weather

And snow it goes

I had a doctor’s appointment first thing this morning, and since it snowed all night — not much, I’ll admit, but enough to leave behind more than a light dusting — I had to get up a little earlier to clean off my car. The appointment went well enough — it was mostly just a follow-up — and I think I spent more time in traffic and the waiting room than in with the doctor.

I came home and then caught a later train into Manhattan, arriving at the office just in time to miss the tail end of a two-and-a-half-hour-long production meeting previously scheduled for that morning. Aw shucks?

The rest of the day was largely uneventful, spent mostly just trying to get caught up on a couple of projects in the very little time I have left before the end of the week — and, for me, the end of the year. I may have to accept that these projects might not get done before early January, but if I can manage to cross them off my list before the holidays, that would be great.

Studio session

Tonight, I attended a live taping of Studio 360, specifically this one, all about the universe and theoretical physics. It was a whole lot of fun.

Although it was certainly not this cold and snowy when I went into the studio.

Otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful day. I finished boxing up the files I didn’t get to on Friday’s clean-up day, and as a group we trekked over to Rockefeller Center for our group holiday photo. Two years ago, it was the tree in the lobby. Last year, it was one of the lions in front of the New York Public Library, a block away. At the rate we’re going, we may very well be taking the photo in another borough come next holiday season!

Of course, we’ll have moved offices by then, by I think my nonexistent point is still no less valid.

Fanciful insects

It was just as cold again today, but luckily I thought ahead and wore a warmer coat. (Or rather, the same coat, but this time with the heavier lining put back into it.) Also luckily, my train was on time today, not at all canceled, and only rather crowded instead of ridiculously so.

And since that lack of excitement was probably the most exciting thing that happened to day, I share with you today’s bit of Forgotten English:

People, after they have been fou, feel as they are returning to their wits again, a buzzing and singin’ in the head, which are called bees o’ the brain. Also, when they are getting intoxicated they feel these fanciful insects.

“I can be awkward.” “So can most of us.”

I woke up pretty late this morning, ran some errands — post office, haircut, bank — and then spent the rest of the day not doing a whole lot of anything. I mean, I filled the bird feeders in the yard — it’s quite chilly outside, but they don’t all fly south for the winter — and I watched a little television. (Fringe and a British show called Misfits.) I did a little writing — the story I’m working on proved surprisingly easy to get back into, after too long a hiatus — and did a little reading. And then this evening I watched Ondine, which was really quite lovely. Every now and then a movie like that — or In Bruges — comes along and reminds me that that Colin Farrell fellow can certainly act.

‘Tis the season

No big presentations to attend today, though we did have a quick team meeting — ostensibly to review the titles under contract and in production, but mostly just to plan the date for our group’s holiday lunch and photo.

Every year we go out to lunch as a group, separate from the office-wide holiday party, and every year we take a group photo that we send as a holiday card to our authors. It’s interesting to look back at those photos and see just how much our lineup has changed since I came on board in 2006, with people leaving for other jobs, going back to school, moving across country, et cetera. Last year, we branched out beyond the Christmas tree in reception and took the photo in front of the New York Public Library. This year, we’re going all-out New Yorker and heading to Rockefeller Center for the photo. That’s not exactly far, though it’s not one block away like the Library, and I wonder if we’re not underestimating the distance in what’s very quickly become a very cold city. (Sure, low 30’s and 40’s are nothing to some of you, but I really sort of wished I’d worn a hat to work today.) And while there was maybe some concern that taking a holiday photo on December 13th was too soon, considering how early Hanukkah is this year — tonight’s the second night — we’re probably safely splitting the difference between that and Christmas, Kwanzaa, et al. And considering that most of us are going to be out the entire last week of December — and a couple, myself included, the entire last two weeks — we didn’t have a lot of other days to choose from.

I have to admit, I skipped the tree lighting in the reception area, despite the lure of eggnog and homemade cookies, and despite the fact that our team meeting ended in plenty of time to attend. I’m not a grinch, not by any means. I’ve gone on record to say I think it’s way too soon for houses decked out in lights and nothing but an endless cycle of carols on the radio — to say nothing of the electrical cost of the former, or the real mediocrity of a lot of the latter. And I definitely think it was too early right after — or before Thanksgiving. But I like Christmas decorations, and Christmas songs, and I like holidays in general. I just like celebrating them, you know, around the holiday season. But I mostly didn’t attend the tree lighting (or, rather, switching-on) because it crams about a hundred or more people into a space that maybe comfortably holds ten.

Maybe next year, when we’ve moved into our shiny new offices. I hear the cookies were really quite good.