Nola dresses up for the holidays

St. Charles street car all decked out for Christmas

The first month at work has been great. It’s so much better than my last job that it’s ridiculous and I still can’t believe my luck.

I got up and shopped at 3 a.m. on Black Friday, as usual. Sarah (my cousin) and I found some great sweaters, boots and gifts. Although, I couldn’t find as much as I usually do since I’ve decided to get all New Orleans-themed gifts this year and we were shopping in Pensacola. I did get a down comforter which is amazing and later I got some Holmes space heaters which are absolutely great — but they’re much cheaper at Target than online.

I did get my first paycheck to shop with on Black Friday morning.

However, Louisiana state income tax s-u-c-k-s.

Florida doesn’t have state income tax and I never appreciated that. Now I do. Literally, a fourth of my paycheck was taken out for taxes. I had to cancel my insurance application because I won’t be able to afford it and I also had to put my Krewe of Muses application on hold until this coming Thursday when I get my second paycheck. Hopefully I’ll still be able to get my new Mac soon, but it will probably be February instead of January now.

My Christmas decorations

Back to the heaters — after we finally got warm here in this drafty, old apartment, I got down to decorating. We decided not to get a little tree because, for one, we’re poor and, for two, if we got a real one we were afraid it would draw the bugs in through all the cracks in our house. But I did put up a wreathe and a few lights (inside the house).

There was also a Christmas parade downtown that I actually missed, but will definitely go to next year. It’s put on by the Krewe of Kringle. I am not going to miss the SEC Championship, though. I’ll be watching it at Bourbon Street Blues Company, so hopefully it’ll be awesome and the Gators will win!

It’s a zoo out there

A famous white alligator

Finally made it to the Audubon Zoo on Sunday.

Read my review of it, if you like. I have to say, I was a little disappointed in it. I feel like the Audubon Society is such a major player in the animal world that I half-expected to walk into Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and for only $13!

However, I was sorry to see that many of the animals, especially the white alligator and tigers, were cramped in very small spaces and their amphibian exhibit, if you can call it that, was seriously lacking.

They did have a few more exotic creatures than most zoos, but the exhibit I enjoyed the most was the Louisiana Swamp exhibit. At least I got a look at Louisiana wildlife which no other zoo would probably go into detail about.

I saw the famous nutria and white alligators, which are almost extinct.

I also got to try the traditional Roman Chewing Candy, which was delicious — see what I wrote about them.

One of the famous white alligators

Elephant fountain

Camels

Seriously angry duck

My one ally in this world

Sign at Audubon Zoo

Swamp Monster!

Roman Chewing Candy cart

A famous white alligator

I don’t like money, actually, but it quiets my nerves.

I saw this quote by Joe Louis and just thought it really describes how I feel about money in a funny way. Money seriously irritates me because I need it so much but it’s just stupid paper. But without it, I’m a nervous wreck.

This quote by Dorothy Parker is perfect for describing how I feel now that I finally do have some money:

“I don’t know much about being a millionaire, but I’ll bet I’d be a darling at it.”

I haven’t even received my first paycheck yet and I’ve already spent my next three months worth of money — at least in my mind.

There are just so many things I have wanted to buy or do in the past few months that I’ve been deprived of!

For instance, my computer and my camera are old and quickly dying so I want to buy new ones.

Then, there are places in New Orleans that I’ve wanted to visit, like Audubon Zoo and the graveyard tours.

There’s also the UF Alumni Association, which I did go ahead and buy membership to, and joining the Krewe of Muses, which was a big goal of mine before I had even left Gainesville.

And then there’s those luxuries in life, you know, health insurance. My job offers some, but it’s not very good and would not allow me to keep my Florida doctors so I’m opting to get health insurance on my own. I found a pretty cheap plan through BCBS that’s less than $200/month.

Just imagine what I could do with $1 million…

 

First days of work

I started at my new job as editor on Monday. It was hectic.

There was no buffer period like I have had at other jobs.

My editor on Monday morning: “Here’s some stories I would like you to do before you start laying out your section.”

Did I mention I had never used Quark (the program they layout the paper with) before that morning or that I had absolutely no contacts or phone numbers?

Anyway, I got it done. My first full section is coming out this week, but it still doesn’t feel like mine even though I wrote everything in it and laid most of it out.

Next week will be the first real week for me. I will be starting from scratch and I already have some great ideas. I’m also doing legals, which are extremely tedious and time consuming and which I have never heard of before.

Another thing I have to worry about besides new job stress is my computer. She has been extremely well-performing over the past few years (far superior to all my friends’ Dells and Gateways), but she’s dying fast. I have loved her for over four years but now her battery is completely dead forever and she makes a loud buzzing sound that is really distracting.

Now that it’s finally time to look for a new computer, I’m thinking about going Mac. I am looking at the 13″ Macbook Pro. If anyone has any advice on this topic for me, I would appreciate it! My mind is pretty made up on getting the Mac, but no one at the store or online seems to be able to tell me what my biggest challenges are going to be as someone who is switching from a PC. I did get this pros and cons list forwarded to me from everymac on Twitter. It was semi-helpful, but I’m looking for more. This answers a lot of my compatibility questions, though.

On another note, I can’t wait to see the new South Park episode tonight: Dancing with Smurfs. The new episodes this season are so amazing I can’t even get over it. My favorite so far has been the one where Butters becomes a pimp. Wesley doesn’t like it because he thinks it’s out-of-character for him, but I disagree. He totally goes with an idea once he makes up his mind on the subject…or rather once someone else makes up his mind.

I also got the soundtrack to New Moon which is pretty good. I really like about half the songs on it, so it was worth my money. I can’t wait to see the movie on Thanksgiving weekend — the trailers look awesome. Plus, my first imported widget(!):

On the edge of my seat…

I feel like I have been playing the “hurry up and wait” game for the past week.

Last Monday, a co-worker cursed me out, screaming into my face while at work. Supposedly, he was drunk. His punishment was that he got to go home and sleep it off only to come back days later and act like nothing happened while I was forced to seat him tables. This was really the final draw for this job and me. I couldn’t take it. I have never been so disrespected or treated so poorly before in my life. Maybe I’ve been privileged, but I am just not going to be degraded in that way.

The next day, I searched for a job harder than I ever have. I applied to any job that I qualified for — and some I was extremely over-qualified for. I even interviewed with people who sell things at booths in Sam’s Club. I was ready to do anything to get away from these people at my current job. (Now, most of the people are nice, don’t get me wrong, but it’s the few that are SO rude and disrespectful that I just needed to get away from.)

That’s when I found it: my perfect job. At a weekly paper in a small town outside of Nola. My time at the High Springs Herald (now the North Florida Herald) prepared me for this job so perfectly that it was as if God himself had planned for me to work there.

I got an interview last week and have been writing trial stories for them. I wrote my last one just a few hours ago and I just received a call from the editor: we set up a meeting to “talk about a job” tomorrow morning!

I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch, but it certainly sounds promising.

Besides my total preoccupation with getting this job, I did get a chance to read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. It was excellent. Check out my review (and our book club’s new look). I’m very excited to see the upcoming movie, as well.

My cat pumpkin

Halloween came and went fairly quietly. We had a few trick-or-treaters; mostly kids who were really too old to be doing it still. I carved a cat pumpkin. I rented The Witches of Eastwick — always good. Wesley did law school stuff (surprise!).

Thinking about re-reading Pride and Prejudice, so that I don’t look so pathetic to my book club by continuously writing reviews on three books per month instead of one, because I have no social life. I did just find this awesome Web site called the Republic of Pemberley — Austen fans check it out!

On a much smaller note, I found a poster in my National Geographic and put it up on my wall. It matches my couch.

National Geographic poster of the Khmer Empire (where I have actually been!)

Everything happens for a reason

I have split days off this week, yet again. Normally, this would be a bad thing. It’s amazing how having your off days split by an “on” day can make it feel like you don’t get a break at all.

This week, however, it’s a good thing.

I’ve always believed that everything happens for a reason, and this week I was proved right.

I got a notice in the mail a few days ago stating what my monthly payments are going to be on my federal student loan: $200. That’s almost four times as much as my private loan which is for more. I always thought that federal loans were supposed to be better than private loans, but I’m really not seeing it right now.

Because of this terrible news, I kicked up my job hunt. Four times this fall, I have taken my job hunt to the next level and sent out 50-100 applications in a matter of days and this weekend was one of those times.

Today, I was using my day off to try to sift through the scam responses and apply for more jobs. Then, I found one. I found a job that so perfectly matches my abilities that I can’t let it go. I sent the editor my resume. I called him to make sure he got it. I e-mailed him again to tell him every time I would be available for an interview. And now, I have an interview on Wednesday (which I wouldn’t normally have off) and three trial (paid!) articles to write this week. If I didn’t find out about the payments, I wouldn’t have kicked up my search and found the job. If a girl at my work had not asked for Tuesday off, I would not have had Wednesday off for the interview. There’s no way this could all be coincidence.

I also called the Federal Direct loan people and found out that I’m so pitifully poor right now that I qualify for economic hardship deferment. It’s cool because if I don’t find a higher-paying job by late November, I won’t have to start paying loans for another 12 months.

And to top the day’s accomplishments off, I finished a project I’ve been working on for weeks.

Good day; very good day.

I need all of you to stop what you’re doing and listen

I should really re-watch Anchorman. I love that movie — everything in life can be responded to with an Anchorman quote.

Anyway, I’ve got a lot of updates.

I’m about half-way through The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs and I’m liking it. It’s not as instantaneously satisfying as his The Guinea Pig Diaries, but it’s deeper and it’s really making me think about the way I do things and the parts of my church that I agree/disagree with. I am really impressed with the job he’s doing — he’s honest but also careful to get both sides of a story before judging. Next post, I will put a review on my book club site and link it here so keep an eye out for that. You won’t want to miss it — I have gotten in the note-taking mood while reading this so I have a lot of commentary on it.

[Update: Check out my review on my book club Web site.]

Also went back to Romney today for a beginners/intermediate Pilates class — and loved it even more than before. We used this piece of equipment called a “magic circle” and it was amazingly effective. I actually just ordered one on Amazon.com to use in between classes.

Besides those bits of news, I’ve had a pretty rough week. Started out with me getting cursed at by a drunk co-worker — who did not get fired for coming in drunk or for cursing in my face. So, that was special. I have spent most of my spare time since that incident looking for a new job to no avail.

Yesterday was my mom’s birthday, so I sent her a copy of The Year of Living Biblically and a scarf, which I hear are very popular this season (via my grandma who says everyone on her show is wearing them).

Cannonball!

Amazing book luck

The A.J. Jacobs trifecta -- complete

After reading A.J. Jacobs’ The Guinea Pig Diaries, I immediately ordered his other book, The Year of Living Biblically from Amazon. However, I am so addicted to reading now (having read the former book in a single day) that I couldn’t wait until The Year of Living Biblically came in the mail.

I started to read Voodoo Dreams by Jewell Parker Rhodes. While I can tell this is going to be a great book, I can also tell that I’m not going to be devoting the proper amount of attention to it because I’m too upset that I’m not reading the book I want to be reading at that exact moment. Is this common or just one of my idiosyncrasies?

Long story short, I decided to put Voodoo Dreams down until I exhaust this sudden fascination with A.J. Jacobs’ writings.

So, I went on an evening quest to Barnes and Noble in the next town over to buy Jacobs’ other book, The Know-It-All.

There have been a few glimmering moments in my past when I have been in the right place at the right time. They are definitely few and far between, but today was one of them.

Outrage, Passion & Uncommon Sense

Barnes and Noble was having a $1 book sale. I glanced through, not expecting to find anything but my attention did get caught on one book called Outrage, Passion & Uncommon Sense. It was published by the Newseum in D.C. and National Geographic and it’s about editorial writers in the twentieth century. I took an editorial class in my last semester at UF and absolutely loved it — it was possibly the best class I took in college. I grabbed up the book and headed upstairs to buy Jacobs’ book.

Michael Gartner's signature in the $1 book I just bought

After I got home, I whipped out the new additions to my bookcase to show Wesley. As I opened the editorial book, a piece of paper fell out. I picked it up and quickly realized from my experience at The Gainesville Sun that this book was a media copy that is sent to book reviewers before the book is released to the public. Cool, right? Then, I took a better look at the inside of the book and realized its a signed copy by Michael Gartner, a past president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and a Pulitzer Prize winner for his editorials. Wow. This thing is probably worth money and is really just an extremely cool addition to my book collection, especially as someone who really loves editorial writing.

Isn’t it funny how a lucky find can turn into the star of a collection?

Gator Bait!

Gators win! 13-3

After Stacey arrived in town on Friday afternoon, we headed downtown on the streetcar.

After making the usual stops at Jackson Square and Cafe du Monde, we went on the French Quarter Phantoms tour. It ended up being more historical than scary, but I liked learning about the history of New Orleans.

Saturday, we ate at Crescent City Brewhouse in the Quarter. I had a BLT made with basil and it was excellent. Check out my review in In & Around Uptown.

Later, we went and watched the Gators put a beat-down on the Tigers before walking miles back to the car in mud and mosquitos. It was worth it.

Mordor, complete with Eye of Sauron (a.k.a. Baton Rouge, LA)

One thing I never realized was that Baton Rouge is Mordor. This picture is an actual factory where a huge flame is constantly being thrown between two blinking-red towers.

I finished Dan Brown’s newest book, The Lost Symbol. I liked the unexpected twist at the end, but it was no DaVinci Code.

I moved on to A.J. Jacobs’ The Guinea Pig Diaries and loved it so much that I finished it in one day! Everyone should read this book! I’m just waiting for his other book, The Year of Living Biblically, to come in the mail from Amazon.com.

I’ll keep you updated.

Good books, girlfriends and Gators

I’m finishing up Dan Brown’s new book The Lost Symbol today, Stacey is flying into town on Friday and then we’re going to the LSU vs. UF game on Saturday!

Dan Brown's newest novel "The Lost Symbol"

I am almost done reading Brown’s latest, and I have to say that I like it better than his previous books because he’s more fair to the Masons, but less because I think it’s a little less intense and exciting. I found this really great article about how the Masons feel about his books and I couldn’t agree with them more. Check out my book club’s site to see what we thought about the book.

I’m also super excited about Stacey coming into town tomorrow!! We’re going to do the Nola thing: eat Beignets by the French Market and go down Bourbon. But we’re also going to Baton Rouge.

I’ve never been to Baton Rouge, but I’m extremely excited to be going to see UF beat LSU Saturday night!! Anyone have any suggestions for things to do around the LSU campus besides tailgate?