Freakishness

How crazy is this... every week I look forward to the weekend, even though I usually don't have much planned. This weekend we're flying to Florida and I'm taking a week off work. I should be counting down the days, hoping the weekend will come as soon as possible.

But, no. I have so much work left to do this week that I literally wish today was Wednesday instead of Thursday.

What the heck is wrong with me?!

What I would do if I lost my job

My company is in the midst of bargaining with our union right now. They want something like the equivalent of 24 low seniority jobs.

The company is not doing well. Blame the economy. Blame the Internet. Blame Craigslist. I see light at the end of the tunnel, but it's a long, dark tunnel and everyone will suffer.

After my employee review last week I feel a little more confident than I would otherwise at this point. My boss told me he will do everything he can to keep me. I hope that will be enough.

But this dire, nervous situation is making me reflect on my young career and what I would do if I were to lose my job.

First off, I would get a job waitressing while I looked for a new job. Ever since age 4 I have dreamed of being a waitress, and the closest this dream has come to fruition was when I was a barista at Applause coffeehouse. I still harbor a secret longing for this career path and I don't think it's too late to pursue it temporarily.

I would keep my cooking blog going on a new domain. I would drum up advertising for it and market it hardcore to try to make some extra dough.

I would finally start up my greeting card business that has been in the back of my mind since high school. I would start selling on Etsy and local craft fairs.

All the while I would apply for marketing and advertising jobs. If, by any slim chance, there were any newspaper jobs out there, I would definitely apply for those too, but if I can't have a job at a newspaper I'm not sure I want a job in journalism at all. Weird and harsh, but my passion truly is for newspapers.

Although I really have no advertising experience, I think my skills would translate well to that field.

And if there was no hope for finding a job, I wouldn't mind going back to school. I have no idea what I'd study - more journalism? More Spanish? Law? Advertising? Graphic design?

At some point later in life, but probably not right now, I would love to be a teacher.

But as exciting as all those opportunities sound, I am happy at my job and I think I have a lot of growing to do there. I would hate to end my affair with newspapers so soon, especially when I have such hope for their future.

I love spam

Bah-diddly-ha!

Just got this awesome e-mail, addressed to "recipients:"

Hello,
hey where have you been recently ? I did not get any mail from you for a long time. Anyway, I found a very quality online pharmacy. I ordered some meds and I got them in 3 days. I remember last time you were asking for a cheap and quality pharmacy.here it is :

Then they post their URL. Lame-o. You may have fooled me for about .00004 seconds, but into the junk folder you go. Click.

Oatmeal update

I tried Strawberry Cream -- it needs some sugar.

Oatmeal treats

I bought a large container of plain old-fashioned oats earlier this week and ever since then I've been jumping at every opportunity to have a bowl and try new combinations of add-ins. Here are the one's I've tried (all include oats and flax seed):

Mixed Berry
Brown sugar, frozen strawberries, blueberries and blackberries, topped with vanilla yogurt.

Cinnamon Raisin
Brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins.

Apple Pie
Cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, diced apples, topped with vanilla yogurt.

Here are some I've concocted in my head and am looking forward to trying:

Strawberries & Cream
Sliced fresh strawberries, milk, topped with vanilla yogurt.

Bananas & Cream
Sliced banana, milk, topped with vanilla yogurt.

Apple Walnut
Diced apples, chopped walnuts, brown sugar.

So far my favorite was the mixed berry. Adding a few spoonfuls of vanilla yogurt to the oatmeal really ramps up the flavor and cools it down if it's too hot.

I love the New Berlin library, but...

They sent me this in the mail the other day:

I didn't know they even made this type of crazy carbon paper any more.

And yes, I paid my $0.70 fine (one good thing about staying in the dark ages).

The Post-Birthday World

My bag was a lot lighter today.

That's because I stopped lugging around The Post-Birthday World - the 515-page book I've been reading for the past month.

I finished it last night. And of course I cried hysterically (like I do at the end of every book, it seems).

This book was chosen as the first book of the book club I joined last month. I have to admit, I was a bit resentful at first, with it being the shortest month of the year and the book being so freakin' long.

And it took me a little while to get into it. It wasn't a light read at first. It's set in London so the Brit-speak slowed me down. So did the slow start in general.

It gradually picked up though, and thankfully my book club decided to postpone our meeting a week, so by last night I was flying through the last chapters and loving it.

As a general rule, I do not read the backs of books I'm reading. I don't read summaries online. They usually give away too much in the interest of hooking you.

This book was more intriguing because I didn't read the summary on the inside of the cover. It confused me for a chapter or two before I picked up on the fact that this book simultaneously explores two possible ways the protagonist's life could have turned based on a decision she makes at one moment in time: to kiss or not to kiss.

I hate infidelity as a rule. I hate break-ups and divorce too. And those biases made me hate parts of the first half of the book.

But the characters are so complex and so well-developed that it's hard to take sides as the plot progresses. You see each character's strengths and weaknesses. They were real people - it was impossible to entirely love one and hate another because people are not black and white like that.

I found the theme throughout quite agreeable - that there is no such thing as the perfect life, that one decision may change the course of your life but things generally even out in the end. There are good times and bad, and if you're smart you'll cherish them and learn from the ones you don't.

The ending was satisfyingly ambiguous. And all throughout I was marveling at the clever storytelling techniques and details used by the author, Lionel Shriver.

And of course, the telltale sign of a book well-enjoyed by me: the tears marring the last 20 pages.

I will probably write more after my book club discusses it. But if you can survive the first quarter to third of the book then I think you'd enjoy it. (You, being the ambiguous you of the Internet.)