To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive

So hey, my state is currently skyrocketing in the rankings for COVID cases per capita, hospitals are full, and people are dying, while our governor is trying to be a poor man's DeSantis or Abbot, insisting nothing is wrong, denying schools the ability to go virtual, and fighting mask mandates. Our vaccination rate is something like 41%, because of course it is. Useful infographic. Check out the "active cases" graph at the bottom right. I mean, I guess "vertical line" is a kind of curve...

I'm back to masking, of course--I think there was, like, two weeks in June where I took it off?--and going nowhere except the grocery, the rink, and my parents' house. Not giving up skating again to protect stupid people. Driving and skating extra carefully, though, seeing as our ICUs are overflowing. I'm starting to have critical care/pulmonary/infectious diseases MD faculty cancel on me for meetings/seminars, or be really delayed getting me information, and citing COVID workload for it.

The CDC added biologics as a reason for getting a third shot now, and my rheumatologist recommended it this week, so guess what I have to do next Friday. (Timing it for the off week of my Cosentyx and that Labor Day three-day weekend, because if the third shot is anything like the second, I'll need every moment of those three days to recover.) Hooray? I was hoping I could wait until there's a Delta-specific booster, assuming one is in the works, but oh well.

Work, at least, has given up the pretense that we are ever going back. The department head said that as long as no one over him requires it, he's fine if we work from home forever. As he said, "the most valuable resource in academia is space," so they're just going to add employees but not add offices. I guess eventually those of us who don't want to come in, or only want to come in when we have in-person meetings, will just get a hoteling space somewhere.

Speaking of work, our big behemoth grant will be funded! Yay, we all have jobs for another five years!

Okay, ten minutes of personal instruction on back spins from Scott Hamilton just because he happened to wander by and see me struggling was worth getting out of bed and to the rink today.

I can't promise it will actually help, but it was a very different way of entering it, so maybe this is the variation that will stick and make it so that I can do this spin. He uses a much deeper, tighter edge than I've been using, and adds basically an extra half-turn before going into the spin. The class was also nice--kind of an adult power class, mostly focused on crossovers and stroking with uber-correct form.

I almost didn't go, because my back is hurting (as usual) and because I went in to the office and worked on data tables for the grant for seven hours yesterday, in addition to the preceding two weeks of 9-10 hour days and four extra hours last weekend, and I am tired. These data tables are going to run over 500 pages, which just seems insane to me. I've had a temp working on nothing but the largest of them for almost six weeks, and that one still isn't quite done. Ugh. At least it'll be over on May 20. And, you know, hopefully we get the renewal, since this is the grant that pays for my position... (Someone today said, "Ah, I see, you're writing your paycheck." Indeed.)

Having the busiest period of the year at work come in the last six weeks of winter really seems to accentuate the seasonal change. By February, everyone's sick of winter (especially this cold, bitter one), all the overtime/work stress is beating us all down down, and everything is generally miserable--and then suddenly I'm walking across campus and there's a hawthorn tree flowering, these white flowers all over what I swear were entirely bare branches the last time I saw it a few days ago, and it's like some fairy creature stepped through the veil and settled here for a while, it's so surprising and otherworldly. Spring! In this land of endless winter and misery!

I didn't stop in my tracks, but there was definitely a hitch in my step when I caught sight of it.

This tree prompted me to notice today that daffodils are blooming in tight little bunches at doorsteps and along sidewalks, down in the little hollows in the neighborhood yards that always have the first of a long parade of daffodils. I've also recently had to switch my alarm clock's alarm sound from birds tweeting to a generic (but thankfully not shrieky) musical tone, because the birds are starting up an hour or so before I normally rise, which leads me to think my alarm's going off. Spriiiiiiing.

And and and, as of today we are finally done with the Big Huge Federal Report that makes life a misery through February, not to mention the Big Annual Program Event and the Big Thrice-Yearly Workshop Events, all of which came within two weeks of each other, and it is as if the sun has come out! Birds are singing, warm breezes are blowing, college students are getting drunk and making embarrassing porn videos in Florida on spring break! (One of these things is not like the others...) I can catch up on non-essential work stuff! I can take a lunch break! Not that it won't still be busy, but it will be a manageable type of busy as opposed to chaos.

(I don't ultimately mind the work at this time of year--it is, after all, job security for the rest of the year, and I suppose it builds a certain kind of team spirit--but it would definitely be nice have it spread out instead of all bunched together. Federal deadlines being what they are, this is unlikely to ever happen.)

*

I haven't written much over the past couple of months because my brain's been too fried, but this weekend I AM going to plot out the next several scenes of the not!drawerfic and get started on them. I'm so close to at least joining up the ~80K chunk of continuous beginning and middle with the next few pieces of the middle I already have written, if not moving towards the end.

I did at least get some reading done over the past several weeks. Nothing really worth writing about here, but it was nice to do. Well, okay, one thing I did want to say was that I just finished The Goldfinch (Donna Tartt's newest) and thought it was great, but still a bit flawed. The rambling at the end needed to be cut down a lot. She approached Joycean--it was very reminiscent of the style of the ending to Portrait of the Artist, which is always a plus--but I rolled my eyes at some of it. That said, the book as a whole was intricately crafted and rich with interesting and well-realized characters, and despite myself I liked Theo a lot, so it was certainly worth reading.

Right now I'm finally reading Broken Homes, the latest Rivers of London novel. After that is Push Dick's Button, which is Dick Button's memoir and promises to be entertaining.

*

I voluntarily stepped onto a sheet of ice at 6:15 this morning so I could have a session to practice/warm up before my lesson at 7. How did this become my life?

It has been an unspeakably busy two weeks at work. A coworker was out suddenly, and I've been covering for her during an especially hectic time; website stuff has been ramping up; we had to make sweeping logistical changes to our biggest event of the year on basically no notice...let's just say I've been putting in a lot of overtime. (Even though I'm salaried, and overtime doesn't really mean anything.) I usually do a good job of leaving work at work (hell, that's one big reason I got out of academia proper), but I've been reading emails at night and thinking about work-related stuff during my off time because there's just so much going on it's impossible not to keep churning it over.

But one thing I like about skating is that there just isn't room for other thoughts when I'm doing it. I have to concentrate on each part of my body to make all but the simplest stuff work, and even with the simple stuff, proper technique is a never-ending battle requiring full concentration. Nothing can ever not be improved. So the rest of the clatter in my head gets put in a soundproof room at the bottom of the ocean from the moment I start lacing up my skates to the moment I get my rag out and start drying them off.

All of which is to say, I had an amazing class this morning. (Even though, thanks to hockey camp, it started at 8 AM on a Saturday.) I am, in fact, the only person in my class for this session, and from this I can see why private lessons are the preferred method of teaching. My technique on everything improved by leaps and bounds in just half an hour. I still have to do back crossovers the clunky way to pass my test, but they're so much more stable with just a subtle delay in the weight shift from foot to foot. My T-stops no longer make my braking foot cramp up because I'm trying so hard to stop on the wrong part of the blade, with my shoulders in the wrong position.

My instructor this time being of the USE YOUR WORDS school helped a lot with that too. She's also super perky and either completely sincere in her praise or one of the best actresses I've ever seen. She started to get apologetic for offering so many technical corrections until I mentioned that, having done dance for years, I got it and didn't take it personally. Then she was kind of like, "YES, someone who understands!" and we were off to the races. If I only get one class session where I'm the entire class, I'm glad it's with her.

Aside from technique improvements, she also started me on inside open mohawks, which are a kind of turn that changes feet and direction (forward to backward). The guy in that video is turning more than we were, as I think she's starting me out with a simplified version and he's doing the correct one. Right now, I'm basically skating forward on one foot, sticking my other foot down in fifth position, changing weight, and skating backward on the other foot. That sounds so much easier written out than it actually is to do.

After class, I went by the grocery store and bought plums and tea. Chocolate hazelnut tea, to be precise, which sounds delicious. I've had an excellent day so far, and it's only 10 AM! Now, back to writing. I'm at 62,000 words and some change on the not!drawerfic, I have clear ideas of what all the rest of the scenes in Part 2 need to do, and by god I'm going to make progress this weekend.


Subject line courtesy of this poem.

This week at work, I wandered around campus taking photos, designed some posters, and read and write a review of a book that is Relevant To My Interests both personally and professionally. Yep, my job is awesome.

*

I dug out my BSG season four soundtrack this week, and hearing "Laura Runs" in my car on the way to work instantly transported me back to my first semester teaching, when I played it non-stop in that same car on my way to campus at seven in the morning to psych myself up for getting in front of my students. (My teaching philosophy could in many ways be boiled down to "What Would Laura Roslin Do?" Except I couldn't implement a lot of what she would do because I had no airlocks.) It was a very engrossing sense memory, to the point where I could feel my hands getting sweaty and my heartbeat speeding up.

...I don't listen to that track in the car anymore.

*

I just found Fiona's stuffed squeaky owl in the kitchen sink. Apparently she somehow tossed it in there. I can't...I...I don't even know. This dog has superhuman (supercanine?) energy sometimes.

*

Now I will disappear back to the vidcave! Eventually to emerge with at least one and possibly two vids!

( Today's rainbow. )

My first day at my new job was busy, but fun and interesting. I got to design a poster! And I'll get to write things soon!

As I was walking up to the office in the morning, I ran into a girl I went to high school with. She does my exact same job in a different department. Small world, etc.

I owe people e-mails, and I'll get to them soon, I swear. Perhaps this weekend. Or once I figure out a shorter way home. (440 at 5:30? Not a good idea.)

So many times this week, I've opened the LJ update window, started to type something, and given it up as boring to everyone who has the misfortune to read it. But what the hell; tonight I'm going to put all those half-started entries into one and throw it out there. Beware.

*

This morning, my mother and I had the following conversation, paraphrased:

MOM: Argh, why are you always wearing white socks with your work clothes?
ME: *takes off shoe and wiggles bare foot*
MOM: OMG, those are your feet?! [perhaps with fewer internet acronyms and excessive punctuation]

Heh. And now I have proved my point that white socks or tights are actually at least as close, if not closer, to my natural skin tone than tan hose are. I WIN AT PALENESS. (Excepting for the albinos out there, I guess.)

*

I have to teach my team how to interpret specifications tomorrow at work. Fun times! My tack is essentially going to be, "See these ten pages? All they're doing is saying, 'We need elevation drawings and wiring diagrams. Oh, and some info on how to install and maintain this equipment we just bought would be good too, kthxbai.'"

Actually, reading through specs might be one of the more enjoyable parts of my job. The flippancy above aside, it probably is the most challenging aspect, often they do want weird things that, okay, most of the time we can provide, haha. The project managers have to figure out how to provide it. I'm glad I don't have their job.

*

I meant to talk earlier about my trip to UT last Friday, but never quite got around to it. In short, my impressions were: concrete, construction, and orange.

Heh. Okay, seriously, UT has a perfectly pleasant campus. It's smaller than I expected, actually, although I probably didn't see all of it. I of course chose to visit during their spring break, so NOTHING was open, which was a bit unfortunate, but I did get something of a sense of the campus, anyway. Knoxville was bigger than I thought it was, too; I had thought it was the same size as Chattanooga, but no. Not really. Uh, sorry Knoxvegans? (BTW, is TN the only place that turns placenames ending in "ville" into "vegas" with creeping regularity? I can't think of another state where cities have that done to their names, although I'm betting there's an Ashevegas in North Carolina. Hmmm.)

Pictures soon. Really.

*

I've recently been reading a lot of Richard Russo. Three novels, in particular (Empire Falls, Bridge of Sighs, and Straight Man), which all pretty much tell the same story about the same characters in the same town, with all the names changed. And really, that's been okay, because Russo tells this one story very, very well. And let's face it, I eat up quirky, darkly mysterious stories set in small towns with a giant spoon, so this fills my need nicely.

However, I would say he needs to change a few more details than he has been--one that comes to mind is that EF and BoS both are set in a town with a dying or dead factory which, in times past, used to dump dye-filled runoff into the town river, and you could tell what day of the week it was by what color the river ran. That's such a fantastic (if cancerous) image, and it really sticks with you. Perhaps one ought not to use it twice in two books published over a span of seven years. Another repeated detail is that in EF and SM, there's a tragicomic sad old man character who (usually when drunk) continually refers to the main character as a "peckerwood" in an ambiguously agressive/possibly joking way.

I feel like I'm damning with faint praise, but really, all three books are very good. Straight Man is by far the funniest, and involves academia, which is always a plus. Bridge of Sighs seems to be the most well-done, probably because it's the most recent. Empire Falls was the one that won the Pulitzer, though.

*

New BSG next Friday! Woot!

I did my first international project yesterday at work--for some kind of plant in British Columbia. Earlier in the week, I did a job for someplace in Washington called "Benton County."

I take my lols where I can get them, folks.

*

Download the track in my music field for free. Because Paste Magazine is awesome.

So, today I topped my previous record by compiling a 652-page package. For those of you keeping score, given that they wanted 16 copies of it, that works out to 10,432 pages, or 13% of the average pine tree.

Yeah, when I take that down tomorrow, the people in the print room are going to hate me.

*

We watched Night at the Museum tonight. The story was shamelessly sentimental and therefore lame, but, you know...it would take a whole, whole lot to ruin the innate awesomeness of museum exhibits coming to life every night*, and this didn't even come close. T. Rex running around after a bone...Teddy Roosevelt riding through the halls...wild animals parading by...Attila the Hun attacking people....the miniature diorama figures getting up to mischief... Dude, if nothing else, it was totally worth it for the miniature cowboy and Roman centurion driving around in a remote-controlled car, yo. If they ever make a sequel about the miniatures, I will be there with bells on.

(Okay, the monkey stealing the plastic keys was pretty funny too.)

And if there aren't at least 1.3 million Jed/Octavius fics out there on the internet, then fandom is not the beast I thought she was. ;)


* I perhaps watched a lot of Today's Special at an impressionable age.

You know, I never realized this, having only read Fahrenheit 451 around age twelve and The Illustrated Man not long after, but Ray Bradbury seems to be one of the comparatively few writers who deserves his reputation. I just finished Something Wicked This Way Comes, and the writing in it so evocative of autumn that I wondered if I hadn't suddenly time traveled to October. Of course, the conclusion left something to be desired--hugging the bad guy to death generally does--but it was a story more about the protagonists discovering themselves than of good guys vs. bad, so I'll give it a pass. Most of the things I read last week in the Golden Apples of the Sun collection of short stories were quite good as well. Mmmm, descriptions.

I checked out Dandelion Wine from the library as well, but I'm breaking up the Bradbury deluge with the new collected stories of Roald Dahl. I had no idea he also wrote for adults. So far, there seems to be a big focus on WWII RAF pilots, but then again, I'm only two stories in.

Last week I got about three-quarters of the way through A.S. Byatt's The Virgin in the Garden before giving up. Not-so-coincidentally, it was about that point in the book that I realized all of the buildup was not actually going to lead anywhere, or at least anywhere I wanted to go. I only have forty pages left so I may finish it, but probably not. *sigh* I enjoyed Possession so much! Why hasn't any of her other stuff been as good?

In other news, in the Fraser and Thatcher go to the Yukon fic (henceforth abbreviated F&TGttY, or perhaps just "Yukon fic"), they've made it through the first day and are now sharing a tent very, very awkwardly. (I think the reason I enjoy this pairing so much is because there is so much potential for awkwardness, which of course means FUNNY.) I've got a scene from the Cupid/dS crossover which, if I ever get a couple lines of dialogue right, I may post here since I'll likely never actually finish the whole thing to whet the appetites of whomever might actually read it.

And finally, today one of the job-checkers characterized my rate of getting jobs done as "rockin'," complete with the emphasis. That was rather nice, especially coming after I had to do a monstruously quick turn-around on some fairly major revisions to a job, and so was feeling a bit murderous stressed.