Moving On Up - Part One

As my Facebook friends know, I accepted an offer for a new job yesterday. Many of you may also know that I've been job hunting for a very, very long time. As a result, I've had a bit of trouble convincing myself that it's actually happened.

When you've wanted something for so long and keep getting turned down, you tend to keep yourself from getting your hopes up so the disappointment will be less upsetting. Now that it's actually happening, it just seems so surreal. I have moments where I'm so excited, thinking about finally having Sundays off and not having to work another retail Christmas, and getting to wear heels to work since I won't be on my feet for six-eight hours! These moments come and I get all giggly and it seems so real and my future seems so full of possibilities. 

On the flip side, though, I keep having all these moments where I find myself wondering if it was just a dream. Did I really get that job offer or have I just imagined it? I actually found myself slightly afraid to put in my two weeks' notice at my current job, wondering to myself if I would show up for the first day at my new job to find out that they hadn't actually hired me, forcing me to crawl back and ask for my job back. More likely I'd just have to job search even harder...and deal with the humiliation of having to write things like "extremely convincing dream" for my reason for leaving my last job...

The good news is that I do have a new job, despite my craziness. I have record of the call on my phone :)

A Funny Thing Happened in Sunday School...

An amusing thought came to me at church today. I guess I should start with a little confession: I have a small crush on one of the Sunday School teachers in my ward. Not a big deal; I just think he's cute. And funny. But that's really not the point of this post. That's just a little background for the story.

So today was the cute Sunday School teacher's turn to teach, and I found myself thinking that he looked rather nice today. He was wearing a long sleeved dress shirt, and I think guys look very nice in those. Don't worry, though; I quickly moved on and paid attention to the lesson.

A few minutes into the lesson, however, the teacher began talking about himself as an example of pride, mentioning how he had a moment of perhaps excessive pride that morning after getting dressed. He told us he was wearing his favorite pants and his fancy French-cuffed shirt with cufflinks and everything. Everyone chuckled as he mentioned how great he thought he was looking that day, and it was a good thing that everyone was chuckling because it gave me an opportunity to laugh at myself for checking him out earlier.

I was further amused, however, when a girl in the class later prefaced a comment that there wasn't anything wrong with getting all dressed up and going to church looking hot (she continued to talk about keeping pride under control). It was even better when I mentioned to my friends, after the lesson, that I'd been thinking he looked good before he mentioned it, and they told me they'd been admiring his cufflinks at the same time.

This led me to wonder if perhaps many of the young ladies in the room had been admiring our Sunday School teacher, which led me to wonder further how many of us had secret crushes on said Sunday School teacher. I've observed many times in singles' wards that the majority of the girls like a few of the guys, and the majority of the guys like a few of the girls (generally the few end up with the few, but that's not really the point here). Girls generally tell their close friends who they have a thing for, but as they don't tend to make it well known there's a chance that easily a dozen girls could like the same guy. I think that's funny. I don't know much about guys, but I suppose it could work in a similar way.

Anyway, there's my funny little story. Not much of a point besides me laughing at myself and being amused, but I hope you enjoyed it.

Thanks for reading.

My Favorite Book

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

Can you guess my favorite book? If you haven't, I'll tell you. My favorite book is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I read it every summer, and every time I find something new that I love. This is my copy:

It's a little beat up, to wit: the cover is gone. See the slight glare? That's the new cover I made out of packing tape (I'm quite the MacGyver).

Now look at the inside:

As you can see, I've gone a little English major-y on it. Underlining my favorite lines, making little notes in the margins... I know many of you are thinking of what a sap I am to have such a romantic book as my favorite (and that's definitely a major draw), but I really enjoy the actual writing in addition to the storyline. Her writing is very subtle. She enables you to know the feelings and thoughts of her characters in a way that isn't obvious; a great example of showing and not telling. Austen gives the reader the opportunity to think, involving themselves in the story. She shows characteristics through actions and words, rather than coming out and saying it. For example, anyone reading the book gets a sense of George Wickham's hypocrisy, foreshadowing his part later in the story, without Austen ever having to write those specific words.

Austen is also very witty. I especially love Mr Bennet's dryly sarcastic comments about or towards Mr Collins. They're understated enough that they can go over the head of someone simple-minded like Mr Collins. There are also some great one-liners that I particularly appreciate, such as "Such squeamish youths as cannot bear to be connected with a little absurdity are not worth a regret", "Think only of the past as its remembrance brings you pleasure", and of course that classic line of Mr Darcy's declaration of love: "In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you". How great is that?

Well, now that you've all read my exciting rant, I'll offer the apology that perhaps a few of you are looking for: I know I said that my next post would involve Han Solo et al., but I'm not ready to write it! I need to do more...research (aka a Star Wars marathon on Friday), plus I was watching that lovely six hour, A&E/BBC version of P&P and became inspired to write this post.

Thanks for reading :)

Passive-ness of the Non-Irish

As you must know, yesterday was St. Patrick's day.  St. Patrick's Day is an interesting holiday to me, what with its celebration being largely watered down in many parts of the country. Some of you out there may drink green beer or join a parade, but most of the people I know just go with the wearing of green.  I myself used the day as an excuse to wear my argyle knee socks and green eye shadow.

On this day I was, of course, at work. During a lull in the exciting retail action, I took a look around and noticed how many people were wearing green and it struck me that St. Patrick's Day might be the most passively celebrated holiday. All you have to do is throw on some green and call it good. It only requires a moment of thought, and then you're done for the day. There's absolutely zero activity needed for the rest of the day, and the best part is that you don't even have to go out and buy something new, assuming of course that you already own something in the verdant family. I don't know of any other holiday where slapping on a particular color counts for full participation. Just saying.

Anyway, there's my random rant for the day. Stay tuned for the next post: the ideas are still floating around in my head, but it involves Han Solo, Flynn Rider, Mal Reynolds...and a Venn diagram.

Arrrrrgggh!

No, I am not a pirate. I am just very, very frustrated. As mentioned in my earlier blog post, I am in need of  a new laptop. I filed my taxes last night, so I officially gave myself permission to start seriously shopping. I started by checking top ten lists of laptop brands online. The brand of the laptop my mother received for Christmas came up near the top several times, so I decided that would be a good choice, but I looked through the reviews on an electronics store's website and the reviews were like night and day: either people loved their laptop or it had died on them two months in.

In addition to my confusion over the quality of the brand, I found that was easily confused just by the specifications of the laptops. I've come to realize that I know next to nothing about computers. How am I supposed to know which features are worth paying more money to get? I don't use my laptop for much  (writing, blogging, web surfing [though I've considered getting Photoshop sometime]), but I use it for long amounts of time, so it needs to be good for heavy use.

I think the reason I'm so frustrated is that usually I'm a very informed shopper. Whether it be clothing, food, books, movies... I know exactly what I'm looking for and can tell the quality of my prospective purchase. In the case of electronics, I am like a fish out of water. I am like a fish that got blown out of the water and stuck in front of a high-powered fan, imprisoned in the stocks!

Grrr. Anyway, if anyone has any pearls of wisdom to share, I would be super grateful. Please help me get back into the water!