Catching Up (Again)
I'm not sure quite what happened over the holidays, but my brain seems to have shifted into neutral for the past several weeks, and I've found myself with little of substance to share. OK, one major contributing factor was a sudden necessity for attending to a persistent, numbing activity at work; the other drag was spending too many hours downloading tunes to my new iPod. The combination left me in a mucky mental fog. But my first session of weekend class is coming up this next Saturday, and I've been reading to prepare, so I'm slowly coming out of it.
In other news. . .
We had the first church board meeting of the new year today, and I was elected president. (Some of you may remember me wrestling with this decision back in late November.) It was a unanimous, even enthusiastic, vote, which made me feel good. I immediately dived in to implement my number one plan: keeping meetings focused and on-topic. Fortunately, everyone had already resolved to keep this meeting tight since several people had to leave promptly, and people did a good job sticking to it. The big difference between this meeting and most of the others was that this time I ended the meeting feeling energized and excited, not stressed out and frustrated.
This evening I realized that while I've held a variety of positions of leadership over the years, everything from stage manager and director to "Sergeant of the Day" in a Scottish military re-creation unit, I haven't held the title "President" since my abysmal term as president of the band my senior year of high school. I was a miserable failure, primarily because I was so freaked out about graduating (and unable to admit to it consciously) that I proved unable to uphold any of my responsibilities. It was a miserable experience which eventually resulted in the end of several friendships. I'm not expecting bad things to happen this time out, it was just an odd thought that suddenly occured to me this evening.
At 8:00am Monday I'll be interviewing with the new Director of Sales Operations at the place I've been temping for the past four months. The last DoSO was promoted to VP of another division during the last round of admin interviews. She hired someone else to go with her as her new admin, and they asked me to continue in the Sales Ops position until they could get a new Director, who would then go through the interview process again. I like the new guy, but there's no guarantee he'll consider me a good fit for the position. Competent admins are a dime a dozen. The real issue is how well we match each other on a personality level. On the other hand: I have four months of on-the-job experience, which counts heavily under the "value-added" column where I'm concerned.
I like the people in the department, and I get a lot of positive feedback. As day jobs go, it would be a nice place to stay. But I'm also a bit commitment-shy. This would be just a day job, something to bring in money while I continue to work toward my vocation. If I could be guaranteed continuing temp work at the nice pay rate I've been getting, I'd be happy to keep my freedom. But long-term $16/hour temp jobs are not that common. And if I don't get this job, I don't have any guarantees. So if they offer me the job, I'll take it, but the thought of being a regular employee *anywhere* makes me feel allergic right now.
My daughter, my mother and I went to see the new "Peter Pan" movie on Saturday, and I enjoyed it far more than I expected it to. The young performers did a very nice job, and Jason Isaacs was quite good as Hook. (I've always been partial to elegant, suave pirates.) The production design was wonderful as well: very lush and fantastic.
The story may be called "Peter Pan," but this version is Wendy's story: the story of a girl on the brink of adolescence who decides that she is ready to grow up after all. I liked the fact that when she first catches sight of Hook she isn't frightened by him, she's fascinated. I thought that very true to (emotional) life. I also like the way the screenwriter preserved much of the original tone of the story, but downplayed the whole "housecleaning" aspect. Wendy is a storyteller, and that gives her tremendous influence over all the males she encounters. It's a power she doesn't fully understand, and doesn't know how to use as power -- but it's vividly portrayed. (Power is a subject of great fascination for me. . . )
Hook's inevitable death at the end left me sad. Yes, he's The Bad Guy, and he has been trying to kill Pan - and even Wendy - but the enthusiasm with which the children deride him, literally killing him with cruel mockery, was quite terrible to me. (Again, the power of words. . . ) I wanted him to live, to come back another day.
I've been keeping up with my LJ friends' entries, even though I haven't been leaving many comments lately. I so enjoy and appreciate the variety of interests and perspectives, both serious and humorous, that you all share with me from day to day!
In other news. . .
We had the first church board meeting of the new year today, and I was elected president. (Some of you may remember me wrestling with this decision back in late November.) It was a unanimous, even enthusiastic, vote, which made me feel good. I immediately dived in to implement my number one plan: keeping meetings focused and on-topic. Fortunately, everyone had already resolved to keep this meeting tight since several people had to leave promptly, and people did a good job sticking to it. The big difference between this meeting and most of the others was that this time I ended the meeting feeling energized and excited, not stressed out and frustrated.
This evening I realized that while I've held a variety of positions of leadership over the years, everything from stage manager and director to "Sergeant of the Day" in a Scottish military re-creation unit, I haven't held the title "President" since my abysmal term as president of the band my senior year of high school. I was a miserable failure, primarily because I was so freaked out about graduating (and unable to admit to it consciously) that I proved unable to uphold any of my responsibilities. It was a miserable experience which eventually resulted in the end of several friendships. I'm not expecting bad things to happen this time out, it was just an odd thought that suddenly occured to me this evening.
At 8:00am Monday I'll be interviewing with the new Director of Sales Operations at the place I've been temping for the past four months. The last DoSO was promoted to VP of another division during the last round of admin interviews. She hired someone else to go with her as her new admin, and they asked me to continue in the Sales Ops position until they could get a new Director, who would then go through the interview process again. I like the new guy, but there's no guarantee he'll consider me a good fit for the position. Competent admins are a dime a dozen. The real issue is how well we match each other on a personality level. On the other hand: I have four months of on-the-job experience, which counts heavily under the "value-added" column where I'm concerned.
I like the people in the department, and I get a lot of positive feedback. As day jobs go, it would be a nice place to stay. But I'm also a bit commitment-shy. This would be just a day job, something to bring in money while I continue to work toward my vocation. If I could be guaranteed continuing temp work at the nice pay rate I've been getting, I'd be happy to keep my freedom. But long-term $16/hour temp jobs are not that common. And if I don't get this job, I don't have any guarantees. So if they offer me the job, I'll take it, but the thought of being a regular employee *anywhere* makes me feel allergic right now.
My daughter, my mother and I went to see the new "Peter Pan" movie on Saturday, and I enjoyed it far more than I expected it to. The young performers did a very nice job, and Jason Isaacs was quite good as Hook. (I've always been partial to elegant, suave pirates.) The production design was wonderful as well: very lush and fantastic.
The story may be called "Peter Pan," but this version is Wendy's story: the story of a girl on the brink of adolescence who decides that she is ready to grow up after all. I liked the fact that when she first catches sight of Hook she isn't frightened by him, she's fascinated. I thought that very true to (emotional) life. I also like the way the screenwriter preserved much of the original tone of the story, but downplayed the whole "housecleaning" aspect. Wendy is a storyteller, and that gives her tremendous influence over all the males she encounters. It's a power she doesn't fully understand, and doesn't know how to use as power -- but it's vividly portrayed. (Power is a subject of great fascination for me. . . )
Hook's inevitable death at the end left me sad. Yes, he's The Bad Guy, and he has been trying to kill Pan - and even Wendy - but the enthusiasm with which the children deride him, literally killing him with cruel mockery, was quite terrible to me. (Again, the power of words. . . ) I wanted him to live, to come back another day.
I've been keeping up with my LJ friends' entries, even though I haven't been leaving many comments lately. I so enjoy and appreciate the variety of interests and perspectives, both serious and humorous, that you all share with me from day to day!