You may be wondering what could be so tiring about renting a movie? Well, munchkins, I am about as exhausted as I've ever been, I think. It's tempting to blame it on Kevin -- I think he did initiate the discussion of cooking, philosophy, and ethics (he ended up trying to convince me that I wasn't a moral relativist. Hmph.) that lasted until 2 a.m. And he did set his clock wrong, so that instead of getting up at 5:15 to get ready to leave at 5:45 to catch my 6:50 flight, I got up at 4:15 this morning. Didn't figure it out 'til I was showered and dressed and standing out in the snow wondering where the cab was. Actually, not 'til I came back inside and called them, and the nice man told me it wasn't even 5 a.m. yet... Sigh. But really, I knew I had to get up early when I was having that discussion. I could have called it off at any time. And the clock thing was an honest mistake. So he probably can't be held any more to blame than I can.
In any case, I'm wiped. The morning was tedious in all sorts of ways that I'm not even going to bother detailing here, except that I ended up having to spend $25 on extra cab fare to get to work on time -- ouch. But the rest of the day has been fairly calm; at this point I've done everything I can do at work, so I feel free to goof off a little and write in my journal.
One good thing about all the tedious travelling this morning is that I got to read most of a really engrossing book, which you've all probably heard of and read already, Arthur Golden's _Memoirs of a Geisha_. I have no idea how accurate Golden's novel is...but I have to remind myself that it *is* a novel, and not a memoir. His protagonist's voice is very convincing. And the plot so far has been really engrossing -- lots of subtle machinations and bids for power and status; I love that stuff. It was why I preferred the Janny Wurts side of the Riftwar books, the Empire series. Lots of devious political machinations. Actually, those books had an Oriental flavor too. Maybe I should be reading more Chinese and Japanese history...
I know I've been recommending a lot of books lately, but this one really is a very compelling read. And the details are gorgeous.
Other news -- well, the overwhelming vote is in favor of the silly iambic pentameter book review, so I'll go with it, and hope Chris (M. Christian, the editor) forgives me. Not many responses on "Challah" yet -- one very positive and one 'I couldn't read it', which makes me think I should maybe send it out again with the normal formatting when I get home. We'll see.
Hey, I forgot to mention something about the BAE 1999 -- I get royalties. Piddling royalties, if I remember correctly, but still, it's something. So think what a lovely Valentine's Day gift the book would be (and it has the advantage of being less embarrassing than my book, since it has no pictures :-). And hey, wedding season is coming up! Having trouble deciding what to get the happy couple? What could be more appropriate than something to spark up the honeymoon? :-)
Okay, enough with the mercenary commercial announcements. In job news, Hanh (Ojvind's wife, and a grad student at Mills) got me some information on doing proofreading for Berkeley Press. It'd pay about what I'm making now, and it'd be work from home. This sounds very appealing. It's directly opposite to the whole get gobs of money and do insane commute and build up tech writing experience thing, but it has the advantages of my being able to spend much more time with Kevin (which keeps me sane) and giving me more time to concentrate on my classes (I talked to the woman again today and she *swears* that I'll have my password by tomorrow. I am dubious.) I don't know what's the best option, but I'm going to go ahead and send a resume and cover letter to the proofreading job. Can't hurt. Will probably do that tonight.
And I just got a call from the Remedy people, to set up the third- round interviews. This is all starting to sound terribly serious. We're aiming for Friday right now; hopefully the boss here won't mind. I don't think he will, as it's been pretty darn quiet. I was really gung-ho about this job last week; now the reality of what it would entail time-wise is starting to sink in. I suppose that's a good thing in that it keeps me from being terrified they won't offer me a job. I'll have to think about it.
Heh. They have my web address. It's entirely possible that my prospective employers are reading this. Guess they won't learn anything too scary, though -- and a little honesty in the job- hunting game has got to be fairly refreshing, don't you think? Hello, Remedy!
Okay, wrap up and head home soon, I think. Hope your week is starting out okay...talk to you soon.
8:10. Came home. Ate. Puttered a little. Talked to El. *Far* too tired to do anything else. Have set my alarm for 5. Going to sleep now.