Thanksgiving came a tad late to the Americans at the Globe, but not too late.
Apparently, in the three-year history of the paper, one of the American higher-ups has opened his penthouse to the lost US-based employees, and this year was no different.
Well, maybe a little different. I’m not sure since this was my first, but it’s the first time there have been seven fellowship students working on the copy desk, so it might be that there were a few more people than in previous years.
It was, however, a wonderful meal and a fun evening socializing with colleagues, including a few I don’t see too often. And a nice view from a penthouse. It faced the wrong way to see my apartment, though.
Yes, we had turkey and ham. Everyone contributed something. One person spent Friday *baking,* which made me jealous. She, like I, doesn’t have an oven so she went over to the higher up’s home that day to bake like a mad woman. Biscuits and pies – oh, my!
I can’t stress how much I miss biscuits. They’re easy enough to do, I know, but I don’t have an oven. I’ve even thought about buying a toaster oven just for biscuits. (Enter an I-don’t-have-access-to-Cracker Barrel-lament here.) However, since the only outlet available is the one that gets overpowered with 30 seconds on the microwave, I’m thinking it would be a waste of money. I don’t think this place has the juice.
So the entire evening was pretty cool. I made a mistake in turning down leftover ham, though. What was I thinking?
The Christmas season is in as full swing as it gets here, I guess. Fortunately, it’s not much. I went to a mall yesterday and saw some decorations, and Ace Hardware was decked out in full. But I sure don’t miss the consumerism of the holiday and I hope this is it.
I’d gone to the mall to see a movie. I wound up with my third choice, since although “Contagion” is showing at some mall here, it’s not showing at that one. “Rum Diary” was, but apparently they don’t stay here long.
So I saw “The Adventures of Tintin,” which was really fabulous. It’s based on some comics I’ve never read that were written by Hermes. Steven Spielberg did the film, and it’s a CGI film. I’m not sure it’s fair to call it a cartoon specifically, because cartoons, in my mind, are supposed to look like fake people. Except for a few exaggerated features (specifically noses), these characters looked like real people. It was so freaky. The dog looked a bit artificial but everything else was freakishly real – in a cartoonish way.
Trust me, that will make sense if and when anyone sees the movie.
Enter an in-real-time moment here: Just as I type that, something landed on my back. Scared the heck out of me, especially when I went to smack it and realized it wasn’t a figment of my imagination. Somehow, a very large cricket infiltrated my apartment. Far better that than a roach, mouse or rat, but man, it scared me.
Good enough time to segue into another topic…
I’m now on the day shift at work. Not sure how this happened but I don’t mind all. The pluses far outweigh any minuses.
It’s completely different – conveniently enough, like night and day.
On the night shift, I did a lot of wire copy and tried to do things like check for style more than anything. On the in-house produced stories, there was a lot of checking to see if the news was right and if there were any “holes” in the story.
That’s more along the lines of the day, but the stories are features, not news. It’s a lot more editing than copy editing. I completely rework the stories and work more closely with the writers, as opposed to the translators.
I’ve only been on there a week so far and I’m still trying to get the hang of it, but so far it’s nice. And I pretty much leave on time daily, which is pretty special.
So far, there are three downsides, none of them insurmountable. One’s the fact that the shift is 10-6 and one of the other two people comes in never before 10:30. That’s going to stop. (It wouldn’t bother me so much if he worked late or did a thorough job, but neither of those is the case.)
The 10-6 also puts me on foot during the rest of the city’s commute, so there are FAR more vehicles on the road. Mostly, this isn’t bad, but it’s a lot more stressful. I can’t say hi to everyone I pass because I have to constantly watch my step and for those annoying motorcycles.
And I do make them move for me. Thursday, I smacked three of them and knocked aside a couple of rearview mirrors. Stay off the sidewalks, idiots.
Same thing happened on my way to the mall, actually. It was raining, not hard enough for a raincoat, boots or umbrella, but enough to make me opt for the cobblestone (less slippery) pavement over the straight cement.
Well, at one point, crossing a driveway, I was still in the path of the sidewalk and a guy on a bike came, riding on that cobbled path. We met and I just stood there. He did, too, for a second. I just crossed my arms and glared at him, never even turning down the MP3.
He turned aside. Success! I swear, I would have stood there until the rapture. Dude, it’s MY sidewalk.
The other schedule alteration I have to make for the day shift is doing half the workout routine in the morning and half at night. The room just isn’t open either three hours before or three hours after work, so this is it.
It’s not bad, really – I do the running thing and then swim in the morning and bike and do the weights at night. But man, there is nothing more boring than spending a solid hour on the stationery bike in a half-lit room as while staring into the dark – and then knowing you still have 20 minutes once you’re done.
And man, I get so hungry! Basically, I roll out of bed at 6:55 a.m., swap one tank and shorts for another set and then head downstairs. I come back and make and eat breakfast and then leave for work.
When I get off work at 6 p.m., I head home, change clothes and head down again. I eat lunch around 2 p.m. and don’t finish with the leg press things until after 8:30 p.m.
It’s a long time to go without food.
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