of movies not seen and books not read
So yeah, there’s this new job thing, and the response from everyone has been overwhelming. I’m not joking when I say I’ve never received so much positive emotion from so many people, ever. I’m not sure if it’s just because it’s a rarity right now to see someone moving on for good reasons (career growth) as opposed to bad ones (got laid off/company crashed) or if I’ve seriously underestimated both the professional network I’ve built and people’s opinion of the work I do. Probably a mixture of both, but it’s deeply flattering (and a touch emotionally overwhelming, for a guy like me who is quiet and in the background by nature.)

But this post isn’t about that.

No, this post is about the important questions—like what movies am I going to watch in the ten days between leaving this job and starting my new one? Yes, including weekends, I’ve snagged ten days off to recharge a little bit. This will be the longest stretch of time I’ve had off since…well hell, I don’t know the last time I had ten entire days. When Madeleine was born maybe? Does that count? Granted, this isn’t a total vacation—I’ll still have all meal responsibilities, have to get the kids to and from school, chores, etc.—mostly it amounts to a window each day that belongs to me. Which is still pretty cool. So what am I going to do with that time?

Well, writing is the obvious thing. My writing time has really suffered the last month and a half or so. Writing is the only major time commitment I’m making for this week, because—well, I don’t need a reason, do I? It’s writing, for chrissakes. I have a few other things I have to do in this time as well—clothes shopping (something I never do), probably some gardening, and my sister is in town the final weekend, which will eat up those days. But other than that—I’m leaving it as open as I can.

One thing I hope to do is watch a few movies. My Netflix queue has loaded up over time and of course I never actually get a chance to watch any of the movies. For sure I want to see Let the Right One In (it has been highly recommended to me), The Gits documentary I bought a year ago but haven’t watched yet, and at least one early David Cronenberg film (both Scanners and Videodrome are in the queue, but sadly Netflix doesn’t have Rabid! I’ve not seen any of them but I’m really intrigued by Rabid, so that’s a bit of a bummer.) If I see a few more movies than that, all the better. The 16th I’m getting together with L. and we are going to watch The Gates of Hell, which I’ve never seen, though the movie poster freaked the hell out of me when I was a kid. We might watch another movie that night too. I really need to see some of the classic Argento that I’ve missed. I’ve seen some of his works (Suspira, Deep Red, Creepers, Demons 2) but there is a lot I haven’t seen, like Tenebrae, that I really want to.

And of course, reading. I’m currently finishing Poe’s Children (one story left), a Ligotti collection (only a few pages left) and I’m about a quarter of the way through Palimpsest (which is wonderful.) I have The Two Sams by Glen Hirshberg sitting here from the library. I read the title story in Poe’s Children and thought it was the best ghost story I’d read in a long, long time. I recall reading a story of his in an issue of Cemetery Dance and liking it a great deal too. I’m really looking forward to reading this collection. I’ll probably have some of my books back from the storage unit by then (and my comic books!), but I should request some more stuff from the library. But what, I wonder? Any ideas?

So yes, I am looking forward to this time. I hope it can be both productive creatively and recharge my batteries. I don’t feel the least bit guilty in having it; as anyone who knows me will tell you, I’ve pretty much worked all my life, rarely have I had more than a few days off here and there. I entered the workforce at 16 (though I worked on the farm growing up), was full time at 18, and haven’t had a break to do anything like go to school or travel since. So ten days sounds pretty damned heavenly.