Free time

Once again, I'm in a period of unemployment and lots of free time.

A few weeks ago, I had a job interview. It was only part-time, and when I applied they said it was seasonal. I don't think it's appropriate for me to tell you what the job was here on this blog, but it was basically my dream job. It was an editing job that also would have made use of my background in geology and Utah history. But when I mentioned that I had applied to grad school (which I still haven't heard from), they seemed skeptical that I would be able to do school and work for them at the same time. It turns out that "seasonal" was more like two years.
 i8guuuuuuuuuuj
'
'
[That's Jimmy's contribution to the blog. Now he's trying to bite me because I made him get off my keyboard.]

I do find this whole scenario ridiculous and frustrating. I honestly can't imagine anyone else being more qualified for the position, but I find it unreasonable that they would expect someone to work twenty hours a week for two years. I offered to work for the six months before school, but they said "this position is not intended to be temporary." Um, most people don't seek twenty-hour-a-week jobs as permanent jobs, especially if they have ideal qualifications. And what if they hire someone less qualified than I am who quits after a few months because they got a full-time job? They would have gained more by hiring me!

Oh well. It is nice to have free time, and This Is the Place is a fun place to work, even though it doesn't pay much and it doesn't start until the spring. I had a return interview there this week.

My ideal day off consists of the following:

• Cleaning 
• Going downtown to do research on my Pioneer Day article/book. On the day I got my glasses, I instead went to the Whittaker Museum in Centerville. I enjoy going to the Church History Library and looking through microfilms of old newspapers (this week was mostly the 1930s). I do miss working there. Here I am doing those things for fun, and I used to get paid to be there!
• Cardio. Swimming is a good option for wintertime, but it's also a good option when I'm not working, because the pool is only open at weird hours, so it's best to go in the morning or early afternoon. An old swim coach happened to be in the lane next to me this week, and he gave me some pointers, which I appreciated. I've also been doing some running, but of course I have less motivation when the trails, and even the sidewalks, are covered in snow. But I did have some good runs this week along the Jordan River and to the top of Eaglewood.
  
  
  

  

  Aww, a feral cat!

  
  

  

  The highest street in the neighborhood, about a thousand feet in elevation above my house. There's also a gated, paved utility road that goes even higher up, but it was covered in snow.

• Strength training. My Fitbit Ionic watch has some great short but challenging workouts. (Planking is hard!) I often do these while watching terrible 1960s sitcoms (The Flintstones, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C., Green Acres, and Bewitched have been on recently). I've heard that since there are so many movies/TV shows/musical works, people declare certain genres inferior because it's impossible to consume them all. So I mostly watch sixty-year-old sitcoms because that's how I can limit the consumption, even though the quality isn't good (but it's clean!).

Then, if I have extra time after I've done all that, I can relax by reading or by watching movies with foreign subtitles. (Movies are a waste of time, but if I turn on subtitles, at least I feel like I'm studying another language.) This week I watched Fantastic Mr. Fox with French subtitles, thereby learning that "castor" is the Latin name for beaver. I last watched that movie in 2011 (it came out in 2009), and it is very much a hipster movie. And that got me thinking that hipsters are a product of the 2010s. What will replace them in the 2020s?

My problem now that I have lots of free time is making sure I don't stress myself out about trying to make the perfect choices. I think I almost always make wise choices, but I agonize unreasonably about the choices I make. I'm going swimming, but should I have gone running instead? It doesn't matter! They're both good choices!

For example, I got new glasses this week. I went to Eyeglass World, because I've never tried them before. America's Best glasses always get smudges, and Standard Optical is ridiculously expensive and takes a long time. But then I wondered, should I have done more research and picked another glasses place? I got two pairs of glasses (which is standard for Eyeglass World), so the price per pair wasn't very bad. But do I need two pairs? It has been three years since I got glasses, but the time before that was five years between glasses, so am I getting them too soon again? You see how my brain works? It's exhausting!

I'm trying to be more confident in my choices. One thing I like about myself is that I'm motivated to make wise decisions.

I already took members of my family to two Sundance Film Festival movies, Miss Americana and Come Away. I will go more in depth on those next week, when I recap the entire Festival. I have three more tickets for this week, and I'm hoping to see even more as well.

A snowy end

I've felt like this winter hasn't given us major snowstorms. We haven't had a big storm since Thanksgiving.

But we had three storms this week that created problems.

Sundance Institute sends out emails when there is a winter storm warning, letting people work from home. But they often don't do a very good job.

On Monday morning, I kept monitoring my email for a warning email. They had been predicting bad conditions on I-80 all Sunday, and on Monday morning the news showed that it was bad. But there was no email, so I drove to the vanpool site to catch the van up.

Once I got there, I finally saw the email, which they sent out rather late. Obnoxiously, idiotically late, because everyone had already left their homes. Rather than take the van, I just went back home and worked from home. But others were already driving, and it's not good to check email while driving, so how would they know? I only saw the email because I was planning on the carpool; if I drove myself, I definitely wouldn't have seen it. I replied to the email with a frustrated comment, because it's totally unreasonable to tell people they don't have to go to work after they've already left, especially when there were several hours where they could have sent out the email when it wouldn't be too late. Ugh!

Then on Tuesday, we went into the office, and the snow picked up in the afternoon. We left early because of the weather (and they did send out an email), and it took two hours to get out of Park City. That situation was less obnoxious than on Monday, but it still would have been nice to have known earlier.

On Thursday, they finally did their job properly and sent out the snow warning a day ahead of time, since there was a dicey forecast for Friday.

But the problem this time was that Friday was a day we had to be there. Great timing, weather! It was the day we got our movie tickets, Festival jackets (which are orange this year, and I'm so happy!), catalogs, and other items. On top of that, it was the last day of work for us editors. Usually it's not a big deal if we work from home, but this time that wouldn't work.

Luckily, we didn't have to be there on time, so I left late. This entire season of my job, I've driven my own car to Park City exactly twice: my first day and my last day. I left my house about 11:00 and got to the office about 12:40. At the base of Parleys Canyon, there were significant backups because all the semis had to install chains on their tires, and some of them were blocking the road. Once I passed them, it was slow going because of snow, and because I hate driving fast, especially in bad conditions. My car started fishtailing a bit before Parleys Summit, but I was going slow enough that I was safe. When I bought it back in 2017, my requirements were good MPG and all-wheel drive. I avoid snow driving when I can, but I was grateful I had AWD on Friday.

After we picked up our stuff, the publications team had lunch together. And then we had nothing to do, so we editors left early. I drove the two other editors back down the canyon because they had carpooled with someone else.

The end of another job. But it doesn't entirely feel like the end because I'll be attending the Festival this week and next.

This is now my third January in a row where I'm unemployed. When my job at the Church History Library ended two years ago, I didn't expect it to be this hard to get a real (i.e. permanent) job. But I don't know if I'm going to apply to many jobs this spring, unlike the last two springs, because I'm expecting to be in grad school in the fall. But I still haven't heard whether I've been accepted.

I have already established my opinion of January, so this isn't a terribly fun time of year to be unemployed. On the other hand, maybe January would be even worse if I had to work the whole month. So I'm trying to figure out what fun and fulfilling things I will be doing with all my time, especially if I won't be spending time applying to and interviewing for jobs.

Jan You Air E

I have long found it a cruel trick of the calendar that the best holiday seasons are followed by the worst/least interesting ones, namely St. Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day.

But we aren't even there yet. We are worse than that. What a terrible time of year!

But you know what they say: if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.

So, dear January, I am going to tell you nice things.

I like that you give me reason to indulge in hot chocolate on dark nights. It is the only treat currently in season.

I like that you give me the opportunity to work on strength training. The ice, snow, and darkness limit my options for cardio, so I do more strength, even though I don't like it.

This is Shoe Tree Park in Park City, and I sometimes run past it. I like that Park City has a running route that is usually clear of ice and snow.

I like that, while I am sitting at my computer, my sweet kitty comes and sits on my lap. It constantly warms my heart (and my lap) that this soft, warm, adorable creature likes to spend time with me and be my friend, and the way he purrs and tilts back his head so I can rub his chin is just the best.

I like the way the world looks under a fresh layer of snow. But truth be told, that only makes me miss Christmas more.

I like it when the snowflakes are big enough that I can see each distinctive pattern and admire their beauty. Sometimes people wish they could live in a fantasy world or have magical powers or become part of the pages of a book. But snowflakes (and kitties) are a reminder that no fantasy world could be as fantastic as the real world we already have.

I like the bareness of the homes and yards, reminding us of a fresh start. I like that people are trying to better themselves.

And I like that you don't last very long. 😉

Newness of life

Last week I did my decade in review (and forgot to mention the eclipse of 2017, which was a major omission!), which meant that I didn't describe my Christmas. So here's what happened for Christmas and New Year's.

On Monday, December 23, I had to go into the office. But we wrapped up our major project, which meant we got to leave early that day and do very little work the rest of the week. I was shocked! Last year, we had to work Christmas Eve, all the weekdays after Christmas, and New Year's Eve. This time, I had maybe one hour, max, of work to do all week. It was glorious to have a break after working every Saturday since Thanksgiving.

On Christmas Eve, I turned on my Christmas playlist and spent a long time in the kitchen, because my mom was very ambitious about the desserts to make for her family's Christmas gathering. We had gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies, gingerbread eggnog cheesecake, and candy cane "fat man's misery." I made pomegranate guacamole and wassail.

 Once we had wrapped up everything in the kitchen, I watched Netflix's Klaus on Christmas Eve because I hadn't yet seen it.

Then Christmas morning came, and it was good to have the whole family gathered. I got a crepe maker, Paul Reeve's Religion of a Different Color, a mug of geologic time, and a few other odds and ends. Presents are nice, but I find myself increasingly indifferent about them. I know it's super sappy, but the best part of Christmas is spending time with your family. My mom's family came over in the evening for dessert. Once they left, we played some games.

I played my playlist most of the day on Christmas. Am I old fashioned that I still buy and collect music and play it off of Windows Media Player? I find that most of the already-created Christmas playlists are not very good at all. I could make my own on Spotify, but I have a fair amount that is not available there. I just get much more satisfaction out of having my own. (I use Spotify to discover what to add to my own personal collection, but I don't use it as my official playlist.)

On December 28, I got a new laptop. My brother is a huge fan of buying things on sale, so he bought several laptops on holiday sales, then saw if other people wanted them. I've been wanting another laptop before grad school anyway, since my last one is literally falling apart (and has been nothing but trouble since the beginning). It always takes time to get used to a new computer.

On December 29, I attended the North Park YSA Ward for the last time. The bishop from when I moved home in August 2014 was attending that day, so I talked to him, and I felt like things had come full circle.

Aging out of the YSA ward has been the thing I worry about when I wake up at night for the last six months or so. Not only was that where I spent my Sundays, it was the backbone of my entire social life. I am opting to attend my home ward (for several reasons), but will I have any autonomy from my parents if I live with them and go to church with them? Will I ever make friends again? What does it say about me that I aged out instead of "graduating" the expected way?

But the change has happened now, so there's no more reason to dread it.

Anyway, that Sunday, we had the biggest, most perfect snowflakes I have ever seen. My California nephews enjoyed looking at them, but so did I. Winter is my least-favorite season, but I must say, those snowflakes might very well be more spectacular than autumn leaves and blossoming trees.

On that day, my mom's best friend's husband died after a years-long battle with cancer, which meant that we were helping out with that all week—my brother scanned pictures, I edited the obituary, my mom provided much moral support, and we spent several hours on Saturday helping with food. We were happy to help, but the timing was unfortunate, with my brother's family in town, New Year's, etc.

On December 30, my family went down to Thanksgiving Point, and my mom bought a pass. We went to the butterfly exhibit, which was cool, but it wouldn't be worth the admission just for that museum. They had lots of cool butterflies

 and some exhibits of other bugs.

The top left of the cage is an insect, not a twig.

 I spent New Year's Eve at home with my nephews and niece, while we watched movies and played games. I enjoyed celebrating with confetti poppers and tiny leftover fireworks from the Fourth of July.

On January 1, we had some snow, but thankfully it wasn't too heavy. I say "thankfully" because my mom's family goes out to lunch every New Year's Day. But there was still enough snow for my oldest nephew, Preston, to build a snowman, which my niece and sister-in-law decorated and dressed.

I was back in the office on January 2, but the heat wasn't working, so we left early. I didn't mind working in the cold, but I certainly didn't complain about working from home. I worked from home all day on Friday as well. But I'm having a hard time being motivated to work, now that all the big assignments are done.

My brother's family flew back to California on Friday, and I will miss them. I enjoyed sledding with them and spending time with them. Most of their interests are video games, YouTube videos about video games, and Squishmallows, which they call Fluffies. (They have brand loyalty, even though they don't call it by its real name.) I often find video games just to be stressful, and there's no point in doing something if I don't like it and it's not good for me. I don't like pushups, but I do them because they're good for me, but video games are not good for me. My taste in YouTube videos is different from that of my nephews. So I have to do something to connect with them, and that connection comes in the form of buying Squishmallows. I have about thirty-five of various sizes right now, and all of them are holiday themed. I've begun buying Valentine's Day ones now, but they are by far less interesting than the Easter, Christmas, and especially Halloween ones.

But now we are in a new year and a new decade. I suspect this will be a monumental year, with a new ward and the potential for grad school and new job. I guess it's fitting that my time in YSA ends along with the decade, just as it began with the decade.