work

Friday

I didn’t sleep terrifically well last night, thanks to some odd (and at times oddly violent) dreams, and I was reminded throughout the day why I prefer taking Fridays off from work and taking a three-day weekend. Alas, that’s not always an option.

For the most part, today was the same as yesterday in terms of work, copying the edits I’ve made to the art therapy manuscript to the electronic files I’ll send back to the author. As much as I’m a fan of e-books (and I am), I still find editing much easier with a red pen on a printed page.

I actually have an early start of it tomorrow, so I think I’m just going to turn in for the night. Here’s to more run-of-the-mill dreams.

One rabbit, two rabbit, three rabbit, four…

I finished reading a couple of books today, both that art therapy textbook I’m helping develop at work and Joe Hill’s most recent novel, Horns. I liked both of them. I think the former, once it’s finalized with figures and an accompanying DVD, will be a valuable resource for any beginning art therapist. It’s also pretty accessible (albeit not immediately of interest) to anyone else. Horns, on the other hand, was entertaining but also kind of problematic — in different ways from Hill’s previous book, Heart-shaped Box, though I still think he hasn’t quite written a novel as good as his short stories. (I’ve also really liked his comic book work so far.) Maybe it’s that Horns spends so much of its time in dark and evil thoughts, in its characters worst impulses — that is, at least in part, what the book is about — makes it a lot less fun than it might otherwise be. But Hill has a knack for creating immediately interesting characters, with whom we empathize, and I can hardly fault him for writing a book that occasionally made me uncomfortable. It’s a little messy around the edges, maybe, even more so than Box, but Hill remains a writer to keep an eye on.

On the way home, I bought a copy of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo at Penn Station. I have plenty of books already — hence my short-lived “no new books” policy — and a brand new e-book reader in the form of my iPad, but…well, I’ve heard good things. I’m not really far enough along in it to say whether I’m enjoying it or not, but I am intrigued.

And beyond that, it was just an average Wednesday. The most interesting thing that happened today was reading about the Centzon Totochtin, divine rabbits, and the Aztec gods of drunkenness. It’s for a book on excessive drinking, whose cover designs were circulated around the office this morning. I particularly liked this image somebody drew and put on their blog.

Me, I just put this here.

Sometimes a Tuesday is just a Tuesday

Today was a less exciting, but also less rainy, version of yesterday. No meetings with authors, no hours hunched over the photocopier, just a lot of reading on art therapy and occasionally marking up pages with my red pen. Reading manuscripts is definitely the most time-consuming part of my job, but it’s also the thing that makes it feel most like editing to me, the thing I enjoy most about it. There’s a genuine pleasure in taking a good book and helping the author to make it better. I don’t think this particular book is going to take a lot of working, mostly just logistical wrangling for the images and accompanying DVD, but I still need to finish reading the last few chapters.

Beyond that, it was just your typical Tuesday.

Muggy Monday

I left the iPad at home today, not wanting to risk scratching it in my bag, and also not wanting the easy distraction from work and the book I’m reading, Joe Hill’s Horns. I’m enjoying the book, for the most part, but I’m still about a hundred pages to the end and would like to finish. I didn’t need easy access to Twitter or Scrabble or whatever to distract me. But I did kind of miss having it with me.

It was pouring rain when I woke up this morning, and because of that (and because of a lousy, half-broken umbrella), I got a little soaked running for the train. And I do mean running, since I only just barely made it before the doors closed shut and the train left the station. I bought a new umbrella when I reached Penn Station, but of course up on the street the rain had all but stopped, and I never even open the umbrella once today. There was plenty humidity, but the rain was pretty much done for the day.

I’d forgotten, perhaps in my three-day-weekend, brand-new-iPad daze, that I had an author visiting me this morning. There really was no reason for the visit, other than that she and her husband were in the city for a few days — staying a block from this Saturday’s bomb scare, no less — and we’re interested in pursuing a new edition of her book. But I think our discussion went well…even if I do sometimes feel like I’m faking it, having no real background in psychology myself. Still, they seemed like very pleasant people, and it really does seem like a worthwhile project, so I’m glad we had a chance to chat.

And then I spent the next hour or so printing out instructor materials we’d put online expressly so we wouldn’t have to print them out. But it was for just one customer, and I guess not every professor is rushing to join the digital age. It was a lot of paper, but it wasn’t too difficult a request to accommodate.

After that, it was mostly art therapy until the end of the work day.

Now, though, I think it’s just about time for bed.

And then it was Sunday

More of the same today, the main difference being that it was hot enough to convince me to turn my air conditioner on for the first time this season. It’s supposed to cool off a little as the week progresses, but I think we’re well into late spring/early summer here.

Meanwhile, still thoroughly enjoying the iPad, though I did buy a new case after doing a little research online. The case that Apple sold me is fairly functional, but only just, and it’s not all that great for what it cost. And, while I had the option of filling out today’s New York Times crossword via an app, I decided to go the traditional pen and paper route. (I very nearly finished, too.)

Beyond that, I finished another chapter in the art therapy textbook, leaving me with still several more to finish hopefully this week. And I finally got caught up on Stargate: Universe. I still think it’s trying a little too hard to be Stargate: Galactica, but I am starting to like it a lot more as the characters come into sharper focus. And I have to give them credit for bridging the gap between darker, realistic science fiction and the fun, but more action adventure-oriented Stargate shows that have come before it.

Now I think it’s time to recharge the iPad and go to sleep.