Maybe

Maybe in a few years, I can start following blogs of my generation of friends. I have a list of blogs from people I know that I visit pretty frequently, but not many of these are people that I talk to on a regular basis. We greet each other in the hallways when we see each other and that kind of thing.

I do follow my friend Lee's satirical blog and Breckyn's blog about discovering poetry. But other than that, I'm really much more concerned with looking at pictures of babies. As clichéd as the everyday life blogs are, I am starting to like them. I like reading about people having normal lives because I can see some kind of goal to reach for. Maybe someday I can be a full-fledged adult. I'm almost there, I think, but I just need to get my work ethic in line.

I want to take all these classes that have me do lots of reading, like at least 7 books per class in some cases. But the way I handle my weekends right now isn't going to cut it. Maybe I should stop going to bed late. Maybe I should ban myself from the computer all day. Maybe I should stop writing bad mind-dump blog posts.

I keep hoping that every step forward will get my habits there, too. Maybe having this job that actually challenges my skills will motivate me to improve other aspects of my life. Maybe I just have to genuinely want it. One of my coworkers told me that when she was about six years old, she decided that she wanted to type like grown-ups without looking at her fingers when she was typing. She now types over 100 words per minute. I can hear her clacking away all morning at work, and it's legitimately impressive.

Maybe not as impressive, but I typed most of this blog looking neither at my fingers NOR THE SCREEN. Just lying in bed with my head on the pillow, looking up periodically so that I don't embarrass myself with a bad misspelling.

It's late and I'm tired. I don't know what I'm talking about right now. Sleep!

Sans Snark, Peut-Etre?

Good news, big news, happy news: I'm going to be starting as an editor at the Religious Studies Center at the end of April, hopefully working there until I graduate. I am fairly sure this can springboard me to an internship at Deseret Book not this summer but next and then give me a fighting chance at a good editing career. One thing that concerns me, though: Why is it that "popular" editors seem obligated to be snarky?

See examples (some of which I think are hilarious but that I should still consider in thinking about this):

http://slushpilehell.tumblr.com/
We pull this up frequently during Leading Edge. Sometimes has great stuff, but can be underwhelming.

http://loveyourcopyeditor.blogspot.com/
Perhaps the most attitude-ridden editor on the internet. The stuff she posts is hilarious, but I often find myself feeling guilty laughing at the creations of others. They put work into it, and it crushes my soul a little bit to find so much enjoyment out of deriding their words. This blogger is pretty open about how snobby she is, even calling the kids at NYU she teaches editing to her future Snoots (which of course reminds me of one of my favorite essays about English usage, "Tense Present"). Compare her witticisms to this blog, however:

http://terriblywrite.wordpress.com/
I can't stand this woman. At least, I assume it's a woman. From the multiple posts she has out daily, it appears that she spends all day in the parts of the internet where the literati dare not tread, waiting to jump on meaningless typos published by Yahoo! Shine. Really, it's a website about celebrity hairstyles. That's just petty.

So, I guess my point is that I don't really want to be like that. I want to be a more compassionate, sensitive editor. I want to understand the people behind the work, even if the work isn't very good. This might be a tad idealistic, but I think we all need a little of that to keep us on track.

New York?

Deciding to major in English is not career suicide, but it's a major leap into the unknown concerning jobs, companies, and salaries. I'm encroaching on my junior year at BYU, and I have some options that I've been considering:

1. Try to get a local job in Utah right out of graduation (not necessarily in publishing, which is the career dream) until Neal graduates, and then see what happens.
2. Apply to BYU for an English MA in a couple years, and then apply for jobs afterward, hoping that Neal's done with his degree by then.
3. Acknowledge that I might need some marketable skills, so apply for something like the law school, spend 3 years there, and then apply for jobs.

Of all of these, I'm the most hesitant about number 1. There aren't a lot of publishing jobs around here, and I don't want to do much more receptionist work in the meantime while I could be still going to college around when Neal is. I guess the main problem is that on-campus jobs kick you out when you graduate. Sigh.

But even with getting more degrees here, there's the issue that most of the jobs I want are in New York. Dirty, crowded, scary, big-city New York. But as soon as I consider living there, I feel so much more comfortable about my potential job market.

So, no conclusions yet, but several possible outlines.

Planning Classes and Vacation

I slept awfully last night. I feel like I woke up about six times during the night (Neal confirms that I was tossing and turning pretty frequently), and I got out of bed under the hazy impression that the cat had done something horrendous to the floor and that Neal was injured. Neither was true, and Neal tried to put me back to bed for another hour or so to no avail. It was 5:00 A.M., and there was no way I was getting back to sleep. To consolidate an entire morning of giddy loopiness, I'll just say that I was singing this on and off all morning: 

Which is, you know, a little embarrassing.

But BYU also posted the Fall 2011 class schedule! I've been waiting for this with more anticipation than you would think possible. I've been checking daily for at least the past two weeks. Picked out my next set of English classes, structured them around my editing class, and called it a morning. Forecast: Myth, Legend, and Folklore; Shakespeare; American Literary History; British Literature from 1900-1950; fiction editing; and some career figuring-out class for humanities majors. Registration on March 29. Cool. But I'll be even happier when I have most of my major requirements out of the way and can just take fun electives.

Something I've been telling my coworkers a lot about is how I'm beating BYU's academic calendar and giving myself a spring break this year. I will be taking all my finals on Saturday, April 16th, the first day of finals. For those who are wondering if I'm crazy, I reply that BYU had three out of four of my exams scheduled for that day. I might as well just take grammar in the testing center that morning until I have finals from 11-2, 2:30-5:30, and 8-11.

But in effect, I get a vacation! Neal and I have been talking about it, and I'm leaning toward Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon. I haven't been on much of a vacation for over five years, so I'm really looking forward to it. I told Neal in my stupor that I "wanted to ride the mules," but maybe he'll take my planning more seriously now that I'm a bit more cogent. Fingers crossed.