maybe I'm crazy but lightning might strike me tonight

[raven]

I have sleeping pills which say "take twenty minutes before sleeping". I think this is a very presumptuous instruction on the part of the people who make the pills, especially as they do sell them in a box that nowhere says "hey you YES YOU these are ALSO the pills labeled 'anti-hay fever; may cause drowsiness" only we're charging you £1 more. But I've taken them. Here I am.

Here is the bad news. Still going to work every day. Still Not Very Good at my job. (Today I sent a whole stack of papers to entirely the wrong government department. Hellfire, brimstone, etc.) I have my midseat review next week, in which my patient and scrupulous supervisor will no doubt scrupulously and patiently tell me everything that's wrong with me. Urgh.

Here is the good news. I am not going to work tomorrow. I took it off, for no reason at all, and I'm going to read, write the novel and take a French class. (Also, is this weird? My colleagues think this is weird. I am not ill, on holiday, or anything else; I am taking a day off in the middle of the week because I damn well feel like it and also, I hate November with a passion and need something to get me through the murk. My colleagues seem to have decided amongst themselves that I'm going to be the weird one. I am weird, I s'pose. They're not bad people at all, my colleagues; I work for the hardest department for a trainee to work for, so they also call me the clever one. I try to tell them, if I were clever I would be wandering through the crisp fall, now, thinking about my thesis, rather than spending hours of my youth on the phone to the Environment Agency, discussing septic tanks.

What else, what else? I have read Snuff. I am still rewatching M*A*S*H. One of my colleagues, I shall call him the Caped Crusader because that is, in fact, his name, spends plenty of time waiting for his photocopying, standing by my desk, probing the limits of my knowledge. By the time he discovered I can quote from Plan 9 From Outer Space, I know just what it was that John Barrowman said straight-faced in Shark Attack 3 and I like Deep Space Nine best but also "The Best of Both Worlds", I think we were friends. We were talking about The West Wing, and I remember saying that I can't deal with Alan Alda not in M*A*S*H and especially not as a Republican, oh, dear, and he said, yes, I've seen that! I remember one I saw just the other day, when Hawkeye can't stop sneezing....

I carefully didn't jump up and down going, omg, omg, and said, merely, "I said to Shim the other day, only that show can take a classic sitcom plot like 'Hawkeye can't stop sneezing' and turn it into TRAUMA."

Today he wandered across my desk and said, so, you're kinda inspiring, can I borrow the DVDs?

I said yes, if he would take one of my deeds of covenant and aim it at the right people tomorrow while I am lying in bed writing my novel. He agreed this was a fair trade. It's always nice, when you find a similar sort of spirit to yours in unexpected places. The Crusader himself said, no one else understands me when I talk about these things. I strongly suspect we are friends.

It hasn't been twenty minutes yet. Er, a meme.

SIX FIVE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. raven
2. loneraven
3. singlecrow
4. Iona
5. IOAN, thank y'all.

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. Red Cornell hoodie
2. heavy silver ring necklace
3. red polka-dot pyjamas

THREE THINGS YOU WANT VERY BADLY AT THE MOMENT:
1. Not to have to go back to work on Thursday. Maybe ever.
2. Sunshine.
3. Um. These.

THREE THINGS YOU DID LAST NIGHT:
1. Well, not sleep. Perish the thought, body! SLEEP IS FOR TORTOISES. Er. What did I do? I probably watched M*A*S*H. Possibly "Yessir, That's Our Baby", which made me feel funny in my heart.
2. Took a bath.
3. Got wet in the rain on the bike, as per usual.

THREE PEOPLE YOU LAST TALKED TO ON THE PHONE:
1. My parents
2. Shim
3. Not counting clients, gavagai. I don't like phones very much.

THREE THINGS YOU ARE GOING TO DO TOMORROW:
1. Take a French class.
2. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep some more.
3. Write novel.

FOUR OF YOUR FAVORITE DRINKS:
1. Water.
2. Coffee.
3. Gin and tonic with elderflower cordial.
4. Strawberry smoothie. That's all I drink. How terribly middle-class I am, to be sure.

THREE THINGS THAT MADE YOU SMILE TODAY:
1. Me: I loved Voyager. If you say something about "Threshold" now, I'm going to kill you.
Caped Crusader: REPTILE BABIES.


2. One of the secretaries, in mid-flow, addressing the entire pool: You know me, girls! You know I'm terribly sociable.
Me (passing through): Are you really? I'd never have guessed.
Secretary: That's what I love about the trainees they give us. Their sense of humour.


3. ...Shim gave me chocolate cake? Well, he did. And promised never to replace me with a shell script, even though it might be tempting. All it would have to do would run all night and all day in ever-decreasing circles and splutter about RAINWATER and DEEDS OF COVENANT and TV WITH SPACESHIPS on occasion.

I sleep now! Hopefully.

Comments

IOAN

[gavagai]

http://storetrek.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_8&products_id=207 i'm going to bed now.

xxx

[surexit]

Snuff! What did you think?

[raven]

I have mixed feelings! A proper review to come!

Re: IOAN

[raven]

you secretly hate me, don't you. don't you.

[surexit]

Mine is over here if you're at all interested, and yeah, mixed feelings. :(

Looking forward to review!

[forthwritten]

Enjoy your sleep! November murk is grim; remind me what sunshine looks like again?

[livrelibre]

I bet you are much better at your job than you realize (and if even if not, screw it; it might just not be the job for you. I was utterly horrid at my first job and it's because I was not at all suited for it. I was much happier once I got out of that line).

And yay for Caped Crusader (and gin and tonics)!

[falena]

I hope you did manage to get some good sleep.

In the meantime, I'm going to be selfish and greedy and hope you'll make more 20-minute-as-I-wait-for-the-pills-to-work update in the future, because I just love the way you write.

[helixaspersa.livejournal.com]

I am curious about where you are taking a one-off French class? Day to yourself is a great idea anyway; I do this sometimes and it can make a huge difference when you're very busy ime. Enjoy!

[spiffynamehere.livejournal.com]

Speaking of Alan Alda and not Republican, have you seen Everyone Says I Love You? Because you should.

[the-acrobat.livejournal.com]

The boots are *so* pretty!

Also, you are great. AND clever!

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

I know just what it was that John Barrowman said straight-faced in Shark Attack 3

IONA I LOVE YOU THIS MUCH

Also, oh my god, "Yessir, That's Our Baby"! I consider myself almost bullet-proof resistant to the charms of orphaned babies and the Very Special Episodes where they win over the casts of, like, every sitcom ever... but I am not immune to "Yessir, That's Our Baby." I just.

So glad to hear you've made such an awesome friend with such manifestly good taste. :) And that people are recognizing how smart and funny you in fact are, as they should.

[subservient-son.livejournal.com]

You should see Everyone Says I Love You - it has Alan Alda as a diehard liberal. One of my favourite actors.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :) The French class is not a one-off, actually; I take the occasional lesson, arranged ad hoc, with a very nice tutor in Cambridge. I can send you her details if you would like.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I have never heard of it! Thanks for the rec.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*blushes* yooooou!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

OMG LEIGH JOHN BARROWMAN. FOR SRS. How is he REAL. I just. *flail* If it weren't for you and the fact you are a shark changeling I would never know these things. :P

Also ohgod "Yessir That's Our Baby". I think I somehow didn't see it the first time round! I am completely undone by it. Hawkeye and Charles fighting with Margaret over a baby! oh my heart.

(I am sort of completely thrown by this chap. He genuinely seems to be a nerd who's been hiding it since I came along! It is a good thing.)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

How is there a musical with Alan Alda and NO ONE TOLD ME. I am going to track this movie down.

[osymandias.livejournal.com]

On Tuesday I discovered that my line manager spends his time outside of work rendering 3D computer models of spaceships. It made me very happy :-)

[subservient-son.livejournal.com]

Because it's a very underrated film. Enjoy!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I am tracking it down! How's the GDL treating you, I meant to ask before.

[subservient-son.livejournal.com]

I have never had so much work in my life. I just hope it all proves worthwhile. Con & Ad is easily my favourite subject.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Land was mine. :) Is it really more work than undergrad? I found the structure of it quite appealing - at least you didn't have a potentially endless reading list, you knew what to read. Do you like it, though? I have to admit, I loved it much more than is strictly cool and hoopy frood. :P

[subservient-son.livejournal.com]

In terms of volume, yes more work even then finals (bearing in mind that I have perfectionist tendencies/inefficient working practices so maybe I should be cutting more corners), though I'm not struggling with any of it in terms of understanding.

I wouldn't say I'm enjoying it exactly. I do like my classmates and the sociability of lectures and classes, but I really miss having evenings and weekends free. The work is a bit frustrating; I'm so used to diving into a contentious issue and construing a theory about something relatively abstract that I find the cheklist approach to legal problems rather limiting (hence my preference for Con & Ad). With Land Law, I really like my tutor, who has a very dry sense of humour, and I don't mind it so much because since there's not so much case law (at least not the stuff we've covered so far), it doesn't take me as long as some of the other subjects.

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

Taking a day off sounds more than reasonable. And you are definitely clever, whether or not you're doing more postgrad.

My manager at work offered to lend me her West Wing DVDs, excitingly. Hurrah for having co-workers with whom you can share DVDs and interests.

[tau_sigma]

It is not weird! I would do that more often, if I didn't then think oh, but Colleen's wedding, and Anwar and my anniversary, and several other things I want to save leave for. But I took today off to spend with my Mum. So there.

If you are the weird one, well, you're damn wonderful too. And I think it's ok to be Not Very Good when you're a trainee. Trust me, I am also a trainee. *hugs*