Tuesday, August 23, 2005

a hundred million bottles washed up on the shore


oh, inverted world

K has lived and will live in Houston for the rest of her life. As such, she always seems to be in the know of all these little, random things the city has to offer. I only spent a total of about 26 hours with her, but she still felt an obligation to show me something cool I had not previously seen. So, we jumped in her car and started driving, when all of a sudden, I jerked my neck in shock at what we were passing.

ArtLeague Houston is behind this spectacle- a house that was scheduled to be torn down as part of the ArtLeague's expansion became a temporary exhibition of sorts. Better pictures and a better write up can be found here. It is hard to explain how breathtaking this is to see, because it is the act of driving by and coming upon it that is half the brilliance. K was tickled that I had to run across the street to take pictures. I was not as tickled that certain people would not get out of the frame of my picture. Ah, well. It's the South... everything moves a bit slower. And with the stifling heat this weekend, I'm starting to understand why.

By 8:15 in the morning on Monday, when I departed for my interview, the air was already still and sweltering. The night before, there had not been a breeze, but it had cooled enough that it was pleasant to walk outside. The air had been breathable, and the humid heat even felt reminiscent of the summer evenings of my youth. That had been the night before. In the morning, with the sun blazing, the weather felt oppressive again.

Nothing particularly surprised me about my interview except for one moment, when two people were interviewing me at once. They turned to each other, shrugged, and one of them said, "Well, we hardly have any questions for you because you've got a great background. I guess the only thing I'd like to know is whether you'd be interested in working in our department if this opening doesn't pan out for some crazy reason." That gave me the warm fuzzies momentarily. Before the high fives are dispensed, I should point out that I knew, going into this, that I was lowballing it. Houston is not known for having a great pool of candidates in my particular area, and it's not like this inky dink company attracts people to leave the Bay Area every day. The main objective of yesterday's interview was to convince them that I actually wanted the job. I deserve an Oscar for that, because, truth be told, I'm still not sure I do want this job. I know the will she, won't she garbage is probably giving some people a headache by now, but there are additional data points to collect before a final conclusion can be reached. The lab report is due by Friday, I promise.

This one is for the ever awesome maisnon, because she seems a little blue of late about her need to be alone. Babe, you are not alone in your tendencies. Yes, folks, the truth is out there: the single adult household is in the majority in our country. Wow... for once in my life, I am the norm! When I called my brother to celebrate this news, he sighed and told me that it is unseemly to rejoice about such a trend. Killjoy.

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