Yes, America – THAT JUST HAPPENED

As a writer, I enjoy not only using language but also reshaping it.

“Businessing” is now a perfectly cromulent word at my office. I expect it to spread from there, like a virus or a fungus. You’re all welcome.

But I’ve been working on getting a certain phrase out there. I’ve been working on “hoop de doodle” for a couple of years now. My goal is to hear it in a major motion picture by the summer of 2014. (Joss Whedon, are you listening? Hawkeye needs a catch phrase for “Avengers 2″.)

Because I’m Not

A friend from a couple of bad jobs back texted me last night – she was coming into town, one night only, and wanted to meet up for dinner. Of course I said yes, and offered to pick her up at the airport, because as much as I hate picking people up at airports (I would seriously rather pay the exorbitant parking rates than try and thread my way through the maze and traffic) I love spending time with her. There hasn’t been much time for that since she moved to Denver last year.

We met a couple of other friends from the old place at the bar. Inside of half an hour I was quiet, and after another half hour I was wishing I was somewhere else.

Untouched

Hi there, Interwebs! It’s been a while.

It’s been a busy few weeks. I’m speadheading the redesign of our training program, I’m designing our performance evaluations, and I’m designing and building our tests.  I presented my evaluations project to the senior VP, who was impressed enough to enthusiastically recommend it up to his boss – and assign me another major project, one he’s been looking to start for month. He’s also pleased that my department is getting on track and producing cleaner, more timely results thanks to my organized, methodical approach. I’m hoping all this will pay off when a position opens up above me soon.

The drama on my team seems to be fading. More fun, less fighting. I decided to have them create a pledge around what kind of team they want to be: how do they want to conduct themselves, treat each other, and build their environment. So far it’s going well. There’s some resistance from the group that’s at the center of the drama, because they’re not seeing the difference between a team and a group that happens to work together. More than that, they’re not sure why they should care. So I need to sell them on that a bit more.

Other than that, there’s not tons going on. I’m having fun at work, but I feel like I need there to be more than just that going on.

 

Hearing Past the Sounds

I used to subscribe to “Architectural Digest”. It was aspirational – look at the fancy homes, wouldn’t it be great to have one or at least be able to speak knowledgeably about interior design? I lived in a rathole of an apartment with hideous carpet, fake wood panelling from the Seventies, and a fridge that was quite likely older than I was. The freezer shrank from frost until I could barely squeeze in an ice cube tray.

But most of the featured homes would have been nightmares for me to live in. I imagine they were to some extent fluffed up for the photographers, but even so they hewed to an ideal I couldn’t understand. Every surface held some object – a Tiffany lamp, a hand-carved  Thai jade elephant, a gold-and-lacquer curio box. And when I walk into a room, every object wants my attention: every object has a kind of voice, an insistence on being examined and understood and appreciated. 

Inside My Sleeping Head

First I dreamed I had a mouthful of sharp, broken teeth.

After i fell back asleep from that, I dreamed I was at some kind of award ceremony at a bank with my brother and Mneme and J. It had something to do with me and my friends building elaborate movie-themed sandcastles in a construction lot. Mneme thought that was kind of funny and kind of charming. My brother got the award money.

We had to leave the bank quickly because enemies were taking over the city. We had Bran Stark with us and we had to protect him. He went back to his house for something and got captured. We all split up and I got a magic sword that killed anyone with a single blow and also made me super-fast. I rescued Bran and brought him safely to the art district, where I signed someone else’s painting with a stylized Z from my calligraphy pen. Jason Segel nodded approvingly.