Winter Cleaning

Posted by Bob Greenberger on December 30, 2005

Normally, taking time off between Christmas and New Year’s works for a lot of people. I, instead, prefer coming in and using the downtime to get things cleaned and organized. Just as I spent two days getting my home office shipshape, we spent yesterday cleaning our common collection of titles, which had managed to sprawl all over the area. With our department scheduled to move to another floor in the spring, now was a good time to get things organized, inventoried and sorted. This way, excess copies of titles could be returned to the Diamond warehouses and we could see what’s left and determine what best could be done.

This morning, as I finished taping and labeling the boxes, our area looked much better. And now there’s far less to box and move in the months ahead.

However, even though we’re in only three days this week, the week hasn’t slowed down as it has in the past. We closed out one book for Hong Kong, I prepped text for another, reviewed unbound sections to OK for the bindery, checked design pages for yet another title and received stats for another Showcase title which need to be checked in and then proofed (fortunately, it’s running a bit early). With luck, I’ll finish proofing the final stats for the previous month’s title this morning and can start on the next one in the New Year.

It’s certainly been a week of catch-up both at home and at work. A good feeling and a nice way to wind down 2005.

We’ve also been catching up on our movies. On Monday, we saw The Family Stone which I liked much more than I expected to. While predominately a drama, like real life, it had its moments of humor. The director and cast did a marvelous job conveying the sense of uncomfortable embarrassment as Sarah Jessica Parker tried to make nice to her prospective in-laws. It is very well cast and the ensemble did well together, headed by the superb Diane Keaton, who is ably supported in an understated way by Craig T. Nelson. While some of the characters are very underdeveloped, the story moves nicely and ends as expected.

Wednesday night, schedules fell in such a way that I wound up accompanying Deb and Katie to see Pride & Prejudice. While I like Keira Knightley the actress, I’m not especially enamored of Jane Austen’s work. Heck, I don’t think I’ve seen the entirety of the much beloved BBC miniseries with Colin Firth. Still, the current film got such nice notices that I figured it was worth checking out. It certainly had a cast of actors I enjoyed from Donald Sutherland to Jena Malone. The movie was very faithful, if abbreviated, according to the women. The story moved nicely and it was certainly a more accurate portrayal of the Bennett family circumstances than previous incarnations. All in all it was a pleasant way to spend an evening. As the credits rolled, the man behind us muttered, “It was a chick flick!” Well, yeah, didn’t you know that coming in?