In which there’s a little travel, and some work and school.

Toni agreed to drive me to Portland if I paid for gas. Since there was no bus service and the train was full, I was grateful she did so. We rolled out of Walla Walla on Saturday just before noon.

She dropped me off at Leila’s just after dark. (I went to high school with Leila. We lost touch for years, but found each other back when I was married and lived on a farm in Iowa. I’ve seen her a couple times since then.) This is what I got to eat for dinner:

Yeah. Leila made Japanese food. She fucking KICKS ASS.

I spent the evening visiting with Leila and her family and also Deb, in from Chicago to deal with a family issue, who had a plane to catch early the next morning (or we might have gone out or arranged to see more people). Leila put her daughter on the couch for the night; I slept in the kid’s bed, and Deb got the IKEA chair that folded out.

When I woke the next morning I ran right upstairs to see Deb off but I’d just missed her. She was already in her rental car, driving off. I read the paper, hung out with the family, and made myself an omelet. I had two pieces of bread, because Leila’s homemade bread is freakin’ awesome.

After a lovely relaxing day of lounging around being a guest, Toni picked me up at dark and off we went, via an Olive Garden in Gresham for dinner, and I got home around midnight with no voice from hollering with Toni about our ex husbands for four hours.

~+~+~
This morning I registered online for Winter quarter, which started today. I was late because I’d not known to ask for a PIN at the end of last quarter – I thought, I guess, that the PIN I had would work – and my instructor and advisor both were totally incommunicado during Christmas break.

I have a little custom curriculum that an advisor created for me way back when I was applying for CAT and TB at WorkSource. It expects me to take CCNA 2 this term along with three other courses, and then take CCNA 3 and CCNA 4 next term.

Well, CCNA 3 won’t be offered next term for some reason, so I have to take it now, which means I have to drop a class, but they all seem to be pre-reqs for stuff I’m supposed to take next term. It’s kind of a mess, so I’m going to talk to my instructor and my advisor tomorrow and get them to decide what I should do. (I really don’t think I’m intellectually up for a 25-credit term, even if I did have the extra four hundred bucks I’d need to pay for the class and the books.)

(Yeah, I guess I wasn’t eligible for student loans or something. I got a grant that pays half of my tuition, but I’m paying the rest out of pocket. While on unemployment. Yeah, so, it’s a little tight, but at least I’m not increasing my debt! Anybody who wants to send me money for school is totally welcome to do so! Heh.)

~+~+~
I got 40 hours of work out of the QA people during Christmas break, and submitted my invoice on Friday. Miraculously, they paid it immediately and the check arrived today, so I can pay my tuition installment payment, buy books, eat, and pay my bills. Last Friday’s gig money will pay my rent. Hooray! If I’m very frugal, I might actually get to buy myself something fun with my Christmas money!

Today I learned that the possible ongoing part-timeness that had been on the table had been revoked again, but I guess that’s okay. If I’m going to be taking two CCNA classes in tandem, maybe I don’t want a part-time contracting job, even though the money’s way better than unemployment compensation.

~+~+~
The place that had me in for two interviews last May emailed me today: I was their second-favorite candidate last year and it seems they’re hiring again and would I be interested in meeting with them?

Would I ever! Except I’m in school until June, is that a problem?

Not at all. Send us your updated resume and we’ll talk to you in May.

Seriously? Far OUT. I will absolutely do that!

~+~+~
I’ve obtained an application for the karma yoga program at Amma’s ashram in San Ramon, California. If I don’t get a job right out of school this Spring, I might go down there for some stretch of time between two weeks and two months.

I’d get to do daily spiritual practices with the ashram residents while volunteering my skills and labor, so it would be like an extended retreat. I’ve never in my life thought I was renunciate material, but I’ve lately found an interest in finding out what ashram life is like.

We’ll see if this desire gets fulfilled or not. There’s a not-too-trivial part of me that suspects that I may continue to be here for some time: G’ma is 88 and slowing down, and I am, after all, the spinster granddaughter, tailor-made to look after her if she needs me…

Of course, G’ma might just up and decide to move into the Odd Fellows on the very day she can no longer mow her own lawn. (She’s mentioned it a few times in the past few years. In fact, she told my brother recently that he had two more years to live here because she was going to close up the house when she turned 90.)

(And Lord knows I don’t like yard work, but I guess I’ll be doing some this year anyway.)

(At least it’s a self-propelled mower.)

(Gah. I’d rather have a rock garden! Seriously.)

(I know, right? The suffering I bear!)