Job-hunting teaches you so much about what other people don't know. Punctuation, grammar, proof-reading. Little things like that.

Sometimes you can figure out what they're trying to say. Sometimes you can't.

The following knowledge’s are required - Why do people abuse the poor apostrophe in this fashion?

Able to think consequentially - A job ad shouldn't read as though you used a thesaurus to compose it.

....a very employee-friendly work environment!! - The exclamation point was not born a twin.

This position is responsible for some calculations of products - I can't decide if this means they want you to go to the shelf and count what's there, then subtract what's been sold, or what?

Compensation: $35000 per month - I am all about getting this job!

Sometimes, I think that what companies really need is someone to write their job ads for them.

So. Three prospects today. I've bookmarked them and am creating cover letters at the moment. Nothing in the writing arena, so I might have a better chance at getting an interview for one of these. Office Manager, Product Development Coordinator, and Logistics Coordinator. I have a weird collection of skills (or "knowledge's") that fit into a lot of different job descriptions.

Otherwise, another day with not much planned. Grocery store. Laundry.

I'm going to a friend's house for dinner tonight. She also has an aging mother with health problems, so it's probably going to turn out to be a mutual support group kind of evening.

And now, if I don't want to spend the day looking like Howdy-Doody, I'd better go dry my hair.

(Mother-related digression below the cut)

Otherwise, I've booked my next trip to Missouri. I'll be leaving on the 7th and returning on the 11th. I'm not sure if I'll be taking the laptop or not. I didn't use it that much last time and traveling with a computer is a pain these days.

I always feel I'll know more after I've been there and seen what's happening for myself. It didn't work last time because Mom was getting better and stronger every day while I was there, and then suddenly fell apart a week later and has been going downhill ever since.

I talked to Billy Jo this morning, while Mom was out at a doctor's appointment. All evidence points to her having just given up entirely. Even though she's got the leg brace that would let her move around with the walker, she completely refuses to wear it or to use anything but the wheelchair. She won't let them hire anyone to help her bathe or to sit with her at night (she gets up frequently to go to the bathroom and needs assistance) even though it's exhausting her sister (who isn't young, herself) to try and handle the physical demands (not to mention being exhausted because she never gets more than 2-3 hours of consecutive sleep). Mom wants to move to a nursing home as soon as possible. Basically, she's ready to go and wants it over.

Part of me is annoyed with her. Yes, she has a progressive condition and she's already not able to be independent, but she could have had a few more months of decent-quality life if she'd just been willing to try a little. I'm somewhat annoyed that she doesn't consider living to be worth any effort.

But part of me accepts that it's her life and she's entitled to give up on it if she wants to. As I and my sisters have said for years, and as Billy Jo and I discussed today, Mom really gave up when my father passed in 1986 and, even though she was only 53 at the time, she's just been existing since then--she never really made any attempt to create or have a "life" after that.

Being raised, as I was, in a different era and in a different environment than my mother was, I have trouble relating to that. I like men ("boy-crazy" describes at least three decades of my life), but I can't relate to someone who doesn't find life worth living without her spouse. She was 53. She was plenty young enough to have gotten a job or a hobby, made some new friends, and generally just gotten on with living. I can't understand anyone who feels they have no identity without a spouse. (I've had friends like that in my life--women who define themselves by the man in their life and who never leave a relationship, no matter how bad, until they have another man lined up. I didn't understand them either. I like men as much or more than any woman I know, but they don't define me.)

Anyhow. Sorry for the digression.

Bottom line: We need to find a nursing home, get her ready to move in, pay a huge tax bill we all just discovered that she has, arrange to get her house sold (the proceeds should just about cover the mortgage), and then probably start the paperwork for financial assistance, since about 6 months in the nursing home at $4k - $6k a month will drain her last resources.

I'd rather she was in KC, near the L-i-K-S, or here in Denver, near me and the R.C., but I suspect she'll wind up staying in the Joplin area. I do like the idea that her doctor is a specialist in neuromuscular diseases and that he has a lot of resources available. He seems to know his stuff. (I haven't had a chance to talk with him and am wondering what the odds are of getting them to schedule an appointment so I can while I'm down there.)

Now that the Joplin airport has finally started booking flights again (although only a couple a day), we can fly into there (but we have to travel M-F because there are no weekend flights) so we don't force the L-i-K-S to drive us down all of the time. I'm trying it with this trip and we'll see how the connections (normally two hours between flights!) and stuff go. It may turn out to be more trouble to try to fly directly to Joplin than it is to fly to KC and drive down.