Close to day 5 of a 13 day straight work week, and on day 3 of a migraine.
These next few weeks are going to be quite stressful, but I’m hoping everything works out. I get to write my own paycheck now, so at least I know I’ll get paid on time. Hey, that’s something.
See you next week friends.
Filed under Uncategorized
Had the police and a community police vehicle drive by twice already today, so that’s comforting. Especially since my volunteer canceled, and I’m here alone. This place always is a bit more lively with more people. You hear the creaks less.
It’s been a weird week.
So much happened work wise in just three days, it’s been really overwhelming. My boss is now away on holiday until the third week in April, so I’m taking on her duties, on-top of mine, and we have a huge event on Saturday. The grant money couldn’t have fallen from the sky at a better time.
I’m actually really excited about getting to change the entire first floor of the museum over the next few months. Something no one has even touched in 20 years. I’ve only managed to install one temporary gallery, and change a few things, but this is going to be a total overhaul. We’re going to even do a re-opening in the fall, too. I think then, I’ll feel as though I accomplished all I had set out with this job, in just 2 years. It’s a good feeling. I’ll also feel less guilty after the 2 year mark looking for another job.
This week I also upgraded my brick of a cellphone, which I’d had for 3 years and switched over to an iphone. Amazingly, just a little more than I was spending with my other plan, and getting a hell of a lot more out of it.
Well, that’s the minutiae from these parts.
What are you getting up to this week?
Filed under stuff and things
If I was physically able to do a cart-wheel without offsetting my vertigo right now, I would. Instead I’ve just been bounding up and down the stairs in excitement.
I’ll explain.
When I first started with this job our funding was drastically cut. So drastically that for the past 2 years its been 2 people running 3 museums/buildings. To say things have been tight would be an understatement. I’ve basically been doing 2 jobs (event planning + curatorial work). I loathe event planning with every fibre of my being, and it takes up so much of my time.
That was, until today.
One of our big grants was reinstated (is it election time or something?) and will continue to be for the next year too. I will be passing over about 90% of my event planning, and will now just act as a supervisor and chair committees, because not only do we now have funding to fund all our outreach, we can hire another person! I’ve already hired someone and they start at the end of the week. *steeple hands*
WordPress needs a dancing emotion with jazz hands and an evil grin.
Something that made you hand clap today?
Filed under curator chronicles
I’ve never really been able to accept compliments.
They make me uncomfortable, and I always feel I need to reveal a flaw in return. Since yesterday, I’ve been mulling over that writing offer, I don’t really want to get into specifics here, but it’s been pinging around my head and I was leaning towards not following it up, and then I received this little e-mail from my writing teacher tonight.
Hullo Allison,
I read your beautiful chapbook “In Colour and Black & White” and just wanted to tell you how touched I am by your honesty & your ability to capture intense experience without overwhelming the reader.
All the best and much pleasure with your poetry.
Sometimes all it takes is a little push from a relative stranger.
Thanks for your kind words here too. I really appreciate it. Perhaps someday I’ll post some actual writing here.
Something that made you smile today?
One of my favourite things about listening to music, reading, or discovering a piece art is when it makes you look at something from a different angle. I mean, that’s the point, right? Art, or good art, rather, is meant to shake you up. Specifically with music and reading, I love that moment when the words pull you out; make you stop, hit rewind or reread. It’s as though you can hear the wheels turning in your own head. I like to think of it as the sound of a cassette re-winding.
I had one of these moments this weekend. I was driving (why do random moments always hit you when you’re driving?) and I was listening to the new Fleet Foxes record. There’s a line in the opening track, actually its the first line on the record, “So now I am older than my mother and father when they had their daughter…now what does that say about me?”
That line just shook me up. In part, having to do with how beautiful the music is accompanying the words, but also because its something I ponder all the time, and to hear those words, especially, now what does that say about me? made my heart beat a little faster. Whether or not the song is about what I interpreted it to be, it doesn’t matter. That initial impact, felt like a weight but kind of release at the same time.
What’s the last thing that stood out to you? Be it a song, book, or piece of art.
Filed under honeybees
Let’s kick off the working week with a bit of humour, shall we?
Filed under Uncategorized
She slid into the empty chair beside me, as I was embellishing the top hat graffiti I had been working on for the last few classes on the desk and trying ever so silently to eat a bag of crisps, which were doubling as my lunch.
She greeted me with a warm hello and moved her card across the table. I bit down on the chip resting on my tongue, gesturing to the bag on the desk, then my mouth, as to illustrate I would talk when I didn’t have food lodged in my throat. I made another hand motion for her to continue.
“I’d be interested in having you write for the magazine I edit. Especially in relation to the last few pieces you read in class.”
She continued talking, and I could feel my face starting to flush. In my hast to quickly swallow, I, of course started to choke and half laugh. A piece of sour cream and onion chip is going to be my demise as someone pays me a lovely compliment. Typical.
“So will you think it over?” she asked. I told her I would. She got up and walked back over across the room. I moved the card back and forth on the desk, the organization’s name seemed to glare from across the table. Embossed lettering on white cardstock. I pushed it a little farther away, then further, until it fit perfectly in the corner of the desk. Even then it seemed to be eying me, so I finally just tucked it into my notebook.
Was it a matter of not wanting to, or not wanting to write about that specifically. I chewed my bottom lip, and continued to outline the top hat on the desk. Perhaps it makes me uncomfortable because I deem it all raw material. I never sit down with a plan, thoughts just somehow form themselves into sentences. If I had to really think about it, maybe some of the magic would get lost along the way. Or maybe I was just scared. I put down my Sharpie marker, moments away from ruining the graffiti creation. The teacher hands out a piece of paper to the class. It’s an excerpt from a Jane Hirshfield novel:
Artists freely admit their ignorance concerning creative insight. A letter said to be Mozart’s describes it this way:
“When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer – say, travelling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence and how they come, I know not; nor can I force them…
When I proceed to write, the committing to paper is done quickly enough, for everything is, as I said before, already finished…But why my productions take from my hand that particular form and style that make them Mozartish, and different from the work of other composers, is probably owning to the same cause which renders my nose to large or so aquiline, or, in short, makes it Mozart’s, and different from those of other people. For I really do not study or aim at originality. “
I read it twice, rubbing my temples. The words fit eerily into the thoughts that are swirling around my head. The class starts to discuss the quote, but I’m not listening. I’m paper clipping the piece of paper and the business card together so they don’t get lost. I’ll go home and stick them on the fridge. Perhaps a late night trip to the fridge for a glass of water will make my decision for me.
While I have been taking this writing class, I have really enjoyed that my Saturday is like a Sunday – extremely lazy.
The past few weekends, I was out, but today I stayed in, not really feeling like driving anywhere and it was actually a productive day.
Annoying housework didn’t seem all that annoying with sun streaming in from the balcony and the new Fleet Foxes blaring from the stereo. I was able to finish my chapbook, which I had been working on for a while. Walked to the market and picked up some fresh fruit – mango is steadily becoming my favourite fruit. Plus, I managed to catch-up with 3 friends, and even chatted with the parentals.
It was like a non-day, but filled with good stuff.
Now I am trying to decide what to cook for dinner…it’s been a while since I made falafel, perhaps I’ll give that a go. I just found out that snickerdoodle cupcakes exist, but not really sufficient for dinner.
What are you cooking this weekend?
Filed under food and such, stuff and things
When I got home last night, I logged onto the Twitter, and my eyes caught the trending topics. Normally, I never pay attention them but the Oxford English Dictionary was up there and that made me curious. So I did a search and found out they had added some new “words” to the dictionary…
OMG
LOL
and the symbol for heart
I can’t wrap my head around this. Perhaps it’s because I hate acronyms and text speak. Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s why. It just feels like lazy language to me. I type pretty fast, and it takes me more time to hit the shift key to capitalize letters then it does to write them all out, so it always perplexes me when I see the short forms. I will admit, I have used the phrase “I heart this” but always the word, not the symbol, yet that’s kind of the same thing. We’re all guilty of shortcuts, but I would never think that proper language.
Is this just me getting old? Should these be words? Thoughts?
Filed under words
