I'm finally getting around to hanging my photos and paintings. I had to. The echo from the bare walls was making me crazy, as was the enervated mundanity of the off-white paint. Besides, I miss my photos. It won't seem like home until I can stare at Iceland and Tahiti again, jewel tones gleaming through the glass.
It's remarkable how framing something gives it a patina of respectibility. I went through a real phase of getting my favorite things professionally framed, spending a couple thousand dollars over five years. I did a lot of my own matting, and I bought plenty of inexpensive, sturdy, attractive wooden frames at Pier 1, but the big stuff had to be taken in to a store and that wasn't cheap. Worth it, though. I love the way a wash or a thin line of color on a frame enhances a piece of art. I've been desultorily buying a painting from Gus for about six months now (well, the decision to buy went relatively quickly; it's the shipping part that is languid), and half the pleasure of finally getting my hands on it will be choosing the right frame.
Frames must be on my mind, because something else I did this week was finally get my glasses adjusted. For the last year I've been vaguely aware they didn't fit just right. Then around Christmas I noticed they'd worn slight indentations into my face. Yuck. Talk about unwanted body modification. Anyway, I got an optometrist to bend and yank and twist them back into shape so they don't dig into my head any more. I hate taking care of little things like that. It's so annoying having to run errands on my lunch hour. I'd far rather be eating and reading, lost to reality just for a little bit.
Reality smacked me upside the head this evening when I took a break from hanging pictures and looked for a job online. I found a couple of nifty jobs advertised. One of them sounded especially interesting: HTML Specialist. Lots of mucking about maintaining web sites and designing layout. I could learn the necessary Perl and other programming pretty quick. I think I'd like the job. The only hitch is I don't understand UNIX, I don't know much about 'vi' editors, I'm purposefully unfamiliar with most Microsoft products because I think they suck nearly as much as Microsoft itself, and I'm a diehard Mac fan who really doesn't plan on ever owning a PC, i.e., I have zero job skills for the sort of thing I'd like to do. Also, I don't have a college degree. So I'm screwed in terms of sending in my resume to any kind of big company. Quel heavy bummer.
I guess it's back to the drawing board. No big deal. I've dealt with far worse things than a sense of being overqualified and underqualified simultaneously. In fact, I'm about to deal with one of them right now. It's time to do my taxes.
But when I'm done, I plan on admiring all the terrific artwork on the walls. Tahiti's looking mighty fine across the room.
