Full Hands: Moving

Great quote about editors

This comes from Sam Taylor's The Amnesiac, a really cool book. This British author writes about "sub-editors," which seem to be pretty close to what we term copy editors here in the States, and which I have done for a living.
A copy editor is "essentially a kind of filter; it was my job to simplify and clarify other people's writing. I removed unnecessary sentences, corrected mistakes, reworked jumbled paragraphs. Where there was messiness, I brought order; where there was prolixity, brevity; where there was ambiguity, certainty. I was a policeman of words. I made each article fit neatly in its assigned box and sometimes gave it a headline too. The headlines were the sole source of amusement in the job: whereas in all my other tasks, I was expected to be sober, straightforward, machinelike, with the headlines I was free to have some fun. ... I don't remember now any of those headlines, but I remember the modest pleasure they gave me."

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Moving

So it's official: we are truly out of limbo and really moving. The date is less than three weeks away. I've been packing like crazy, sorting, organizing, throwing, recycling, giving away, selling, and making phone calls. I've been choreographing car shipping, truck rental, plane tickets, home selling, home buying, Marce's job details and professional licensure, and all the other moves associated with moving. I'm starting to feel a bit like the girl with the red shoes (I think that's it), in which the poor girl of the fairy tale puts on shoes that dance with her in them and never stop. She gets danced to death because she can't take them off. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to take these "shoes" off in about 6 weeks, but I'm not sure I'll not be danced to death by then. Cross your fingers for me.
Sleep has become a commodity much sought-after but continually elusive. I'm like those commercials for sleep aids, before some butterfly flitters by a peacefully slumbering actor. I've been thinking the silver lining of this cloud is that at least I'll already be acclimated to the Pacific time zone, two hours earlier. Midnight here is a respectable 10 p.m. there. Voila! Of course, the other side is that I've been waking up at 5 or 6, so will I be waking at 3 or 4 there? I hope that I'll at least just be waking with the early light.
In the meantime, I'm still doing laundry, cooking (well, a little less), cleaning, doing dishes, prying fighting children apart, etc.
Either way, Visalia, here we come! We will definitely be in town by Aug. 11, the day before school registration. It would be nice to be in our own home, but we may very well be staying with family still. Should be quite a fun crowd!