Vancouver, day 10

Not much happened today. I mean - I got to work, and my boss started telling me about contracts (in general, I mean, not specific contracts), and then the phone rang and he spent a while talking to somebody. At some point a man came into the office and introduced himself - he's the guy whose book I'll start typing up later this week. We talked for a while while my boss was on the phone... he seems really nice and easygoing, which is a definite plus. We'll start the book process on Friday.

Not long after he left, a woman came into the office - a former student of my boss, who wanted to know if my my boss could recommend any full-time jobs. It was... a long conversation that didn't really go anywhere. Hopefully she'll find something, though.

We really didn't get very much done. When the woman left, my boss gave me a manuscript to read through, and then he left to move his car (and presumably get lunch or something... he was gone for a while. I'd read 57 pages by the time he got back, so...). When he returned we talked about the manuscript - I wasn't anywhere near the end of it, but had a good feel for it by then. So we talked over the problems with it, and then he dictated an email to the author while I typed (I type considerably faster than he does.... I've noticed that the emails he sends tend to be considerably longer when I type them).

Several emails later (to various people on various topics), an editor came in to do the final edit on a manuscript. He was late (same as last week), and the two of them spent the next forty-five minutes arguing about... actually, I'm not entirely sure what. What to include when calculating profit? What to do about an author problem? I mostly listened and tried not to laugh. It's, erm, pretty obvious that they like to argue. A lot. I'm not quite sure who won the argument, but eventually they co-dictated an email to yet another author, set the subject aside, and moved on to the manuscript they'd planned to edit.

It was just about four by then, and my boss told me that I could leave since I'd already read the manuscript... thank goodness. Oh, I'm sure it would've been educational and all that, but I hadn't eaten since eight (my fault; should've had a granola bar or something in my bag) and I was starting to see spots. So I hightailed it for the Public Market, where I got Indian food.

I'm skipping his class tonight. It's at least forty-five minutes by bus to get there, then at least three hours of the class, then a ride home and a late bedtime. It might be poor form, but I don't care; it's not like I'm getting credit for the class... and I'm tiiiiiired.