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I'm settling into the holiday season.  My predecessor at my new job always has a radio on (which is odd for me because I haven't done radios at work for years because I've had CDs and things that I listened to instead), so I've been listening to a lot of Christmas music.  It's been odd for me because I went through a phase a while back where I got rid of all extraneous Christmas stuff in my life so that I could enjoy the holiday season.  I don't go mall shopping November through December (ok, I don't do it much the rest of the year, either!).  I don't listen to radio stations other than NPR throughout the Christmas music season.  This means that I can listen to the music at home and enjoy it.  It also means that since I don't spend much time in stores, I get to sit back and enjoy the decorations and parties without feeling overloaded by Christmas.

This year, I'm feeling overloaded again.  I had a week of being inundated by Christmas music.  I was wrapping presents yesterday and was a bit bothered by the music that TP turned on.  I'm not sure why this would be because I listen to other music way more often than the week of inundation I had for Christmas musi.  It might be because Christmas music tends to be very "catchy" and I find myself humming it for hours afterwards.  It's ok, though, because I'm still enjoying the holiday season and Derek switched to music that we don't normally hear on the radio.  My predecessor switched to a radio channel that doesn't play as much Christmas music, too.

My job is rather interesting so far.  I really like the people that I'm working with, and my co-worker gave me an amazing pear cake recipe that I tried out the other night.  YUMMY!  It's weird to try learning a job all over again.  I think that I was rather settled in to my old space.  I was used to people just always accepting my edits and always knowing what was needed to be known about me for us to interact well.

This job is different.  Everyone is very friendly, and people hang-out afterwards.  At my old job, we did hang out occassionally outside of work, but we kept things on separate, professional levels.  In fact, I've done that at all my jobs since high school.  I'm enjoying the adjustment to people being friendlier, but I can't figure out where lines should be drawn.  It's a strange and good adjustment that I'm going through.

The house isn't really decorated for the holidays this year.  With the surgeries in November and the fact that we didn't have plans for people visiting much in December, we didn't really do anything.  The big, beautiful tree that would fit fabulously in our huge picture window is boxed up in the garage. I took out a little table tree (about a foot tall) and put it on the end table, and I also pulled out the holiday tablecloth and our stockings.  I have to admit that I like having our stockings hung on a mantle.

Derek started a blog on livejournal, but he doesn't have one here and I don't have one there.  I've told some friends about this blog, but I don't actually think that anyone's looking at it.  If you are (other than Derek, I know you look), please let me know so that I can decide if I should keep this up or if I should just give up on the idea of online blogging.

I was an English major before I got a degree in business, but I somehow managed to miss a lot of authors.  While I had read about Willa Cather, this was my first experience with actually reading something that Willa Cather had written.  

This was one of those books that I couldn't stop waiting to hear what the character was going to do.  I don't want to ruin the book for you, but I'll give a few main points (nothing that you won't find on the back of the book).  A talented girl is grows up in a small town.  She's from a large family, but her mother has high hopes for her daughter's musical abilities, and eventually the girl gets to leave for the big city where she studies music with professionals. 

The book covers the girl's life, but the ending felt like it was on fast forward.  The events themselves are not surprising, but when I finished the book, I felt like I no longer knew who I was reading about because she went from being about 20 years of age to being in her 30s!  Those are big years to have missed, even if they were what was to be expected from someone whose drive to succeed was so strong.

While I enjoyed the characterization, I plan on reading something else of Willa Cather's before I form an opinion about Willa Cather's writing.  I loved the character but hated how the book skipped what sounded like very important years in her life.

I think that I'm going to start writing a bit about the books that I read.  It's been years since I wrote an actual book review, so don't expect a nicely put together report that has an introduction, the body of my statement, and a conclusion (my 7th grade English teacher was very specific about that layout, he said that whenever you write something, you should, "Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them.")  While I'd like to improve my writing, that is not why I'm writing this blog.  At least, it's not why I'm writing it right now. 

I'll post my first book review in a few minutes.

Today was the Potsdam Food Coop's Holiday Bake Off.  I entered my vegan banana carob chip bread in the new category (vegan desserts).  IAfter dropping off my entry (thanks go out to Derek for cutting everything into pieces for me!), I went to a festival at a local synagogue.  Some friends from my knitting group had told me about the event and suggested that I stop by.  I bought a yummy looking poppyseed roll, chatted with my friend about felting the mittens I just finished, and then went downstairs for some lunch.  I had a huge serving of kugel (if I'd know the serving would be that large, I'd have had soup instead!) and some potatoe latkes with a few people that I knew from the coop.  My knitting group actually meets there, so I'd been there before, but this was my first non-knitting event!

It was funny to leave the synagogue and run into everyone I had lunch with at the coop voting.  I enjoyed the Bake Off, and it's a charity event.  When I was full from tasting desserts so I knew who to vote for, I looked at the donated baked goods to see what I'd like to bid on.  Unfortunately, everything I was interested in was already bid higher than my price range (last year the cookie platter went for $200).  Derek bid about $25 on a fruit tart, though.  He must really like the Potsdam Community Center which is the organization that will benefit from the event.

I had a job interview last week that was promising.  I liked the organization, and I hope that they liked me.  It was interesting to interview at a place where I feel that I won't need to watch everything I say.  The majority of my previous jobs have been for rather conservative firms.  I liked my previous jobs (the longevity I've had at previous places shows that), but I haven't always had similar opinions to the people I work with.  It's should be an interesting change.

I should probably start holiday shopping soon.  By missing November to surgery, my internal clock is very confused.  The fact that it hasn't snowed, yet, has helped, since all the locals had told me that the ground would be white by the first or second week of November at the latest, and it would stay that way through spring.  It's for the best that it hasn't happened, yet, since my mittens are upstairs still drying ;-)

I enjoy checking http://www.cuteoverload.com every few days.  The other day there was a post about using Vox and how great it was.  However, I've been doing searches for cuteoverload here, and they don't seem to have a blog here.  I wonder if Six Apart paid them to advertise on the cuteoverload blog or if I'm just incapable of finding it here.

I am employed!  It's a temp job with no chance of becoming permanent, but it is nice to be working again.  I apparently don't do well when I'm home alone for long periods of time.  I watched quite a bit of tv (on DVD due to our lack of cable) during my period of unemployment.

We'll be having a Banned Books Week party at the end of the month, so I'll be making a lot of plans for that.  There will be a book exchange, a trivia contest, and I'm not sure what else.  If you have any ideas for party games, please let me know.

Derek arrived in New York last Friday afternoon, picked up the keys to our house, and took a look around.  He went to the supermarket about 30 minutes later, and the check-out girl asked if he was the new math professor!  Small town life should be interesting.

We've been checking out yard sales (do you call them yard or garage sales?), and we're already running into the folks we're purchasing from around town!  At the moment, we're rather short on furniture (no seats in the house except the rocker I bought yesterday), but we'll get that set-up soon. 

We've got a pretty town to live in, and people do seem friendly here.  One woman told me that we don't need to lock our house, car, bicycles, etc., but I think that I'm going to keep my bike lock anyway.  I love my bike, and Derek had two stolen in the last couple of years.  Yes, we're in a whole new location, but I'm not trusting enough to just leave my bike sitting in the yard without worrying whether it will be there tomorrow.

I've joined the Potsdam Food Co-op, http://www.potsdamcoop.com, this morning.  They've got a good selection and were able to recommend a bulk produce style co-op (called a CSA).  I need to pick a bank soon because I've only got a few checks left on the old account!

So we're still packing.  Derek's trying to sell his motorcycle, but at least we've got a friend who has offered to help sell it after we're out of town.  We've got the cat problem figured out (same friend is going to help me pill and crate all three for the flight).  The boxes are piled everywhere and we're just down to the "for today" items (I think - I'm sure when we start packing the truck tomorrow, we'll discover we're wrong).

I'm going a wee bit crazy these days, but I'm sure I'll get over it eventually!  One day till the moving van, three days till Derek leaves, and ten days until I leave Tucson (as a resident) forever.

I thought I'd give personal blogging a try.  I, Jenny, will share my life with anyone who has any interest in it.

Be warned, though, I don't tend to have a very interesting life.