It's been such a crazy week for me, that I have had no time to blog! I know, excuses. But I've missed writing here, and visiting my friends' blogs. But the week is over, and I hope to get back into the writing swing of things. Here's some of has what kept me busy this week:

Last Friday (hmmm, technically that was last week. Anyway...) husband and I went to see Brokeback Mountain. I've been waiting for this movie to come out for six months, and it hit the theatres Friday in my city as a "pre-release." I read the Annie Proulx short story, part of a collection in Close Range: Wyoming Stories, last year. Forget all your preconceived notions of what this movie is about. It's a love story. It's not "that gay cowboy movie." It's not X rated. In fact, I think it barely deserves its R rating. It is magnificently acted (I was never a Heath Ledger fan before, but now I completely understand why he's getting all the Oscar buzz for his role in this movie). And of course, Jake Gyllenthaal was incredible. I've been a fan of his for quite some time (wink, wink). It is beautifully filmed. The sweeping shots of Big Sky Country in Wyoming are breathtaking. It's never been a part of the country I've wanted to visit before seeing this film. And its story will break your heart. If you've seen it, let me know what you think.

This week at work, I had to interview several people for the graphic designer/web developer position that's open in my company. Last week my manager and I conducted phone screens of potential candidates, and this week we brought three of them in for face-to-face interviews. The person who held the job previously is moving to NYC (lucky him!). The person who replaces him would be the only other person in my department besides my manager and me. I work for a very small company, and I work very closely with the graphic designer. So it's important to me to hire someone who is both talented, and with whom I am compatible.

It was somewhat incredible to see that two of the three candidates we interviewed did not bring a portfolio of their work with them. All of them had experience, and they were interviewing for a design position. Where was their work? As a writer, I can't imagine going on an interview without samples of my work by which my potential employers can judge my ability to do the job. Yet only one of the people we brought in brought a portfolio. And it turned out this was the candidate that I liked best of the three, but not for this reason. Her work was clean, polished, and professional. She was an artist, and not just a techie. Now, in order to succeed at this job, the right candidate does need a certain amount of web development and coding skills, but if the candidate doesn't have a "designer's eye," I don't think we should hire him or her. She was the only one of the three who did. We have more interviews next week, and that's fine with me. I'm not 100% sold on this candidate, but she's my favorite of the three so far.

And finally, my Christmas decorations. Yes, you've read that correctly. It was just this week that I de-Christmased my house. Pathetic, I know. But I have been so tired when I've arrived home from work that I've had no energy to take down and put away the substantial holidays trimmings that have been all over my house for over a month. So I did it little by little, finishing last night by taking the ornaments off the tree. Now we just have to somehow drag the behemoth outside. We always take our tree to the recycling drop-off point in the park near my house, but this year I'm not sure it will fit in my husband's SUV. He's not going to like it, but I'm going to ask him to at least try.