Good news, bad news.

So the bad news is about $500 bucks plus a rental car for a number of days.

And the good news is that it isn't as bad as it could have been, or would have been a few days from now. We still have tranny.

In other news, the bad news is no news on any job offers.

The good news is that there's no news on any job offers.

In other other news, the bad news is that I have to work a ****load of overtime.

The good news is that it's takehome stuff for the most part, and writing procedures at that. While most people wouldn't care for it, I like it just fine.

So I have an ulcer (not really), but the money should balance itself out.

And that's my karma, folks.

I can hear a woodpecker outside the house.

It sounds like someone snoring.

Novel update.

It's going. I'm still working on the "clear-up-confusion" draft. My goal is to get that done by June. I haven't covered much; the going seems even slower because I'm cutting so much crap out of the beginning that I'm on page twenty--but I've cut eight pages off the total.

Other updates:

Ray peed in the potty today--she's wearing big-girl pants so it's important whether you make it on time or not.

Still no news on the job situation, other than "Yes, as we said before, it'll indeed be the end of the month before you find out anything."

I realized the other day, though, that it's important that I move along, one way or another. Everything that made doing this particular job pleasant has been moved out of the department, and it's never coming back. I hear some people bitch about their jobs, and rightly so: but the fact is that I used to like mine. I'd come home happy to have been running around doing it. Now it's the kind of grinding drudgery that makes chiropractors tut-tut.

"You're wearing down the edges of your bones," they'd say. "Someday you'll be nothing but a collection of bone spikes that hurt you more than they do anyone else."

De-Cree:

If there is an powerful, secret underground Illuminati movement to a) take over the world, b) encourage people to take over the world, c ) encourage yet other people to take over the people who were going to take over the world, or d) all of the above, as is usual with those dang Illuminati,

Suze Orman is on my list.

Why?

She has hypnotic eyes; also, on the cover of one book she's wearing a pendant of a sun with a reversed pyramid with a stone of some kind in the center.

Weeeeeird.

Matt.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MATT AND KATIE!

My brother Matt sends this:

So maybe all those hours spent watching scifi movies has paid off. For our
eletronic media class we had to come up with a new technology. So here was
mine.


An new technology that could be beneficial to develop would be a world wide
wireless network. Only this technology would employ the use of transmitters
that would be attached to certain types of insects. This way there would be
no need to, or the problem of running cables, putting up towers. There would
be one central broadcast station and since there are millions of insects
around the world then each signal would jump from bug to bug. There wouldn't
be as much lost signal when you travel down a valley or through a dead area.
The process of attaching the transmitters could be done with just a simple
crop duster and the adhesive that would be used could be made to only attach
to the DNA of insects. The transmitters could also be made to have a half
life so they eventually break down leaving no trace even after the insect
has died. But still be resistant enough to with stand elements and an
occasional digestion.

And here was the instructors response...

Brilliant!! You win the prize for the most innovative advance idea in
technology submitted. Your idea blew me away! If you return to the site, you
can browse the other students' ideas, but really, none of them are new. You
"stepped up to the plate" with this one.
I believe that you should earn extra points for this idea, so I have added
10 points to the GOLDEN GLOBES assignment. (its easier than creating a new
place for these points).
THANK YOU!!
Joan

More thumb-twiddling.

I had my first interview for the other job today--the QC one. Again, no news.

Funny. Way too many people applied for this job (versus the other one), so the guy weeded out people with questionnaires. One of the instructions on one of the questionnaires was to use a specific font, color, and size.

People missed that.

Oh yes, he said. It was a test to see if people can follow directions.

There you go.

Return.

We're back.

No zoo. It snowed--and four hours later we were in shirtsleeves weather.

We did go to the Butterfly House in Sioux Falls. More on that later, I think. Also, since we didn't go to the zoo, we splurged on a motel with a swimming pool.

Ray finally let me take her back to the room. Her lips were blue.

Huh.

Ray just packed herself in the suitcase.

Trip. We're leaving Thursday night for SD. We should be back in town on Wednesday.

With luck, we'll get to stop at the Omaha Zoo on the way back.

So? You say.

Omaha. "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom." Omaha.

They have a great zoo.

Interview. First interview today.

No further information until the last week of March.

Sigh.

I think it went well; I'm hyped. The general idea is to get someone to research procedures, write them up, and get best practices from the three sites that do the same work. What has been my big bitch at work lately? We're spending about twice as long on an application as the other sites are, due to workarounds we have in place for other departments--even ones we know don't save anyone any time. We can't get approval. We have no contacts. I'd be able to do something about the things I bitch about. Cool.

Beware. Depo shot yesterday. Kicking in today.

Please disregard anything insightful I say today: it's a lie, I tell you, a lie.

Three months of hormones are coursing through my body.

Lee said, "You look like you need a hug all the time."

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Mabye I should go find some chocolate and kill it.

Viciously.

Sitch.

I'm still waiting for the first gorram interview for the tech position, by the way. Things crawl. Also posted for a QC position.

My supervisor is a...not a saint, but you can see why there are such things as saints when you understand her situation here. She's not a patient woman. She's freaking out. She's losing staff left and right, because juicy positions are opening up all over the place, nobody will give her anybody else to fill the empty spots, and she just keeps encouraging us to try for the next thing. A good woman--not "saintly," but human and forcing herself to be good for the rest of us.

Anyway.

Lee and I "switched." He was doing full-time and I was working part-time at opposite hours--so we could keep Ray at home. He's now doing fewer hours and I'm working full-time.

I like it. I feel like I can get a day's work done. Satisfying, when you've been fighting for a year to get a day's work done but failing. Daily.

I farted around tonight, had some sushi (which may have come to symbolize both spring and non-motherhood for me), read a book, drank a decaf mocha--in short, luxuriated. When I came home, Lee had cleaned the house, made supper for himself and Ray, and run herd all day.

He looked like I must have looked when he would fall all over himself trying to make me feel less motherly. I asked if I could do anything--he looked so frustrated.

I think we'll be okay, but there are just days that go on far, far, far too long when you have a toddler, no matter how well they go. Maybe that's something you can only realize when you see it on someone else's face.

Swan Palace.

From the menu of my favorite Chinese place in town:

Honey Glazed Walnut Shrimp: Shimp in a light batter in snow-white sarcastic lemon, in comination with mayonnaise, surrounding with honey glazed roasted walnut and topped wtih sesame seeds. What a tantalizing combination!

--I haven't been brave enough to try it yet.

Canton Steamed Whole Fish: Steamed and topped with ginger and scallions with our special light soy sauce. Healthy and nutritional. Dietician's lover! (Please allow approzimately 30 minutes for preparation.)

--No comment.

Thoughts on Writing.

Talking to Lee last night, here are some things that I know:

• When you sit down to write a story, you should ask yourself "Why?"
  
• If all you're trying to do is entertain someone, that's good but probably not honest.
  
• If you're trying to "make people think" by telling them your opinion, that's not a story.
  
• Everybody hates the story that's about rape or abortion or God or whatever--about one thing in particular.
  
• Unless...it's a good story.
  
• What makes a good story is that there's something at risk.
  
• Including your own opinion.
  
• If it's a story that's just your opinion, and you never make your opinion at risk, you're just preaching.
  
• Even if you're preaching that preaching is bad.
  
• Nobody wants to read a story about "God is good."
  
• But people might read a story about "God is good. God is all-powerful. Evil exists."
  
• There's this Esther Friesner story, whose title I can't remember, about abortion.
  
• She's said about it, "People tell me they're not sure after reading the story whether I'm for or against abortion. That's what I was trying for."
  
• So if your story is good versus evil, you have to make both sides strong enough to win.
  
• Or whatever.
  
• Because if it was a foregone conclusion, you shouldn't have written it in the first place.
  

Right. You know you're doing something right when you dream about Jimmy Stewart.