become a problem soon).

Taking up a fair amount of my desk space is a big new extra-long-cord power strip waiting to be plugged in behind the behemoth cabinet next to me (cabinet=not mine); the old power strip plugged into another power strip routine that's being used now is (shockingly) not okay with the fire marshal. In the meantime, the old power strip is about to knock out my neighbor's power strip from the wall outlet, and I must gently un/plug my laptop each day. Neither of us --nor anyone human--can reach the outlet. There's a work order request to move the cabinet aside and swap out the power strips.

Last weekend someone deposited a matching pencil canister and small bin (seems too big for paperclips or small PostIts, too small for medium PostIts) on my desk next to the two-tier paper trays I've got prominently positioned at the corner of the desk most likely to make this area appear inhabited. On many occasions I have come in to work to find either a person working at my desk or junk piled on my desk. A printer last week got me excited; it wasn't for me. The printer soon disappeared but the box stayed behind.

Yesterday I made a little sign to post above my desk, stating my name, position, hours (not that anyone else cares) and some amusing quotes. A personal favorite, from the small, talk-heavy and strange movie Metropolitan: "It's a tiny bit arrogant of people to go around worrying about those less fortunate." It's meant as an amusement. Hmm, I hope people realize that.

My "co-workers" are extremely nice, and they have all learned my name (I've worked here since June). I know most of theirs. Oops. Unfortunately, I have little to no idea what most of them do, particularly because I have nothing to do with any of them apart from sharing an awkwardly divided space. They work as program staff or administrative help for various programs presumably funded by grants my boss has received over the years (he's something of a veteran power player around here). I on the other hand am a research assistant (the lowly paid, grad student variety). Our boss is Robert Houston (I dropped the Dr. part--it's pretentious and doesn't fit Bob's style), a professor, former Dean, and executive director of the Institute for Urban Education. He is a kindly old white guy surrounded by women (mostly black). Collectively we have a suite of offices behind some imposing glass doors. I'm behind the wall that faces the doors. I dare you to find me. And bring something warm to drink or wear, because it is always freezing in here.

All of these things amuse me. Does your workspace/environs amuse you?

Scheduled Fun

Starting tomorrow, nearly every hour of my days will be scheduled until December. Making a schedule (even breakfast and fun times are written in ink) is my compulsive attempt to get into school mode. Look for me in Beaumont on Sundays (the day of rest) and Mondays (the day of housework). I'll be at work a little bit on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and all day on Thursdays and Fridays. I'm hoping to catch two exercise classes on the same day. I expect to sleep well at night: I don't have time for naps. :)

I don't expect there to be a whole lot of new movie viewing going on this fall, so enjoy fresh movie reviews while they're available. Last week I saw Broken Flowers (starring Bill Murray and Jeffrey Wright) and Wedding Crashers (starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson), two very different approaches to relationship issues.

Codgerdom

News that one Carrie Underwood, who I think is from American Idol, will update jingles for Hershey's candies has me feeling old. "Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't." This saying has lost all musical meaning for me, and giving it back some in a newfangled form threatens one of my favorite conversational non sequiturs. It is perfect inane banter. On the other hand, now that I'm reminiscing, I've got the Kit Kat jingle in my head; that one definitely needs to be improved or eradicated.

Watching MTV Europe we saw endless ads for ringtones. Granted I am not a big cellphone fan or user, but I'm pretty sure even if I was, I would not be overwhelmed by a need to buy ringtones. I have no desire to hear how bad a favorite song can sound when collapsed down into electronic gadgetry language. Hmmm, maybe not my true feelings. I created a ringtone. So fascinated was I by the freebie cellphone's ability to have music notes entered that I looked up the piano sheet music for two favorite classical tunes and entered them. We've got Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade tinkling out from the backpack. Of course, the phone is off most hours of the day. And I don't think spending $3 a pop to hear a favorite tune, classical or otherwise, is worth it. Learn to read music, people. Enter the tones yourself! So I'm showing myself to be judgmental and cheap. This is a banner day for me. :) Actually I'm just not a big fan of mindlessness and consumerism. Wait, are those codewords for judgmental and cheap? Or is it judgemental? As I sit here getting older, even spellings are changing.

Completing my codgerdom, I am also very not into text messaging. Since I have never done it, maybe I shouldn't be so definite in my opinion. But from what I've seen, it's all about cramming endless pointless comments into as small a space as possible, repeatedly. I have a rather low tolerance for ridiculous lingo and slang, and slang mixed with I-can't-spell-so-why-bother? abbreviations makes me a bit cranky. See, I'm not just feeling old, I'm acting it.

Reading

I've been reading Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next novels recently and thoroughly enjoying them. I would recommend them wholesale to others except that I recognize their limited appeal. Okay, here's the premise and I will let you decide whether to seek them out: It's 1985 in an alternate universe, where literature is at the center of pop culture and Zeppelins dominate the skies. Dodos have been brought back from extinction and a megacorporation named Goliath has influence over all aspects of government. The British continue their war with Russia over the Crimea and Winston Churchill is unknown. Thursday Next, daughter of a time traveling Chronoguard renegade, is employed as a literary detective, someone who authenticates newfound works by long-dead authors and deals with people who fancy themselves characters out of classic fiction. In the first book, The Eyre Affair, Thursday's past familiarity with the loathsome Acheron Hades puts her at the center of a deadly--and often surreal--manhunt. Both of them end up inside the world of Jane Eyre. Sound good to you?

On vacation I read The Jane Austen Book Club. Its reviews had been decidedly mixed. Some had listed it as a funny (as in humorous) sort of book but I see it as much more a human drama. Maybe a dramedy. Anyway, I found it lovely and thought provoking. It is the story of a reading group brought together by one dog-loving, single middle aged woman and her best friend who is going through a divorce. The other members have been selected for their love of Austen or their potential contribution to the group. Each member takes charge of a discussion and along the way we learn each member's back story as well as a bit about Austen and her works. A nice read.

My bedtime reading at present is I Capture the Castle. More nice reading. It's the 1930's or so, and a quirky family lives in a rented castle in England. They used to have money but are now dirt poor. The protagonist Cassandra writes in her journal whenever time and light allow. Apparently the entirety of the book is a six-month period when she's 17. That's it. It's wonderful, even though there doesn't seem to be a point. Perfect for bedtime reading.

Every new book I read inspires a new idea for a book in my head. I've got tons of ideas, and some of them might even be readable! :) On long drives and in inspired quiet times I plot out aspects of the story, flesh out bits of the characters, and imagine myself a well regarded novelist (cart before horse, I know). I've heard that everyone fancies themself a potential author, that it's quite the cliche, "I'm going to write a novel." But I know that one day I will do it. Will you? What will your book be about?

RIP

I learned at the airport in Dallas, awaiting our final flight home, that Peter Jennings died while we were away. This makes me very sad. I loved him; of all the major news anchors, apart from Walter Cronkite, Peter told my kind of news. His death is sad, sad news indeed.

Vacation

Things I learned while on vacation:
Traveling to and from the Dodecanese can be much more difficult than it sounds.
Turkey is quite eager to gain EU membership and is not beneath groveling to get it.
MTV Europe is dominated by Germans.
SPF 50 keeps out all evidence of having spent time in the sun, even two weeks' time.
Much of "old Rhodes" is actually quite recent construction.
You must cover your shoulders and wear a skirt that covers your knees to enter a monastery--unless you brazenly walk by the entrance wearing whatever you want.
Genghis Khan was an honorific title, not a given name.
Turkish apple tea is fabulous, and probably contains no tea whatsoever.
You can be one of 13 people on a 49 foot sailboat and still get a decent night's sleep, particularly if you're one of the lucky ones to have a cabin and good air flow.
Goat in red sauce is tasty.
I can eat bunches of lightly breaded/fried little fishies whole.
Turkish rugs use two knots while Persian rugs use only one, but neither method is superior to the other.
Silk rugs are shiny and enticingly pretty.
High season in the Greek islands is meant for people whose bedtime is well past mine.
In my experience, the Greeks are wonderfully spirited, proud, and generous.