personal

And now for something completely the same

It snowed quite a bit here this morning, both on Long Island and in Manhattan, but you wouldn’t know it to look around now. Except for a conspicuous snowman on a neighbor’s lawn, almost all of it had melted before noon. There’s more predicted for the weekend, but we shall see.

Work continues to keep me busy, albeit not with anything new to say about it. I spent today working on the same projects I’ve been working on all week, and that I’ll probably spend all of tomorrow working on, too. It’s both more and less boring than it sounds.

Other than that, not much. Just glad that tomorrow is Friday.

Gosh dern it

The word for today in my Forgotten English calendar is dern, meaning “of actions done or proceeding in secret, or in the dark; kept concealed; hence dark, of evil of deceitful nature.”

I don’t know that it’s especially apt or anything, but it amused me.

Today was a really long day for some reason, not particularly more busy or more stressful than Monday or Tuesday, but a whole lot slower. Maybe it’s just the cold weather than crept back in after a couple of surprisingly warm days. They are predicting snow for the weekend. Whatever it was, it seemed like a long time before five o’clock rolled around and I could leave work for the day.

I spent most of the day working on that same gerontological counseling book. The way textbook adoption cycles work, it really has to go into production by next month so that it can be published before the Fall. So I’m trying to get the revised chapters I’ve already received as finalized as possible, so that, when the author has given me everything, it’s just a question of handing a ready-to-go manuscript over to an editorial assistant who can then transmit it to our production department. The good news is the author’s so far made some really terrific revisions, taking what I thought was an okay text and really strengthening it, making it even more accessible and student-friendly. In the unlikely event that I was ever to take up the counseling of older adults, I think this is a book I’d want front and center on my shelf.

So that’s an ever so exciting glimpse into my day-to-day as a developmental editor. Today it consisted mostly of re-reading chapters and copying my changes over to the electronic versions. The thrill ride never stops!

And that, for the most part, was how I spent my Wednesday.

Another Tuesday

As suspected, today was an awful lot like yesterday, just without the rain. In fact, I spent the day working on all the same projects at work, and I’m thinking of watching another episode of House tonight, so you could probably just swap in yesterday’s post and be done with it.

I had dinner out with my mother this evening, since my father was at a company recognition dinner, and we returned home to discover that the oranges that had arrived as part of their Harry and David fruit-of-the-month club membership (a Christmas present from me and my sister) were moldy. I sent customer service an e-mail, so we’ll see what if anything comes of that. These things happen — it is fresh fruit, after all — but I’ll be disappointed if they can’t do something to replace this month’s inedible offering.

And that — moldy Honeybell oranges — is about as exciting as my day ever got.

Come Monday

So that was Monday.

I spent the day working mostly on an art therapy book we have in development, switching on occasion to chapters in a gerontological counseling book. Because that’s just how I roll. Despite the nasty weather, which seemed determined to tear my umbrella apart any time I went outside, the day went by rather quickly. I suspect tomorrow will be more of the same.

I started reading Olive Kitteridge this morning, and so far I’m really enjoying it. This evening, I watched an episode of House. And earlier, I learned that, strictly speaking, bears don’t hibernate.

And that’s about as exciting as my day went. How about you?

“Well the night does funny things inside a man”

I spent the day doing not much of anything, mostly because of the dreary weather and because my Sunday writing group was canceled. And yet, here I am, the day all but ended and the hours all but spent. I’m just sitting here, listening to some early Tom Waits, and failing to finish the Sunday crossword.

I was thinking maybe I’d find something to say about Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, which I finished reading last week, but beyond saying that I really liked it, or that the stories in it are all masterfully done, I don’t know that there’s a lot to share. Even saying which stories I liked in particular won’t offer much, since there’s not a wrong note in the collection and it’s tough to pick a favorite. I’ll definitely have to check out Lahiri’s other books, including her novel, The Namesake.

Okay, back to not finishing that crossword.