Oh, By the Way...

 Did I mention I got a job as an archivist?  I didn’t?  Oh.  Well, as of March 5, I have been employed as a temporary, part-time manuscripts processor at a local university.  Yesterday, I got my first paycheck from that gig, and it felt pretty darn sweet, maybe more so because my spirits had been flagging as of late.  

 You see, as the holidays approached in 2011, I decided to shelve my efforts to actively hunt for a job as a librarian or an archivist.  I graduated in 2009, and both the economic climate and my lack of experience left me treading water, unsuccessfully sending out resume after resume.  I wanted to face the New Year rested and my mind free of rejection. 

 Thanksgiving passed, and I had successfully eliminated the anxiety of what I was beginning to feel as wasting my time.  Instead, I stayed busy setting personal goals, spending time with my family, and indulging in too many sweets.  My mind was clear, even of plans to restart the search in 2012.  So, when an email came my way at the end of December from the university archivist where I interned two years before asking me if I was interested in an opportunity to process a collection, it was a complete surprise.  However, it took no thought to reply, “Well, yeah.”

We met a week or two later to go over the collection, the identity of which I guessed by reviewing their News and Announcements section on their website that discussed recent acquisitions.  After she showed me the extent of the collection, pointed out that processing had already begun with the previous intermittent archivist, and indicated that funding was not yet guaranteed, she asked if I still wanted the job.  No, my mind had not changed.

            

 I left the university very excited and anxious to start.  Unfortunately, it literally took weeks to get an answer on funding, which dimmed that excitement and had thoughts of funding falling through plaguing my days.  Finally, I got the confirmation that I could start filling out the employment paperwork.  I didn’t waste any time crossing my “T’s” and dotting my “I’s”, and within a few days I was on campus picking up my ID badge.  When I went into the office to do so, the young man behind the counter asked if I was student or faculty.  Of course, I said, “Faculty.”  Favorite answer ever.

             

The next few posts will discuss the work (in oblique terms since I don’t want to deal in specifics here) and what I’ve learned both about the profession and myself as an archivist.  Seriously, colleagues (I have colleagues!) have called me an archivist.  That’s pretty awesome.

Drop. Your. Sword.

March has become an anomaly this year in NW Ohio.  We are still technically in winter, but for the past week and predicted for this week are 70+ temps and sunny skies.  Not that I'm complaining.  In fact, far from complaining, I had a really nice day today and felt good and energetic, kind of like I feel at spring's renewal.  It was the kind of day that made me pause in what I was doing and acknowledge out loud how awesome it was.  Good music in the background, fresh air through the open windows, and good book in hand.  What more can one ask?

To top it off, a little rendition of, "Mawage is what bwings us togever today," spoken aloud by yours truly while I was cleaning the bathroom instantly put in me the mood for The Princess Bride, and so I popped it in.  I haven't watched it in years, but I was instantly pulled back in to the fantasy and humor and anticipating lines before they were ever spoken.  I love that I still love this movie.  I know that tastes change over the years, but there are just some things that never budge from one's heart.  I remember the mileage I put on the old VHS I borrowed from a friend when I was young.  I think I watched it ten times or more and it might have been a year before I returned it.  When I got my first DVD player, this was one of the first DVDs I bought, and for good reason.  Cary Elwes is full of charm (and still is, in case you haven't seen his turn as Pierre Despereaux in Psych), much as the movie is.  As Westley and Buttercup run through the fire swamp, I thought how in this generation of remakes, I'd hate to see The Princess Bride get an upgrade, because there is no need.  Even the practical effects that are pure 80's camp of the ROUS's (Rodents of Unusual Size for those of you who are not in the know) seem just right.  And no one can replace Andre the Giant.  No one.  It wouldn't be sportsmanlike. 

So, today was a good day, what with storming the castle and all.  Most of my days past have been good since my last post two months ago (or has it been longer?).  2012 has thus far turned out to be pretty decent.  I guess I'm doing something right. 

It's past 9 pm, the windows are still open, 80's pop is playing on the TV and my cat is snugged up against me without a care in the world.  No, I really have nothing to complain about.  Hell, with Kool & the Gang's "Ladies Night" jamming through the apartment, complaining would be, well, inconceivable.

Month-In-Review: December

Blimey, 2012 just sort of happened, didn't it?  Sure, it came after 12 months of 2011 as most new years do, but I swear those 365 or so days went by a hell of a lot faster than they should have.  I mean, did I really accomplish anything?  I honestly can't say.  2011 was a quiet, uneventful year in the old Sara B household, and I suppose that is something for which to be thankful. 

I've been busy this past week putting my resolutions into motion (you know, lose weight, get a job, get a date, yada, yada, yada) that I haven't put much thought into that old holiday flurry that was December.  Well, here is what I'll address:

• Miraculously, despite holiday parties and the associated richness of food, I finished 2011 five pounds down from where I started.  It's five pounds, not fifty, but I'll take it, considering how hard it is to manage at my advanced age.
• There has been a positive turn on the job front, but I'm superstitious enough not to expound on it until some things have been set in stone.  
• Really, that is the extent of my life since December 1.  Gripping.  Gah.

Well, as I've mentioned before, I love beginnings, so January is usually full of positive anticipation.  I'll let you know in February if that optimism has become a habit, since it takes 21 days of doing something for it to become a habit, after all. 

Cheers!

Month-In-Review: November

I'm a little late posting my riveting, recurring review of my monthly life, and I apologize for all of those who waited with bated breath.  So, what happened?  Well...

• ...I decided to shelve the job hunt for at least the duration of the holiday season.  I just know I'm going about it all wrong, and it's more than a little annoying to be treading water for so long and getting nowhere.  I haven't given up (Really!  I haven't!), though.
• I, as expected and required, ate too much over Thanksgiving.  I usually ride that hedonistic train from Thanksgiving until New Year, but I'm trying to rein it in between holidays with some smarter choices.  Doesn't seem to make a difference to my waistline, though.  Over 30, and the metabolism seems to come to a screeching halt.
• We haven't even had our first real snowfall, it's still autumn, and I'm already sick of winter.  That depresses me, as I've always been a fan of sweater weather.  I do increase my coffee drinking during these months, though, and that's always comforting, especially with a little Baileys.  
• I got nothin'.

So there you have it, another month, another roller coaster ride.  Bleh.

Inhabiting the Character

Pride and Prejudice is a great romance novel.  With characters so interesting and vivid, it's no wonder Jane Austen's work has been adapted many times to both big and small screens, as well as having been the source material for other novels, like Bridget Jones' Diary (a personal favorite) and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  Sometimes Miss Elizabeth Bennet and her Fitzwilliam Darcy are as real as if they were sitting in this room with me.

I'm currently all aflutter over P&P because I watched a charming movie the other night, Lost in Austen.  It tells the tale of a die-hard P&P fan, Amanda, who discovers the heroine of her favorite novel in her bathroom, after the latter has come through a door from Regency-era Longbourne (fictional home of the Bennet family) into the shower of our protagonist in modern-day London.  They switch places for a time, during which Amanda completely turns the plot of this classic novel on its head.

As events change, characters previously missing from the original novel appear, and it's if they have always been there, only Jane Austen forgot to tell us about them.  The world of Pride and Prejudice is fully intact, especially the dreamy Mr. Darcy.

I don't know what it is about Mr. Darcy that makes him so irresistible.  He is a snob, he jumps to conclusions, he lets his (wait for it) pride get in the way of finding happiness, and he says terrible things to Elizabeth over the course of their "courtship", but there is just something about him.  When it comes to the actors who portray this hero, may I just say, damn.

Colin Firth was my first Darcy.  He was cast in the film version of Bridget Jones' Diary partly because of his amazing portrayal in the 1995 BBC production of P&P.  Dandy collar and all, he was to die for, especially emerging from the lake on Pemberly in a white shirt and breeches. 

Then came the 2005 Kiera Knightley/Matthew Macfadyen rendition.  There was something a little rougher around the edges in this Darcy, and a scene with mists and fields and open collar, oh my.

This week it was Elliott Cowan whom I saw as the haughty Fitzwilliam.  As his colleagues before him, pulling on the mantel of an arrogant, prideful suitor, Mr. Cowan transformed into something purely divine.  And kudos to the writers of Lost in Austen who, in a wonderful homage to the 1995 film, had Amanda instruct Darcy to go into the lake.  Sigh.

I'm not sure I'm a big fan of that period, the restraint, the propriety, the clothes, but when each of those actors (who are attractive and talented in any role I've seen them play otherwise), puts on that Regency garb, curls his lip just so, looks down upon a witty and intelligent woman and say, "My good opinion once lost is lost forever," well, it's enough to sink down in your seat and fan yourself. 

And that is what I'm thankful for this holiday season.

(Was this post link-fantastic, or what?)

"Life is more than just mere survival"...

Tonight is the kind of night you refer to when you start a story with, "It all happened on a night just like this..."  Fall leaves swirling in the wind that echoes like a ghostly cry.  It would have been much more appropriate on Halloween and not some random Wednesday in November and cut off the power for 30 seconds in the middle of my changing out of my work clothes.  Eerie, unsettling, and yet, sitting at the traffic light on the way home from the office, my car buffeted by that relentless wind, it was comforting.  I always say I like fall the best.  I guess I'm just more nostalgic during these crisp months.

I read various, eclectic blogs -- all loads better than mine -- and one that I visit regularly is My New Plaid Pants.  A movie-driven blog, the author has various features (my particular favorite is "Thursday's Ways Not to Die"), including "Everything You Need to Know About Life..." wherein he posts a quote from a movie possessing sometimes off-the-wall insight.  Yesterday's quote was from Woody Allen's recent film, Midnight in Paris, and had an impact on me.  You can view the blog here, but I'll re-print the quote directly:

Paul: Nostalgia is denial - denial of the painful present... 

the name for this denial is golden age thinking - the erroneous 

notion that a different time period is better than the one one's 

living in - it's a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people 

who find it difficult to cope with the present.

And now I want to see the movie exclusively to hear Michael Sheen, who plays Paul, say this bit of dialogue...

Anyway, my first response was that this is absolutely true.  My second was that I am not necessarily dealing with a painful present.  The point, however, is that this isn't world-shattering information, but sometimes someone can articulate something so well that a gong of clarity sounds in your head and for a few minutes you feel like you've been shown the answer to the meaning of life.  And now I can't get that quote out of my head.

So admiring the leaves of fall dancing and frolicking in the air is just a way to deal with the here and now, I suppose.  

And even with the TV playing 'Mr. Belvedere' in the background, the wind insists on being heard...

Month-In-Review: October

These days, my only outward nod to Halloween is in color-centric clothing.  For example, today I wore an orange sweater with black slacks to work.  I really wish there had been a pair of pumpkin or black cat earrings in the jewelry chest I’d “inherited” from my mother, but no such luck.  I haven’t put together an actual costume in ages, and I haven’t handed out candy since I crossed the threshold into adulthood.  I do spend hours enjoying those dime a dozen countdowns of great horror movie moments and cheesy slasher flicks that are only worth my time when they’re so bad they’re good.  (Last year, I watched a Halloween episode of Quantum Leap from the series I had on DVD.  It wasn’t scary, by any means, but provided a nice accent to the holiday.)  

Whether grabbing a ballerina costume off the racks or helping my mom sew a witch hat and cape, Halloween definitely had more of a build up as a kid.  I remember celebrating the holiday in elementary school with a costume parade around the playground.  It didn’t feel like a school day, then.  We weren’t students; we were ghosts, princesses, Freddy Kruegers, Michael Jacksons, pumpkins, cats, and scarecrows.  Our teachers transformed into something a little cooler with just a dab or two of white face paint and blue and red for veins and blood.  We left at the end of the day not with homework, but with candy.  

Candy is always the ultimate goal.  Children don’t care about the history of Samhain or All Soul’s Day.  The sugar coma is all that mattered.  And for parents worried about their babies suffering from something worse, like poison or razor blade, they console themselves with snagging the choice treats in the name of safety.  

My dentist and my waistline insist that candy must no longer wield such influence over my 32 year-old self.  I suppose the butter-drenched popcorn on my lap while I watch a bloody good time of a horror movie will have to be the appropriate alternative.  

As for the rest of October:

• Five job applications.
• Weight gained in a sure sign of winter's approach.  I must pack on the pounds to stay warmer.  Yeah, that's it.
• My Henry (kitty cat) was diagnosed with FIV, but it's super manageable and he's been aces since the vet.  I'll make sure he stays that way.

 "The veil is getting thin my friends,

And strange things will pass through." 

Kind of gives you chills, doesn't it?