A Wandering Eyre

This morning I was driving to work and listening to NPR. Lots of bad news over the weekend, but what really stopped me was the weather report. The weatherman said….hold… hold…. HOLD, that there is a strong possibility of snow on Thursday. I did just type snow. In Houston. In December. Ok, ever. Someone has been messing with the time-space continuum.

Though I really hate cleaning, I love the way it feels when you are done. It is a peaceful, warm glow to be able to curl up on a newly made bed with a book for the afternoon. Of course, some cleaning is simply putting the books scattered around the house in piles. I am a pile person, something which drives anal Mr. R absolutely crazy. Mwahahahaha.

Today, in Houston, the sky is such a bright blue that it almost hurts to look at it. The sun is simply begging for me to go and have a picnic. Alas, I am having lunch with my brother and his very sweet girlfriend, S. Have a wonderful Saturday.

–Jane, went out last night and exhibited self control

Well the gloomy winter weather is making my mood dip or maybe I am in premourning for there being no new Joss shows to watch after I finish the last season of Buffy. Whatever the case, my head hurts and I want to go back to bed.

There are a lot of interesting things happening in the news. Turkey and the EU are negotiating; the terms mainly being that Turkey recognize Cyprus. It will be interesting to see how this all works out. I am not sure what my opinion is on this, but I do think it would be the most beneficial to Turkey, should an accord be reached. Some of my coworkers are getting together tonight for drinks and a discussion on world events, amongst other things. Never underestimate the ability of librarians to drink and solve the problems of the world.

Oops. I just realized I am on the desk in a few minutes.

Whitney Matheson from USA Today has an article entitled “And the honorees are..” in which she ranks the top 100 pop-culture people of 2004. She gives two shoutouts to Whedon fans.

“70. The Whedonesque gang. It’s hard for some people to understand my diehard affection for Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer— which is why it’s so comforting to visit Whedonesque.com each day, where piles of links are posted by my fellow Joss Whedon obsessives. If you secretly care about the new Spike action figure or Joyce Summers’ Advil commercial, I’ll see you there.”

AND

“41. David Boreanaz. He would’ve signed on for more Angel, but the WB would rather give airtime to “fresh” shows The Mountain and Summerland. It’s OK, though. I’m confident casting agents will be biting in no time. ”

–Jane, whose little heart is going patty pat

This is my mea culpa to Mr. R, who was given notice of being laid off. Because of my need to relax and watch Buffy after work, I forgot to call him until 10 pm. I am, therefore, a bad girlfriend because I did not call and comfort him.

Really, those of you that know me, will realize that he is not worried, because worrying gets you no where, and I am filled with worry. Poor Mr. R. I do love you more than Buffy, I swear. Do they have meetings for this?

–Jane, who happily finished season 6 and is now going to bed worried about Mr. R

I have not yet sent out cards for the festive season and, given the date, it seems unlikely that they will go out at all. Greenfairy.com has a narrative of her card experience and I think it is what I would like to do as well. I like her list of things needed because it includes this: One bottle Bombay Sapphire (small) MMMM….. martinis.

On a side note: My recent prophetic statements of giving up Netflix to recover my sad life will not come true for yet another month because a co-worker, L, has given me a free month of Netflix for Christmas. The card she gave me said, “Buffy ’till it hurts.” How did she know I once spent about 8 hours straight watching Buffy until my head hurt from all the TV and I had to go to bed? I keep trying to convince Mr. Rochester that I need all the Buffy DVDs to go with my other Whedon shows, Angel and Firefly. He is not buying the argument that I need them mainly due to the lack of any intelligent TV, excepting Smallville and Arrested Development. Also, just in case anyone was in doubt, I have series issues with FOX and the WB. The issues mainly being that they cancel all the good shows and leave us with absolute shite to watch instead. Idiots.

–Jane, who needs to get out more

I spent a very productive morning getting much accomplished and then… tragedy struck. My email was brought down by a large corrupt file. No viruses folks, just a file too large. I spent about an hour trying to email through the campus web server, but the speed (ahem) of the server almost caused me go postal. I swear I am not exaggerating. SERENITY NOW! Consequently, I lost all my email files and the techies spent the better part of the afternoon cursing over my pitiful excuse for a computer. I can receive email, but I am using a different client, Eudora, which is crap in case any of you had not already figured that little gem out. Move it along; nothing to see here folks.

On the brighter side, I had a nice meeting with the boss lady, in which she told me I was doing a good job. Whew! I have fooled her once again into believing I am a competent, intelligent asset to the team.

I am on the desk the next hour but I do not expect any riveting reference questions to come my way. The students mostly need more paper for the printers and more staples for enormous amount of stuff they print out. Really, do you need to print out all 200 pages of your thesis just to look at it? No.

I feel I must mention it, because it is all the buzz: Google and Academe join forces. I have been too busy the past couple of days, but I promise to post something intelligent (maybe) on all of it later. Tomorrow if you are very lucky.

For those doubters out there, I would like to announce that I went to a party on Saturday night where liquor was served and I had 4 drinks and then stopped. I left before the party was over (2am) and went home to my bed. See, I do have self control.

I think I will have to cancel Netflix after I am finished with the Buffy extravaganza. I watch more TV now than I ever have and I need to get a life. I don’t read anymore. I don’t bake bread. I don’t write. Ok, so my life was not that exciting before, but at least I did something besides watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer for 2-4 hours every day. I just finished the 5th disc of Season 6. The insanity is almost over!

I have had The First Rider’s Call by Kristen Britain on my table for about a week now and the bookmark is still on page one. I have to read more.

The story in my head keeps invading my day, especially when I drive and am trying to go to sleep. I am hoping that committing it to paper will make it leave me alone.

It is cold again after being consistently in the 70’s. It is actually supposed to get down into the 30’s tonight. ‘Bout damn time I say.

I am listening to the first Buffy compilation cd (I told you I had a problem) and watching my Christmas lights blink. I remember laying under our Christmas tree when I was little and watching the multi-colored lights blink. It was like magic in the darkness of the living room. It was easy to imagine that anything was possible at a time of year when even windows can be beautiful when they are lit. I still think that may be true.

–Jane, who wishes you many sparkly Christmas lights and time to write the stories in your head

On Saturday, I picked up my Grandmother so that she could ride with me to a wedding shower for my cousin which was being held about 2 hours from where we live. My Grammy never drove much on freeways and relies on Papa to take her where she needs to go, if it is farther than HEB or Wal-Mart. So I had two hours alone with my Grandmother. Mr. R has often told me that my Grammy and I are the same person born to different generations. We have many of the same personality quirks, except I have, luckily, escaped her OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) tendencies. I take it as a compliment to be like this woman who has managed to raise 6 kids and stay married for over 50 years. On our drive we talked about many things. Some, I expected, like family news and how some of the grandchildren have made some poor decisions lately, and some topics were a surprise. My Grammy, who I always thought of as a strong opinionated woman, told me that she wished she had spoken out more for herself, in her marriage and in life. She said that she wished she knew how to do more for herself; my Grandpa does all the finances and all the arrangements for things. This is not to say that she does not have input. Grammy has a way of making her opinion known and Papa has learned to listen or ignore as needed. Like many who have been married for a long time, she wonders how she will manage things if he dies before her. She told me the first ten years of a marriage are the hardest; first you have to learn to live together and then you have to learn to live with kids. My Grandmother, who has lived 73 years and rarely acts her age, wishes that she had more time to do more things or that she had made different choices. Even with all that, she loves her husband and still thinks he is the best man she has ever met. I think Mr. R is right. She is me and I love her.

–Jane, who has been blessed to know her maternal grandmother as a child and as a woman

You have got to be kidding me. The List Eater, after breaking the rules, is going to press charges. Stop the insanity people!