Weekly Roundup

Time for the standard disclaimer - nothing much has happened lately, so my apologies for the a) infrequent blogging, and b) humdrum nature of said infrequent blogging. Life these days has consisted of (in a not-so-random order): working, stressing out about work, eating my weight in nuts and dark chocolate, cooking, cleaning up the dishes after cooking, yelling at Doug for not cleaning the cat boxes regularly, and occasionally reading. Yep. That about sums it up.

Because everyone likes a blog post with photos, here's a photo about working:

I took the photo this morning on my way in to work. It was a little before 8:30am, and it's Easter today, so the Square was especially quiet. A bit eerie, actually. I'm not used to being in Harvard Square that early on a Sunday morning; even when I get to work during the week at 7:30am it's busier, with buses, people walking around, joggers, tourists snapping photos, etc. This was just strange, and nice, because I felt like I could soak more in, like I could take my time. I thought to myself, "How nice! I bet it will be quiet at work, too!" I quickly discovered that it wouldn't be. No student workers for the opening shift, and no student workers for the next shift. So I spent my morning as the only staff person in the whole building, running around helping with reference stuff, getting the newspapers put out for those eager readers, checking items in and out, and calling student workers to ask why they weren't at work. Yes, I gave up my brother-in-law's fantastic cooking to call irresponsible college kids and tell them to come to work. And no, I'm not bitter in the least.

Moving on. Here's a photo about reading:

That's the book I'm currently reading, albeit incredibly slowly. I'm a third of the way through, almost half-way, and it's pretty eye-opening stuff. On the one hand, little of this is really new for me, at least the larger ideas. Some people are introverts, some are extroverts. Western society has evolved to reward extroverts and introverts often feel inferior, defective, almost diseased. (Those are my adjectives, not hers, though they are not too far from what she describes). Introverts will never become true extroverts, no matter how hard they try. Yet I find that there are smaller details that I find fascinating. Details like that I was likely born this way, but that everything from my parents and their parenting style to my friends to the town I lived in nurtured my introversion. That I am shy and introverted, but I didn't necessarily have to be both. That I was likely an orchid child, and it's highly likely that if I had a child it would be an orchid child, too. That there are introverted and extroverted animals, which means that evolutionarily there is some benefit to introversion (otherwise it would not be a trait to survive in species over time). I'm learning a lot about myself. While I am more than a little annoyed that this book is written with the main purpose of explaining to the extroverted business world that introverts can be and are invaluable members of the organization (introverts are valuable to a lot more than the business world!), I'm glad it's been written and I'm glad I'm reading it.

And this leaves me with... what? A photo of cooking? Cleaning? Sleeping? Yelling at Doug? Eh. Who wants to look at photos of that.

I had all kinds of things I wanted to write about when I thought about blogging. I was going to write about how I don't understand what the point of Google+ is and how I feel that it's just another interactive website that's supposed to get me connected to other people so that I can survive and thrive in an extroverted world. I was going to write about how Doug put on the original Swedish-language version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and promptly fell asleep, so now I have this movie blasting at me in the background, this movie that is exactly, minute for minute, the same as the English-language version and even the characters are virtual twins, but I am too lazy to find the remote and turn it off. I was going to write about how I'm two-thirds of the way through the interview process for a new position at work, one that is more responsibility and higher-level management than my current position, but I'm not sure exactly what the job entails and I am still trying to figure out if I want the job because my current job may not exist anymore or because I am eager for something that seems like it could be more involved and engaging.

Yeah, so I had all of these things that I was going to write about. But now I find that I have lost my steam. Sherman's next to me, Doug's snoring (he's sick), and I can't understand a word of what's blaring at me from the TV. Yes, it's time to pack it in and just go to bed. Until next time, patient readers!