Summer Reading: Part I

I finally completed Orwell’s 1984, which, considering I have started/stopped reading this novel multiple times over the past 5 years, gives me a great sense of accomplishment. I think having had taken Dr. F’s class on British Socialism during the Fin de Siecle gave me a greater appreciation for the theme of the novel. Of course, I still encountered portions of the text that were terribly droll. However, I persevered through them and am moving onto Naked Lunch> as my next summer novel.

We got the house I wanted in Arlington!

It doesn’t seem like much now, but the owner is going to gut it before we move in. He’s going to rip up the carpet and put in new hardwood floors, I get to pick out the paint for the rooms, and he’ll reimburse me for money that I spend planting a gardens.

So, while I had initially prophesied May as being a craptabulous month, I now find that my Jedi powers have failed me.

To re-cap:
Last week of school.
Got the library job.
Got the Arlington house.
Family coming for the weekend.
New puppies arrive Thursday night.

Now, if I could just crank out these last two pages. Jeezus…

i got the job.

Did I mention I went to the doctor’s (Urgent Care, actually) this past Saturday and had my leg examined. Apparently I am ultra hardcore, because I had let my leg go to the point of developing a staph infection. In fact, the only reason I went and saw the doctor was due to the fact that certain wounds were turning black and reopening. Thankfully one of my concerned friends possessed more common sense than I and was enthusiastic about driving me to the clinic at 9 am on a Saturday. I feel terrible mooching rides off people, and was trying to avoid it if I could [clearly, I could not...]

I had an interview for a library job yesterday. Unfortunately my lack of data entry skills may prove my downfall. I honestly am ambivalent to whether I get hired or not at this point. I was terribly anxious before I went in, a combination of nervous excitement, and just brimming with anticipation about how fantastic working there would be. Sadly, the tour did not live up to my expectations I am was left feeling very deflated by how anticlimactic the whole experience ended up being.

This has led to me reevaluate all the positions I have held during my working-life, and I have come to the conclusion that I have never been happy. Nor can I envision myself happy in any work environment. I am so uninspired when it comes to careers, which is terribly frustrating. I’ve had my closest brushes with excitement as an English/Comp tutor. I have started to consider applying for positions at tutoring centers for the next year, along with library positions, to give me a better feeling of what it would be like in a ‘teaching role.’

I would make more money if I went back to working at the salon, but I don’t think I will gain any perspective about my future needs if I do that. Thankfully I’ve spoken to Matt about all this, and he has offered to pay a substantially larger portion of the rent so that my job selection doesn’t have to be based on money, but on the experience I could gain.

Ideally, I’d like to take a year off and focus on what I want to do, versus what I need to do for classes. I am a very serious student, and often sacrifice my own recreation for the greater good of my grades.

Speaking of which, I have one last 20+ page paper to go on Fabian Socialism. I am thinking of discussing the evolution of the role of the middle class from Paine, to Marx, then finally to Webb. Of course, as far as Paine was concerned there was no working class and the emphasis was more on the educated members of society (which, for a moment, was the middle class). Any suggestions about this idea would be appreciated. I was originally going to write about the British’s emphasis on happiness, a striking distinction between the Fabians and Marx, but I dont think I have enough material to really develop a substantial work from. And I have a little over a week, so I don’t plan on reading that many new sources.

the last two days i was stuck in bed. my legs were covered in infected sores. it was fairly awful.

allergic reactions can be a bitch: