giovedì, dicembre 14, 2006

Old Person River, He/She Just Keeps Rolling Along

Yesterday's workshop was so lousy on top of more or less zero sleep the night before that I tried to drown myself in a glass of water. I made the effort while the seminar leader tried to inform us "between" and "among" were the same thing, except "among" was for more than two (ex. "There was enmity between Livia Augusta and Tiberius" and, uh, "There was enmity among Livia Augusta, Tiberius, and Agrippinilla.")

We also 'learned' that while sexist language is unacceptable (ex. "If someone knocks, let him in") the natural migration of the third person plural to third person singular neutral (ex. "If someone knocks, let them in") is not yet acceptable English, so we should construct unnatural and silly sentences to get around the whole fucker (ex. "Let in those who knock.")

Fuck, man.

Besides the people from my office, with whom I had a bit of a laugh, I wanted to murder everyone there, especially this dick of a woman who kept using the word "oftentimes". What sort of piece of shit word is that. I think it's replaced "orientated" as the thing I hate the most about the English language.

Anyways, I went home early, had a good long nap, and thought about what I want from life exactly. The upshot is I'll go back to English teaching if I need to, and I won't complain for months. I liked it more than I like being a media/ad dollars prostitute/pimp and it's the only job I've ever had wherein I made a decent living working the 20 hours a week that let me write at will, and write fiction.

The truth is the apex of frustration I hit yesterday drove home to me that there are many things in my life that are not satisfying my essentially modest demands, and while I can't fix everything I can sure as fuck fix my time distribution and profession. I have to say there's a temptation to just scarper altogether right now. I don't think I can - as much as I need to take back control of my life I also need to go to see Elvis, and I need to get a bridesmaid dress for the wedding of the century, I need to max out the RRSPs before I leave, and many such things. But even thinking of scarpering right now makes the world that little bit more engaging.

Off to work.

12 commenti:

Melbine ha detto...

Having a plan for the eventual shift of gears in your life makes not being there yet much more bearable! I can't imagine how you feel as I'm very content right now and yet I still want things to be different. Sigh. Always wanting more...

Does your company help top up on RRSPs? Krazy's company does that too, in lieu of a pension essentially. It's been working out great, but he knows lots of people that don't take advantage of this from the company. He contributes the max to get the max contribution from them. It's free money!

Yes, get your dress soon. I got an email from the online company that they'd be mailing my dress at the end of March! Maybe it will be less time with stores..je ne sais quoi!

Finally, that seminar sounded like hell on earth.

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

I'm going to a store - I can't trust mail order because I feel the shape of my body is too amusing. I'll do it on my days off next week.

My company matches RRSP contributions up to a percentage of our salary - a small one that I have matched and supassed a long time ago. Every little bit helps and if there's one thing I love, it's free money.

Sugarplum ha detto...

I'm with you. For me the wedding is the beginning of a new era. Not just because I am getting married but because my fiance will graduate and we will move to Toronto or somewhere near there. I have started looking and there are so many jobs in publishing in Toronto that I shouldn't have any trouble finding a meaningful job that is far more rewarding than data entry. The catch is that the faster I data entry, the faster I end up with nothing to do and that leads to no job unless my boss surprises me and has something in mind. Well, I'm going to go make coffee. Making coffee is work, isn't it? It is what people do at work when there is no coffee.

And I am touched that you refer to my wedding as the wedding of the century. You're getting me excited! Now go buy that dress!

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

Artemis is in some sort of publishing, and while I don't think her field and yours are the same she might be able to suggest tradeshows or HR resources.

Sugarplum ha detto...

Nice. Thanks.

cali ha detto...

Sugarplum - what is your field?

Melbine ha detto...

I also feel that my body shape is highly amusing and laughs in the face of 'conventional' sizes (hence the wide variation on sizes depending on which part of my body you measure).

Hey, what happened to the font on your blog? Did you do that?

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

Yes, I'm playing with the new playing stuff.

Sugarplum ha detto...

Like the new look, Mistress.

I am currently doing everything because I work at a small publisher. My "title" is Assistant Acquisitions Editor - assistant to whom? I'll let you know when I find out. I suppose assistant to the President which would make me THE Acquisitions Editor but that is too much power hence the "assistant" part. But I have been compiling written and unwritten material and editing for a project I have been working on for the past year and a half. In the meantime I have designed and typeset a book of poetry, organized functions for authors, done some advertising sketches and anything else thrown at me. It is a small publisher and once I am finished this project (soon, I hope) I'm not sure how much steady work they will have for me. If anyone needs someone like me for something in Ottawa, let me know - otherwise I'm thinking ahead to our future in Toronto in the Summer or Fall.

Melbine ha detto...

I bet your resumé looks great Sugarplum..it's too bad that you're heading off to the big T.O. just as Mistress is riding away from it..

Sugarplum ha detto...

Well, nothing is for sure at this point. It all depends on what the both of us find. But chances are Mistress will be gone when we get there. That really sucks.

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

It does, super-suck. But I'll be back at least once a year and it will likely always be through Toronto. That's the cool thing about living in the practical capital instead of the real one!