There goes the neighborhood
I wonder how long NE Alberta will stay artsy and independent, now that the NY Times has profiled it?
It’s been a good couple of days.
I got my first paycheck from Vision 21 (my first environmental job). The UK Department of Inland Revenue gave me an unexpected tax rebate (I’ve been on an “emergency tax code” for the last couple of months, since starting work at Clarks) which basically doubled my paycheck from Clarks this month. This morning, the UK Border Agency decided to give me back my passport, after holding onto it for almost four months. Better still, they gave it back with a new visa in it - Indefinite Leave to Remain! I am officially settled in the UK!
Even better, despite me being an idiot and swanning off this morning, leaving my keys dangling prominently in the front door’s lock for, oh, six hours, no one decided to walk off with any of our things.
Next concert, etc.
Last week, the Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra had its first rehearsal of the new year. We played through Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2, my favorite piece of music in the whole, wide world. It was marvelous, and quite difficult in parts, and I’m so very glad that we’re playing it! :-)
My most recent three books completed: Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi; TI, the Transistor and Me, by Ed Millis; The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I was very glad to have read the Fitzgerald so recently when reading the Nafisi, because a large portion of the book is wound around reading The Great Gatsby, and it meant that I could understand the references. Plus, I just really enjoyed reading it; that was a bonus, given that I hadn’t terribly liked it when we read it back in 10th grade.
Also last week: I turned in my first grad school application. I ended up deciding to apply for only two schools, because the other ones were “backup” schools that I didn’t really want to go to, in the end. So why waste the application fee? This application was for Tufts’ Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning programme. Due on February 2nd is the application for Bard College’s M.S. in Environmental Policy. The personal statements couldn’t be more different - Tufts wanted fewer than five pages, Bard wants fewer than 600 words. Truthfully, I think the Bard one is going to be more difficult!
Anything else? I have new glasses, I still haven’t started training for the marathon that’s happening in early April, I’m finally over my month-long cold+sinusitis combination, and I’m currently plowing through Nicholas Ostler’s Empires of the Word. Thus far, it’s a bit dry, a bit shallow (despite being nearly 600 pages long, and I’m not entirely sure of the strength of his arguments, but, then again, I’m only seventy pages into it. We’ll see.
Happy new year!
I’ve had a very good month or so, despite having had a cold continuously for nearly all that time.
Mom and Graham came to visit for Christmas. We spent a couple of days in London immediately upon their arrival, then went up to Birmingham to see John Barrowman in the “Robin Hood” pantomime. It was amazing - more like a West End production than I had expected. There were songs, dancing, lots of costume changes, a “robot” and ice skating. Truly, ice skating - on stage. I have to admit that I don’t really understand WHY there was ice skating, but there was. I think perhaps it was the kitchen sink school of panto production.
We had lovely Christmas at home, very low-key. I worked a few days leading up to it - they were manic - but then was able to get an extended period of time off. All four of us went down to Somerset to visit Angus’ mom on Boxing Day. That Saturday, we went to Wells Cathedral - beautiful - and we went back to Gloucester on Sunday via Stonehenge, for my brother. Monday we went to Cardiff, got to see the silver tower from “Torchwood”, and Tuesday morning Mom and Graham went back to Texas.
New Year’s Eve was very quiet, just me and Angus. In fact, we were asleep long before midnight, although the fireworks and a call from his mom ensured that we were awake at midnight. After a couple of days of work, we’ve just passed a fairly relaxing weekend, although my grad school procrastination has finally caught up to me. Applications for three of my four schools are due on the 15th, which… actually, isn’t as soon as I had thought. I had it stuck in my head that this coming weekend was the 13th and 14th, and that therefore applications were due this coming Monday, which, given that we have guests coming this weekend, would have made it close. Thursday is better. I’m still going to mail my supplemental Tufts material tomorrow, so it gets there in plenty of time, but that’s a little better.
Now for the really exciting - for me - news: I have a job in the environmental sector!!! Vision 21, the non-profit in Cheltenham that I’ve been volunteering at for almost a year now, has offered me two days a week (paid) as a fundraising officer. This is exactly what I was hoping for! Fundraising is a crucial part of any non-profit’s activities, and Vision 21 is giving me the opportunity to gain experience. Given that it’s usually the cycle of “no experience, no job; no job, no experience,” this is a huge break for me. And there’s the possibility that it might go up to four days a week, though I’m not holding my breath. In any case, this is my first, paid job in the field that I want to go into, the first step of my career! Huzzah!
Merry Christmas, everyone!
As I sit here, desperately ordering the last few Christmas gifts (thank goodness for Amazon), I can see the first kid out in the street, trying out his new toy, a hinged skateboard. It’s pretty funny - he definitely is going to take some time to get used to it. And that reminds me what Christmas is all about - laughing at others!
No, really. Christmas is, for me at least, about remembering how lucky I am to have so many wonderful people in my life. Chances are pretty good (my readership being what it is) that if you read this blog on a regular basis, you are one of those people. So I just want to say, thank you - all of you - for filling my life with such love and joy. I truly do love every one of you.
Okay, enough sappiness. Time to go eat some food and open some presents - the second- and third-most important aspects of Christmas!
‘Tis the season for reminiscing…
Ah, memories.
Still a ways to go…
Update
I know I haven’t posted in quite a while. Partially that has been leftover blah-ness from the funk detailed in my last posting. More of the silence can be attributed to starting a new job, putting together a Thanksgiving dinner for about twenty people, the occasional work on grad school applications (not as much as I should do, I know), and getting geared up for the frenzy of Christmas, with decorations and visits and parties and concerts.
I’m doing better, funk-wise. I’m actively working on it, which is something. There’s still a lot to overcome, some of which I’m not sure is a question of “overcoming,” but just getting used to - being an expat, for instance. (You’d think I’d have gotten used to that by now, wouldn’t you?)
On the upside, the Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra has finished the concert that I disliked (Benjamin Britten’s War Reqiuem) and is about to give one that I LOVE the music for (Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Mussorgsky). I have a job - at a shoe store, but hey, it’s money, and they’re being really understanding about Christmas hours. And Mom and Graham are coming to visit! Huzzah! They arrive a week on Thursday. A and I will head down to London the night before, where I’ve gotten us tickets to go see the Royal Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker.” (I’m really, really looking forward to it - “The Nutcracker” was a much-loved childhood tradition for me.) Then we pick Mom and Graham up at Heathrow Thursday morning. We’ll have a couple of days in London; we’re staying at a hotel on Portobello Road (“Street where the riches of ages are stowed…”), and we’ll just enjoy the hustle-bustle of London. On Saturday, we leave London and drive straight to Birmingham, to meet up with some friends and go to a matinee performance of the pantomime “Robin Hood,” starring dear ol’ Captain Jack. Christmas is at our house, but we’ll head down to Somerset and A’s mum’s place for Boxing Day. Then Mom and Graham go back to the States on the 30th. Unfortunately, I do have to work over the Christmas period, but given that I’m only working 16 hours per week, it’s not critical.
We decorated our tree last night, and have put up some other decorations. The house still needs top-to-bottom cleaning, but that will get done. I’m keeping up with applying for other jobs, and will be sending in at least three, probably four grad school applications shortly. Just have to write the personal statements. (I hate writing personal statements, so I procrastinate.) Even if I don’t get in this year, well, I’ll apply again next year, hopefully with more experience under my belt. ::shrug::
Other than all that, I’ve been reading a lot. Last week I plowed through the four books that are out in a series by Naomi Novik, the first book of which is titled “Temeraire.” Dragons and the Napoleonic Wars. Not High Literature, but fun nonetheless. Now I’m reading “The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters,” and after I finish this, it’ll be time for “The Grapes of Wrath.” I read “Ivanhoe” before the Novik series and liked it very much. And, just as a note, in early November 2007 I started keeping track of the books I read and when I finished them. In a year, I read 72 books. Some were re-reads - LOTR, “Pride and Prejudice,” etc. But I also managed to read a lot of new ones, and it’s neat to be able to see all the different subjects!
Funk
::sigh:: Of late, I don’t seem to have any spark at all. It’s been beautiful, autumnal weather, with golden leaves and blue skies and all that jazz - the best of my favorite season - and I can’t really engage with any of it. All that would be bad enough, but to add another problem, I have absolutely NO enthusiasm for trying to write grad school personal statements. I don’t even have much of an enthusiasm for the idea of grad school - or anything - which is not ideal for writing a “why ______ (fill in the school)?” statement.
YYYYYYEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!
What lovely news to wake up to. :-)
Unbelievable
Frankly, I find it a bit unsettling, given the global financial worries of the past few months, that my American bank has increased the credit line on my credit card twice in as many weeks, up to $4,500. It doesn’t seem to send the right signal, to my mind. Surely the banks should be encouraging people to live more within their means, rather than less so.
::laughter::
Whilst walking back to the house a few minutes ago, I came across a couple of boys (about 11 or 12 years of age), one of whom was crouched down (Boy 1), about to do something to the tire of someone’s car, the other who was watching (Boy 2). After the watching one communicated to the crouching one that someone was coming, and after crouching one had sprung up with a guilty smile, I had a laughing conversation which went something like this:
Me: “Whatever it is you were about to do, it’s probably not a very good idea.”
Boy 1: “But we’re boys! We have to do things like this!”
Boy 2 (quietly): “Yeah!”
Me: “Just because you’re boys, you want to do something stupid?”
Boy 2 (quietly): “No…”
Boy 1: “But we’re kids! We can’t go to prison!”
Me: “But you can go to juvie…”
Both boys (eyes wide): “What’s that?”
Me: “That’s what it’s called in the States, but I know that you have it over here, too. It’s a place where they can lock you up if you’re under 18, like prison, only not with adults.”
Both boys (eyes wide): “Ohhhh…”
A vote for what I want
I’ve just completed and am going to go post my absentee ballot. I voted for Nader.
In the end, I believe that, for a democracy to be a true democracy, voters should feel that they can vote for what they truly want, rather than tactically (i.e. rather than voting against what they don’t want). I don’t want McCain and Palin to win. But I agree, overall, more with Nader and Gonzalez than with Obama and Biden. I have no illusions that Nader can win, but I still want to vote for what I want.
Wow
There’s a woman outside the front of the house yelling at her kid(s) in *exactly* the same accent as Eliza Doolittle has at the beginning of “My Fair Lady”. Only roughened some by age/drink/smoking (I don’t know which - can’t see the woman).
::smile::
Saint-Saens’ Symphony No. 3 is a wonderful piece to listen to whilst filling in letter of recommendation forms for graduate schools. Very cheering and encouraging. (For those who don’t know it by that title, the theme from the final movement was used as the main soundtrack melody for the film “Babe”. If that helps.)
Archives >>