Letter to Sara
Aug. 11th, 2002 04:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
abracanabraDespite being the bad-at-keeping-touch person that I am, I just wrote a letter to Sara Miller, and thought I would post it here, as it does a better job than I would at stating where I'm at right now. Wait, I did state it.... Argh.
Sara,
Hey, doll. Thought I'd drop you a line since it's been [nearly] forever, and let you know how Phil & I [and Minneapolis, and others] are doing.
Phil is still working as a chemistry temp at Osmonics, the water filtration membrane manufacturers. I miss health insurance, though really, my memories of it are so vague...something about people in white coats, and tongue depressors. When talking to people, I refer to his job as "contract chemist" to make it sound more official and/or profitable, but, really, he's a temp. It sucks. Over a month ago they said they'd decide on hiring him in two weeks. Heh.
He was hired to take the place of a woman who was taking on more and higher responsibilities. Now she's planning on quitting, which would open up a spot for sure, but she isn't giving her notice until Sept./Oct. So he doesn't want to ask and find out whether he'll be hired until *she* gives notice and puts some extra pressure on.
I worked for a couple of months and got enough money to pay off the new computer I bought because the old one was dying, and owning a computer is a necessity to me, to me. It was not a bad job. They even wanted to hire me on permanently (somehow I ended up supervising three other people, all of whom were older than I was. weird.), but I wanted to get back to working on my novel and so turned them down. I sent Ellen to them because she was looking for a job and I figured a recommendation from me would help her get it. And she did, which is cool. Haven't really talked to her since she started it, so I don't know whether she hates it or not. A lot of my friends are looking for work right now: Eli Weintraub, the impoverished playwright; Uriah, the just plain impoverished; Christine, Jon Ehrich's girl, the illin' impoverished; Chase, the wistfully impoverished; and scads of others. Cole finally got another job in Wells Fargo [ick, but $$].
I've been slacking off a lot recently, in reaction to working oodles of overtime at icky word-processing job, well, and 'cause I'm somewhat lazy. I'm back to editing the novel again, and plan to be finished with it in one month. I keep telling people this, hoping the pressure will actually make me meet the deadline. I'm about halfway through the second draft right now. I keep on changing the title. It went from Swamp Fever to Wet Season Serenade to Khel's Brand to Serenade of Blood & Silver, which is where I'm at now. I like the sound of it: the only problem being that people may think it has to do with werewolves and vampires which it really, really doesn't. My parents think it sounds like a romance novel; I think they're on crack.
Phil & I went down to Kansas for a family reunion on the Wiebe side. It was sort of fun. I was hideously sick...why, yes, I'm dying of consumption, didn't anyone mention it to you? Just kidding. It's a "viral infection" [according to my aunt the doctor]. In other words, I have a cold which has been lingering for two weeks. It was worst while I was there: I was hacking up a lung and feeling woozy lots. I also had the weird thing where the ears get stopped up and it feels like there's pressure being put on them. That was lots of fun, since we flew there and back. Gum didn't do much good, but luckily I like to fly and therefor can put up with small inconveniences like pain for the reward of seeing the clouds from the other side.
I am entertained by my family. It's really a matriarchy; it's run by my three great-aunts, who get incredible amounts of respect. "Respect thy elders" is alive and well in the Wiebes' family, which is good. People attempting to interrupt them during their reminiscing were hastily shot down by the rest of the family. Occupations range from hoof-trimmer and "manual eradication of the artichoke thistle" [no joke] to aerospace engineers and famous writers living in the Netherlands [one day, I too...]. There are fewer farmers than there were a generation ago, but lots of teachers and doctors. I wish I hadn't been sick when we went, but I still had an OK time.
We went to the Kansas Cosmosphere, essentially a museum of flight and spaceflight. It was enjoyable, and I got mint chocolate-chip flavored astronaut's ice cream. At last! The museum is not really designed for kids, and the one 8ish-year old who went was bored stiff. But then, she's rather spoilt. I did my best to expand her worldview.
Kansas is currently having biblical weather. They're in the middle of the worst drought than they've had in a long time (worse than the Great Depression, when Kansas was known as the dustbowl), the temperature is well over a hundred most days, and they're having plagues of locusts and grasshoppers. The population of grasshoppers is something like one to two hundred times what it is normally. And, yes, my parents are still living without air-conditioning. Good human beings.
Lindsey Tuominen and Mikkel Conradi were just up for a visit, and Jon Ehrich threw a shindig for them on Friday. We went, got very drunk, and stumbled our way home at about 3 a.m. Aside from that, it's been a restful weekend. I'll do laundry tonight. Laundry is necessary. Laundry is always necessary. Darn it, when will they mass-produce those bacteria-eating bugs that live happily in clothing and keep it clean and stink-free???? [they do exist; it's so cool]
Tomorrow I'll write, and clean a little, and meander across the street to Loring Park for the Monday night movie. They've been showing free movies every Monday night this summer, all Billy Wilder. It's a good thing to do, sitting on a blanket and smelling the mosquito repellent from all the people around you, waiting with friends until the black-and-white credits roll across the screen and the sky turns violet, then relaxing for two hours of old-fashioned entertainment and critiques of society.
There was one unintentional joke in the original "Sabrina" which we watched last week. The main character was going on about why one shouldn't be afraid to take chances because [insert improbable thing here] could happen. You could get hit by a car crossing the street. You could contract syphilis. And then he said,
"The stock market could crash."
Everyone laughed.
How are you?
Love,
Abra
********************************************************
Abra Staffin Wiebe
http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/detritus/People.html
********************************************************
Sara,
Hey, doll. Thought I'd drop you a line since it's been [nearly] forever, and let you know how Phil & I [and Minneapolis, and others] are doing.
Phil is still working as a chemistry temp at Osmonics, the water filtration membrane manufacturers. I miss health insurance, though really, my memories of it are so vague...something about people in white coats, and tongue depressors. When talking to people, I refer to his job as "contract chemist" to make it sound more official and/or profitable, but, really, he's a temp. It sucks. Over a month ago they said they'd decide on hiring him in two weeks. Heh.
He was hired to take the place of a woman who was taking on more and higher responsibilities. Now she's planning on quitting, which would open up a spot for sure, but she isn't giving her notice until Sept./Oct. So he doesn't want to ask and find out whether he'll be hired until *she* gives notice and puts some extra pressure on.
I worked for a couple of months and got enough money to pay off the new computer I bought because the old one was dying, and owning a computer is a necessity to me, to me. It was not a bad job. They even wanted to hire me on permanently (somehow I ended up supervising three other people, all of whom were older than I was. weird.), but I wanted to get back to working on my novel and so turned them down. I sent Ellen to them because she was looking for a job and I figured a recommendation from me would help her get it. And she did, which is cool. Haven't really talked to her since she started it, so I don't know whether she hates it or not. A lot of my friends are looking for work right now: Eli Weintraub, the impoverished playwright; Uriah, the just plain impoverished; Christine, Jon Ehrich's girl, the illin' impoverished; Chase, the wistfully impoverished; and scads of others. Cole finally got another job in Wells Fargo [ick, but $$].
I've been slacking off a lot recently, in reaction to working oodles of overtime at icky word-processing job, well, and 'cause I'm somewhat lazy. I'm back to editing the novel again, and plan to be finished with it in one month. I keep telling people this, hoping the pressure will actually make me meet the deadline. I'm about halfway through the second draft right now. I keep on changing the title. It went from Swamp Fever to Wet Season Serenade to Khel's Brand to Serenade of Blood & Silver, which is where I'm at now. I like the sound of it: the only problem being that people may think it has to do with werewolves and vampires which it really, really doesn't. My parents think it sounds like a romance novel; I think they're on crack.
Phil & I went down to Kansas for a family reunion on the Wiebe side. It was sort of fun. I was hideously sick...why, yes, I'm dying of consumption, didn't anyone mention it to you? Just kidding. It's a "viral infection" [according to my aunt the doctor]. In other words, I have a cold which has been lingering for two weeks. It was worst while I was there: I was hacking up a lung and feeling woozy lots. I also had the weird thing where the ears get stopped up and it feels like there's pressure being put on them. That was lots of fun, since we flew there and back. Gum didn't do much good, but luckily I like to fly and therefor can put up with small inconveniences like pain for the reward of seeing the clouds from the other side.
I am entertained by my family. It's really a matriarchy; it's run by my three great-aunts, who get incredible amounts of respect. "Respect thy elders" is alive and well in the Wiebes' family, which is good. People attempting to interrupt them during their reminiscing were hastily shot down by the rest of the family. Occupations range from hoof-trimmer and "manual eradication of the artichoke thistle" [no joke] to aerospace engineers and famous writers living in the Netherlands [one day, I too...]. There are fewer farmers than there were a generation ago, but lots of teachers and doctors. I wish I hadn't been sick when we went, but I still had an OK time.
We went to the Kansas Cosmosphere, essentially a museum of flight and spaceflight. It was enjoyable, and I got mint chocolate-chip flavored astronaut's ice cream. At last! The museum is not really designed for kids, and the one 8ish-year old who went was bored stiff. But then, she's rather spoilt. I did my best to expand her worldview.
Kansas is currently having biblical weather. They're in the middle of the worst drought than they've had in a long time (worse than the Great Depression, when Kansas was known as the dustbowl), the temperature is well over a hundred most days, and they're having plagues of locusts and grasshoppers. The population of grasshoppers is something like one to two hundred times what it is normally. And, yes, my parents are still living without air-conditioning. Good human beings.
Lindsey Tuominen and Mikkel Conradi were just up for a visit, and Jon Ehrich threw a shindig for them on Friday. We went, got very drunk, and stumbled our way home at about 3 a.m. Aside from that, it's been a restful weekend. I'll do laundry tonight. Laundry is necessary. Laundry is always necessary. Darn it, when will they mass-produce those bacteria-eating bugs that live happily in clothing and keep it clean and stink-free???? [they do exist; it's so cool]
Tomorrow I'll write, and clean a little, and meander across the street to Loring Park for the Monday night movie. They've been showing free movies every Monday night this summer, all Billy Wilder. It's a good thing to do, sitting on a blanket and smelling the mosquito repellent from all the people around you, waiting with friends until the black-and-white credits roll across the screen and the sky turns violet, then relaxing for two hours of old-fashioned entertainment and critiques of society.
There was one unintentional joke in the original "Sabrina" which we watched last week. The main character was going on about why one shouldn't be afraid to take chances because [insert improbable thing here] could happen. You could get hit by a car crossing the street. You could contract syphilis. And then he said,
"The stock market could crash."
Everyone laughed.
How are you?
Love,
Abra
********************************************************
Abra Staffin Wiebe
http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/detritus/People.html
********************************************************