03 July 2011

Being productive! Sorta.

So work and needing sleep have been keeping me from keeping you up to date on the awesome things going on in my life.

A week or so ago I filled out my paperwork for my GTA position and got to meet my director for graduate school. We talked about my direction and what I was looking forward to (everything!), and I am incredibly excited. I'll get my own desk and keys to important rooms, and I actually get to TEACH. I won't have a classroom all to myself, but I will be a part of the classroom environment, and I will get to impart knowledge, which I am super excited about. I just need to complete my online training.

I got to walk around campus and got my ID card, and it was all rather bizarre. I feel kind of like a traitor, or a spy, or something. Not familiar. With campus or with my new position there. But on the bright side, the building that will serve as my new home on campus is right next to the bookstore. :) Even if it is kind of old and falling apart. (I can live with that.)

After I got back from my trip, one of Boyfriend's good friends came to the area to celebrate his birthday. We had lunch with him Downtown one day, and then the next we went to the Dali museum, which is absolutely phenomenal. Seeing the Masterworks in person (I'd only studied them in books... seeing them in person in all of their glory is just humbling) and having my nose half an inch from the glass on some of his most famous paintings (The Degradation of the Persistence of Memory, sister to the famous melting clocks painting, for instance) is incredible. Whatever glass they use is the coolest thing ever. I had no idea there was glass between the painting and I, even when I looked for it. It is only at the most extreme angles can you see the light reflecting off of the paintings. It feels like the painting is right there. It's an intimate connection. I'm just astounded at the level of detail involved in the oils; in everything, really. So much for such small paintings. Lots of themes as his work evolved over time. I'm going to have to go back to the museum and spend more time there; I don't feel like I gave each of the paintings enough time and energy. He really was brilliant. Absurd, yes, but definitely brilliant and talented in a way you can't imagine until you see everything in person. I've been putting off going to the museum for years, and now I'm so sad I did. I missed out.

I've been working on planning a dive trip for next week, and I've been reading. I just finished Terry Goodkind's Law of Nines last night, which has been on my to-read list for years. Goodkind used to be one of my favorite authors in high school, but I wasn't terribly impressed with this last work. I found it largely predictable and anticlimactic, which is kind of depressing. I don't know if it's because my taste in literature has evolved, or if he's not as strong of a writer in thrillers as he was in fantasy.

And writing. I should be doing that, and I keep thinking, and i keep starting, but I guess since I don't really don't have a dedicated time of the day to just sit and write, nothing is getting done. :/ Similar to my resolve to continue ZAT. My inconsistent work schedule isn't helping, but at this point that's just an excuse. And speaking of ZAT, Boyfriend and I are about to go climb stairs on a parking garage, because I absolutely abhor stairs.

That logic makes sense. I promise.