…inside. Well, actually, weather’s getting nice. I got out on my bike twice this weekend, and g-d willing, will get out several times this week.
A shout-out to my bike, which was C’s bike. He doesn’t use it any more, and when I got rid of my folding one last year, suggested I take it over. I had to have it somewhat rejiggered – new handlebars and (then, after a ride where the tires started splitting) new tires – but it rides beautifully now.
So, yeah, it’s May. Mom’s been gone for over three months. I’ve been seriously job-hunting for over three months, too. Got a couple of nibbles on Friday, but I’m in the mental vortex of is this a pandemic thing / am I too old / too obnoxious / not pretty enough / too highly priced / too highly spiced? And, no doubt, I am highly spiced.
But I’ve started the CBAP classes, which seems like a good use of time, and will be doing my monthly reset of process and tweaking my resume. Some advice I’ve heard and should follow is (a) go for quality, not quantity, in the jobs you apply for, and (b) make a serious effort to tweak your resume and cover letter to match the job description. I hate doing (b), but I guess it makes sense.
I did record that piano piece for Mom.
The performance came out OK, but the piano intonation bothers me a lot. Luckily, my piano tuner has started working again and he’s coming today. Expect more videos soon. (I might even re-record this one.)
Speaking of performance videos, I did love the Sondheim special, but won’t share it here because I assume everyone’s seen it. Much as everyone loved “Ladies Who Lunch” (and I certainly did), my favorite performance overall was Michael Cerveris’s spot-on and heart-rending “Finishing the Hat”.
Media consumption: oh, it’s Star Wars Day today. I finished “From a Certain Point of View” this weekend – it’s an anthology of short stories that follow the chronology of Star Wars, but from the POV of (often very) subsidiary characters.
Have started my friend and upstairs neighbor’s latest, Death of an American Beauty. Excellent, of course, and I’m in the acknowledgements, which is a nice surprise! This is now the third book-acknowledgement for me (!!! and I’ll take them): the others are Trunky and Alternate Channels. You should buy all these books.
Also finished the Tarma & Kethry trilogy (Mercedes Lackey), on to the Mage Winds trilogy next.
Oh, I also read Josh Lanyon’s “The Secret at Skull House”, second entry in her ‘cozy mystery’ series. I think Lanyon is an amazing writer, mostly – her wheelhouse is m/m romance in a thriller/mystery setting and if that sort of thing appeals to you and you haven’t read the Adrien English books yet, get you hence. But these ‘cozy mysteries’ – she’s clearly following some sort of formula to make them ‘cozy’ and it’s not a good fit for her and you can see the seams everywhere. Ah well. Have turned back to KJ Charles and “The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal”, which is a lot of fun.
Boob-tube-wise, we finished the latest season of Bosch and have turned to Hollywood which, since we just watched Feud: Bette and Joan, is an excellent choice. And this weekend, we watched (over two nights) the notorious Cleopatra. Can’t say I loved it, but it was fun to watch. I thought the standout was Rex Harrison, who was terrific as Caesar. And look! a young Carroll O’Connor, one of the Caesar-stabbers. Also Hume Cronyn and Martin Landau and Roddy McDowall. And a ton of eye makeup.
I feel like I should have more, but I really don’t. Nothing specifically COVID-19-related, so I’ll leave off the MOC19 tag.
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