Bloggy Update 9/13

I’ve thought about revising Rage. Does that count? I think I’m having a difficult time getting back to it because there are no events going on, so somewhere in my head I’m thinking, “who would read it if I finished it?”

I know at some point Covid will go away and things will start happening again (safely), but it’s the grind of it all. Masks. No masks for some. Politics. Everything that I try to avoid on this blog – it’s all causing a whirlwind of icky-ness in my head and making it difficult to focus on anything for a prolonged amount of time. Of course I will get back to it, but as far as pinpointing a day or time? I just can’t make that commitment right now.

I’m having a phone meeting with SURS on October 1. They are the University’s retirement system for Illinois. (I imagine all states have their own) After that meeting, I’m assuming the wheels of actually retiring will start to churn. Paperwork and signatures aside, if February 28/March 1 still works out, that means less than 6 months of work for me.

Retirement can be difficult for people – what to do with all that extra time or coming to terms with who they are as far as a “new identity”. I don’t see that happening for me, which I guess is lucky? Good? I’ve worked at Milner Library for close to 30 years, but I’ve never seen it as a career. It’s been a job – sometimes good, sometimes terrible, but I’ve never had my personal identity wrapped up in doing it. Sure, I’ll miss some of the people, and there are aspects of my position that have been cool, but overall, I’ll be glad to be done and ready to move on to “other things”.

We finished watching Season 2 of Fortitude. It’s really good! If you like weird crime in the arctic regions of the world, you’ll dig this. We also finished what there was to see of Cobra Kai. I was 20 when The Karate Kid came out, so seeing all the “Easter Eggs” and throw back stuff was so fun. I don’t think it would have worked if the two leads hadn’t come back. Yeah, it’s a little “teen angsty” for me, but overall, I really enjoyed it.

We also watched “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”. I read the book, so I had an idea of where it was going. I’ll say this – no spoilers – the last quarter of the movie is different than the book and I thought the first three quarters were pretty great. So…yeah, I didn’t care for how they switched things up.

Okay, that’s all the news fit to print now. Check out the other sections of the blog if you haven’t lately. I’m always on the lookout for music folks or artists (and authors too). If you know of any, send them my way for an interview!

Thanks!