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Catching Up I had a job interview today. It's actually my second - last week I interviewed for this cool part-time theatre job at a local high school, which won't pay enough but would be a great opportunity. Today I interviewed with the marketing department (I know, I said I would never work in marketing again) of a really big publishing company, and it was the longest one-on-one interview I have ever had. It went on forever. I really thought the guy would never shut up. Two hours I was in there! I've had shorter operations. The job sounds okay, but I'd have to travel to ten-twenty conferences a year and how exactly would I go to grad school while I did that? (Assuming I get into grad school, which is of course up in the air until, oh, I find out if I get in. In December, I think.) (No, I'm not worried. Why do you ask?) (Is it the parentheses?) Okay, I'm worried. Really worried. This is a free program (for me) with a good reputation. I want to get in. I've talked to their Romanticism guy and seen his syllabi. I want to get in. I've confirmed that my math GRE score doesn't mean bupkis, so I'm planning on just clicking on answers. Why waste my time? I can get a zero. Meanwhile, I'm busy stressing about words I don't know the meanings of like bellicose and fardels and ghee and lugubrious, and words I should know the meanings of (like maladroit and eurythmic and pugilist and trenchant) and don't. And I'm worried about my tendency to drift off in the middle of the horribly boring reading comp passages. (I'm not allowing myself to worry about the subject test yet. Jessie, buy the Cracking the GRE Literature Subject Test from the Princeton Review. Buy it. It outlines a really good guessing system, which apparently is key on this freaking stupid test.) I'm also worrying about my personal statement, which I need to write soon and which is very important and needs to be mostly about my scholarship intentions but can't be too dry or pat or boring. No pressure. And I'm worrying about my writing sample, although it earned an A in a writing-intensive seminar that's run like a graduate level course. Dr. Joe made minute, nitpicky comments all over it because I told him when I handed it in that I was using it for my writing sample (it's the only paper I have that's 10 pages or longer). The title? Thomas Builds-the-Fire and Victor Joseph as Native American Foils in Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. (An excellent book. The best book I read last semester. Highly, highly recommended along with Alexie's Reservation Blues.) I'm currently revising my conclusion, because it's the weakest part of the paper. I want to mail that in with my personal statement. The deadline, thank God, isn't until November 5th. I want everything in no later than the middle of October. My recommendations are all on their way, and my transcripts should have already arrived. My application itself has been in for over three weeks. I'm still bored, so I need a job. I really need a job. I honestly just want to make mid-twenties and answer phones and type letters or something like that. I'm not looking for a career here. I'm looking to make some money so we can bank it in anticipation of wee ones (don't hold your breath, people). I don't want to change the world right now, or be incredibly fulfilled. I just want to cash a paycheck. I'm applying for lots of stuff and not hearing much. I know it's a glutted job market and I'm overqualified for the jobs I want. That really sucks. I'd happily hand someone my qualifications if it would get me a nice cushy desk job. Sigh. We've finally started a regular gym routine again; we've been going three times a week. (And why aren't I Kate Moss yet?) We went back to the Philadelphia Book Bank and gloried in the free books. God bless free books. I got some Regency romances (a renewed guilty pleasure) and some kidlit by Betty Cavanna and Edward Eager and a few others I can't remember. It's so sad when libraries purge books but so happy when they end up on my shelf. I will love them forever! School is good. The Romanticism course is very different than the Romanticism section we did in Brit Lit last year (I really, really miss the reading aloud part) but it's good. I'm waiting until we're done wading through Blake on Wednesday to really try and write anything halfway intelligent at Spots of Time. I've decided (except for the Proverbs of Heaven and Hell and a few other bits) that I'm not nuts for Blake. We start Wordsworth Wednesday, hooray! And we're reading Rabindranath Tagore in my IndoPak seminar, and he's quite good. If it weren't for school, I'd really be climbing the walls. I just applied for the English Honor Society, which I'm thinking isn't a problem since I have a 3.87 and you only need a 3.25 (??). And my application for graduation (!!) will go in on Wednesday. (I'm going to graduate. After almost thirteen years of college. It's impossible to wrap my mind around that.) The rest of the honeymoon entries will be coming soon, along with something more coherent and more reader questions. I'm going to go get a roast ready for the crock pot. Anyone have any good crock pot recipes? The fondest, most excited congratulations for two dear, dear women: Michelle and Eliza are both engaged! I am so very very very happy for you both! Oh! A final piece of randomness, since this entry is all over the place - Melissa Anelli is back with an all-new blog, and if you missed her the first time, you missed out. Don't make that mistake again! See you all tomorrow! (Probably. Remember, it's me.) |