personal

Saturday night is alright for blogging

When I look back over today, I really have no idea where it all went.

This morning, I caught an early show of the deeply disappointing horror movie Daybreakers. It has an intriguing premise, and a well imagined world in its vampire society that comments nicely on our own, but it’s boring and badly plotted as a story. It’s inventive visually, until it starts just being annoying visually, and by the end I was just looking for the door. If it had been the movie like it seemed it was going to be in its first twenty minutes, however, it could have been something.

After that, I came home for lunch, eventually went for a short walk, and settled in to watch the final installment of that Monty Python documentary I bought on DVD earlier this week. I think it’s convinced me to re-watch the original episodes and movies, and maybe even listen again to their records — which is where I first learned to love the group and British humor.

And that, such as it was, was my Saturday. How about you?

That was the week that was

I don’t know where this past week went, but it’s really tough to believe that it’s gone. I expected it drag, what with having to go back to work after a two-week absence — during which I got to sleep late, set my own schedule, and watch movies every day — but surprisingly it didn’t. But the month is still young, and I guess there’s always next week for that, right?

Not much to report today beyond a quiet Friday at the office and gray, snowy weather in Manhattan. I started reading Don DeLillo’s Falling Man today, having finished Gene Wolfe’s An Evil Guest yesterday evening. (More on that later.) But right now, I’m just watching some more of that Monty Python documentary — and being reminded that Life of Brian is a truly phenomenal movie — with maybe an episode of The Big Bang Theory or The Mighty Boosh to follow. Then maybe a little light (and a little blind) capping at HCC, followed by sleep.

We had Chinese food for dinner tonight, and my fortune read, “You will travel far and wide, both business and pleasure.”

Well maybe. But not tonight.

It’s already the second week of January?

When you get right down to it, Arthur Dent was right about Thursdays. They really are impossible to get a hang of.

Beyond my mild shock that the work week is almost over, there’s not a whole lot to report. Last night, right before bed, I read a short story by Dan Chaon called “The Bees.” I seem to think I’d read it once before, but it’s a masterful piece of work and an incredibly disquieting ghost story. Which, you know, maybe isn’t the best thing to read late at night.
It’s collected, among other places, in the Peter Straub-edited Poe’s Children: The New Horror, if you’re interested in tempting nightmares yourself.

I somehow managed to get a pretty good night’s sleep, despite that, and I caught the earlier train into Manhattan this morning. On my walk from Penn Station, I started listening to this This American Life show about the problems with alcohol at Penn State. It’s hard not to feel a little sad for the place I went to school, and where I worked for several years, and it’s hard not see the fraternities as a big part of the problem. The amount of alcohol a lot of these college kids consider “not a big deal” and a common, every-night occurrence, is maybe more than I’ve ever had to drink in my entire life. Honestly, three drinks over several hours is about as crazy as I ever get, and I was 21 long before I had anything more than a sip of alcohol.

Meanwhile, one of my co-workers was being shadowed all day by a student from his own alma mater who’s interested in publishing, and I spoke with her for a few minutes about what I do as a developmental editor. I always worry, when I explain my job to fresh-faced hopefuls like this, that I’m making it sound boring. But it’s always nice to discover that I do in fact genuinely like what I do. It really is satisfying to take a good book and, with the author, make it better.

And hey, we got word about our end-of-2009 bonuses and (small but still appreciated) raises today, so that’s something, right?!

Another day, another dollar

I missed my regular train this morning — or, rather, the train I normally get when I oversleep a little and miss the earlier regular train. There’s a 7:37, and then an 8:15, out of my station and I can get a good half-hour nap in if I catch the later of the two. It means I have to work until 5 instead of 4:30, and I much prefer getting the earlier train in the evening if I can do so. It’s less crowded, for one thing, and it gets me home a good forty-five minutes earlier than the next train. (Because it’s less crowded, has fewer stops, and requires less waiting around in Penn Station.) But it’s tough making that argument with my body when I haven’t had enough sleep, and at least twice this week my brain has lost it.

This morning I couldn’t find my hat — it was underneath some papers on my chair — and so I missed the 8:15 by a couple of minutes. I live less than five minutes from the train station, and I could see the train pulling into it as I raced that one block, but I just didn’t make it. I had to stop running when my iPod went flying out of my coat pocket anyway — its edges are a little chipped, though it seems otherwise okay — so I just accepted that I’d have to catch the 8:30 train instead. I just stood on the platform and listened to Studio 360 — the time travel show I’m sorry I missed when it taped live here in New York — and waited. And I’ve got to tell you, I’m really glad I didn’t give up looking for that hat. I’m glad I found it before the next train — not until 9:23 — but it was really too cold today to be without it.

Anyway, I think I’ve spent all this time talking about my train schedules and brief morning mishaps simply because the day was otherwise uneventful. I worked through lunch to make up some of the time the missed train cost me, and I read what I think is a really good chapter on a book we’re developing for counseling older adults. I worked a little more on that short story, and right now I’m watching the third episode of that Monty Python documentary.

According to my desk calendar (one of three I received this Christmas), today is Haxey Hood Day, which I’m amused to discover is still a very living tradition. That’s really neither here nor there, but it’s a whole lot more exciting than my day was.

Deja Tues

At the start of the new year, I made a sort of unofficial, unspoken pledge that I would post something here every day. (Beyond the occasional assortment of links, videos, and random song lyrics.) But some days, there just isn’t that much of anything to report.

I mailed off my entry in the Geist Postcard Contest this afternoon, and tonight did a very tiny bit of work on another short story that’s been sitting on the back burner for awhile. Right now, I’m watching the second episode of Monty Python: Almost The Truth and thoroughly enjoying it. (Seriously, I defy anyone not to at least giggle a little at this sketch.)

And that’s about it.