Life continues.

The job search continues apace.

The FBO called me yesterday before I had a chance to call them. I had to stop the car, move away from sources of ambient noise, and tell them, regretfully, that I'd decided to continue my search. They seemed--shocked. It did sound like an interesting position but the days of me giving 60 hours a week for starvation wages so that someone else's entrepreneurial dream can become a reality are just over. (Also? If I find myself willing to work for $12/hour? There are a ton of positions out there, most of which won't require the extra 20 hours a week and will pay for health insurance.)

The UNPO sent me an email telling me I didn't get that job. I'm so grateful. Like I said before, what they really needed was someone a lot more detail-oriented than I am.

Yesterday's phone interview with an internet-based, expanding California organization (IBEC) seemed to go well. Only 20 minutes, but they want me to come in for a face-to-face interview next week. In addition to the position I sent my resume in for, there are three or four other positions she wants to "explore" with me--some of which definitely sound more interesting.

Today's haul--five resumes sent. (Ring, little telephone, ring!)

Cleaning continues, yes, apace.

I've gotten through all of the boxes in storage that aren't books. Today's chores involve carrying out the bags full of trash littering my bedroom, breaking down the fifteen empty boxes I held onto (in case I wanted to repack anything), and carrying the two or three boxes of "things to be kept" back over to the storage unit.

I really haven't decided about the books that are still in storage yet. Part of me says, "repack them in smaller, lighter boxes" but the boxes they're already in are labeled as to author, so that would entail a lot of relabeling. (I have no idea why the idea of crossing something out in magic marker and then writing a name on a different box sounds like a lot of work to me today, but it does.) I guess I could, though. I could haul the smaller boxes back over to storage and repack the books which are currently loaded into large cartons. A few empty boxes, a magic marker, a flashlight, and a couple of hours work....

I can tell you one thing for sure. I'm not getting rid of any of them. After the last Great Clear-Out in my bedroom? It wasn't 48 hours before I was rooting around on the shelves, cursing myself for having gotten rid of this or that volume.

Bah.

Frugality suffers a setback.

So, what else is new? I ran mad in Borders a couple of days ago and bought three new books. I'm trying to read them slowly, savor them, since it may be a while before I get any more.

Had lunch with Meg yesterday. All of the aforementioned cleaning up in my bedroom was originally scheduled for yesterday, but when she called, I tossed the idea of being productive out the window. After lunching with her and discussing various girly things, I naturally developed a need to visit a drugstore with a large cosmetics section.

Then the R.C. and I visited a grocery store for a few essentials (nothing is more essential than potato chips), only to find ourselves surrounded by hordes of deranged seniors. Not, you know, literally. Just in the "blocking the aisles, moving far too slowly, stopping in the middle of traffic and preventing everyone else from getting to the food" sense. There was one guy who was wandering very, very slowly and aimlessly around the store, pushing a large cart that held nothing but a single carton of yogurt.

I don't mean to diss the elderly (after all, soon I will be one of them) and certainly I've had my own recent experience with being the rock in the stream of shoppers as I gimped slowly and painfully around the store, favoring my left foot, right knee, and ribcage, but at least I was apologetic about my failings. And I made an effort to move when I realized I was blocking someone's way.

I'm not really sure why I'm talking about it at all. Maybe just because any small item that breaks the routine of my days is noteworthy?

Maybe because I feel badly about a group of people whose days are so uneventful that a trip to the grocery store is a thing to be prolonged for as long as possible.

Politics briefly rears its head

I did the candidates quiz at http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460.

As always with these quizzes, at least 30% of the questions did not provide an answer that I really felt reflected my position. For instance, I disagreed with every, single candidate about Iraq. Is that because my position is unrealistic or because of the wording of the answer set?

I disagreed with 10 out of 12 on energy, another fact that doesn't surprise me. I'm not one of the faithful believers when it comes to ethanol. I don't dislike the stuff, but I don't see it as the panacea for all our energy woes.

Kucinich turns out to be the candidate that best fits my position--a fact that doesn't surprise me at all.

I was surprised to find Chris Dodd, a candidate who barely crosses my radar most of the time, in second place.

Edwards, my own pick for second-place, turned up in third. We disagree on the line-item veto. (I go back and forth on the line-item veto. Properly used, it could be a very worthy tool, but I don't anticipate it would be properly used. In the end, I usually wind up favoring the idea of reforming how Congress constructs legislation.)

Otherwise--

Mobs of energetic laborers continue to work on our apartment building and others around the complex. Replacing "damaged" wood pieces, installing concrete parking bumpers, power-washing, and, we're threatened, repainting. Mostly, when they get to our corner of our building, we get up and leave. It's difficult to sit here and live your life with two or three strange guys standing on your balcony operating some mysterious but very noisy machine.

I guess that's about it for now. I'm going to.... Well, I'm either going to sit down and read, or take myself over to storage and do some work. I'm not really sure. I guess my fate hangs in the balance at the moment.