Bit of Ivory

The Friday Five was actually interesting this week, so I’m going to do
it.
1. What is your current occupation? Is this what you chose to be
doing at this point in your life? Why or why not?
Officially, I’m a student, but I also work at the BYU library as a
reference assistant. At this point, yeah, that’s what I would like to
be doing– getting my degree, and earning money at a job I like to help
pay for it.
2. If time/talent/money were no object, what would your dream
occupation be?
Hmm. . .I really don’t want to work. I want to be a wife and mother,
stay home and raise my family. If circumstances force me to work (like
not getting married!), I’d like to be a children’s librarian.
3. What did/do your parents do for a living? Has this had any
influence on your career choices?
My dad is an electrical engineer. My mom has always stayed home with us
kids. I dislike math, so I could never be an engineer, although I
admire very much what my dad does. My mom staying home definitely had
an impact. I was so glad that she was around when I needed her, unlike
so many of my friends who never saw their parents because they were
both working so hard.
4. Have you ever had to choose between having a career and having a
family?
Not yet, but I believe I would choose a family. In my religion, we
believe that families can be together forever. I feel that if we’re
going to have something forever, then it’s worth investing your time in
it.
5. In your opinion, what is the easiest job in the world? What is
the hardest? Why?
I don’t think any job is really easy. Even the most menial tasks can be
hard through sheer monotony. I was once a directory assistance agent
(“This is Emily, what city and state?”), and while the actual work
wasn’t all that hard, the job was. I had to deal with people who just
couldn’t understand that I wasn’t the operator and therefore
couldn’t refund their quarter, and people who wanted to find John Smith
in Chicago without knowing what street he lives on (“Sir, do you know
how many John Smiths there are in Chicago? Over 900.” “Well, could you
read the streets out to me? Maybe one of them will ring a bell.”), and
trying to keep my call time under 20 seconds, especially when people
got mad (“You gave me a number that was listed in Huntington Beach. I
wanted Hermosa Beach.” “Was the number incorrect?” “No, I got the right
place, but it’s not in Huntington Beach. It’s in Hermosa Beach.
Let me talk to your supervisor.”). All that for 8 hours a day. It was
the hardest job I’ve ever had.
I really think that my chosen profession, being a mother, is the
hardest job in the world. After all, you’re dealing with trying to
raise good, responsible, intelligent children, and no one child is the
same as any of the others. God has entrusted you with one (or more!) of
his precious children, and it’s your job to help him or her get safely
back to God. That’s an enormous responsibility. But the biggest
challenges bring the greatest blessings. I really feel that raising
children can be one of the most rewarding experiences this world has to
offer.

Well, yesterday was eventful. I woke up at 6:45, was ready to leave by
7:55, took by brother to the light rail station, drove to Provo, worked
from 9-6 with only a half-hour break, went to dinner, attended a class
taught by my uncle, went to my student apartment, helped set up the TV,
went to the grocery store at midnight, made my bed, and finally went to
sleep. Dinner was good– I went to Fazoli’s, which is a fast-food
Italian chain that has been around for a while, but is relatively new
to Utah. It was good. The spagetti was good– not great, but good– but
the breadsticks made it all worth it. They’re delicious, and you get
unlimited amounts of them while you’re there if you eat in their dining
room. Next time I’ll get a small meal rather than a regular one, so I
can eat more breadsticks.
The midnight run to Macey’s (yes, we have a grocery store named
Macey’s–with and “E”–the department store doesn’t have a Utah
location) was because I suddenly came down with a bad cold, and had to
get medicene to make it through the night. Right now I’m feeling pretty
icky. My nose is getting raw from all the blowing, and I carried a big
box of Kleenex with me onto campus. I may have looked stupid, but I’m
going to need them, because I have another 9-6 day ahead of me (except
this time I get an hour break–phew!).
Break out the orange juice.

I took a shower with a spider yesterday morning.
It’s not all that unusal for me to find spiders in the tub in the
morning. I live in the basement, and there are always spiders there.
Kind of like Harry–“Harry was used to spiders. There were a lot of
them in the cupboard under the stairs, and that’s where Harry slept.”
Or something like that. When we were little and didn’t use the
downstars bathroom all that much (it only had a tub at the time; we
didn’t install the shower until I was in 7th grade) and spiders showed
up in the tub, we used to drown them in shampoo. Breck worked quite
well for this. It was oddly satisfying. Anyway, I used to be afraid of
spiders, but I’m not anymore. I still don’t like them all that
much, but if they leave me alone, I’ll leave them alone. There are only
two times spiders actually scare me. 1) When they’re on my bed or 2)
When they jump out suddenly. Or maybe when they’re really, really big.
Once I had a combination of the second and the Big factor. I was
cleaning my room when I picked up a stuffed bunny named Susannah, who I
had made in 9th grade. She has this big dress, and I usually put her on
my bed when I actually make it (which is about once every 3 months, if
that). When I picked her up, a gigantic spider fell out. I swear, it
was 3 inches in diameter. You can bet that I dropped that bunny and ran
like heck. My dad finally found the spider under my bed, and he agreed
that it was probably one of the biggest he’d ever seen. But since
spiders don’t get on my bed all that often (it seems to be Sacred
Space, spider-wise) and don’t really jump out at me all that much, I
get along quite well with spiders. Except when they show up in the
bathtub. Then I wash them down the drain. I had two to wash down today,
as a matter of fact. But yesterday was different.
I had checked to tub. No spiders. So I turned on the water and got in
the shower. Now, I have really, really bad vision, so when I’m in the
shower, everything is a blur. It wasn’t until I got out of the shower
and put my glasses back on that I noticed the little spider that had
magically appeared in the bottom of the tub. It was very dead–
drowned, most likely. But just knowing that there was a spider at my
feet while I was showering made me shudder. The idea of stepping on the
little thing with my bare feet was not satisfying.
I checked the shower more carefully this time.
And I can state that I’m not looking forward to the Aragog scene in
Chamber of Secrets. A three-inch spider is bad enough–how am I going
to react to a 6-foot one? Even if I know it’s fake and it’s on a screen
where it can’t hurt me? *shudder* Poor Ron.

Yesterday I was a Very Nice Sister and loaned my laptop to my little
sister, Laura. You see, she has a computer, but it’s completely wigging
out on her. My dad thinks it’s a problem with the power supply, but as
the computer is a little weird (it’s kind of like an i-Mac, all in one,
except it’s a PC), he can’t get the right parts. So dad called the
company, and come to find out, he had ordered the computer exactly 1
year before (to the day!), and they give a grace period on the
warranty, so if we sent Cogline (Laura’s computer) back in the next
five days, they would fix it for free. Now, this is a good thing, and
yet a bad thing, because Laura started school today and kind of needs a
computer. So I let her take my laptop down to school, as Cogline is
likely to be gone for some weeks.
Now I’m really missing Ginny (my desktop is Harry ), because I used
to sit in front of the TV and write and do revisions. Now I’m having to
stay in my room and use Harry. Not that I don’t love Harry, but Ginny
was so much more convenient.
Oh, well. Her need was more than mine, I guess.

I’ve decided to post my very best poem here so that the people who
really care can read it. It’s already at poetry.com; like anyone would
ever be able to find it there. Anyway, here goes.
Longing
empty
  and there is nothing
  to hold but
  a stuffed rabbit
arms
  and I see them
  holding   each other
can
  and I can’t help
  but wonder
  when?
hold
  and when   will I
  hold someone?
a lot.
  and when
  will it be
  my turn?
And
Just to prove to myself that I can write.
Someday I’ll post some of the bad poems I’ve collected from my high
school Literary Magazine. None of my high school friends read this,
anyway.

I just posted section 4 of Look to Your Dreams. I like the
section, and each of the other individual sections, but I’m slightly
dissastisfied with the fic as a whole. Section 4 skips an entire
year–and more–and I hate doing that. Right now I’m brainstorming for
a way to write another section 4 and make They All Laughed
section 5 instead. But not only do I have to come up with at least one
incident during that year, I also have to come up with a song that
expresses the idea of being just friends but wanting more. I might have
an incident, but I’m drawing a blank on songs. Anyone got any ideas?

You know, the internet has been pretty dead lately. At least the little
corner of it that I inhabit. I posted part 3 of my story and have only
gotten 3 comments so far, not including the chat I had with Teri on
AIM. I was also lucky enough to catch Alec Dossetor (who always starts
our conversations with “Hail Emily” which I just think is so British
*grin*) for a brief moment–long enough to get a commitment out of him
to beta my story once it’s finished. I just want to avoid Americanisms,
and I can’t think of anything better to help out with that than to have
a Brit let me know that British teens don’t say “okay” (that’s one of
the words I’m worried about).
But, anyway, back to the internet being dead. Wolf hadn’t posted in so
long that Elizabeth and I got worried about him and e-mailed him. He
said he wouldn’t get blown up on a bus without Blogging about it. As
his blog shows nothing about busses, I take that to mean he’s safe.
Seriously, Wolf, you should make sure to tell your parents to send a
global e-mail to everyone in your address book if anything serious
happens to you that renders you completely unable to do anything
computer-related (which knowing Wolf, would have to be very serious
indeed). There would be a lot of people worried about you if you
suddenly dropped off the face of the planet.
Same goes for all my internet friends. Leave word with loved ones to
let us internet people (or at least one internet person who can spread
the word) know what’s going on. I was worried sick about Elizabeth
until her husband e-mailed Wolf to tell him she was in the hospital
(which of course only made me worry more!). Word tends to get around in
RL, but not here in cyberspace.
My personal theory as to why the internet is dead: We’ve all suddenly
realized that summer is almost over and we’ve just spent most of it
inside looking at a computer screen, so we’ve all headed out to fit 3
months of outdoor activities into two weeks. Once school starts, people
will be back. The irony of it all is that when we’re out of school and
have more time, we spend less of it on the internet, whereas when we’re
in school and have less time, we spend more of it on the internet.
My, that was a rambling post.

*giggle*
Okay, I went to this site looking for other things, saw this
headline and just had to look.
Looks like someone’s been listening to Hermione and her House-Elf
Liberation Front.

Look to Your Dreams Section 3– Crash and Burn is now up at the
usual places.
In the meantime, I have learned that Trazodone definitely does NOT
agree with me. I tried it again on Monday night, and I woke up Tuesday
morning exhausted and with a raging headache. Having a lot of things to
do yesterday, I broke out the Excedrin. Which brings me to another new
discovery. Caffeine makes me feel weak and lightheaded. The headache
went away, but when I was walking toward the library with my bridal
shower gift (a springform cake pan), my chocolate caramel pecan
brownies (Maybe I’ll post the recipe, they’re delicious), and my laptop
(so I could write section 3 while I was waiting for my sisters to get
off work), my legs were shaking so bad I thought I was going to faint.
I’ve noticed this phenomenon before, when I finally got my Pepsi last
week. I was hoping it was an isolated incident, but apparently not.
Anyway, I had fun at the shower, then settled in with my laptop. The
problem was, I felt so awful, I couldn’t write. I spent almost the
whole 3 hours downloading trailers and playing games (thanks to the
lovely Ethernet connections they have in the library). Anyway, when I
finally got home, I collapsed on the couch and stayed there the rest of
the night. Luckily, by about 7 or so, I started to feel a bit better,
so I was able to write the next section. Now, after a good night’s
sleep (well, as good as I ever get), I’m feeling much better.
Note to self: Avoid sleeping pills and caffeine. Sleeping pills keep
you awake, and caffeine makes you tired. How’s that for irony?

My laptop has started acting up. Not hugely, but enough that it’s
annoying. You see, every once in a while the 8,i,k, and ,
keys stop working. All the other keys type, but that whole column
doesn’t work. So far, I’ve been able to get them to work again after a
bit, but there’s no continuity on what gets them to work again. The
first time, I turned it off for a while and when I rebooted, they
worked. The second time, I tried jiggling the comma key around, and
that worked. The third time, I got out a can of Dust-off and sprayed
out all the dust underneath the keyboard. I haven’t tried it again to
see if that solved the problem. I guess that’s what comes of buying a
used laptop.
However, I did go onto the Dell website and make sure the warranty was
still active and under my name. It is, so if anything goes wrong, I can
call up Dell. Hopefully it will be covered.
Wolf, any ideas as to what could be wrong?