Blind Prophecy

I just got back to Northside after a meeting with a staffing agency that thinks it can help me get placed at a law firm within the week and making a lot more than my minimum acceptable rate. I should know more tomorrow or Wednesday. I just finished taking a series of tests on how to use Microsoft Office, Excel and timed tests on data entry and typing. I’m trying not to feel insulted.

What if I test them on creating pivot tables, or structuring a 180-page 4-color catalog for pre-press, or customizing Word with a unique intra-office style guide that contains words, phrases and grammar rules that differ from the default? I had to take a written test earlier in which they asked me to supply the missing punctuation. I wanted to write them an essay on the healthy debate among grammarians on the Oxford comma and the differences between formal/informal and British/American customs in the placement of punctuation either within or without quotation marks.

Anyway, if it results in a job that pays me well enough to buy a used car, I’ll be happy enough.

I tried calling home to check in with Mom, but she must have been watching a game or something because I got a lot of random “uh-huh … uh-huh” responses from her and not a lot of conversation.

Jeanne, Brian, and Paul came over for dinner last night, so we cleaned the house more than it’s been cleaned since before any of us moved in. I found spiderwebs that may date back to the bronze age in some of the corners. It’s funny, I remember when I was a kid and my mom used to get so upset because we didn’t do simple, seemingly obvious things like wipe down the countertops after we finish doing dishes and splashing grease water all over them. Finally at 31 years I see the common sense. Sorry, Mom.

Jen and Jacob are staying at the Chelsea Hotel when we go to New York next month. Jennifer was telling me a bit of the story of the hotel and I was only half-heartedly listening when suddenly the Leonard Cohen lyric floated through my brain… “I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel/ You were taking so brave and so free/ Giving me head on the unmade bed/ While the limousines wait in the street” (Chelsea Hotel #2). Now I’m jealous. I’m staying in a hostel not far from there, but there are no songs about where I’m going to be staying (except in the sense that there are literally thousands of songs about Manhattan in general).

Which reminds me that it’s time to start on my 2008 NYC iPod playlist. If I have a job by the end of the week, I’ll be booking show tickets, too, which will influence my playlist.

Meanwhile, my favorite rendition of that song comes from my boyfriend Mister Rufus Wainwright.

And since it’s been a while since I did a Music Monday, here’s my favorite tune that references Cincinnati:
Red Foley – Cincinnati’s Dancing Pig – MP3 (uploaded 8/25/08 – no guarantees how long it will stay up)

I have it as a ringtone on my phone, I just haven’t assigned it to anyone yet.

Filed under: music, personal by Jere Keys