duck-shaped pain

20 December 2002
One hour earlier means everything.

Today, I woke up and realized that in two days' time, I would be in another time zone, one where they show things live and in their proper time slots. Sure, I'll be going to the Oklahoma! part of said time zone, but it's better than staying here for Christmas, I assure you.

I'm getting very, very sick of living here. I have been for some time: it's more or less a chronic condition. But this week, I felt much more desperate to leave. Three more semesters, I keep telling myself, and then I can go to graduate school and live in abject poverty in the city of my choice. [1] I don't know what triggered it. Christmas tends to bring out the misanthrope in me anyway, but maybe it was exacerbated by the limited shopping, the general atmosphere of gloom, crappy coffee, or the endless, unreasonable complaints over parking rates downtown. Or all of the above.


I've been much busier than I thought I would be this week. Yesterday, I made all of my cards (and will be sending them off today, for those who are awaiting one), wrapped a bunch of presents, cleaned the bathroom, and sorted out a bunch of books to get rid of. People who have been reading this here space for a while know that occasionally I declare war on my excess books, since they seem to multiply like gnats and I am always puzzled as to how they got to be in the many piles on my office floor. I always feel a need to edit my collection to fit changing ideas of who I am and what I like, anyway, and combining this with a general purging of excess things always makes me feel better, at most, and more productive, at the least.


My fun thing to do tonight is to go to the annual Christmas party at my "job." [2] I've worked there for three years, and this is the first one I've ever been to, because I've always been out of town when they happened. I don't know what to expect: lots of angry people will be there, many in the same lack-of-work boat I am in, and there will be liquor. Hopefully, we will get a better gift from The Employer this year than we got last year (if we get one at all): last year's bundle of wonder was a tin of old caramel popcorn, which I ended up feeding to the birds. Useless, obligatory office gifts make me miss my insane photo job I had in Oregon, where the owner of the company ran around throwing glitter at everyone, and gave out gifts at this big bash at her enormous house, and slipped twenty-dollar bills into random gifts. She went a little overboard, but, in retrospect, that seems okay.


Birdie with a hat on!


I'm pretty sure that I won't be updating while I'm gone, due to having all sorts of vacation-y and guest-y things to do. So I wish you all a happy holidays, well in advance.


[1] Or, to be more realistic, I'll get to live wherever I get into and get funding for.

[2] I've taken to putting the word in quotes, due to my despair at ever working there again. I haven't mentioned much about it, but the situation has gotten worse in the last few weeks. I haven't been able to find any other work, though, which is undoubtedly contributing to my overall feelings of gloom. If anyone needs any technical writing/editing work done in the area of the 81501 area code, let me know

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