Excitement!

Obama is having his election party at Grant Park in Chicago, and me and my good friend, Cyd, will be there!!!! She’s flying in from Boston, and I’m taking the train from Springfield! Hotel is booked, tickets are bought! Woohooo!!

Found:
1 house in Illinois
in suburbia (I’ve come to terms with this)
with an office of my own (lava lamps, incense, bonsai trees, tie dye futon)
with space for guests (visit! visit!)
with a yard meant for a dog
with a lease agreement allowing me one dog
All thanks to DS, who did the heavy lifting,
while I kicked back with sparring cats in Ohio

driftwood

I feel unmoored these days. I have major projects to work on: a collection of thesis essays and finding a full-time job. Yet I Can. Not. Focus. I’m experiencing nearly debilitating bouts of wanderlust, but I leave for Texas and Mexico soon, so perhaps that will satisfy the lust for a while. The idea of a full-time office job makes me want to gouge my eyes. Ideally, I’d like a job that is partly in the office and partly working hands-on out in the world. I went to lunch last week with with my boss and one of the center’s field researchers. The field researcher told me I could go out with him and the others to the Everglades to help them/observe them do their work, so I’m looking forward to taking advantage of this offer. As I mentioned in the last post, I’m studying Buddhism more seriously than I have in a long time. I find it helps me when I’m feeling lost. I’ve been reading a lot of Brevity magazine because I’m thinking of taking my thesis in the direction of short essays. We’ll see how that goes.

The Beatles always cheer me.
“Some kind of solitude is measured out in you. You think you know me, but you haven’t got a clue.”

Don’t get sentimental

Working, working, working. Reading about Buddhism, and the history of Mexico. Having nightmares about Cortés. Trying to write and not getting much done. Getting ready to say goodbye to one of my very favorite workers at the center (one of my favorite people!). Much sadder about this than I anticipated. Sad in that selfish, childish, kicking my feet on the ground, “I don’t want my friend to leave,” kind of way. Trying to remember all things that have a beginning, have an ending. Trying not to get sentimental. (It always ends up drivel)

A song I love:

Transport, motorways and tramlines
Starting and then stopping
Taking off and landing
The emptiest of feelings
Disappointed people clinging on to bottles
And when it comes it’s so so disappointing

Let down and hanging around
Crushed like a bug in the ground
Let down and hanging around

Shell smashed, juices flowing
Wings twitch, legs are going
Don’t get sentimental
It always ends up drivel

One day I’m going to grow wings
A chemical reaction
Hysterical and useless
Hysterical and …

Let down and hanging around
Crushed like a bug in the ground
Let down and hanging around

Let down again
Let down again
Let down again

You know, you know where you are with
You know where you are with
Floor collapsing
Floating, bouncing back
And one day….
I am going to grow wings
A chemical reaction
Hysterical and useless
Hysterical and…

Let down and hanging around
Crushed like a bug in the ground
Let down and hanging around
-Radiohead

I’m a loser, baby

I can’t take any more rejection. I’ve become weak over the past three years; my skin has thinned. I received word today that a job I really wanted was filled, and it wasn’t filled by me. I was contacted last week about a part-time job near my home that would have been really great, but I haven’t heard back from the guy since he said he would be in touch for an interview. I didn’t get selected to be in a music video that’s scheduled to be recorded in the area. Granted, I didn’t seriously expect to get selected, but because of all the other recent rejections, this isn’t helping matters. (And I only tried to get selected because of the band involved, not because I have any interest to be in music videos.) (And the band was looking for “average people,” so I thought I would give it a shot). I haven’t heard back from a non-profit organization regarding a job that I would be perfect for. Granted, I just sent in my application last night at 9pm, but they had all day today to look at it, and I was sure once they did, they would call me up and offer me the position. My husband calls me delusional, but he says it with love. I was at work in the office when I received the email about the job I applied for being filled, and it kicked me in the gut. I left a little early. I needed to come home, eat pizza, and lament my loser status to DS.

What’s more, my laugh lines are visible even when I’m not laughing. I don’t know if I’m more perplexed by their existence, or by my concern with their existence. I never thought such things would bother me, and I don’t know that I’m really “bothered” by them, but I do find myself sucking my lips inwards–pulling the skin around my mouth taut–in hopes of somehow ironing out a life time of smiling. Recently, I read a profile on Michelle Obama in the New Yorker. The reporter observed Michelle Obama did not smile easily…she did not “smile as a way to break the ice.” That’s what I do! I thought to myself. I smile to break ice. I smile for just about any reason under the sun, and I’m sure I come across like a smiling fool to a lot of people (I can’t help but think of the Pink Floyd line “fearlessly the idiot faced the crowd, smiling.”).  And now my skin shows the signs of too much smiling.  Ah, well.

On an up note: I’m really (really) digging the Anthony Burgess book. And I don’t have to commute to Boca for a while, which should have me singing from the rafters. I guess I’ll keep plugging away at the job applications. Something is bound to turn up sooner or later, right?

Soy un perdedor