In today's mail: a letter from the very official and legal Office of Administrative Hearings for the Employment Security Department.

And we quote: "The Decision of the Employment Security Department under appeal (the fact that they denied my training request) is set aside. The claimant's (that's me!) application for Commissioner Approved Training purusant to RCW 50.20.043 is approved for the period beginning June 23, 2002."

Yay! Yay! Yay!

Basically it means I get to go to school each week as my "job search activity" instead of applying for jobs I hope to not get. Of course, there's no guarantee that my unemployment benefits will run out before my schooling is up, but at the least, I will have three months to not worry about finding a job.

Although, ironically enough, I had the job interview yesterday. I have a job interview next week. And the sheriff's department wants me to come in to take a skills test for a job I applied for with them. So, now that I don't have to find a job, all these ones I had applied for before are coming around.

Reminds me of a thing I heard on the radio. Liz and I used to listen to a local radio station that plays a short "funny" at 5:20PM to help commuters get through their drives home. In one of the comedy bits they played, the comedienne was discussing Alanis Morissette's song "Ironic." After reading off the sentences in the song (a black fly in your chardonay; a free ride when you've already paid, etc), she said, "No, Alanis, it's not ironic. It's unfortunate."

It would be pretty darn unfortunate for a job to come up that I like after all the struggle it's taken me to get to the point where I don't have to look for a job right away.

Today at 9AM is my appeal with administrative judge regarding the denial of my retraining on unemployment. I sent the judge a packet of additional documents, including the first letter I got from the state that says all I needed to do is submit my course schedule and I'd be approved. Interestingly, this letter was not included in the information the state sent to the judge (and copied me on).

1PM -- job interview for an administrative assistant position with a wireless tower leasing company. One of the jobs I applied for that I don't want to get. However, there's a certain pride I take in my abilities and I'd rather they not not want me because I messed up the interview (which is what Rob suggested I do) but because they can see that I wouldn't fit their culture. I plan to ask how the WorldCom bankruptcy will impact their business. I wouldn't hire anyone who'd ask me a thing like that...I hope they feel the same.

Next week I have an interview with a school district for an executive assistant job. I took their skills test last week and scored in the 98 percentile so I kind of figured they'd call me back. This is a job I'd actually be interested in, if it weren't for the paralegal thing. I hope that they might be sympathetic toward me trying to get a degree as they're a school... but I don't know that they'd want someone who's training to be something else. Still, we'll look nice and not ask any questions about things that will make them uncomfortable.

Broos, I so totally agree with you on the putting information out where it kinda doesn't need to be!

It's like recent news reports, "Well, we found out folks were making drugs using these common household items using these instructions available on the internet!" Now those of us who need those same items for legit purposes practically need to have a background investigation because there was a sudden upswing in the number of people buying Benadryl now that they know they can use it to make crystal meth! And don't ask me how it's used that way I don't know! But if I'd actually cared, I could've paid attention to the news cast that night and found out!

You ask The Professor about training.

"Yes, I can train you in the mathematical arts," the Professor says. "It costs $290 for the course and $89 for the text book."

You hand The Professor $379 and she pulls you aside for some quick training. Fractions and whole numbers, square roots and products. Subtracting instead of dividing because of the exponent. Your mind reels with the stunning new factors laid before you until you want to scream out loud and kill someone. You pause briefly to see if you can calculate how many years you'd get for manslaughter. Fortunately, you've picked the right skill to enable you to correctly calculate 5 - 10 years with time off for good behavior.

Your mathematical skill improves!

School starts today. Math is first off. I wanted to get it out of the way. :(

I used to be a morning person. Up bright and early, cheerful and sunny-tempered. Hah! How things change as one ages! I've come to savor moments I can spend lying down after smacking the snooze button. Burrowing into the blankets, I sometimes drift back asleep. Other times, I lie there plotting my day. When I finally arise, it's usually grumbily till I have that first cup of coffee.

And folks ask why I left Hawaii to move to Seattle! Hah! We have more coffee here!

Once upon a time, when I was an Army Reservist, I'd drive up to Seattle where our Reserve Center is for weekend drills. I'd stop, like most of the other soldiers, at 7-11 to fill a big mug of coffee so I could get in gear. Things changed and in my more recent stint in the National Guard, I'd stop by Starbucks to fill a big mug with a caramel macchiato. And instead of generic coffee in the coffeepot at the Armory, one of our analysts brought in a pound of coffee each month (she worked at Starbucks while going to school) and threw out the prior month's as "stale." Stale! We used to keep the same tin of coffee for almost a full year!

Anyway, I hear the little pot behind me finishing up its last gurgles and I need to get my books in gear for class this morning. It's sunny outside. I hope everyone has a bit of sunshine today.

So...where'd my blog page go? :-(

SkunkBoy gave Rob a couple of DVDs while we were at the convention. Rob and I went to see Star Wars in the theater before he would watch the DVD. A sort of twisted honor system, that :-) We want to see the movie digitally, but the Cinerama has been showing movies from the Seattle International Film Festival. Fingers crossed, SW will return to the Cinerama and we can go digital.

I've seen the movie three times so far. I like it much better than Episode I. It's by no means a perfect movie, but the acting and the story are much more realistic this time around.

This afternoon I sit down with a new attorney and go over the forms I have and what I need to do next. This is so overwhelming, so big. I've spent so long as someone who tries to make peace that going to battle is painful to my spirit.

Breathe. Breathe.

One nice thing about living up here is that we get the Canadian channel, CBC. It's interesting to see different commercials and different values for what makes prime time entertainment. Last night wasn't quite so bad as it can be, but generally, the American channels have sexual innuendo, violence, drugs and other assorted mayhem on the menu. Normally, CBC has something that you can actually watch with your cherubs and don't have to blush explaining what it means. Last night, they had a repeat of one of their Anne of Green Gables miniseries. So I watched it again.

Frankly, the first time they aired Anne of Green Gables, I was slightly dismayed at how they had reinterpreted my childhood favorite. There were parts of it cribbed from "Little Women" and other facets were also tweaked a bit too much for my liking. But, they got the essential feel of it right and there's no denying that the production is lovely to behold. The sets and costumes are absolutely divine; I'd love to go shopping in their wardrobe department! Megan Follows did a good job as Anne as a child, but as an adult, she puts Anne in a different light. Megan's Anne is feisty and stubborn. The Anne I loved grew up to be a bit more dream-filled and persuasive by the art of her personality, not the force of her nature. Still, it's not a bad series. And I like that its popularity brought about the reissue of several of the lesser known books by L.M. Montgomery so that I could read them instead of only knowing they existed because they were listed on the "other titles by" page. It also spawned the long-running CBC series, "The Road to Avonlea" which is set in the same town and features characters both from the Anne series and from other Montgomery books.

Anyway, it was a nice evening's entertainment. CBC starts prime time at 8PM, so that it's finished by a reasonable 10PM. I like that. I wish everyone had the chance to catch this station.

100 Images from the convention by one of our players. note that last photo on the page... it's Sheepy!

I hope she doesn't change the notes next to it. hehehe

:: how jedi are you? ::

So you're cleaning your son's room so your kitten doesn't use the piles of papers as alternative litter and you realize some of it is actually a diary.

My poor, poor cherubs. :(

I lack a lot of self-confidence. I worry about what other people think about what I say or what I do when it shouldn't matter, and I even tell myself it shouldn't and doesn't matter. Can one bottle self-confidence and sell it? If so, please order some for me as I'd like to start the cherubs on it intravenously.

Is it worthwhile to note that when one's divorce decree says the husband is responsible for certain bills and he does not pay them, one can take him to small claims court? Apparently it's a form of contempt of court. Who'd have thunk?

School starts next week, too. I worry how divided up my brains will be So far, I am a very A student and I'd like to stay that way.

I wonder why some people feel the need to resolve things through the court system. It bodes well for my future career as a paralegal. It does not bode well for my peace of mind when it's the ex who doesn't want to arbitrate or talk with a mediator to resolve things.

I wish sometimes I could be mean. :-(

Rob and I are back. At first, it looked like we weren't even going. Rob and Tracy at the airport:

Rob: What's this do?
Tracy: Don't touch..... ::lights go out everywhere at SeaTac:: .... anything.
Announcer: We're not sure what just happened, but as you can see, we've lost power here at the airport...

Two hours later, as we were fortunately already at the gate when this happened, our plane took off and we were on our way. We did miss the connecting flight in Denver. When I called the airline reservation desk from my cellphone from the plane as we sat at the gate, the reservationist told me cheerfully that our flight had left on time and was scheduled to arrive ten minutes early -- while I pointed out to her that I was on the plane and it was in fact still at SeaTac an hour after it should have taken off.

Convention was nice. Hotel was...fun :D At first, Rob and I were whisked away to the alternate hotel, wherein we were told they had no nonsmoking rooms, period. I mentioned my allergy to cigarette smoke. They stood firm. I shrugged to Rob, "At least we're renting a car this year, so if the hives come up you can get me to the hospital in time for the injection." Suddenly, a nonsmoking room with a king-sized bed became available! The miracles of modern medicine! Of course, the room wasn't perfect but it was nonsmoking.

In fact, Rob said probably the lack of smoke is what killed all those bugs we found dead on the floor in the bathroom. It couldn't have had anything to do with the spider in the bed. Anyway, the next day there was another bug, this one swimming in the toilet, and you all know I do not do well with bugs. ChrisM. who is now my absolute HEROINE!!!, approached me while I was setting up one of my little seminars later that day. "Say, later today this hotel might have some roo...." "YES!!!" I shrieked. "Please!!! Get me a room here!!!" And so she did. (She claims she didn't do anything, what a modest heroine!)

And so we had a nice time. It wasn't as smoky or crowded this year in the lobby, which helped my allergies quite a bit. We had some fun trying to locate Dave and Buster's, whose website gives wrong directions (but fortunately, I had seen it from the freeway the day before when Ana and I had borrowed SusanZ's Sam's Club card to shop for a party), and luckily, the other two drivers ferrying passengers also realized the directions were wrong and managed to swing themselves around. Nifty place, I'd never been to one before.

Also very nice were the bribes in the form of chocolates offered by my staff and a couple of players. :) I left those in the room while I seminared. After the last session, I came up to the room to find Rob watching TV and snacking on some trail mix. I comment that it's a good thing he hadn't gotten into the chocolates and walk off to comb my hair. When I turn back to ask him what he wants to do now, he's clutching the trash can with its damning evidence and trying to cover it with his pillow. "What?" he said, in his famous injured tone. "We're married, it's community property!"

Steph is looking mighty fine! And when I wasn't running into her, I could usually hear her giggling from someplace nearby. :) It was nice to actually chat with Beth, too, who last year seemed so tired and shy that I didn't get to talk with her. Ran into Greg, who later on spent a couple hours with Rob in the game room playing something or other while I slept...but we didn't see Russ. A shame, as I adore Russ; he's one of the few guys I know now that I actually went hunting with when we were mere players lo those many years ago.

And now we must return to the real world...which is cold, indifferent and unyielding. I wish I could continue to put off the big things I need to do. Convention was a lovely interlude, though, and much needed.

Going to the convention tomorrow. Rob is concerned that he has nothing to do while there. I suggested he go to a few museums and bump up the culture a notch. He said he'll just mope around the hotel, ordering room service.

I sincerely hope he remembers to charge it to any room other than our own.