(no subject)

What the actual shit.

My mother, some of the more motherly admins, and the temp who wants my job are all more or less constantly asking me if I am BossBoss yet. Which doesn't bother me, actually, I get why they're curious.

But last week I was all "I wonder if I will get the offer letter this week!" and then this Monday I was called for a third interview for a job I have already been promised. And then Overboss looked at me at the end of this third totally gratuitous interview and said, "By the way, I need three references."

And I laughed. Not a lot, just a little bit. Because that's funny, right? We both know they need references for my file to be complete, but I've been working here for almost four years, it's not like the people I list aren't going to be people he sees every day. So it's funny!

But the poor guy gives me this kind of blank look, like he can't figure out why it's funny, and I think that is probably going to be the moment that defines our working relationship for all time.

So he asked if I could have them for him by tomorrow, and I said "I can have them for you in an hour" and went back to my desk and called three admins and my buddy in HR to ask if they'd be my references. My buddy in HR was confused; "But you don't report to m -- ah. The guy you report to is the guy hiring you. This is messed up."

Oh, you think?

I assumed he would either simply file the references or quickly call them on the phone or even email them briefly, but no -- the people I've listed as references have told me he is in fact emailing them to set up meetings to discuss me. I get that he has to follow protocol, but I think possibly he's taking things a trifle overboard.

My God, what have I done.

(no subject)

So I finished Lunar Park, by Bret Easton Ellis this afternoon. Barring Imperial Bedrooms being a work of heretofore unknown staggering genius, I think Lunar Park is his best book, but I don't think I can ever read it again. I'm frankly pretty proud I got through it this time.

Ellis does not, generally, go for the emotions. He goes for the brain, which is fine, I often prefer that. If he wrote all of his books with the same evocative pathos that he does in Lunar Park, I can't imagine what they would even be. The book was a departure from his general style and an homage to certain literary passions, I knew that when I started reading it, but it is so very different in impact from his other books. I wasn't expecting it.

And that's pretty much all I'm going to say. You can wiki the rest if you want to, but the book hits a bit close to home for me (admittedly in ways I doubt Ellis intended) and I'd like to stop thinking about it now.