January 04, 2005
Back in the Grind
Well, I'm back at work after two wonderful (paid) weeks off. That's one of the great things about this place. They take care of you at Christmas. I only took a couple of vacation days and the rest was covered. Got to do a lot of shopping, wrapping, and preparing for Christmas in the first week, and then enjoyed the simpleness of relaxing the second week. Ric said I laugh a lot more when I'm not so busy thinking about what I need to do next.
My retainer broke over Christmas. Gotta go get a new one. I never thought I'd be back in the orthodontist's chair! I felt funny when I called and said, "I was a patient there about 11 years ago...." At least my orthodontist finally retired. I didn't want to see him again.
I purchased a Gershwin CD of him playing his own stuff to help me finish off the Rhapsody in Blue. It's all memorized - now I just need to tighten it. The piano teacher's kids are sick of the song because I started it in late 2001. In all fairness, I hardly have time to practice, and took almost a year off when we got married... so I'm hoping to be done with it in another 6 months. Hehheh.
I also got the John Sayles short stories book, "Dillinger in Hollywood", because of a little prodding from Dr. B. I've only read two stories, but I like his tone. It takes a little bit for the stories to get strong, but when they do, they actually draw me in. More to come on that whenever I finish it.
We're also reading the one year chronological Bible again. One of the best ways to read the Bible - in the order in which the events took place. Very interesting; I highly recommend trying it sometime.
Work is slow right now - not a lot to do. Must be the calm before the storm.
I've been listening to a few new Christmas gift CDs:
Nick Cave: The Abbatoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus
Travis: Singles
Interpol: Antics
Johnny Cash: The Man Comes Around
... I can't stop listening to the Johnny Cash and Nick Cave albums. Simply beautiful. Actually, Cave sings on Cash's CD, coincidentally. They worked together on the Murder Ballads a long time ago.
Vacation was also useful because I got to go runnning every day. Now I'll be back at three times a week, but the extra training helped me improve my speed and endurance. Now running a few miles doesn't seem like such a big deal (except I get bored running around the track so many times). I love the new field's texture. I don't have any knee problems anymore. Wohoo!
Enough updating. I've got more movie reviews for tomorrow. :)
Posted by wendytime at January 4, 2005 04:05 PM | TrackBackI've always known you were a very cool person, but the fact that you listen to "The Man in Black" elevates you way beyond cool in my book.
Posted by: Joanna on January 4, 2005 08:28 PMThe Chronological Bible reminds me of "The Godfather Saga," where they spliced together the Robert DeNiro half of Part II and put it before the first movie. I think it was only on VHS or something. I never saw it myself though.
Out of curiosity, where did they put the book of Job?
Posted by: Jonathan on January 5, 2005 06:09 AMFunny you should mention that - we just reached it! They placed it after Noah and before Abraham. They often explain the concerns regarding the placement of the stories, noting other points of view when there is disagreement.
They said that a lot of discussion has taken place over when Job's story occurred, but that a good amount of researchers believe it took place either before or around the time of the patriarchs (Abraham, etc.)
The only hard part about the chronological thing is that both Genesis and Chronicles have genealogies. So yesterday, our reading was pretty much doing a double-reading of the genealogies of the decendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And since we're reading out loud with each other, I got to have a lot of tongue-twisters.. :)
Posted by: jeri on January 5, 2005 08:11 AM