JANcich & hanDLEY

A Photo Tour of Orwell's London

On one of the last days I was in London, I walked all over the city from Hampstead to Fleet Street to Covent Garden and took photos of places where George Orwell lived and worked.  I have been a on a big George Orwell kick over the past 7-8 months.  I've been steadily digesting most of his novels and non-fiction works.

It started with Down and Out in Paris and London.  I have always liked the book 1984, but Orwell has a mountain of previous work.  I did not truly understand 1984 until I read most of earlier work (I'm still reading, in fact).  He put everything he had into that final book before his death.  Its origins clearly go all the way back to his first novel Burmese Days and feature prominently is his experience fighting in the Spanish Civil War recounted in Homeage to Catlonia.

The photo gallery is here.  I must give credit to another website hosted by Andrew MacDonald.  His website contains an older set of many of the same pictures with addresses from the book Orwell's London which I was too lazy to check out at the British Library.  There have been some changes between his pics in 1999 and mine.

The only other comment I wish to make regards what I believe is a widely held falsity about Orwell's message in 1984.  Orwell was warning against totalitarianism and fascism.  However, he was an ardent socialist, almost Marxist for that matter.  He fought with the Marxist militia in the Spanish War.  He believed that communism and fascism were wholesale perversions of the Marxist ideal because they gave too much power to the state.  He believed that socialism could really work and surely opposed unfeterred capitalism.  That's all.  Just be careful what you label "Orwellian."

Phobias

This week I read an article about helping children with needlephobia. As a lifelong sufferer of this condition, the article brought back memories of my early childhood visits to the doctor. My fearless brother Matt and I always had our physical exams at the same time. His favorite part seemed to be the blood draws and shots because he thought they were "cool." I, on the other hand, fought back a panic attack the entire time and tried mentally bargaining with God to avoid any needle sticks.

I have faded memories of going to the doctor for a physical when I was around age five. I fought back tears when the nurse said I would need a "booster shot." She had me lay on my back and prepared to give me the shot in the upper thigh. I whined and cried about it, trying my mom's patience. When it was all over, I limped around for the rest of the day as though my leg had been seriously injured. My mom didn't have much patience for that, either. (Mom -- why didn't you try the hypnosis on me that's mentioned in the article???)

My most terrible childhood memory involves go-around with my severe needlephobia and a visit to the doctor. When I was a child, I had a huge, ugly mole on my upper arm. I was very self-conscious of it, so my mom decided we should have it removed. I thought that was a great idea until the "removal" process started and it involved what seemed like a million needles. I know I cried the whole way through it. The grand finale of the incident occured when I fainted on our way back to the reception desk to make the follow-up appointment.

I think my mom hoped I'd one day outgrow it but, if anything, I think it has gotten worse. As a sorority girl in college, I was practically forced to give blood semi-annually as part of Homecoming and Greek Week festivities. To say those blood drives ruined my day is an understatement. I fretted about it for days beforehand, and by the time I arrived, I was usually a nervous wreck. Oh, and I almost always fainted, of course. Intense peer pressure made me kept showing up for those stupid blood drives, though, until my pal Shelley and I became close friends. She hated needles, too, and didn't care if the older girls in the sorority got mad at her for blowing off the blood drives. I remember when we were juniors, we went shopping on blood drive day. I felt free as a bird. (Shelley -- where were you when we were freshman?!)

I was finally forced to face the fear head on a couple of years ago when I got really sick. During that time, I had as many as 10 doctors appointments a month, and at nearly every one of them, I had to have a blood draw. I felt silly being a 20-something woman who had to have a place to lie down during the "procedure," but not nearly as silly as I would have if I fainted in the parking lot. By the end of the ordeal, I felt I had conquered the fear. Needles still bothered me, but I felt like I was coping better with it. I rarely got lightheaded anymore, and the very mention of a blood draw no longer sent shivers down my spine.

Did I conquer the fear after all? Fat chance. A couple of weeks ago I went to my new doctor. He asked me to make another appointment for a blood draw as part of a physical exam. Haven't quite gotten around to making that appointment....I'm getting woozy just typing about it.

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Week in Review

I'm a terrible person
As I was taking the Metro to work one day this week, a person suffered a heart-attack just as he or she walked onto the train at Takoma Station. The train ended up stuck for about 15 minutes while paramedics came to the scene. This made me very late to work, and I couldn't help but think..."if the heart attack had happened just a few seconds earlier, the person would have had it on the platform instead..."

Kyle's official
Kyle took the first mid-term exam of his PhD career Thursday. He said he didn't think he did that well, but history tells me he is a poor judge of this. At LSE, he told me he didn't do very well on an exam in which he ended up getting a distinction.

I'm finally better
I started coming down with a cold the fourth day of my new job, and ended up miserable for almost an entire week. Is it Murphy's Law that you always get sick when you can least afford to take a day off work? Why couldn't I have had the cold during my six weeks or so of unemployment?

Happy birthday!
My friends Jon and Lisa turned the big 2-8 last week. Happy birthday, you two!

Oh no!

I'm so glad Kyle isn't doing Ironman Hawaii this year...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15278030/

My first week of work and a cold have left me exhausted. A real post will follow soon.

An anniversary special

On Wednesday, Kyle and I will celebrate our third wedding anniversary. While this one will be decidedly less exciting than the previous two, which were spent in Hawaii and London, we've still have some exciting things planned to mark the day.

As my days of unemployment wind down, I've been passing the time by watching a lot of daytime television. Lucky for me, The WE Channel (Wheee!) airs multiple episodes of Bridezillas on weekday afternoons. If you've never seen this trainwreck of a show before, its an hourlong, reality-based show that follows ill-behaved brides-to-be as they plan their weddings. These women boss their families and friends around, throw tantrums, cry, threaten, and take their narcissism to the Nth degree, then walk down the aisle with no shred of dignity intact. It's great television, and as I watch it, I pat myself on the back for remaining human during my own wedding.

Sure, there were a few mishaps on my wedding day. It rained, my DJ was a moron, and dealing with the country club where we held our reception was a nightmare that left me in tears on several occasions. But in the end, everyone had a good time, including the bride and groom.  So whenever I watch Bridezillas, I like to remind Kyle how lucky he is that he didn't marry a wedding-planning monster. He always mumbles "Yeah..." back. Maybe he doesn't remember how calm, cool and collected I was during all of that planning?! ;)

When our first anniversary rolled around, I teased Kyle that I planned to mark the day by surprising him in my wedding dress. I told him he'd come home from work, and there I'd be, lounging on the couch, watching Oprah in my big, white dress. (Have you see that episode of Friends?!)  I thought he'd laugh. Instead, he got really creeped out and told me that I should not, under any circumstances, attempt such a "surprise." Oh well. Lucky for him, my petticoat is MIA, the dress is in my in-laws basement in Madison and there's no way I could get into it by myself anyhow.

So...our wedding may not have perfect and our lives together since have had challenges. We annoy each other regularly and sometimes I wonder if I'm more of Kyle's mother than his wife, especially when I find myself picking up after him. But I've never regretted my decision to marry him, which turned out to be the smartest and best decision I've ever made. Happy anniversary, Kyle!

How awesome is Paul Laeseke?

Very awesome. Our pal Paul, who is also one of Kyle's Ironman triathlon training buddies, totally kicked a** Sunday in the Milwaukee Marathon. He won the race with an incredible time of 2:32:26, more than a minute ahead of the second-place finisher. You can read more about his race here:

Zealous UW student wins men's title

Because of Paul's win, he qualified to compete in the famed Boston Marathon this spring. Since K and I are relatively close to Boston, we hope to be part of the Team Paul cheering section.

Not only is Paul dashingly handsome and totally brilliant, he's also a fantastic athlete. Way to go, Paul! We wish we could have seen the race in person.

A long-overdue update

The Jandley.com blog is in serious need of an update. The new posts have been few and far between lately because there hasn't been much to say. I spent most of September waiting for the phone to ring and going on job interviews, while Kyle was either in class or studying.

Last month, I attended roughly 15 job interviews. It's a good thing I purchased two new suits when I got back to the US, and I certainly got my money's worth out of them. I don't think anyone actually enjoys job interviews, but I really hate them. It's hard to avoid sounding trite and I've never been good at "selling myself."

I attended my second interview Thursday at the place that eventually ended up hiring me. When he called to set up the interview, he told me I'd need to take a "test." This isn't uncommon for the industry in which I work. In fact, I had already taken three other writing tests for other companies during September's job-interview-a-palooza.

However, this tested was remarkably difficult. It had the standard grammar and writing sections, but it was also a test of general knowledge, of which I apparently don't have a lot. Here are a few of the questions I was asked. How would you have done?

1. Who is the head of the Church of England?
2. Name two West African countries.
3. Name three contemporary American composers.
4. Who is the US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development?
5. Who wrote War and Peace? Othello? Pride and Prejudice? Man and Superman?
6. Where is Jakarta?
7. Name two cities in Scotland.
8. What does OPEC stand for?
9. How many countries belong to NATO?
10. Who is the chairperson of the GOP? DNC?
11. What genre of music was "Jelly Roll" Morton associated with?
12. Who is the president of France?

This test took the wind out of my sails, and I left the interview feeling as though I did not do very well. When I got home, I called my dad to complain. Frustratingly, he knew all of the answers to the questions that stumped me! Same story with Kyle. Next time, I'm bringing either my dad or husband to any job interviews in which there will be a test administered.

Even though I didn't feel like I did well on the test, the company felt differently and I got a great offer the next day. Kyle and I decided to celebrate by first, going out to a nice dinner in the district, and second, buying a new car.  The dinner was at a great Belgian place called Belga's, which reminded of us of one of our favorite places in London, Belgo's. Just like the one in London, there were pots of steamed mussels and delicious Belgian waffles on the menu. As for the car, we bought a 2007 VW Rabbit. It is a shadow blue, two-door car with a manual transmission. We'll pick it up later this week.

Just when I thought we'd celebrated enough, I got more good news. I got my last piece of coursework back from London, and I officially earned straight As as a master's student. If I get another A on my dissertation, I'll graduate with distinction, the UK's equivalent to summa cum laude. Not too shabby!

I am spending this week going to the doctor, dentist, etc., so that I'm ready to start work next week with no distractions. While I'm looking forward to the job, I am a bit anxious about being the "new girl." It's a bit like the first day of school. I hope everyone likes me and that I have someone to eat lunch with! ;)

As for the blog, I think future updates will happen on a weekly basis, probably on a Saturday or Sunday. So, check back on Mondays!

I'd also like to wish a new-job congrats to my classmate and pal, Becks, who is also starting a new job next week for a major publisher. My other friends/classmates back in London are doing just as well. Ed has been working since mid-August, and Joe and David are reaching the final stages of job interviews and will be working soon.  I guess that MA wasn't such a bad idea after all....