Is all this REALLY necessary?

Although I'm certain I come across something personally appalling and quite ridiculous on a daily basis, (and yet somehow still consider myself to be quite content and pleasant most of the time). Today I just have to ask, is it REALLY so necessary to use APA? Do colleges not realize that we've spent the last four-ten years trying to grasp standard MLA, and then one day you enroll in an education, psychology or business class and "WHAM!" they throw this at you. There are reasons people come and give special presentations and spend countless hours learning the senseless details to APA format. The education professor is not going to teach you every detail, she has recruted an APA "Specialist" and will give you a forty page example merely trying to explain the format, heading and even style requirements for beloved APA.

And, perhaps this is also why my high school teachers chose not to mess with it!

Yet, despite my grumbling, I'm grateful I spent a semester trying to learn it. At least it's not too hard to recall now that I'm proof-reading my husband's paper.

It's strange how even the little things come full-circle.

The first of many endeavors for 2009

So, I've started something of a little book club. Some days I'm not sure I'm exactly the kind of person that I'd want leading a book club, but selfishly I need some deadlines or else I will read the first 50 pages of every book in the book store (well, almost). Strangely, it doesn't really matter how well I like a book, I can always walk away from it. Book number one: The Shack by William P. Young was our first endeavor. There was a lot I liked about the book, yet I'm not entirely thrilled with their push for people to talk about it, blog about it and tell everyone they know in every form of media how great it is. I personally loved it, and that's about all I'm going to say about it here. Next on the list--- Boundaries by Cloud and Townsend. I've owned this book for a while and am excited to be reading it more thoroughly this time through. After we make it through the Boundaries book the next book to make it on the list is The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Since this book is over 500 pages, I've gotten a small head start on it and so far... I'm pretty psyched about it. The ridiculous part is---I think this a book that I would get so much more out of if I were forced to write a paper. The things I miss about college. Sigh.

And, actually, that's the end of the list. What's embarrassing is that, although I suggested the first book, I have yet to commit a work to the list for this year. Yikes! Should I look for a classic I've always wanted to read, one I've already read that I would like to skim and discuss more thoroughly, a hot new read, one already endorsed by some famous person/show etc., one with "book club" discussion questions in the back??? Presently, there are so many books on my list I do not see how I could single one lonely novel out. What about the rest? When can it be their turn? Perhaps I will pick out three and the "club" can decide the fate of my book-reading future.

Ultimately no one's losing. I'm back to reading, and perhaps I'll find myself thinking or even blogging with purpose once again. Reading's a good enough start for me.

Yes, I beleive I did, in fact, fall of the face of the earth

I wish I had a great post, or felt that I could promise one to come... but sorry folks, I don't think so.

I do have a random funny moment I could share so that you might not feel as though you wasted your precious time checking in...

A friend from high school has, for her facebook profile, a picture of herself eating some cotton candy. Elseigh sees it and says "mom, what is she sucking?" I say "Oh, she's eating cotton candy, not sucking on anything." Her response--"Oh, I thought she was sucking on a diaper." (It was the light blue kind of cotton candy, by the way).

Laugh on.

Check it out!

I have to admit that, the first time I'd ever heard of the deep-fried twinkie, I was a bit shocked. Although I haven't tried one, I have an idea of why they are supposedly so great. And I also realize that deep-fried anything may not be a bad idea. But THIS, this is an entirely different matter.

Because I'm not entirely sure how to politely give credit where credit is due, I'm simply going to create a link for you to go directly over to a local Wichitan's blog. Let's just say, that if you ever have chocolate cravings, this will make you look at it in a whole knew way! Click here and let me know what you think!(Phew! I nearly forgot how to create a link!)

On the Hunt

There are reasons people work for the same company year after year, pushing papers in a job they hate. I suspect that one of those reasons is the fact that they know things really could be worse. They could be out looking for a job.

Now don't think that I'm trying to throw myself a giant pity party, I realize job searching isn't literally the worst thing in the world, at least, not yet. The process that was so seemingly simple in the table-waiting, burger-flipping side of the world, turns into a tangled mess of presumptions and questions: to call or not to call? to take an interview for a job on the bottom of the list? when to stop listing previous employers? required salary? who to ask for references? how to put on your best commercial at the interview?

Ugh. I dread the interview. I've honestly become quite skilled at interviewing---in my mind. Yet somehow, the live event never comes out so smoothly. You're supposed to sound too good to be true? Here's the part I just cannot wrap my brain around: I don't like marketing, I don't like scams, I'm just an honest girl trying to find an honest job with an honest company, why do you want me to pretend I'm better than sliced bread or a miracle working infomercial host? I think I'm exactly what you're looking for, I think I can do this job phenomenally, otherwise I would not have wasted your time applying! I'm not here to sing and dance, so please make up your mind and tell me what I don't have that another client does or that I'm your first candidate. If your turnover rate is high, tell me that, and I'll admit that my family comes first. If I come to the interview and I play the "what you see is what you get" card, you'll think I'm lazy and that I do not care about the position. If I sell myself too well, you'll think I'm a liar. I'm convinced you might think I'm a liar no matter how I sing and dance for you. I'm slowly learning that a large percentage of the world does not expect brutal honesty, at least not when money is involved. I'd like the job, please give it to me. Let's just try this for a month, that will work just fine, this isn't a marriage proposal. The pretentiousness of the job hunt is what I hate. We both know that I'm not perfect and the people I may soon be working for are not either. But instead of being honest about it, let's play a game--- and meanwhilte, we can all think of how great it was that time that our friend's uncle's brother's son just gave us that job/internship/gig. Sigh.

For now I will just keep hoping and praying that the perfect job will fall into my lap without losing too much sleep over it. Oh, and it would be nice if it was the first and only one I stumbled upon... but we're already past that point.

And for now, I'm grateful for the seat-warming, phone-answering job I do have; for these last two days.

one more thing.

Okay I lied, I have two things to note here.

From what I saw on all those "other" blogs, it didn't look like anyone was reading their posts, either. Phew. I can almost convince myself this really is an electronic journal!

And the other thing: we really need a camera.

utilizing brief periods of downtime

Over the last few weeks, while attempting to "work" (I am technically still working, since this "job" consists mainly of scanning volumes upon vloumes of journals into a computer, which involves a considerable amount of 15-20 second intervals of down time) I've come across some pretty terrific blogs. Unfortunately, I probably couldn't tell you their names/addresses or how I came across them. So many of them are beautiful poetic, and in languages I can't even identify. But you know what I realized was so great about the majority of them? The fact that they were sharing some of the most basic things about their life. It has just occurred to me that this ties into some of my thoughts more recently about how important relationships and connections are between people. Hmph.

On that note, instead of trying to say something profound, I think I'd rather share something a little more basic.

During the months of May and June, I did very little running (when I say run/running, it will always mean jog/jogging). Because of this, my feet did not hurt. And since my feet did not hurt, I started wearing traditional summer shoes: sandals, flip-flops, I even sported the occassional nude foot from time to time. What I did not realize, was that it would only take a few short runs to make me very sorry for not sporting my frumpy orthotics. After my 3-mile route this morning, I put my running shoes back on immediately.

And guess what I learned from google today? They actually make sandals I can use with my orthotics. And they don't even look like something my grandma used to wear!

Hooray.