October 19th, 2007

Zero Days!

I don’t have braces! I am a person without braces!!! I am a normal adult (HA! I *look* like a normal adult!)

Smile smile smile smile smile.

My teeth are so smoooooth! I had heard teeth can get scarred when you have braces on for a long time, but it turns out not usually, unless you don’t brush or have a bad orthodontist.

I brush! I have a good orthodontist! I have beautiful shiny ridiculously straight teeth!

Smile smile smile smile!!!!

The receptionist at the ortho’s said she’d never seen anyone so excited to have her braces off. I am mystified–doesn’t everybody want their braces off? Stupid disaffected teens. And that was actually somewhat subdued excitement by the end of the visit when I got her to take my (first) “after” picture. Subdued because the appointment was 2.5 hours long, and fairly painful, in that with enamel braces they sort of have to snap them off and the shock reverberates through your skull. And then they get out this vibrating thing and file the glue off, which is also not very fun.

But it’s the sort of thing one forgets immediately when everyone crowds your desk at work to look at your mouth approvingly, and to give you candy and gum! I am chewing Juicy Fruit right now, and it’s the best thing ever. Apparently, while I was away from the land of gum, they reinvented it as a capsule. Sweeetttt!

Smile smile smile smile.

I can*not* stop licking my teeth, even with the gum in. I should really go home.

Happy Friday!!!!!

When you’re beautiful
RR

October 12th, 2007

Specificity and Purpose

I remember in grade eleven being asked to write a little treatise on my favourite word, and I wrote mine on idiosyncratic because that is the sort of thing that appeals at 16–multisyllabic, subjective adjectives that would set me up as an alienated intellectual. Yum.

I still think that’s a nice word, as multisyllabic, subjective adjectives go: it’s got that dipthong thing going and it’s all Greek-y, but I’ve moved on. A writing teacher of mine was devoutly enthused with getting people to use material from their real lives, not necessarily love affairs and fights with parents, because everyone has those, but the quirks of employment and obsessions that are unique, nay, idiosyncratic, that come with a rarefied vocabulary that people from outside do not possess. These words are new to most readers and using them conveys a wealth of detail about the character who would choose these words, in a way that subjective adjectives cannot. Who is analytical? Who is grumpy or fey or trivia? Hard to say.

A person who uses words like folio, pass, bleed, crop, query, tighten, ligature, and cold read is very likely a person who works in publishing production. Coming back to the industry after some time away, I’m appreciating the technical vocabulary perhaps for the first time. The words aren’t gorgeous, but they useful and specific and mine to make use of. I like them. I thought I’d share here my two very favourite publishing words with you, in case you like them too. They aren’t really my favourite words in the language–there’s too many to choose, and world enough and time to use them all–but they are quite good.

kerning (n.) — in a typeset text, the spacing between letters on a line
ledding (n.) — in a typeset text, the spacing between lines on a page

I always knew about those spaces, and that they could be tightened or loosened, and I sensed (maybe?) that a page with optimal spacing was a greater pleasure to read, but I didn’t know those words. Then one day I was able to put concept into letters, exactly the right way, and in a small way, was better for it.

If I crash on the couch / Can I sleep in my clothes?
RR

August 29th, 2007

Two days in

My new job is fine, I think. I haven’t really done much yet, except read the manual and decorate my cube and get lost a bunch of times and have to be extracted from the building by friendly HR folk. Ok, actually I haven’t done anything: my new boss is ill, no one else knows how she wanted me trained and are too busy to do so anyway, and I don’t know anything so I can’t be in anyway helpful. Everyone I’ve met is super nice and friendly, but they can’t chat for too long because they have work to do. It’s no one’s fault, but I’m sorta going nuts.

On the upside, the homepage of my internet there is MSN/Sympatico, which I have never scene before. These were the headlines when I logged in this morning:

Facebook everywhere
Owen Wilson is going to be okay
South Park pushes boundaries again
Dress cute for less
Tips for snagging lower airfares

Aka: the news *every day*.

Ruby asked him with a grin

August 26th, 2007

Goodbye, Whippersnappers

Yesterday was my last day of teaching. In many ways, it was much the saddest job parting ever, because unlike adults you can’t really expect nine-year-olds to keep in touch, and often they just scamper away without even allowing you to rhapsodize about how much you like them. Of course, adults are often lying when they say they’ll stay in touch, and even when they say how much they like you, but at least it is a nice social/sentimental ritual. For my adult colleagues, a couple of whom I genuinely expect to stay friends with because they are so awesome, I got a card. I’ve recently discovered this insane line of nonsensical cards made out of cut-n-paste natural paper. They are blank inside and the pictures on the fronts are to me inexplicable. The one I got for the teaching staff had a chicken (fully grown) busting out of a brown egg while wearing a red church hat and a bow-tie, under a pink and white bow. Hilarious and random, I thought. As I was writing out the card, though, I showed it to the kids and said, “This is for the other teachers, isn’t it bizarre? What do you suppose it means?” To which the whole class responded, “Rebecca, that’s an Easter card!” You could practically hear the implied you idiot. This is pretty much how my whole teaching career has gone. When I handed the card to Ellen, I pointed out that I now knew it was aseasonal and said I was still a little mystified. She opened the card and pointed out that the loops of the topmost bow were actually disembodied bunny ears, which is not only weird but creepy, when you think about it.

I’m really gonna miss that place.

I’m a punk rock prom queen
RR

August 24th, 2007

Closing announcement script

Your attention, please. The building will close in five minutes. I repeat, the building will close in five minutes.

Please leave immediately.

Thank you.

Goodbye, library

In one hour and twelve minutes, I won’t work here anymore. Sniff. It was just a temporary student job, a few hours per week and not that involved, but I have really really liked it here. I like my boss, my colleagues, the location, not so much the actual building but how near it is to other good things, and people. I liked how I could always run into people I know at work. Ok, ok, I really like how work allowed me to do my own thing a lot of the time. Expect a dip in posting from here on in.

Sigh. I made the muffins, I hugged my supervisor, I’m off to a posh pub with AMT ce soir, everything is sorted. I’m just a little sad. Only.

Sweetheart / bitter heart / now I can’t tell you apart
RR

August 22nd, 2007

Nostalgia for Now

Here I sit at the library info desk, watching bright-faced new students of every age and stripe try to find the student card office. I sit behind a sign with directions on it, but they still like to ask me personally. When I point at the sign they announce: “I’ve never been in this building before. I’m a *new student*,” as if no one had every gotten an acceptance letter before. This is technically quite annoying, but I try to remember that they are *excited*, that for most students this is not a quick administrative errand but the kick-off to a major life change, symbolically their passport to independence, academic or personal or whatever, and certainly very exciting. I felt that way when I came to get *my card, 26 or so months ago. The actual picture on the card is of a very grim Rebecca (my friend John once commented on the pic: “You look like you just got out of juvie!”) but in fact I was as exuberant as any of the 18-year-olds who float past me today. I can’t explain that picture. It was a great day.

And now I’m at the other end of the experience, three days away from letting my university job, gym membership, library privileges and life lapse. I’ll be moving on to other exciting things, natch, but now I’m hanging around winding down at my old job while the whole rest of the university community kicks into high gear. I can’t go hang out at my new office in an attempt to wind *up* to the new stuff, because I don’t have the free time (I said almost this exact sentence to someone I don’t know well, who looked at me *extremely* oddly at this point) and because that’d be a weird thing to do. I’m just going to have to go in semi-blind Monday morning, newborn yet again.

In the midst of all this woebegone schoolgirlishness, I tried to go shopping for some grownup office clothes. I didn’t *need* to, since I have plenty of grownup office clothes from the last time we did this. I just like clothes, and thought also it might help with morale.

But you know what’s in style for ladies this fall?

Pinafores.

I have enough trouble feeling age-of-majority without dressing like an elderly waif. I’m going to try again, but I’m not feeling too optimistic about my wardrobing options for fall. Throwbacks to 2005, here I come.

And speaking of 2005…remember the last time I freaked out in August? Next post from my old diary!

Seein’ her reflection in the knife
RR

June 24th, 2007

Sunday at the library

I’ve never worked a weekend before, and it’s not as quiet as one might imagine. When the library hasn’t got many students, it draws out members of the general public, independent scholars and lunatics. Also, today, a bird; I got to chase a small frightened sparrow around with a box for a while, which was kinda fun. And talk to some visiting scholars from Venezuala and Korea. Oh, now my colleague is looking at puppies on the internet. Aww, pugs.

Ok, it’s pretty quiet here. Only 1 hour and 17 minutes to go!

You can read my face / and my biography
RR