The Fallout

Not as bad as anticipated. I will have to take one more expensive exam before they will concede that I can teach French. Good thing we teachers get paid so well, eh? My account was only $6 overdrawn when I deposited my paycheck this afternoon. Argh.

I will also be able to get the license processed with an anthropology endorsement - since that was my major in college - and the additional endorsements should be easier to add.

I'm still pissed though. And worse, I'm sick. My head feels like a weird mix of hollow and filled with snot. Throbbing headache. Can't get warm. I'm taking tomorrow off as a sick day - already arranged for a sub.

Still must write 2800 words to finish NaNo... "I will win if it kills me" is what I posted on the site the other day. I just didn't think that the fates would take me up on it. Bleh.

Denied

Oh yes, just when it couldn't get any better... Eighteen weeks (that's about 5 months, oh yes it is) after I submitted my application for licensure, the thing came back rejected. Evidently, it took that long to realize that I don't have a major in French and that they were not going to count all my French classes from Dartmouth. FABULOUS. So pleased I am.

Motherfuckers.

Perhaps it's my fault, but even so, they could have pointed out the problem in the 6-8 weeks the dirty liars CLAIM that the processing takes. Then I could have resolved the issue before the school year started, but NO.

Somehow, I don't think I'll be teaching in the Spring.

Somehow, I think I might be okay with that.

What bullshit.

Desk Sores

That's what my elbows have right now. It's a combination of dry skin and too much time in front of the computer. However, it's all for a good cause.

I'm raised my NaNo wordcount from 21,628 to 40,099 since Thursday morning. For the mathematically challenged among us, that would be about 18,500 words in 3 days. And since I called in to work due to wicked snow conditions on I-80, I still have all afternoon and evening to work on it. Mwah hah ha ha ha. Less than 10K to go!

No, she really did fall down the stairs, officer.

So, obviously, I love my baby sisters. And they're kind of goofy, so they make for good stories. heh heh. Karlyn called me the other day to make sure I was still alive and stuff, since I've been less than frequent in my postings lately. As usual, she had me laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. Or, I would have been laughing that hard, but I threw out my back that night and I wasn't really able to get the proper range of motion. Sigh. (Much better now - I can even sit up without dying.)

Things you have to understand about Karlyn: she looks so sweet and angelic, she's totally the mommy type (I think that's her official title as RA in her dorm), and she's a bit of a klutz. When she was just a wee little bitty slip of a girl, she managed to drop our butter dish on the floor, shattering it to bits. Very sad day. Then she dropped the stopper to the civil war era water jug we kept in the fridge. The jug itself followed only a few days later. I think it tooks weeks for me and Robby (our brother) to forgive her. I mean, it was our favorite jug. She was just our poopy little sister at the time. Cute, but poopy, and clumsy to boot.

All the women in the family have the unfortunate habit of crashing around without watching where we're going, and so we always have strange, unexplainable bruises on our arms and legs. Embarassing, really. Now that I'm in the classroom, I've got permanent deskbruises on my thighs. Damn desks. Damn crowded classroom.

But I digress.

So Karlyn's boyfriend John is a large guy, as I've mentioned before. We were shopping last christmas and she picked up a sweater that was so big... I asked if he was really that big and I think she said something about it maybe not being large enough. In any case, the boy is big, but harmless as a puppy.

They were leaving a party (I'm guessing in a frat basement) and just as they were almost at the top of the stairs, Karlyn slipped and fell backwards, landing on her bum, then knocking her head and sliding all the way to the bottom of the stairs, where she collapsed in a pile of giggles. (Because we crazy sisters tend to laugh hysterically when hurt.) Strangely (or maybe because of her blood/alcohol ratio) she wasn't really damaged beyond a few new bruises. Big John panicked and ran down the stairs after her, attracting the attention of several of the frat brothers... who thought he was beating her. Hah.

Then she went on to tell me about another "partied-too-much" incident where she felt sick and decided to lay on the nice, cold tile floor, preparing to worship the porceline god. John needed to brush his teeth, so he's standing at the sink in his boxer shorts, brushing his teeth while Karlyn moans by his feet on the floor. A friend ducks his head in for a moment... Karlyn says in retrospect it probably did look like John had just finished beating her. Poor maligned boy.

That's what he gets for taking up with my beautiful, accident-prone baby sister.

I must say...

It's really hard to keep up the NaNo word count and post regularly to the blog.

Especially with further distractions of work, gym, other work, friends I haven't seen for 4 years dropping by for an evening on their way through town.... (Hi Aaron - was good to see you! evenifyoudiddelaymywritingthat muchmore)

I need coffee.

Little, Purple, Tinnitus-inducing

That's right. After this week's downhill slide resulted in bouncing along the bottom of rock bottom, I've taken up with the drugs again. Everything has become so overwhelming... I know when I can't just laugh at the stupid stuff that there's a problem.

My prescription ran out in August, but I hadn't filled it since January anyway. I still have three fourths of the last one remaining, so at least I can see if that's going to make life easier to face. And fortunately, I have an appointment with my doctor next month anyway, so I can talk to her about renewing that prescription when I get my other done.

Dammit dammit dammit. I thought I was past this. Will I ever be past this?

Who loves you, baby?

Did I mention that Jay got us tickets to see David Sedaris last night at Kingsbury Hall? Well, he did. It was fucking hilarious... How the hell does he do it? One nasal-voiced, gay ex-pat comes on stage and reads a few stories... to a sold-out venue. God, I would LOVE to have his job. Brilliant.

(Quite the liberal crowd, too. The local public radio guy who introduced Sedaris mentioned that our new county mayor - shockingly, a Democrat - was in the audience... and the theater gave him a standing ovation. Ah, Utah. Reddest state in the Union. Which I find sort of ironic considering that Republicans are supposed to be the anti-communists, but they share the color... whatever. I will never (want to) understand politics.)

(Okay, I'm talking all in asides... definitely a sign that I need to go to bed. Night!)

8000 and counting...

Going okay on the NaNo front. I've been trying to keep up with the minimum 1667 words per day during the week. I hope to make up some ground over the weekend, but since I have to work at my second job, those hopes are not that high.

Are you who I think you are?

Does anyone know how those online people search databases gather their information? I was trying to look up a few people I've lost touch with and I found most of them... but I can't tell how old the data is and whether it's worth paying $10.00 to get the whole sh'bang. I have my doubts. For example, I entered my own name and came up with Arizona as my state of residence. . . . . I haven't lived in Arizona since May of 2001. There are NO listings that put me in Utah.

Since I have registered my car in Utah, paid my taxes in Utah, and have voted every year since moving here, I'm highly suspicious that the other people's information is likewise sadly incomplete. Granted, I don't have a land line, only a cell. BUT, I did have a land line for the first year I lived here. So... I'm guessing that the info is perhaps gathered from driver's license registration? I still have my Arizona license... no motivation to change when the thing doesn't expire until March of 2036. Yep. Love the AZ licenses. Note that the incidental fact that I am legally required to change to a Utah license after 60 (or is it 90?) days of residence has not provided an ounce of motivation to stand in line at the DMV. (That's Department of Motor Vehicles to the non-Americans in the audience - you lucky bastards (<---count that as my election commentary))

NaNo NOW... and never a dull moment

Kicking off NaNo here. Hopefully this will get me back in the habit of daily writing, if not daily blogging. Ahem.


So I've had my first two shifts up at the new job in Park City. Very interesting crowd there. One girl... let's call her Snow White... is probably about 3 inches taller than I am, and about 60 pounds lighter. Scary thin. "No ass" thin. Knobby-knees thin. You get the idea. During the course of the 5 hours shift I worked with her, SW drank a liter of regular Coke, ate three candy bars, and told me how much she loves the cinnamon chimichaungas at this Mexican place nearby... stuffed with cheesecake instead of the usual meat and rice and beans... a few calories in that, you think? So, needless to say, I was a bit puzzled as to how she pulled that off.

Well, you know how I said to call her Snow White. Yep. She likes the powder, and I don't mean the cold white stuff that falls from the sky.

The other girl, we'll call her Speedy. Totally hyper, not so good at following through on stuff... Yep. A meth-addict. The third woman that I've met is not an addict, unless you count cigarettes. She takes 45 second smoke breaks... because it's too cold for her to stay out longer than that. Takes her 8 hours to smoke one cigarette. She's quite entertaining, even if she does pump the heat up to 75 degrees (that's Fahrenheit) so I'm melting in my sweaters.

Too funny. Almost worth the 90 minute round-trip commute.