I Like Attention

That's pretty much the motive behind my hobbies. Theater, singing, blogging/writing, art - not only do I get to be creative, but generally I also get all sorts of praise for doing it.

I suppose that's not the only reason. I do get a thrill knowing I actually entertained someone else. Knowing that I made someone laugh is more of a reward than anything I can think of (well - besides money - if anyone wants to pay me for doing what I love, I'm there)(wait - that doesn't make me a whore, does it?).

Hmmm...that's not very long for a post - I suppose I'd better go a little more in depth. With theater, I can act like the biggest idiot onstage, and as long as it's part of the character, I'm not vulnerable to ridicule for acting that way. That, and well, theater people in general act like complete idiots around each other, so I can get away with it even when I'm not onstage. It's a nice break from having to act all smart, resonsible, and nice when I'm at work - cathartic, if you will.

The same can go for blogging. I can vent all the frustrations I have and then pretty much forget about it. Or, if I can't forget about it, I can generally present it in an amusing way that makes the situation not seem as bad as it is. It's also a great way to let all my friends know what's going on in my life without having to write each of them individually. I'm terrible at keeping in touch, so odds are without my blog, I wouldn't hear much from any of my friends. (Alright, that may be a little bit of a lie - myspace and facebook help me keep in touch as well)

As far as art goes, I hate to call that a hobby. It doesn't seem like I should, since I have a BFA and all. However, as time goes on, I'm spending less and less time on my artwork. I make time for everything else, and I suppose this is one more thing I should try to make time for. But I don't just do it to entertain others or for the praise - that makes it sound like I put more value on the opinions of others than I really do. I don't suppose that's why I do any of these things. Something in my soul just needs it to get by.

But don't get me wrong - I'm still an attention-whore despite that.

Someone has a case of the Mondays!

Sorry, all, for my unintended hiatus here. I flew down to Florida for a friend's wedding over the weekend and threw a 4th of July BBQ party on Wednesday. In theory, I love hosting parties. In reality, I worry WAY too much about them and stress out over it. My stupid home internet hasn't been working for over a week now (ok, I steal from my neighbors, but it's not like I'm downloading movies or something, I just want to post a blog and check my freaking email!!). I'm at a coffee shop now.

I've been thinking a lot about how to respond to this topic. It should be easy-- the first question in any Washington circle of strangers or acquaintances is invariably "so what do you do?" Even before "HOW do you do?" which, to me, seems like a much more polite question than "what."

Once before on this blog I mentioned my company by name, and then it popped up on their Google Alerts, so I won't be doing that again. Right now, though, I'm in Washington working for a government contractor (I think we prefer "consulting company"). I work on Outreach and communications for a website that's open to emergency responders and homeland security officials to review past incidents and exercises and pull lessons from them for use in the future. Until recently, I was on a team of three people doing Outreach (four people, not so long ago), but now it's just me. This has given me the ability to re-work some of the actual aspects of what I do, for example, I get to write more and have passed on some of the more inane work to a different team of people. But, well, I'm not having such a good time of it lately. Sorry for you, Dear Readers, a public forum is not the place to discuss exactly why. Everybody has problems, right?

When I came to DC a few months after getting my writing degree from FSU, my intention was to hold a full-time job to pay the bills and put food in my belly, but to spend my spare time writing and publishing. It hasn't really worked out like that. Usually when I get home I'm sort of mentally burnt out and just want to veg for a while. However, once you start vegging in an evening, it's quite hard to stop. I usually spend the evenings doing crosswords and watching Law & Order or whatever came in from Netflix. Also, I've lived here for 2 1/2 years and have yet to find more writers, or at least more creative writers. I know some journalists and some other coms people, but I haven't been able just to sit in a coffee shop or on the Mall on a Saturday afternoon and write and share my work with people and talk and laugh... Man, I was SO spoiled in college. Even the few people here who have expressed interest in this are so busy all the time, as is typical with DC schedules, we never catch each other to actually do it.

So now, my job is my job, but I won't be doing it for the rest of my days. It's not career for me yet. Who knows what I'll be doing next...

This Post's Dewey Decimal Number? Probably 814.54 TYS

Well I think it's no secret that I currently work at a library. In fact, the same library Nick used to work at, though things aren't as bad as he painted them to be - that is due to the fact that we've changed directors since then, and the one we have now is a lot nicer and more laid-back than the one before.

However, when I have to explain what I do - well, I usually don't have to do much explaining, except if I talk about the reference desk. I think I've talked about it here before, but in case I haven't, that's the desk where anybody can come up with whatever strange question they have in their mind, and I have to find the answer or help them find the answer to it. But this post isn't just me explaining stuff like that.

Nick had written that because of his job, people automatically assumed he liked numbers. Working at a library, they assume several things about you:

1. You like to read - totally true. I don't think there's anyone working at the library that doesn't love to read. Our janitor is illiterate, but that's another story.

2. You're incredibly boring and stuffy and spend all day shushing people - couldn't be farther from the truth - for most of the people who work at my library at least. I mean, that probably applies to some of them, but that's an old stereotype. Besides, I work at a public library - if we actually tried to keep the place quiet and shushed everyone, it would be a never ending battle. We can't even get people to turn off their cell phones (or at least on vibrate), and there are signs up everywhere - even at eye level on the front door. *Since starting this post a couple of days ago, I've found this article talking about the same thing on nytimes.com*

3. You have to be smart to work at a library - common misconception. Yes, you have to take a test to get one of our positions, but trust me, somehow some people slip through. There are times I think some of the people I work with have no short-term memory, like in Memento, because there are times where it seems like certain people have completely forgotten how to do a job they've been doing for months (or perhaps years). The other part of this is that people think you know everything because you spend all day reading books. I wish I had the time to read books at work, and yes, you do pick up a lot of knowledge from having to find stuff for other people. However, we just look smart because we know where to find the info. (Not that I'm not smart - though one may beg to differ after looking at this picture).

I suppose the one thing I get to do that most other people who work at libraries don't - paint and draw. Whenever they need a background done for a children's program, I get out of doing my regular work to do paint or construct whatever they need. It rocks! Currently I've been working on stuff for out Harry Potter party we're having on the 21st to celebrate the release of the 7th book.! Yes, we will probably be told that we're going to burn in hell for aiding Satan in warping children's minds, but I don't care- it's going to be a blast. (Fun side note: one of my coworkers has actually taken the day off because she doesn't want to be here for our party).

So though I shelve books, help patrons, and answer inane questions, I am NOT a typical librarian. Actually, I'm not a librarian at all - you have to have a masters degree -, but they do a lot of the same things I do, they just get a couple more dollars an hour for it.

confessions of a traveling hermit

Wondering how I ended up teaching English in South Korea and owning a home in the Waycross, GA ghetto? Well, it’s definitely a bit of a long story. Some of you know have heard this tale already, but in the hopeful assumption that there are some of you out there reading this blog who *haven’t* heard it, here we go!

I’ve written before about my job working at the Department of Defense. If you missed that journey into my past, you can read about it here. But all you need to know about that job for the purposes of this story is the following:

I left that job because I disliked it intensely. Why? Well, the work was highly repetitive, and essentially simple. I often remarked that a group of blind monkeys could have done what I did, even though the work, in fact, was not all that simple. It was an incredibly high-stress job. I had tension headaches all the time, and spent a fortune on ThermaCare heat wraps for my tense neck and shoulders. I kept a bottle of Pepto-Bismol in the drink holder of my work car at all times. I would swill directly from said bottle several times per day. I held this job for twenty-seven months, during which time I developed my first wrinkles and my first ulcer. Of course, this job did have its pros: it paid well, and was on a set promotion-schedule (the longer you worked there, the more money you made), and I had health insurance and paid sick and vacation days. Those are some good pros, but...

One of my coworkers had worked at that job long enough to retire. He hated it; he was miserable. The month he retired, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Several of my coworkers were eligible to retire, yet they kept working. It certainly wasn't because they loved the job; they hated it and bitched about it constantly. Why didn't they retire? Because the longer they worked, the greater their retirement package would be. They wanted all the money they could get. Before I left, there were two heart attacks and one stroke (none of them fatal) among my eligible to retire coworkers... and yet they were all still working there when I left.

I left the Department of Defense because I didn't like my job. It was not personally satisfying in any way, and it was taking a high toll on me physically and mentally. I left the DOD to accept a position as an ESL teacher in Russia, where I received a salary of roughly $200/mo, and I never regretted my decision.

Why did I decide to move to Russia? Well, I double-majored in Russian and Political Science in college, during which time I spent nine (non-consecutive) months in Russia, and I loved every minute of my time there. I had accepted the position at the Department of Defense, thinking it was the sort of position that someone with a PolySci degree *should* accept, although while there, I constantly felt as though I were wasting my education, as I rarely put any facet of my degree to use. Additionally, I often felt as though my job was useless; if you read this post, you'll realize why. I thought that perhaps if I got a job with a non-profit organization, one that works to facilitate international relations between the US and Russia (and there are several), I would feel satisfaction from my work. I would also be both using my degree and accomplishing something.

But, there was a flaw in that plan. See, I graduated from college in 2001. Following graduation, I spent five months in South Korea, two months in Costa Rica, and twenty-seven months within walking distance of Mexico. At the point at which I began to consider changing fields, I hadn't spoken Russian in four years. My Russian skills had degenerated into something that I termed, "spanglorusskikonglish" - not really something to put on my resume. I decided that spending a year in Russia, teaching English and studying Russian, would allow me to rebuild my skills, and would look great on my resume. I had it all planned out: a year in Russia, and then I could apply for a job. I even had a specific employer in mind.

Then fate intervened. Some personal things happened to me while in Russia, which led me to reevaluate the course my life was taking. I'm not going to get into that here, as it's not really something I want to discuss in a public forum. I only bring that up to let you know that in the fall of 2005 I stepped back and looked at what I was doing with my life. I realized that I was in danger of making the same mistakes which landed me in the job at the DOD.

Like I mentioned above, the DOD job was the sort of job that a college grad with a high GPA and a PolySci major is expected to land. And yet there I was in Russia, trying to follow the expected path of a Russian major. While in theory, working for a non-profit that works in and/or with Russia sounds appealing, when I began to examine my job prospects, reality was quite a turn-off. Check out the following, an actual ad for a position at the sort of NGO that interested me. They were searching for someone with my qualifications to:

Assist in conducting research on price and quality comparison for necessary office supplies/equipment. Responsible for inventory of office supplies/equipment and ordering. Responsible for receiving and shipping mail for staff. Organize archives, media hits, vendor files and Staff Meeting Minutes. Update and maintain contact database for mailing. Assemble material for volunteer information and general inquires for mailings. Ensure cleanliness of office areas for visitors. Communicate with vendors for troubleshooting and service orders. Answer reception phone line during business hours. Handle referrals to appropriate staff members and questions from public. Assist Executive Director with administrative tasks. Prepare mailings for staff and distribute mail. Assist in researching items for program development. Assemble presentation materials for special events. Provide assistance in special projects. Update and maintain handouts for social services department, legal program and the reception areas. Responsible for paying monthly bills and vendors on a timely basis including mailing of payments. Ensure signature on checks. Track and reconcile credit card statements and time & attendance. Organize check requests, bank statements and deposits for Bookkeeper. Attend and record minutes for Staff Meetings. Ensure cleanliness of conference room. Provide refreshments for Board Meetings. Assist in preparing Board Packet mailings. Assist with staff and Board member accommodations. Assist with organizational events. Organize state and national organizations information, maintain equipment inventory in the Equipment Inventory Log. Coordinate / schedule technology visits. Maintain administrative office files. Other duties as identified and assigned.

Ahh, the job opportunities for someone with a BA in Russian. Not so appealing. Ensure cleanliness of office areas? Communicate with vendors? Research price and quality comparison for necessary office supplies/equipment? Would I really feel as though I were accomplishing *anything* with my life if those were my duties? True, not all job descriptions sounded quite that bad, but none of them made me feel as though I had found the niche that I was looking to fill. Not to mention that nearly all such positions are located in some of the most expensive cities in the United States, yet pay very little. (Now, I am not all that interested in making tons of money - as I explain further along in this post - but I don't want to run into debt either. I lived like a pauper in San Diego so I could pay off all my debts, and I'd like to remain largely debt-free as long as possible. But we'll talk more about money in a minute.)

Of course the opportunities in the nonprofit sector are slightly broader for someone with a Masters or a Doctorate, and as such, I briefly and seriously considered grad school. But (and I mean no offense to those of my good friends currently in grad school) the more grad school stories I heard (and continue to hear) from my friends, the less excited I became by the prospect of an advanced degree. Honestly, so much of grad school sounds like utter bullshit to me. For example, I know someone (a dear friend, highly intelligent, and whom I greatly respect) who earned his PhD by writing a dissertation on third person impersonal pronouns no longer used in the modern Russian language. What is the point?

Please bear in mind that I am in no way opposed to the pursuit of knowledge, and I truly hope that there never comes a day when I cease to learn new things. But so much of academia just seems so senseless to me, all this specialization to the point of incomprehension. Perhaps one day I will enter a Masters program for teaching ESL, but for now, I have decided that grad school is not the route for me.

So what is the route for me? I thought quite seriously about remaining in Russia for a second year. I loved my job there, my coworkers and my students... but financially, I simply couldn't. As I mentioned above, before moving to Russia, I paid off all of my debts (car, student loans, credit card), and I accrued enough savings to finance my year abroad at a salary of $200/mo without again going into debt, but I simply couldn't afford to do it for a second year. True, I had enough credit that I could have started charging expenses with the plan of paying off my debts when I returned to the US and got a "real job" - but that's one black hole I have no intention of falling down.

Instead, I thought about what it was about my life in Russia that was making me happy. I surprised myself with the answer: for me, the best thing about my situation in Russia was the lack of stress. True, occasionally I would fret about things like what to do about my students who were chronically failing their exams, or how to turn the lyrics of I am a Rock into a ninety minute discussion, but I never suffered a moment of the gut-wrenching stress that I put up with for twenty-seven months in San Diego. Back in 2000, following my seven-month stint in St. Petersburg, I'm sure my answer to what it was about Russia that made me happy would have been different. It would have involved the Russian people, or the Russian culture, or the amazing historical architecture, or even the Russian nightlife... not that I don't still love the Russian people, architecture and culture (I have found that I'm a bit too old for nightclubs), but I've changed. I enjoy spending time in Russia, but I no longer feel as tied to Russia as I once did. I guess that's an odd thing to say, coming from someone who has spent so much time there (and who is planning to return there at the end of August!), but it's true. The best thing about my life in Russia was the lack of stress.

Thus, I arrived at goal number one for my future: Remain in a low-stress situation. But other than low-stress, what else do I want out of life? I made a list of things that I enjoy doing:

• Reading (Self-explanatory, and if you've read any of my blog, you'll have noticed how it often becomes Jane's Book Review)

• Writing (Ever since I was a little kid, I've enjoyed writing, and I do it mostly for my own personal satisfaction. I've written one book. I’m working on another (although I’m going on a year plus of writer’s block). I love blogging; it’s addicting.)

• Taking photographs (again, self-explanatory – but feel free to check out my photos!)

• Traveling (Why am I writing explanations? Again, self-explanatory. I mean, I live in South Korea.)

• Web/Graphics design (There are many people who are far better at this than I am... I'm not really qualified to do this for a career or anything, but it is quite an absorbing hobby. I do all the work on janekeeler.com. It's nothing fancy, but it's definitely something I enjoy playing around with.)

• Playing with kitties. Not to try and compete with Linda or anything, but I am totally destined to become a crazy cat lady. (Speaking of, anyone want to adopt a kitten?)

• Spending time ALONE doing the above. (Yes, spending time alone is a very important component of my happiness. Perhaps the most important of all. Don't get me wrong; I enjoy the company of others. I love my friends and family, and I enjoy spending time with them. But not all the time. I enjoy spending substantial quality time alone doing the various things listed above.)

• Teaching ESL (I really enjoy teaching. I have fun in class. I enjoy getting to know my students, and - I know this is going to sound hokey - but it's incredibly rewarding to see my students learn and grow in their use of English. I don't want to teach English for the rest of my life, but I wouldn't mind doing it for the next few years.)

So there you have it: the list of things I like to do. After making my list, I decided to make said list my life goals. Simple as that. You've read the list, so now you know you know what I want to do with my life. But how?

Well first, you might notice that among my list of things that are important to me, I have no desire to accumulate a large amount of wealth, to own an expensive home or a fancy car. I rarely buy new things; I'm perfectly content with clothes and furniture from yardsales and thrift stores. I know how to live frugally. Granted, I can't live completely without funds, but the funds I need don't have to be big. In fact, they can be pretty meager.

The stereotypical "American Dream" that, as an American, one hears about from an early age, is that in America, if a person works hard enough, he can achieve anything. In America, anyone can become whatever he wants to become, so long as he puts his mind to it. In reality, this American dream is simply code for "if you work really hard, then you can make a lot of money." Well, that's great. But do I really want to work myself to death for money? We've already determined that I don't want a lot of money.

How can a person live cheaply? Well, for starters, live somewhere that's inexpensive. As I mentioned above, I lived in San Diego for 27 months. At the time, the average price for a home was $500,000. I was renting a tiny studio apartment for over $700/month, which was located directly under the flight line for the San Diego airport. That’s what kept my rent so cheap. (Sadly, that's true). Nearly all of the Southern Californians whom I met were resigned to the fact that they would *never* be able to pay off their homes. Houses in North Florida (where I grew up) are going for around $150,000 to $200,000 these days (although the housing bubble is bursting). This looks like quite an improvement over SoCal until you learn that my mom got her house in Waycross, GA for under $30,000. And goods (on average) are cheaper there too.

That was how I decided to relocate my base of operations to Waycross. In case you know nothing whatsoever about Waycross, don’t feel bad. It’s pretty tiny. Wikipedia has some stats on it here and you can see some of my photos of the place here. In March 2006, I purchased a house Waycross for $27,500. Granted it’s in the ghetto, but hey – I’ve never been all that into being neighborly. When people find out that I bought a house in Waycross, the general reaction seems to be, "But what will you *do* there?" and "Won't you be bored?" Look back at the list of things I like to do, people. Half of them I can do anywhere, and the other half, by definition, I can't do at home, no matter where "home" is.

I want to relax, to write, to grow some veggies and to sit around my house reading cheesy mysteries and fooling around on the internet.

But how will I pay for this house, you ask? As inexpensive it was, it still has to be paid for. Well, by teaching ESL of course. True, I have already mentioned that my ESL job in Russia, which I loved very much, paid very, very little, but in many places around the world, ESL teachers earn substantially more. I have been teaching English in South Korea since August 2006, and I am making enough to put a sizable dent in my mortgage – and to fund this boondoggle to Siberia and keep me in food and water for four or five months when I return to Waycross. Additionally, my mother agreed to be my lending agent for this venture, which has definitely smoothed the way somewhat (kind of tough to get a mortgage on an income of $200/mo!) My plan is simple: teach English for a year or so somewhere, then hermit for a while in Georgia. Then, when I start to run out of subsistence funds or become stir-crazy, I will teach ESL somewhere else in the world. There are so many countries I would love to visit. I’m actually leaning towards Kuwait as my next destination, although who knows! :-)

You don't go out looking for a job dressed like that? On a weekday?

I don't mind so much anymore when people ask what I do. I can be reasonably proud that I work in government and that I am a Budget Analyst. No, it's not the most exciting job. But it's a management position, and it makes me seem professional. I do get annoyed when people say to me, after I say what I do, "oh, you must like numbers." No, motherfucker, I don't actually like numbers. It's just my job. In fact, I hate numbers. I'm not good at math. Recently, someone asked me to come up with a percentage increment for the past ten fiscal years. Now, I know how to do percentages for certain things. But I didn't know how to take ten years of numbers and make a percentage increase for each year. I had to look it up online. And then I found the answers on a high-school math help site. I'm that bad. I also own Math for Dummies (it is hidden strategically in my office). I don't like numbers. I don't have to. Being a Budget Analyst doesn't necessarily have to do with numbers (it's more looking at accounts, budgeting for the next year, writing impact statements, working on legislative priorities that have a budgetary impact, etc.). So that question gets annoying. But I am much more proud than when I used to work in the library many years ago- I hated telling people that. They used to just go "oh." And I hated working there. I was such a piss-on. I wasn't even allowed to talk to my co-workers; it was like elementary school. That was bullshit.

It was much more fun, though, telling people when I worked at the mental health center as a behavior technician. There were lots of stories I had to tell from that job. Seeing the people being Baker Acted. Having to learn to take people down to the ground and pull their pants down so the nurse could give them a shot to knock them out. All the times I got bit and had to get tetanus shots (I don't know if I could could on my hands the amount of times I had to get tetanus shots). Having a kid try to stab me with a marker--one of those smelly ones that are obviously not sharp. I smelled like blueberry for several days and that was hard to wash off. Having to take down a 300 pound man with about seven staff members who was so high from crack that it took four shots before he even calmed down (those shots usually knocked someone out immediately). Those were great stories, and I still have some great party stories. But that was also not what I wanted to do with my life.

It doesn't bother me too much to have someone ask me what I do. What always bothers me is having someone ask me what church I go to. I get that none down here, but in Northern Florida that was always the first question (second one was usually Gators or Seminoles?). I hated that. I met someone recently that thought I listened to country music because I'm white (it's South Florida after all). But I am pretty proud of what I do; I like my job, and I'm very proud of the fact that I work in the field that I am going to school for. But being automatically asked "oh, you must love numbers" is annoying.

Glenn, I for one an very proud of you for your going into poetry. I remember when you were torn between doing that and going in to something that you might not want to go into but you'd go into because other people would want you to. I had a whole time period when I was going to go into a field that I would not have enjoyed just to go to college and make money- I know I'll never make shitloads of money going into government, but I'm happy with what I do.

Don't I Know It

It's tough to tell people who ask me what I'm doing that I go to graduate school for poetry writing. Mainly because people don't realize that you can go to school for poetry writing, I guess. Or because people don't believe that anybody in their right mind would even want to go to school for poetry writing (they're probably right). Usually the way the conversation goes is something like this:

Person: So Glenn, what do you do now?
Me: I go to the University of Houston for graduate school.
Person: Really? What do you study?
Me: Poetry writing.
Person: Oh. Poetry writing. *pukes everywhere*

This scenario is the general reaction of most people. Most people do not read contemporary poetry, and therefore think poetry writing is kind of lame. Middle school girls do that shit all the time and they don't have to go tens of thousands of dollars in debt to do it. They just have to get their pigtails pulled or something, I don't know. But I can't blame people for this attitude because nobody reads contemporary poetry. Even my good friends at this blog I bet don't read contemporary poetry. In fact, I would be astonished if one reader (and most of our readers seem extremely well educated) could name off the top of his or her head five living literary poets (ie not Jewel or Billy Corgan or Fantasia). Unless Melanie pops back in again, because she knows her stuff.

None of this is the fault of readers (or non-readers) of poetry, though. If your high school was like mine, then you probably only read three or four poems from the 20th century. Something like "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" by Randall Jarrell, "Grasshopper" by e. e. cummings, "Richard Cory" by Edward Arlington Robinson, and some awful shit about not drinking on prom night.

Anyway, those first three linked poems were the only 20th century poems I was ever exposed to in high school. And while I can understand the merits of them (now, not then), they basically all suck. So I hated poetry for many years, until as a senior in undergrad at FSU I couldn't get into a fiction workshop class and had to take poetry workshop class. Anyway, I got exposed to poetry that was actually written (mostly) during my lifetime, and I was really blown away. Though I don't really like most of these people now, poets like Ai, Billy Collins, David Kirby, and Sylvia Plath were really what drew me into poetry. I guess they all worked as introductions. (I don't really like Ai or Billy Collins anymore, but I can't ignore what their poetry did for me).

I sort of feel like anybody who claims to hate contemporary poetry just hasn't read the right contemporary poetry. Sort of like people who claim to hate country music or rap I guess. Maybe it's ridiculous, but I feel like I was in the same boat as a lot of haters. And maybe people just think poetry is dumb because of all the lame prom poems we had to read in high school. I would recommend to people just to check out Poetry Daily once a day. There's a different poem up there every day, it's free, and sometimes there's even a good poem. Then maybe one day you guys will actually like poetry and stop puking on my shoes whenever I say I go to grad school for poetry. Seriously, they're nice shoes.

Or maybe you'd even see a poet you really like and buy his or her book? Ha, who am I kidding?

PS - Coda:

I've made my main point, but here's a side note. If the person who is asking what I do is from Houston, here's how the conversation goes:

Person: So pardner, what do you do?
Me: I go to graduate school.
Person: Oh, at Rice University?
Me: No, the University of Houston.
Person: Oh. UH. *pukes everywhere then stabs out own face*

Oh well. People think UH is lame here, because it is a public school. Although it is the most racially and ethnically diverse campus in America, which is pretty great. But I guess rich snobs who send their kids to Rice (private school) probably hate all those ethnic types. Sometimes I try to explain that the writing program at UH is nationally recognized as the second best in the nation (after Suckowa, I mean, Iowa), but then I sound like a big pretentious douche.

PPS - That coda was my way of saying UH is nationally recognized as the second best in the nation without sounding like a big pretentious douche.

PPPS - If it helps, the last time they rated writing programs was 1997. So that doesn't really matter anymore I guess.

PPPPS - Also, I can think of nothing more fun than teaching poetry to college students, which is why I'm getting the degree, also.

so, what do you do?

does anyone else get sick of answering that question?
i've been thinking about employment lately so that gets to be our topic for the week- career/job/something to keep one busy or whatever, and why people do the jobs they do. the point of most of my thinking has pointed out that the vast majority of employment positions today are purely superfluous, and don't provide much (if any) actual life-sustaining value. i excuse of course, doctors, ummm, doctors, farmers, and for some reason, movie stars from that generalization.
seriously, i work in hr. imagine trying to explain to a cave-person that i shuffle around papers with information about other employees...(i don't think i could even begin to explain employment, let alone a corporation).
or that my husband is a personal trainier. yes, he helps people be healthy - people like me who don't do any real manual labor for their sustenance, and need his help not to get fast food diseases like high blood pressure and atherosclerosis that they wouldn't get if they would go shovel some dirt or rake hay in the great outdoors instead of typing.
don't get me wrong, i love my job pushing papers, and i don't mean to be hypocritical - but i used to get paid for hard work, and i just can't help but notice that i've gotten in worse shape since i got my desk (as opposed to moving furniture at the job i used to have). i wonder what i'd do if our society hadn't turned in the direction it has. i know that i make lots of references to "back in the day" but the past just fascinates me. for thousands of years, humanity had so few employment options: serf, soldier, farmer, hooker, blacksmith, butcher, baker, candle-stick maker... you get the idea. notice how these are all what we'd call "blue collar jobs"?
it's like we've made our whole society into the aristocracy. back then, most people lived in shacks and wore fleas. now we've all got internet and a place with carpet, and if we hate a job and walk out, well, we could probably weasel our way into some government funds to tide us over until we get another job.
so i like the fact that our society lets people pay people for handling their funds and paying other people who help people that are in bad shape because of not working with their body get in better shape. (can anyone say run-on sentence?) i like that we have money instead of getting paid in sheep or clam shells. i like the way things are going - for the most part.
of course, then we get into unions and labor laws, and i go off on angry rants. i love what unions were able to do for the poor abused workers at factories back in the day. i hate that unions run practically every grocery store now and that joining them is mandatory, and then they tell people when and what for to strike.
i like that labor laws exist. i hate the loopholes, that they're so difficult to enforce, and that management, for the most part, doesn't care. has anyone out there ever worked somewhere that they got to take all the breaks they should have? i think that if i ever get high enough up in management again, that my budget will suck, but dammit everyone will follow the labor code with breaks at all the right times and overtime pay and the whole bit. dammit.
did i mention that we're in the middle of a who-gets-what-break-when conflict at my ymca? blah, i tell you - BLAH! if everyone would just follow the rules like they taught us in sesame street, everything would be hunky-dory and i'd skip off into the sunset, at least until i ran out of breath.