Job Offer!!!!

Hooray -- I shall soon be gainfully employed in a rather dreamy dream job. Not only will I be bringing home some bacon again, I think I am really going to enjoy this position, enjoy the people I work with, and be progressing in my career goals.

More details about the position to follow soon -- I don't even know the job title, since it will be a new position, but will learn more on Friday. The need is urgent enough that they are going to bring me on board in a contractor position until they can get approval for the head count, and make it a real full time position. I just need to get something in writing about when that might happen, and if there are any guarantees about whether I would face any competition when that happened.

But, for now, I just want to enjoy the euphoria. And maybe some new shoes.

I'll need to wean myself off of my diet of "Little House on the Prairie" that being unemployed has allowed me to indulge in. I watched some of this series while growing up (but only when my parents went out for the evening, since we weren't allowed to watch TV on school nights), and of course read all of the books. TIVO figured out that I liked LHP and now I seem to get 50 episodes a day in TIVO suggestions.

Yesterday I watched the episode where Nellie Oleson is pregnant and her mother and father-in-law fight over the religion of the baby (Jewish vs. Christian). In the end, they agreed to raise a boy Jewish and a girl Christian, and Nellie nicely complies by having one of each. This seemed like such a nice compromise when I was young, but as an adult, the reality of trying to have separate religions for your children seems far too chaotic. Raising them both in an interfaith way would seem much more practical to me, though I'm sure that would raise objections by families that are more religious than I'd consider myself to be.

Awwww, the little future bunny hat. Started decreasing last night, so this part should be done today.

Kyoto pieces before blocking and seaming. Please ignore messy coffee table.

Oh yeah, about the knitting

I have two projects going right now -- Kyoto is finished except for the blocking and seaming and I started the SnB Nation bunny hat to have a small project on the plane. I should finish up the hat portion this evening, and then will have the I-cord, ears and face embroidery left.

Pictures of WIP coming later today, after my call about job details (Wheee!).

My knitting may slow up a bit since I have had several reserved books from the library all come up at the same time. So, the stack includes: finish "Dreamland" by Kevin Baker, finish "Bless the Child", thriller from the plane trip, and then start on "The Historian", new literary vampire novel, "The Mermaid Chair" by the woman who wrote "Secret Life of Bees", and "The Undomestic Goddess", by the Shopoholic chick-lit writer, Sophie Kinsella.

I question how I can possibly squeeze in a job around all this busy-ness. heh heh.

Iowa makes everything better.

Just back from 5 days visiting my alma mater, Grinnell College. Ah, I got to live in the Grinnell bubble for several days and it was wonderful.

I do admissions volunteer work here in California, and you know Iowa is a tough sell to California 17 and 18-year-olds. But, it does tend to be very self-selecting and since I made the choice to leave the Bay Area for 4 frosty winters and hot humid back to school days, I can talk to students about how the choice is not as crazy as your high school classmates (and neighbors, and Nordstrom sales people) will make it sound.

The downside? Iowa still allows smoking in bars. I went with some classmates to "The Bar", or "The Pub", as it is now known (they get real original with the names there) and had some pitchers and talked about how pitchers were $3 when we first started. And got to hear Bad Company's "Feel Like Making Love" on the jukebox, which always takes me back.

But the following evening we could not handle the smoke again, so drank beer at The Depot, which is new to town since I graduated, outside on the patio. It was one of those lovely, sit outside until midnight and never feel chilly kind of evenings that happen approximatly once a year in the Bay Area.

I got to visit with my advisor, attend several classes, and start planning my 15 year reunion (ack!). Actually, it will only be 14 years by the time I go, since they hold cluster reunions -- this upcoming time with the classes from 91 and 92. These tend to be more fun since, at Grinnell, most people live in the dorms all four years, so you know people in the six classes on either side of your own class.

THEN, THEN, THEN, my husband and I are sitting on the couch last night, catching up on "Rock Star:INXS" (ha ha ha, yes I totally got sucked into this show, even though I think the whole premise is slightly creepy, but I totally want Marty to win.) and I get a call from the aforementioned person who had agreed to "scout around" for me at a particular company -- and she's got a very interesting job that is really going to happen and she'd like me to start fairly soon. YAHOO!!

I won't go into all the details for fear of jinxing myself, but it looks quite positive. (and oddly, another contact there called on Friday to talk to me about a only slightly less desirable position -- raining, pouring syndrome, I guess). I am so looking forward to going back to work, and getting a paycheck, but don't remind me that I said this when I'm bitching about having to actually get out of bed before 8am.


(and shhhhh, shhhhhh, shhhhh, but this also means Operation Wee One could start in a few short months... not that I didn't already purchase a Grinnell T-shirt this weekend or anything)