More of Same

Nothing of particular interest to report these last few days:

Jeannie (the boss) doesn't seem to need me very much, but also does not seem to be interviewing any other candidates for my position. Heck - she's not even interviewing me! Her direct reports also don't respond to my requests for work. I'm beginning to realize that if I'm going to be staying here I'm going to be able to do a lot of my own writing. It will simply be a matter of discipline -- and emailing my own work home nightly to make sure I never get stuck with a bunch of my work on their servers.

Miss Vicki has been strangely undemanding the last couple of days. She finally sent me a task yesterday afternoon, since Jeannie is going to be gone for two weeks, starting today. I've learned: instead of jumping in to do it the way I thought it should be done, I emailed her first about my idea. Of course she didn't think that was a good idea and gave me other instructions that involved a lot of the actual work coming back to her. *shrug*

Lots of rain here over the past couple of days. No flooding in the bedroom or office, but there's one spot on my kitchen floor where water just seeps up/in. Not a lot - just a very shallow pool about a foot and a half in diameter. This, of course, is not optimal - but compared to what I'm used to, I take it in stride.

And finally: I've been having very complex dreams the past week or so and have been forgetting most of them. I usually remember a lot of my dreams, so not being able to remember these is frustrating.

Innnpuuut, Stephanie!

As I mentioned in my last entry, the 'job' I have now continues to consist almost entirely of free time in front of a computer terminal. This is an extrordinary opportunity to write.

But I'm finding that after a complicated romantic/creative burn-out last year, too much web-surfing, and general life pressures, my muse has taken hirself off on a long vacation. What I produce when I try to do some creative writing (stories or essays) ends up boring even myself.

If you are reading this, odds are good I'm on your Friends list. If I'm on your Friends list, I'm assuming it's because when you first visited my journal you found something intriguing or entertaining here. If you're still here - and most of you have been reading me for at least a few months now - it's because my thoughts and words continue to be of interest.

So my shamelessly fishing question of the morning is two-fold: 1) Why am I on your Friends list? What do you get out of reading my journal? and 2) If you were the editor of a magazine covering one of our mutual interests and you needed an article or essay piece, what would you ask me to write about for your readers?

I need some help priming the pump!

Thanks in advance!

TGIF!

I tried to do an email post from work today, but evidently it failed. Or maybe it will pop up sometime later tonight. Maybe when my work server blocked my access to LJ it also blocked my ability to post to LJ via email. Maybe I simply made a mistake in my syntax. I'll put my webmail account on my LJ "approved email post" addresses list and try again on Tuesday.

Meanwhile: thanks to everyone for the wonderful feedback! Ironically, I arrived at work this morning to find a voicemail from the boss asking for me to do another two years worth of data for a project and put it onto a map of the US in PowerPoint, so I actually had something to do for most of the day today. Now I'm home and seem to have poured a bit much vodka into my Diet Coke, because I keep having to re-type my words and there seems to be some kind of balloon behind my sinuses. I'm going to spend the evening in blissful non-productiveness -- so my individual responses to your wonderful comments may wait until tomorrow -- probably watching movies until after my mother brings The Child home. A few months ago, I bought both "The Missing" and "The Mission" on DVD from Target although I'd never seen either of them. This seems to be the night to watch at least one. I'm starting with "The Missing."

And I'm still twitched at my friend Jack for showing us "The Ring" two weeks ago. I can't turn off the lights at night without expecting Samara to crawl out from under my bed. Damn it! At 39 I should be *way* too old to be freaked out by movies.

Thank you, dear Christine, for the package you sent! I'm in no shape to review it properly tonight, but I look forward to spending some time going through it once I'm done with my Ethics paper.

Barry, I love your suggestion about "Archetypes in the Office and Bedroom"!! I'm going to have to go back and review everyone's suggestions, but at the moment, your suggestion is at the top of my list for writing prompts.

Thom, I'd be honored to contribute to Sahul ecclesiology (which I still file under "Wombat World" in my mental notes -- and maybe you can comment to tell me how I can propertly 'accent' it). I'll email or call later this weekend.

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope my U.S. friends get to enjoy the long weekend!