renegadepea

I've been wrestling with the Child Care Division of the Oregon government these last few weeks, and I think I've lost. All I wanted to do was be a substitute teacher at the local Montessori school - something I did way back those many years in Georgia. But alas. For the state to allow me to work in a school - any school that works with some form of 'child' (I'm not sure exactly what this is, since Big Brothers/Big Sisters didn't make me do this....), I must shell out $100 for fingerprinting and an FBI background check. The whole point of substituting was to GET money, not the other way around. I know I'm not a criminal, but the good state of Oregon has doubts. The sucky part about this whole thing is that the school in question seems to be really excited about the prospect of me subbing there. But not excited enough to pay the fee for me, apparently. And at this point I simply don't have an extra $100 laying around.

So if this nixes all hope of getting an education-related job tied to a non-university school, my options and chances for monetary gain have been vastly reduced. Being a substitute would have been PERFECT - it's part time, not necessarily a full day, I would have the option of declining on any given day, and going to Italy for 6 weeks would not have been a problem.

Back to the drawing board for creative employment opportunities.

Update: My parents loaned me the money, and so as much as it pains me to spend a two weeks' worth of grocery money on an FBI background check, I got fingerprinted and sent off the whole shebang this morning. No more stress! Hoorah!

So here's a question for all of you - I've decided to take business cards to AMS to give to people I talk with; I received one from someone I met last year and indeed I have not forgotten her (though that could be due to other reasons....) I'm not sure what to put on the card, though. Can I say PhD Candidate even though I technically won't be advancing to candidacy until Winter quarter? Should I say Doctoral Student? If I print up a few pages of 'PhD Candidate' I can use them for a few years, whereas if I say something vague to address my current in-between status, I will have to print up a different version after I defend my proposal in February. Or January.

Thoughts?

On a less fraught note, Stephanie and I drove up to Portland two days ago to buy me a guitar! My first lesson in Baroque guitar is tomorrow, and my teacher ironically lives in LA (he travels to Eugene a lot to see his girlfriend - sound familiar?) See the guitar I bought! It's Canadian and made out of real wood and not laminate like other similarly priced guitars! Hurrah!

Two days later: Arg. We can't get the stupid business cards to print correctly on the stupid business card paper...on ANYONE'S printer. And ordering from Kinkos is $30. Alas, no business cards this year...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHYIhr_am60

From Stephanie's sound art festival she put together. Maybe one day I will be an internet sensation. ;)

I thought I'd write a bit about what's going on with me these days; it probably seems as if I dropped off the face of the Earth. I didn't. Well, I'm in a completely different world, but it's still Earth. I saw Loren yesterday in the music history building (a Victorian house and the oldest building on campus!) for the first time in a few months, and that was nice.

Remembering something Des said to me a while back about getting the most done when he's the busiest, and wanting to keep my sanity intact, I thought I'd add (ahem) a few activities to my life. Foremost at the moment is my quarterly pass to the University of Oregon's Craft Center, where I get to do pottery. (Whoohoo!) I get a discount for being a domestic partner of a student, and so as long as I take a class or workshop worth $30+, I can get a quarterly pass for $13. This includes all equipment for the entire craft center (ceramics, glassblowing, woodworking, fiber arts, jewelry making, etc...), and, especially nice for ceramics, all glazing and firing materials as well. Plus, the Craft Center is my primary source of friends here - the two I've picked up both work there. Hurrah art! I think next quarter I'm going to take a woodworking class.

I'm in the process of applying to be a substitute teacher at a local Montessori school, which will hopefully earn me a bit of money, especially since we're moving into flu season. AND, I'm also applying to be a youth mentor with Committed Partners for Youth/Big Brothers Big Sisters. This has me very excited. There are lots of fun things to do around here, many of which are free or heavily discounted for mentor/mentee pairs. Yay fun!

I'm LOVING living in a house, especially one that includes Stephanie. She's really enjoying her program in arts management here. I'm so glad she's happy with what she's doing.

Last but not least, I'm writing my diss. proposal. I sent 8 pages to my advisor a few days ago. I'm finding if I get up at 7am I can get lots done AND have time for fun activities. This doesn't happen every day, mind you, but as often as I deem possible. Poor Stephanie has to get up at 5am a few mornings a week for her job at Macy's. This I cannot do. I tried. We just don't get to bed early enough for me to get up then.

And, btw, GarageBand ROCKS! I've been singing my (unrecorded) nun music into it and layering the tracks so I can actually hear the 4-part polyphony instead of just seeing it! HURRAH!

I'm really enjoying the change of season, even though I will most certainly get tired of the rain. Right now I don't mind it so much. I bought the most amazing rainboots, and I have new jackets and coats, so I'm all set. The worst part is getting caught out in town with my bicycle when it starts pouring. I don't like riding in cold sideways rain. I'm trying to get out a lot to do work in coffee shops, and I've found lots of neat ones here. Oregonians are wicked excited about their coffee!

Is there a parking garage in Westwood that is free after six?

Ok everyone, on Saturday, August 30, the Queen Mary, harbored in Long Beach, is having a Crab Festival with music and food and crafts! Hoorah! Does anyone want to go with me? This sounds like an amazing, yummy experience. One can purchase tickets online right now! I believe it is $12. Either that or $21. I haven't yet figured out the difference between "festival only" and "general admission." Perhaps it's $21 if one wants to tour the ship as well.

Let me know if you want to go. We could get a car-full together and have a rollicking good day!

So I realized that I actually LIKE giving comments on papers - I feel as though I'm actually being helpful to those who request suggestions. I really, really, need to figure out how to get through my 'desirous of comments' stack faster though. 45 minutes per paper is NOT ok! I will be grading into July! Ick.

Lunch on the department's tab at the faculty center today was amazing! Whoohoo whipped potatoes and lamb kabobs! Yum. Thanks, department! You rock!

I got a new phone! I know probably everyone knows this by now, but I am super excited about it! It has features that everyone has had for years but I never had, like a camera and speakerphone! Here's to moving forward technologically! (plus it's a lovely plum color :) )

By taking Jesus’ body into one’s own body, whether by eating, drinking, or sucking, one could become unified with the divine and achieve ecstasty.

Clearly I have been writing about divine love too long....

Three drafts complete! Hurrah! To celebrate, Stephanie and I went out for yummy sushi dinner at U-Zen up on the corner. GOOD PLACE!!!

Tomorrow I have the entire day to edit edit edit and I feel SO good about that. I had no idea I could write 33 pages in three days. I love surprising myself!

We picked up a giant kitty tree by the dumpster that Isabelle is ENTHRALLED by. Going to clean it up tomorrow and try to find a way to make it smell less like other kitties so that Sophie will stop cowering in the next room. I think it was my neighbor's - the one who lives across the way and who is moving soon.

YAY! Bedtime now. Lovely sleep....

So, after much inner whining, many breaks, two glasses of iced coffee, and lots of food, I have two drafts done. Unfortunately, my first paper runs onto the 12th page, and my second paper barely comes in under the ten-page line (and I suspect that when I re-read those last few paragraphs I added to lengthen it, they will sound pretty bad). However, they are approximately the right length. Enough so that I can call them 'done' for the time being and move on. I hope to write the entirety of paper number three tomorrow so that on Monday all I will have to do is fix the mess I made today and cut lots from my first paper.

Other things that happened today (just to make my life more fun):

Stephanie is roasting a chicken. (this actually IS exciting for me)

Isabelle threw up copious amounts of unchewed dry food - three times.

The plumbing in the kitchen sink decided it had had enough, and now when you turn on the garbage
disposal, gross water shoots forcefully out the drain on the other side in pretty four-part arcs.
The plumber is coming tomorrow.

Isabelle is trying to no avail to eat the sticker off of my shirt.

Sophie got in the litter box this morning - and missed the box altogether.

I deserve a break now. I'm going to watch my Netflix with Stephanie and go to bed.

I'm feeling kind of listless and in need of a distraction now, except I took a sizable break an hour and a half ago that included a short walk outside.

I have one draft completed that I will have to shorten a little, and I am five pages into my second paper. This one is by and large analysis, though, and that gets me fewer words per hour than I would like. I feel as though I should be more than five pages into this one, but I'm not. It's so hard not to use the same words and phrases over and over again. I think my vocabulary is shrinking the longer I sit here.

On the upside, I'm really pleased with what I've written thus far. Somehow I got a long paragraph out of a major sixth leap in the bass....and that's the beauty of musicology. If I can get done close enough to the page limit on this one, I don't think it will need much editing, thankfully.

I never was very good at marathons.
I am good at patience, though. I guess they could amount to the same thing.

After sequestering myself in my room for, oh, eleven hours (has it really been that long?), I have six pages of what-I'm-going-to-do notes and 8.5 pages of my first paper. This is WAY more than I thought I would have by this evening. Of course, I think I'm going to have to cut some of what I wrote today. I'm on the ninth page and only two thirds of the way through the material. ::sigh:: And Ray's paper is going to be so much worse in the keep-it-within-ten-pages department. Apparently I am enjoying the long strings of hyphens right now. I'm tired.

Kelsey brought us food today (hooray! thanks, Kelsey!), and the kitties have been really good for the most part. I just hope they can continue to be good for the next three days.

I think I'm going to go watch some tv now until Stephanie comes home. I hope tomorrow goes as well as today did. Yay.

"Dozens of Scottish schoolchildren have been injured in a freak corridor pileup. Children were apparently streaming into class after recess at Falkirk's Denny High School when one girl lost her shoe. Bending to retrieve it, the girl tripped. As the kids behind her kept walking, it set off a domino effect that ended in a heap of 25 fallen children, several of whom were hospitalized with sprains and bruises."
- from the February 29 edition of The Week

Good grief. That's all I can say.

Courtesy of The Week, a newsmagazine (the May 4 edition):

Under the "Bad Week For:" heading:

Catch-22s, after a North Carolina man attempting to pick up his pants from a dry cleaner was arrested for not wearing any pants. Kenneth Lee Wollen, now fully dressed, is free on $1,000 bail.

Hi all -
kinda short notice, but a couple of us are meeting at my house tonight around 8:30 to sing through some holiday music and generally be merry for a few hours. If you need a short break and this sounds appealing, or if you want to come giggle at our singing, feel free to drop by!

Well, I feel as though I'm almost ready to re-enter the land of the living... I don't have strep, which is good, I suppose. I doubt I have mono, regardless of what the lady at the Ashe Center said today. She wasn't listening to me anyway. I was able to start reading again today, so I hope that tomorrow I can maybe start writing this book review.

I can't wait to fly east on Saturday! If all goes as planned (i.e. if I don't end up with mono or some other horrifying disease) I will get to see my lovely girlfriend in a week! It's been four months, and this last week seems to be harder than usual to get through. I guess being alone and sick in December can do that.

However, since I'm feeling so much better today, that means that hopefully social activities this week can go on as planned. I've missed everyone!

27 years from today it will be 11/22/33.

Kelsey told me to think of parking nightmares as parking adventures. Tonight's fun took place at the airport. I suppose as far as money paid for "lessons" in Los Angeles, $3 is excellent. But perhaps a wasted gallon of gas could be added to that total, as well.
I went to get Jeremy, and he wasn't ready by the time I got to the airport. Foolishly, I decided to park and wait with him for his baggage to appear. I should have had an inkling of the coming horrers when I had to wait to even get into the parking garage, but no, I pressed on. The ensuing excitement ended in TWENTY FIVE MINUTES of waiting in one, long, endless, carbon-monoxide-filled line. I did not park. I did not have time. It took me TWENTY FIVE MINUTES to get from the entrance of the garage to the exit. When I told the attendent that I had not parked, she informed me that it did not take TWENTY FIVE MINUTES to "simply" drive through the garage. I told her that I couldn't really believe it myself. But she did not believe me. And then she told me that the quota of free parking passes given out had been filled. Good grief. This world is SO screwed up... I hope Karma will play out on this one.

On a completely different note, I'm watching Patient Zero for M2, and it is SO strange. And yes, the singing anuses has been the most interesting(?) part thus far. I like the small children singing in French class, too.

I would just like everyone to know that my roommate is currently erecting a Christmas tree in our living room.