the darkness has not overcome it

first and formost, a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO sunmother!!!
hope you have a fabulous day.


i think the interview yesterday went well. i did a good job presenting myself as knowledgable in the field, competant and intelligent (she said she thinks i am very smart). she mentioned second interviews as a possibility. and i will know by friday. i am one of 8 candidates for the position, and the last interview.
nice things: this office is full of cubes, but they are pretty much ALL exposed to sunlight during the day. this place is full of windows. goodbye SAD! dress is casual. no t-shirts, but jeans every day of the week is perfectly acceptable. they have a "regent scholarship" which is essentially tuition remission, and i could make use of it for night classes. this position would be a BIGTIME broadening of my experience. at 3M we are much more specialized than it sounds like they are at the U. i would be doing a whole lot of what i'm doing now, and a little bit of everything related to it. i would have to take some accounting classes- paid training...and the end result is that i would gain skills in all the areas that i'm afraid i'm too weak for if i start my own soaping business. it's not "fun" learning, but it's important stuff and good skills. the building is also 2 city blocks from the guthrie. meeting ross for lunch/dinner downtown would be completely feasible on the days where he works there instead of from home. shawn works in the building, and i would be happy at the opportunity to get to know him better as well.
this is not a job where i will love what i do. but i think i would like working for the u and gaining experience and having benefits again.

the vet called and said that savil is fine and that i can pick her up tomorrow at 10am.

my boss let everybody out of work early.

my friend corrin is coming over after work so that we can go look for pants for my interview.

my letter to my dad is finished. it's only 4 pages long, but i knew i was done when i was making myself cry with what i was writing. i'm not sending it to my sister for scrapbooking yet though. i don't want her to have time to steal my ideas.

....i just need to remember to be grateful for it.
actually i AM grateful for it, but interesting isn't always good.
for instance, this morning i caught leto mounting his sister.

...
they are only 5 months old. a little shy of that, actually. SHE may not be sexually mature, but he definitely is. ross and i have been trying to schedule something for her for a while now and just haven't put it as high enough priority. i left him a note this morning asking him to take her in. if he can't do it...well i'll stay home from st. cloud this weekend and get her fixed. ross is helping them roof this weekend. much as i would dearly love to see eltanin and wilderheart, we do not need MORE kittens. especially inbred ones.

game last night was pleasant, but not as much fun as the first session( details for my life with master. )

mainly the good news is that i have an interview at the U of M. or rather, i will once i have stopped playing phone tag. the position is basically doing the same type of thing i'm doing now. but it's a REAL job, not a contract job. with benefits. and tuition reembursement. and a pay raise. i could really use those things. i'm still interested in all of the things i have previously talked about. but i want some security too.

this weekend was full of good things.
friday night i went out to merlin's rest for drunken knit night. ( details )
also i had a good long talk with my wonderful ceci, who is now MARRIED to ben closs (CONGRATULATIONS!!!). my dad married them quick in my parents family room so that they could get arrangements made for being a military family on base when they move out to san fran. the "real" wedding will be out there.

saturday was the irish fair. i sorted and culled my knitting stash early in the morning, and stopped by jory and simona's before heading down and had a really nice couple of hours with them. i don't see enough of them. jory gave me a ride down to the fair, which was quite nice of him.
the best thing ever was finding out that my name in irish is "froach." this isn't exciting until you understand that it is pronounced "freak!" i can't stop laughing about that. i got a flask i've been wanting forever, but mostly i listened to music (the tannahill weavers and mcinnis' kitchen impressed me a lot)and talked to people i didn't know. i hung out with ryan a bit and he introduced me to some gamers i hadn't met before. they seemed very cool, and like they might liven up the game quite a bit. i might have to go check it out to see.
i got a call from ross saying he was going to be home for a bit so i ran home to catch some time with him. we had dinner together and then i went back to the guthrie with him to see the show. ( more details )

sunday i went and checked out a new church. ross pointed out a umc church that is even closer to me than the one i was going to and dissatisfied with. i could probably bike there if i wanted to end up at church all gross and sweaty. i am so glad i went. it is a mostly older crowd, but there was a baptism and a youth scholarship presentation, so it's not all old. the people were super-friendly and welcoming and came and introduced themselves, but not in a you're-new-we'll-put-you-in-the-spotlight kind of way. the pastor is a big teddy-bear of a man and made an appointment to meet with me and show me around the church and such in the future. i had a nice chat with him.
most of all. they need me. a woman went out of her way to come sit by me and tell me how much they need someone to help with the youth. she said she had been praying about it and when i showed up (a younger person with a christian education)she took the opportunity to tell me all about it in case i'm willing. she also practically invited me to join her bluegrass band without an audition(which was quite flattering, although i haven't heard them yet either)...i'm not sure how much i can help. i'm really hoping to get a job that might take my time on sundays and wednesday nights. but i can't read the future and maybe i'll get a different job instead. what i do know is that people seemed ready to use my skills and be my friend at this church. something i was missing at the other place. i will definitely go back. this place feels like a answer to what i have been praying for in a lot of ways. i just need to feel it out a little bit (in order to believe it is what it seems), and do some discernment work to figure out what i can give them.

i got to talk with xerotic for a good long while and catch up (and threaten to steal his booty since he threatened to deny me booty in the first place - it's only fair). it is always awesome to talk with the surma.
and i got a message from the cat lady. she is hoping we can come out tonight to see if we want one of her kittens!!!! that would be so awesome in every way.
it seems like way more happened this weekend than could possibly fit into a weekend. i am back at my morning crunches again (although only 60 this morning), but so far that is the only thing good about the weekend being over. i would like another 2 days, please.

the concert was very cool last night and the opening band was this beautiful flamenco-style guitarist named frederico abuele. i recommend him.

additionally, i have a phone interview. awesome.


( job description )

this weekend there were friends, friends and more friends.
friday ryan came over and we gamed
saturday we cleaned, shopped and made vast quantities of meat for a few friends to enjoy. it was lovely to see everyone.
shawn and thistle brought over the weirdest stinkiest fruit i have EVER seen/eaten. it's called a daikon monthong. monthong is the type of daikon.
it is spikey and large and if you throw them at people you can kill them because they are so heavy and sharp.
there will be pictures and more of a description later. when i have access to my pictures again.

we slept in sunday, watched some movies.
( movie reviews )</lj-cut after movie-watching we went over to adam cerling's for shadows of yesterday with shawn, john truit, adam and tim wheatly. i am enjoying my character's relationship in that game, and i really like the system. ross and i went in the hottub and chit-chatted about life. it was a lovely evening. he's really my best friend. i wish he were feeling better. his stomach is giving him grief. it is snowing. it is march 31 and it is still snowing. we are supposed to get 8 inches today. i have a non-profit job fair to go to at the u of m (it's an all-day thing really, but i'm only planning on taking a half-day off of work). the catch is that my boss has not yet responded to my request for the afternoon off even though i asked last week. wish me luck.

it has mostly been a good week.
i am remembering how much happier i am when i excercise (biked 10miles yesterday) and bemoaning the fact that my skin can't take more than about an hour in the sun even with 50 sunblock. even that much time leaves me with a slight sunburn so that i can't do it every day.. stupid doxycycline. i remember when 10 miles was nothing to me. my pride wants me to be doing 20 every time i go out.

the grass is coming up on our newly fixed lawn and it looks SO much better (pictures will be forthcoming as soon as i fix my camera battery charger). the tomatoes are going gangbusters and we may actually get a few strawberries.

i have done 4 informational interviews. the first two were great. the second two sucked. i blame the methodist church.
i talked to cindy gregorson (one of the minneapolis district superintendents) and sally johnson (deacon at hennepin UMC). both of them were nice ladies. neither of them were any help.
apparently because the UMC up here has no money, there is also no help for deacons to find work. sure, people have some contacts in the non-profit sector, but it isn't actually part of their job to help deacons looking for work. in fact, most of the deacons are not actually working outside the church. instead they are doing the work of elders in congregations that already have 2 elders.....this is very frustrating to me.
worse yet, deacons only meet annually with their DS and have cursory attachment to a church because they already have a supervisor in their job. as a result of this, there is no structure in place to make use of deacons as an informational source. i have no problems with deacons not answering to the church as much as elders, but the waste of them as a resource apalls me.
i continue to apply for things and cross my fingers.

i have discovered that i love to knit socks.
i knit a pair for my mother for mother's day and after some initial figuring-out, i am working on my third pair. pictures will be forthcoming as soon as i fix my camera battery charger....

i barely see ross these days as tech for 1776 is in full swing. we get a few moments in the morning after he rejoins the world of the living (i'm up before he is) and sometimes at night. but monday we went to see

i have been having GREAT fun with my new character thanks to sidhedevil, kurosawa2005 and rumpleteazaer. ibukij, rojirand a few others gave me advice too, but i haven't had a chance to follow up on it yet. it is so nice not to feel burnt out. it is lovely to not be bored, and i am learning a lot about combat - lessons i am ashamed to admit, i played over 3 years without. ventrue get other people to do their killing.

thank you for the well-wishes.
the job interview went well this morning. i got there early and feel like i made a very positive impression on the hr lady, director and associate director. i was warm, funny (they laughed anyway) and i THINK i appeared competent. the director kept smiling at the questions i asked as though they were just what she was hoping i would say. the associate director was more practical and hard to impress(she wanted more than passion and interest), but i think i succeeded.
i also found out that there are 5 candidates total for this position, it pays better than i thought it would and is very generous in terms of time off (3 weeks paid vacation plus holidays and 3 extra vacation days if you're not sick).
i should find out next week if they want to run second interviews or if they are just going to hire.
i promptly came home and took a nap.

i am now up to my ears in prosperity theology (which is utterly revolting to me) in my paper and refuting the parts of it that suck (which is quite enjoyable). ross is out with the boys and therefore not making noise and distracting me.  if i am a good girl and get a couple more pages done, i will be allowed to go knit with the girls for a while.