Status report

Looking back at the posts of the past couple of weeks, it feels like I've lately neglected to report on the basic nuts-and-bolts of my day-to-day activities. You've probably been sitting there thinking "Gosh, all Mike does these days is recline on the sofa watching reruns of The Sopranos, trolling IMDb for future Surreal Life cast members, and writing bad sad-sack haikus." Wrong you are, my friends. I've been as busy as someone in my situation could hope to be. Here's a bullet point update to bring you up to speed:

-Jobs opportunities currently on the docket include:
--Literary Assistant in North Branford (it's been more than a month, and I've basically given up, but it still counts until I get the "the position has been filled" email)
--Researcher for business-to-business publication in New Haven (a few days have gone by with no word)
--Copy Assistant at Random House (Ha. Ha ha.)
--PR Assistant in West Cornwall, CT (it irks me that I haven't heard anything back from this one; how many people could possibly have applied to this obscure job out in the middle of nowhere?)
--Telephone Interviewer for the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute (sent in a resume yesterday; if it works out, this one could be really interesting [Quinnipiac conducts a lot of political polls, and you'll often see them cited on national news reports])

-I got an email from Kaplan the other day, reinviting me to participate in SAT tutor training. I decided to decline, because at this point it doesn't feel worthwhile, and I'm still kind of pissed that I wasted the entire month of February thinking that I'd be starting at Kaplan in March. It might be a bad decision not to go through with it--yesterday in Newsweek, I read an article about a 27-year-old who just published his first novel, which is a fictionalized account of his three-year stint as an SAT tutor in Manhattan. Whatever. I can't really justify not doing it, so I'll just move on.

-Maybe you caught this interesting development in the comments section of the "What's an Ojibwe?" post: a former Herald colleague of mine sent me a tip about a couple of job openings with Steven Brill, a guy who, among other things, created CourtTV (I think). I'm prepared to dive headlong into these opportunities (one is a writer-researcher job this guy's latest entrepreneurial venture; the other is as a coordinator for journalism career information at Yale). I feel like the writer-researcher gig would be the more favorable of the two. Mostly, it'd get me out of New/North Haven and into New York City, which, the more I think about it, is where I'd like to be right now. I have no idea what my chances of landing either of these jobs will be. I'll keep you posted.

-I met with my uncle and one of his associates yesterday to go over the work I've been doing for them. (In case you missed it, I'm gathering information on companies that have moved out of the Northeast and into the American South or to South America to lower their operating costs.) There wasn't much to report, to their dismay. I feel like I'm in over my head with this project. I have zero working knowledge of business or economics (my Game Theory course in college was torturous). And, quite frankly, I don't ever want to have anything to do with business. From my brief exposure, I can confirm that it's the cold, soulless world we all think it is. Cubicles and expense reports and "maximizing profits." Shudder. (Sidebar: The secretary at the company, the one I wrote about several weeks ago, gave me a very chilly reception this time. She appeared not to recognize me ["Have you ever been here before?"] and she pointedly demanded my paper visitor's badge back when I left. Clearly there was no way she could have found the blog post I wrote about her. I hope.)

-A friend of mine has asked if I would write a recommendation on her behalf for a summer internship she's applying to. This assignment is sure to be the highlight of my month. I'm very excited to be doing it, and I'm very grateful to her for asking me.

-Yesterday, I went with a few people (Corinne!) to the Bushnell Theater in Hartford for a reading by David Sedaris. It was hilarious. And sometimes quite moving. And if I could have anyone's career in the entire world it would probably be his. I may have said that about someone else already (Susan Orlean?), but I'll rescind that and say Sedaris instead. What impressed me most about the reading was the way he was able to control the mood and emotions of an audience of thousands of people. One moment, the theater would be filled with laughter, and the next it was reverently silent. It's an awesome power, and (sadly for me) it's certainly an inherent ability and not something you can achieve by earning a Master's degree.

-This past Monday I took a road trip with my friend Kate to Rhode Island (a Rhode trip?). She had to sign a lease on an apartment she'll be living in this summer. We had a pleasant day: I got a walking tour of the campus, met he old advisor, had a few beers at happy hour, and ate a nice burrito dinner. Nothing beats Li'l Rhody.

-I've got the house all to myself this weekend (Friday-Sunday). Dad's taking a trip to B-more with his lady friend. If you'd like to do anything devious and/or nefarious, you know how to reach me.

-I need to get a gym membership. Like, now.

-Work on my creative writing has totally stalled. It's been days since I've written anything. I've got less than a week to get ten more pages together if I want to apply to the Iowa program. It's doable, but it'll be a challenge. But I really want to go through with it.

I think that about does it. (That was long. I'm sure I'll have lots of spelling and grammar to correct.)

See? And you thought I was just sitting around with my thumb up my...