Tattered Cover

While many of my colleagues enjoy al-desko dining in front of their computer screen during their lunch hour, I prefer to go outside and get some fresh air (or frigid snow-filled air, depending on the current weather conditions in Denver, CO). Yesterday, as the sun was shining once more after a chilling winter storm the day before, I wandered down the 16th street mall to the historic Tattered Cover Book Store.

This book store has always been an landmark of my life as a Coloradoan. In fact, when I was in 2rd grade, I entered a writing contest and won a gift certificate to the Tattered Cover. It would be my first visit. I remember pulling open the front door of the historic lodo building in which the Tattered Cover is housed (there are actually 2 other stores currently in the Denver area) and being completely overwhelmed by the shelves and shelves of books surrounding me. I walked around the store several times searching for the perfect book on which to spend my gift certificate. There were so many choices! Oddly enough, I don’t even remember the exact book I pulled off the shelf that day to add to my small personal library, but I do remember holding the book close to my chest like something precious that could slip away from me at any moment. That was my first visit to the Tattered Cover. Everytime thereafter that I was in lodo or the Cherry Creek area (where the flagship store was originally located), I would jump at the chance to graze through the shelves of books new and old.

The striking thing about the Tattered Cover is its unique charm. The furniture is eclectic, the bookshelves don’t match and there are still employees whose sole purpose is to give you book advice (which is becoming rarer in bookstore chains). It is intimate and personal. In a world where huge conglomerate bookstores hold a monopoly over the book industry, it’s always nice to find a cozy independent bookstore with a large selection. Don’t get me wrong, I love Borders and Barnes and Noble and I order books on Amazon like it’s no one’s business, but there is something about the independent stores where you can browse at your own pace and cozy up on a comfy couch. After spending half a day in front of a computer, it’s really nice to find a little nook in the Tattered Cover and retreat into the world of the printed word (with an occasional coffee).

And that previous blog entry, my friends, is a perfect example of the type of blog post I never wanted to write and publish.  My, how things change.  It was a moment of weakness.  I will try to avoid blogging about the mundane details of my life next time.

Lining up the interview

I am trying to start 2008 off on the right foot by lining up the job interviews.  My goal for this year is to find a stable job for at least a year or until I go to grad school (if I end up going).  Tomorrow, I will have my first interview of 2008, and instead of winging it (which has proved to be highly unsucessful), I have decided to do thourough research on how best to prepare oneself for a job interview.  So far, I have skimmed articles containing typical interview questions and attempted to come up with the best way to answer such questions.  I have also devised a perfect weakness when they ask that dreaded “what is your biggest weakness” question. I will try to sound half-way confident and to present myself in a hirable way.  Hopefully, I have some success.

My next two interviews are lined up for next week.  These two interviews will be somewhat of an adventure as they will both take place in a foreign country (and possibly also in a foreign language – still unknown).  As my interview skills in my native country are not yet well developled, I am assuming that my foreign country/language interview skills leave little to be desired.  I am not going to sweat it too much.  It’s all about the adventure.  And maybe, just maybe, I might find a career path out of it.

Other than these 3 upcoming interviews, I have contacted the temp agencies I have been working for to let them know that yes, I am still looking.  For some reason, they have had no luck finding me employment.  I might, however, have an interview with some bank soon. We will have to wait to find out about that.

For now, everything is still up in the air.  2008 should be the start of something new (if I can pull myself together enough to get hired).  Hopefully, I will have a new job to brag about 3 weeks from now.

The reason I refused to have a public blog

I have another blog somewhere on the internet which is completely private.  Not even my closest friends know the address.  It is not searchable or published on any blogrolls, but it exists.  Why does it exist?  What’s the point of a private blog, anyways? You might ask.  For a long time, I refused to have a public blog because I found it utterly ridiculous to write publicly about the daily occurences of my life.  No one really gives a damn.  I could go from Monday to Sunday describing how the dog (non-existent) would not stop barking.  It just seemed far too mundane to make public.  These types of blogs made me furious.  Go write the events of your crappy life in the pink pages of your diary, for God’s sake.  No one cares! (I am not cynical.)  Or if you insist on using the computer, don’t bother making it accessable to the world.

So for a long time, I had a private blog.  I rarely blogged about my state of mind or the daily occurences of my life, but the blog was nonetheless private because I was very well aware that no one gave a damn about my life.  Now, you ask, why did I decide, all of a sudden, to create a public blog despite all my ranting and raving about the egocentric, masturbatory act of public blogging?  Because writing for oneself is pointless; it leaves you feeling empty, lonely and unsatisfied.

After blogging silently for over a year, I have decided to create a public blog to escape the unrelenting lonliness of solitary writing.

Je reviendrai…

T’inquiètes pas… j’arrive.

All I want for Christmas

A few weeks leading up to Christmas, I started making a mental list of all the things I wanted this year, but try as I might, I could not find many material items to put on my list. I could have asked for clothes or jewelry, books or cds, but many trips to the shopping mall left me at a loss for ideas. I spent hours wandering the bookstore looking for the perfect book to add to my wishlist, but it became a futile search in a sea of worthy books. Too many books, too little time. I think I will forego reading altogether. Lately, I have wanted the updated Chicago Manual of Style. As my days are spent conversing with people whose first language is not English, I feel my grammar has taken a turn for the worse. I logged on to my Amazon account and added grinningly the Chicago manual of Style to my wishlist. But alas, Christmas day came and no heavy grammar Manual was unwrapped. It’s ok. I didn’t really want it anyways. A big book like that would have been heavy in my suitcase. I searched a little more for items to add to my wishlist: something light, easily transportable — a book here, a dvd there. Maybe a nice coat or a shiny new pair of earrings (even though I haven’t worn earrings regularly in 10 years.) The necklace in the display was nice and the purse. How about that little device that you can plug into your computer or the unattainable game console that everyone is lining up for (what’s it called again?). I could ask for a paintset. I have always wanted to pick up painting or drawing or some sort of creative outlet. I could begin my career as a closet artist (which would have been my dream had I not already abandonned all hope of an artistic career). I could ask for a bunch of kitchen utensils to fill my non-existent kitchen. I would really like to have a nice chef’s knife and a set of stainless steel clad-iron pans. It became a growing list that stretched so many years of my life. My faded hopes and ambitions came back to me in these childish wishes, the idea that I could possibly become something greater than myself. But my real list is empty. There is nothing material on this list, nothing I really want that can be wrapped in a box and put under the tree because the truth is I don’t have a life in which to store these items. So what do I want for Christmas? I really don’t know, though a job and a ticket to Paris would be a nice start.