Since Mother Eve in the Garden long ago

Why is it that every time I apply for a job, even though I always go, "why bother, they're going to go with someone more experienced, I know this," I still can't stop the feeling that I'm actually going to get it? That the Newport Preservation Society, which is looking for two people to inventory everything they have, will be like, "oh, hey, she could do all of the textiles and clothing, that would be so excellent." Yet at the same time I know I'm not even going to get an interview.

Hope is the greatest gift, I suppose.

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I've learned so much about military badges and ribbons this week, it's crazy. I hope I use this information at some point, really.

Ooh, I could see an exhibition on the military uniforms and regalia. They have stuff from the Civil War to Vietnam. Other things I could see making exhibitions out of at the Chapman: the theme of Invention, with gadgets patented from the 1860s to 1920 or so, the "bread machine", the collapsible bicycling cup, etc.; underwear to the 1930s; dolls; bottles, from milk bottles used by local dairies to patent medicine bottles; beaded purses and/or accessories in general; cleaning/maintenance tools ...

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I feel like the proper thing to say is "why didn't anyone tell me Slings & Arrows was so good?!" but the thing is I've seen people talking about how good it is for ages and it just took me this long to get around to watching it. Um. It is actually fantastic. Owen went to stay with his gf in Minisink this weekend and Dad is at a wedding with Melissa, so I stayed up to 12:30 last night watching it and now I'm watching more this morning. "Richard, you sound like a Nazi."

ETA: I'm thinking of trying Birchbox for a few months. Pro: get pushed to try new cosmetic whatsits, get to try nicer ones, samples get used up and are easy to get rid of if I don't like them, presents in the mail. Con: $10 a month, already have expenses, could get more for cheaper at CVS. Hm. Might give it a go for a month.

I wrote a bit more about my last topic on DW, if you're interested.

Skirt attached! Feel less useless. Although I think everything might still be the slightest bit big ... I should be able to fix it by just taking out along the center back.

Today I had to get megaboxes off the top shelves of the dress-boxes shelving units. :| I deliberately did the hardest ones first, the ones that are partially blocked by the HVAC thing, so that everything else would be easier, but MAN they were harder than I expected. At least I didn't fall backwards off the ladder? :D?

Yesterday and Thursday I worked on cataloguing the ~*~dresses~*~! It's brilliant. I think my catalogue entries are better-written than the old ones (clothing being the one thing that was actually already in the computer) and I've adjusted the dates on nearly everything so far. About 80% of everything I come across, I know instantly when it's from and usually have to think a second about what it is that I'm picking up on that's doing it, but that other 1/5 I have to actually concentrate on it, and it's sad but it makes me crazy and self-critical about how stupid I am. *sigh*

Mended two things today, my khaki capris and my summer pajama pants. Part of me thinks that making that a habit will help me save money in the long run, but when I think about it I tend to only get rid of clothes when I hate them (often because they're cheap ...) or when they're disintegrating. Anyway, I did a great job, really put my expensive education to good use. The pajama pants have needed to be fixed since I put them away last year.

Cataloguing is a really good setting for me to listen to OSTs that I haven't been able to get into, apparently. I think it's because when I sit down and go OKAY NOW I'M LISTENING TO THIS I get fidgety and bored if I'm not doing much of anything, or I get annoyed if I'm doing something that needs a lot of concentration. Either way I skip a lot and only learn to like a couple of songs. But cataloguing requires the perfect amount of attention and has the perfect amount of getting up and walking away that I can listen to the music without getting impatient if something doesn't 100% thrill me in the first bar. I started with Jane Eyre, because I've always felt a bit bad for not liking it much, and was surprised at how much I actually did like it (except the song where she's shut up in the room where her uncle died - I think it should have been sung by child!Jane, since it's a bit, you know, childish). Then I thought to try (the Off-Broadway) Grey Gardens, because I love a couple of the songs and never listen to the others. HOMG. I've got the Broadway version as well and I see why they made the changes they did, I guess, but the original is the best to me.

I have to wonder what was wrong with all the past curators who just took in any old tat someone threw at them. SO MANY CLAMPS. SO MANY SPECULA. SO MANY FORCEPS. SO MANY SCALPELS.

I'm going to come back later with all the bookmarked quotes from Mme Campan that made me sit up and go "oh!" but for now I just have to say that

1) This is probably the best book I've ever read on the lead-up to the French Revolution. I think it's because it's more personal, and maybe because it's got a more social bent - more episodes of crazy crap that happened to Marie Antoinette to slander her, more social background on what led to various situations. Highly recommend it.

2) At some point in the past couple of years, I was reading something or other about Marie Antoinette and I had this idea for a pseudo-historical novel set in a similar situation, with the heroine as a minor lady at court who an anti-queen faction tries to use. At some other point I had an idea for a story that was more on-the-ground, so to speak, with an aristocratic heroine that got unwillingly mixed up in intrigue and had to hide out with a group of revolutionaries that want a republic but without killing lots of people. I wrote several chapters of the latter, but because the opening was so fast-paced - her getting out of prison when she's about to be poisoned - I stalled out; I couldn't think what action! would happen next. But then it occurred to me while I was eating lunch that OMG I could combine the two and have the book start at court and work its way up to revolutionary hijinks. Which would also give me time to set up the whole missing-prince-falsely-accused-of-murder bit, instead of bringing it up when she figures out who the guy is. I feel so stupid.

I might give a little tour of my stuff in the Great, Strange, and Rarely Seen exhibition this summer! A friend from Blogger is doing a program with HS students and wants them to learn about what goes on behind the scenes and see what goes on.

As today was my last day at AIHA, they gave me a copy of the museum's catalogue signed like a yearbook and postcards of a few of my items from the exhib. It was lovely and everyone was so nice and I only felt a little bit like I'd lost the script and didn't know what I was supposed to say.

1911 corset is much closer to being finished. All the grommets are in, all the bones are in, half of them are flossed, and the top edge is bound. It is a leetle on the large side, unfortunately. I have a hard time patterning corsets to have a gap in the back for some reason. (That reason is that I don't do real mock-ups.)

Finally writing again - working on the story based on that dream I posted about one time. As usual I have to first fix everything because it's been such a long time that huge glaring flaws are jumping out at me in every line. I won't be able to move forward until they're fixed, I get too obsessed.

I've been so worried that I'm not getting responses on the internships I've been applying for because my degree sounds so clothing-oriented, like I don't know anything about decorative arts, which would imply that I will never get a job - but I called the Chapman this afternoon (on Dad's urging) to see if anything was going on, and learned that I am a top candidate and they're glad I'm still interested! So all is not lost and my degree may not be worthless.

Maureen Dowd on Rush Limbaugh

Newsies the Musical (never mind that it already was a musical) is actually happening!

Five hundred previously unknown fairy tales discovered in Regensburg

Today I patterned a ca. 1797 cotton dress and a ca. 1820 evening dress. The more I do, the faster and better I get, and the better I am at noting construction details - for each one, I'm trying to note down the order the pieces are put together. The 1797 dress was a pain because of the pleats - definitely easier to drape on a dress form than to measure - and the 1820 one for the sleeves, because they each have a long rectangular panel of bias-cut satin pleated into zig-zags and took me forever to figure out. I haven't been interested in Regency for a while now, but I'd kind of like an excuse to make a reproduction of this one, tbh. It's detailed enough to be interesting, but also simple enough not to kick in my "urgh" reaction.

Yesterday I bought a membership in the Museum Association of New York ($30), and so this morning I went on the site to see if I could figure out how to get into the members-only section - couldn't, I expect when my echeck goes through they'll email me - and I ended up on the New England Museum Association website and WHOA they have a lot of internship listings! There's one at the American Textile History Museum in Lowell for next spring, to work on their wedding dress exhibit, and Old Sturbridge Village has put up their listing for this summer's internships as well (and two students get small stipends). So I am going to apply to those today, either before or after *sigh* rehearsal.