The Ramblings of a Mental Meanderthal

My background check came through on Wednesday. The job recruiter called and asked whether I wanted to start work on Thursday or Monday. I didn't even think; I blurted out, "TOMORROW" rather emphatically! I got the link to the timecard system, who to report to, and what time and all that. Part of my motivation for starting work asap was to get a paycheck this coming Friday, even if it's rather small. The more I can chuck towards rent this weekend, the less I'll have to pay in late fees when I pay the remainder. And it was nice to start a job on a day when everyone was already in their groove and more relaxed, rather than having the stressful MONDAY energy people often have at high-pressure jobs. This is certainly higher pressure than I've dealt with in over a dozen years, but I welcome it. I learned enough about the phones on Thursday and Friday that I was able to handle a few calls on Friday without having to ask my supervisor what to do. I let her handle ...

I Did Not Finish (DNFed) another book today. It's from the Hufflepuff Reading Challenge I set for myself, so it's not like it's of global importance. I think it's on the list that others recommended because Professor Sprout is head of Hufflepuff House, and it's a nonfiction book about plants: Fifty Plants that Changed the Course of History . It sounds riveting, right? I didn't even start to read it until I'd renewed it a third time, and it's so dry that I can only take in one or two plants at a time. Parts have been interesting, but I can't renew the library book any more, and it's due tomorrow. I am reading another nonfiction book that is beautiful and amazing, and I want to buy a paper copy so I can take it in again and write margin notes. It's called Einstein and the Rabbi: Searching for the Soul by Rabbi Naomi Levy. Aside: I love the idea of female clergy. I was raised Mormon, and that is one of many religions in which women are re...

I first read this in 2017 for the PopSugar reading challenge. I needed a book with a family word in the title. I reread it in 2018. Summary from Goodreads : "A modern-day expansion of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid , this unforgettable debut novel weaves a spellbinding tale of magic and the power of love as a descendent of the original mermaid fights the terrible price of saving herself from a curse that has affected generations of women in her family. "Kathleen has always been dramatic. She suffers from the bizarre malady of experiencing stabbing pain in her feet. On her sixteenth birthday, she woke screaming from the sensation that her tongue had been cut out. No doctor can find a medical explanation for her pain, and even the most powerful drugs have proven useless. Only the touch of seawater can ease her pain, and just temporarily at that. "Now Kathleen is a twenty-five-year-old opera student in Boston and shows immense promise as a sopr...

I talk about this book to everyone. It is freaking AMAZING, and I will talk about this book until I die. Imagine Jane Austen's England. An England at war with France/Napoleon. An England with a mad king, George III, and the Prince of Wales acting as Regent. Now shift its history so the king is only King of Southern England. He acts as a steward in the North, but he does not rule it. The Raven King ruled the North for three hundred years and vanished a couple of centuries ago, but he will return, so the North has no other king. And since the Raven King vanished, he took English magic with him. Magicians nowadays discuss magic. They study magic. They write lengthy and useless essays about magic. Anyone who claims to be a "practical magician" sooner or later proves to be nothing more than a trickster or con artist. Occasionally, a magician will try to perform magic and encourage others to do the same, but he fails in both endeavors. Until one cold winter morning, a magi...

Update on Freshman Composition: I got an A. I did burn out after the midterm, which means I started to get less than perfect scores on assignments. But I did everything that wasn't extra credit, and I got a perfect score on the final exam/essay, so I'm good. Not doing spring semester because I have no money, so I've started learning Spanish on Duolingo. Update on the job hunt: background check is processing. As soon as that comes through, I'll get a start date to work as a temp downtown. I think it's three months, which gives me a reprieve as far as my Unemployment Insurance benefits running out. I don't have much hope that it'll turn into a permanent position, but it's a job, it pays almost as much as my last job (without a commute that costs $140 for gas each month), and I am thrilled to have it. Update on books read in 2018: you can go to Goodreads to see how I did. I'm pleased, both with the number of books read and the average number of pag...