So, stuff has been happening.

Not a lot of stuff, but stuff. Sending in resumes, taking calls, even scheduling interviews.

I have two on Friday and (go, me!) one is a second-round interview for a place I think I'd really like to work. The money isn't fabulous (about $7k less than I wanted to start) but it's not in Boulder and seems like a nice group of folks. Eleven employees which counts, in my recent professional life, as a huge number of coworkers. The work sounds reasonably interesting--it's a nonprofit association, not an environment I'm familiar with but not a problem.

I'm less excited about Friday's other interview and if they hadn't emailed me three times and called me once I wouldn't have remembered sending them a resume at all or bothered to respond when they sent me an email inviting me to schedule an interview. The money's closer to what I wanted, the location is equally as attractive, but the company's business is a yawner.

The recruiter from last week? I did a phone interview with her, a follow-up interview with one of her coworkers, and eventually we all decided I wasn't suited for that position. (I was so not excited about the location.)

Hmmm, what else? I think I killed one of my marigold plants, my last remaining sunflower is spouting a third blossom, I've failed to quit smoking twice this summer, and I've developed an absolute mania for a show called Clean House on the Style Channel and have been watching a fair amount of (gasp!) daytime tv in the last week.

What is it? People send in a video proving that they live in absolute chaos, anything approaching a pigsty, and this group goes in, makes them throw stuff away, makes them sort out 'treasured' possessions for a garage sale, then takes the proceeds and uses the money to redecorate the house, organizing what's left of the 'stuff' and usually putting in new furniture.

I'm not sure why I've become so fascinated by the show, but I have. It's like Changing Rooms except that the drama comes when the crew make these hoarders and packrats and compulsive shoppers turn loose of their debris. People fight tooth and nail to keep the dumbest shit. Four year-old calendars, five broken vacuum cleaners, 22 beanie babies, dozens of pairs of shoes or housecoats, ratty old posters, fifteen ugly lamps, gifts they received five years ago that were never taken out of the boxes, etc. They curse and cry and carry on ridiculously. Over broken things, as often as not.

And they fight the crew.

Even though they had to submit a video and agree to the whole process, they fight like mad.

One family was so acquisitive that even after five commercial-sized dumpster loads of trash and a massive garage sale where everything that didn't sell was hauled away on a charity truck, their entire basement was still full of bins and bins and bins of stuff they refused to turn loose of. (At an estimate, I'm guessing 50 big bins.)

It's--perilously close to "reality television," a genre I abhor, but Niecy and the rest of the crew just fascinate me. How they can go into such pigsties week after week.... (Also, I'm in decorator-love with the designer, Mark, who turns out some fabulous rooms.

So, yeah, I guess that means I've been watching a lot of television.

The Fabulous New Hairdo (picture somewhere in an entry below) continues to please. I'm not sure it's the most attractive hairstyle I've ever had but it sure is nice and cool and easy to take care of!

And, if anyone's wondering, the Dental Man appointment went--fine. They took the series of x-rays and want me to make an appointment with the hugely expensive "specialist" to discuss my options. And another tooth is giving the occasional twinge, so I need a new filling, I can just tell.

Teeth. Ugh.

Other than that--the usual. Reading.

This past week? The Hobbit. That was fun, so I reread the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Then I reread the Silmarillion and now I'm about halfway through Unfinished Tales. I've been feeling very Tolkien this week.

I sure am boring when I write blog entries at 11:00 at night.