Quick Update

I got home from New York November 16th and have done nothing of consequence since (except take a trip to the Galleria mall, where my cell phone fell out of my back pocket and right into an auto-flush toilet. Fail).

Except starting this Sunday I will be busy for the first time since I graduated (which, yes, I did. I got C's in both my summer classes, and fuck it, whatever, I have a degree in Anthropology). My dad's friend from work has an 11-year-old son that needs some reading comprehension tutoring, one hour a week, which I think I'll get 10 bucks for. I have no idea how to tutor someone in reading, let alone a 6th grader, but we will see how that goes.

Also

While skulking around Barnes & Noble (and trying to buy a copy of Sarah Monette's Somewhere Beneath Those Waves, which they had to order for me because sometimes big retailers wouldn't know quality if it got on its knees and started blowing them), I happened to overhear a conversation between a customer service guy and someone handing in an application. This guy had open availability listed on the app, and CS dude immediately let the manager know instead of shoving it in the drawer like they usually do. So I asked. And they were looking for people with open availability, even if it was just for the holiday season.

I've wanted to work in a bookstore since I was, I don't know, twelve? So I applied.

After two interviews, and a brief scare involving them wanting me to work in the Starbucks, I got a call today saying they'd like to hire me as a ~bookseller~ and would I please come in for orientation this Sunday at four.

So that's happening.

!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm basically going to get paid to make people buy books, do you know how awesome that is to me? And if I decide to move to New York (more specifically, if I get chosen for that anthropology internship at the AMNH), I can apply for a transfer so easily.

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Also, I've decided to do the Unread Book Challenge 2012 because the unread books I own greatly outnumber the books I own that I've actually read. (actually, I just did the math: I've read a little less than 20% of the books I own, not counting graphic novels or big anthologies or reference books or language textbooks that people don't just sit down and read)

More info here: http://www.thehopefullibrarian.com/2011/12/05/announcing-the-unread-book-challenge-of-2012/

My To-Be-Read pile is miles and miles and miles high, so I'll have pick and choose, or keep doing it in 2013, but anyway, yes. Totally doing it. And, like Sarah Monette (who inspired this idea), after I'm done I'll post a little review about each.

No Day But Last Saturday

It was not the first time I saw RENT

So....

Hey, remember when I said that, for better or for worse, I'm leaving school?

Yeah, no. That pile of failure and misery sort of compounded, resulting in me having to take two 6-week summer courses.

One of them I'm doing online for FSU, even though I'm currently home in Coral Springs. It's called Peoples of the World, and it's basically a class in ethnography, which, while interesting, isn't totally my thing. I'm kind of excited to read Chagnon's "Yanomamo" book though. The other class I'm doing is at FAU (as a ~transient student~) called Gender and Culture. And by Gender and Culture, they really mean Crash Course in Feminist Anthropology. I don't know why, but feminist theory and I don't tend to mix well. I'm all for the equality of the genders, but I feel that in feminist theory, while it does some good, I feel like a whole shit ton of information is ignored--the same goes for feminist literary criticism (sometimes I use it in papers when I don't feel like doing any actual thinking). I don't have anything against members of the feminist movement, I just find feminist analysis to be kind of lacking and not very holistic.
But what do I know? I don't even have my Bachelor's. (Yet.)

Because of these classes, I'm once again not going to blog much until they're out of the way. I still have to unpack the contents of basically half a college apartment into my itty bitty room and make it all fit, as well.

There is something I do want to talk about though. I'm reading a book called The Child Thief by Brom. It's a sort of gothic, twisted version of the Peter Pan story. I'm going to reserve full judgment until I actually finish the book, since I never like when people criticize something without experiencing all of it, but I'm getting the impression it's trying just a little too hard to be edgy, and it's starting to annoy me. The prose is...okay. I can tell this guy's not actually a professional writer--and he's not. Brom is actually an artist. A really cool one, at that. He has one big illustration for each chapter, and color illustrations of some main characters in the middle. It's gorgeous art. But I can tell it's an artist writing this book, not a writer. There's also not much in terms of subtlety when it comes to moral messages--the whole HUMANZ ARE TEH EV0L AND ONLY CHILDRENZ HAVE TEH MAJIKS AND TREES ARE PEOPLE deal. Loooots of that. Man is the enemy in this book, and I really dislike that there seems to be no ambiguity in the matter. Or...there is, but the book doesn't seem to want to acknowledge it...like...I'm seeing major faults with the morality of Peter and the lost boys--or Devils, as they're called in the book--but the story itself seems not to notice. I don't know. Again, I'll withhold my final opinion until I've actually finished the thing.

And don't get me wrong, I am enjoying the book. On the surface it's entertaining and imaginative the concept itself is really intriguing. It's a bit on the depressing and dark side, and I found myself reading Princess Bride last night to cheer myself up, but that sort of comes with the territory. I am told there are certain twists in the story, and I can't wait to read them. I have to get it finished by this weekend, anyway, as the girl I borrowed it from is coming to town then.

Anyhow. I have an assignment for Peoples of the World due tomorrow, so I should probably get on that while I'm still stuck at FAU's library.

Not Dead

Just dropping in for the sole purpose of updating. My last year of school has been one giant blob of failure and misery and I haven't had much free time to blog about things I like. However, I still plan on doing this thing. I leave school in a month and a day, for better or for worse, and I will be getting a start on these blogs because for once in my life I won't have much else to do!

Despite my excitement about graduating, I'm sad to leave Tallahassee. It's a city with such character. It contains some really cool people and, best of all, three spectacular used book stores. But goodness knows I'll probably be back. I made a promise to Anna that we would celebrate our 21st birthdays together, and it would involve a bottle of Strawberry Hill. Not to mention I could finally hit up all the awesome bars I've been missing out on.

I have to say, though: there is something freeing about not knowing what's next.