A few weeks ago a coworker and I headed back to the office together after an offsite meeting.
His name was Hemingway*, after the writer he said, but his livelihood was in film. The short, thirty second variety – TV Commercials – TVCs or “spots,” as the industry has designated. He was an accomplished but not quite famous freelance director. Continue reading “A Conversation With Hemingway*”
An essay I began back when I was unemployed.
My mother is worried.
“If you find a job,” she says, “Then you can get engaged soon after.” Continue reading “Marry Me, Maybe?”
Before you get too excited and congratulate me for my overdue re-introduction to society as a productive member, let me just say, I’m only halfway there.* Continue reading “Thoughts After a Long Day at the Office”
Came across this essay in the Financial Times by Alain de Botton on how fictional representations of love can potentially ruin the real thing.
I didn’t date until I was 25, mostly because my years before were filled with crushes on celebrities and fictional characters ranging from Edward Norton to Anime cartoons. I’ve come a long way…I think, except for the moments during certain arguments with Tom, when I backtrack and think, “If Tom and I are meant for each other, why are we having another argument about _(insert topic here, involving anything from domestic inanities to personal values).”
Because, as Botton points out, very few people are “meant” for each other.
“…for most of us, our life’s problem isn’t finding a partner (that’s just one very important and at points thrilling phase), it is tolerating the candidate one eventually finds, and being tolerated by them, over time.
“A wiser culture than ours would recognize that the start of a relationship is not the high point that romantic art assumes; it is merely the first step of a far longer, more ambivalent and yet quietly audacious journey on which we should direct our intelligence and scrutiny.”
Makes sense to me, which is why I like Botton and why I’m marking my calendar to preorder his new book, an un-Romantic novel, The Course of Love, out on June 14th.
Hi Betty,
My name is Mary and I’m with Regal Awards. We are looking for a freelance content writer.
Please email me if you are interested so we can set up a quick phone interview.
Thanks,
Mary Continue reading “Scenes from a Job Hunt: A Phone Interview”
Two years and forever ago, I took a “master class” with Zoe Heller, who wrote What Was She Thinking: Notes On a Scandal which was then adapted into a movie I loved called Notes on a Scandal, starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench. Continue reading “What I’m Reading: The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.”
On the morning of Monday November 11, 2013, Tom and I chatted online. Continue reading “All I Want for Valentine’s Day is an Indian Buffet”
A few months ago I started what seemed like the interminable task of uploading thousands of photos from my old Macbook to Google Drive. Continue reading “A Quiet Afternoon at the Lost Sock Department”
So this is a bit late. Who writes a resolutions-themed post in February? Continue reading “Six Years of Very Highbrow Resolutions”
On Facebook this week a friend asked, “What happened to Thom’s Thursday Thoughts” last week? Was Tom comatose?” Continue reading “Thom’s Thursday Thoughts Are Back”
VERY HIGHBROW 