positives and negatives

It is now nearing the end of July and I have yet to land a teaching job for September. Considering the dimishing number of weeks between now and the start of school, the situation is not looking very good.

I've decided to come up with a list of the things that would be positive about living at home for a year. They are as follows:

1. I will be able to spend time with the friends I have gotten closer to this Summer.
2. I will be closer to my Grandparents.
3. My parents will charge minimal rent, allowing me to save almost as much money as I make (excepting car insurance, car payment and student loans).
4. I will be able to spend the year gaining classroom management experience substitute teaching.
5. My experience will move me up the pay scale for when I do find a job.

However, with the creation of this list, comes the counter list. That is, things that are negative about living at home for a year:

1. Glen Arden is stifling and working there every day for a year will damage my psyche.
2. Not having a full time job means no health insurance.
3. Even with working two jobs, I will be making about 1/3 of the money of most entry level teaching jobs.
4. I worry that my ever-increasingly good relationship with my parents will falter if I live at home for a long time.
5. I will feel like a failure.
6. My lack of upwards movement may create a serious rift between myself and my more successful friends from college.
7. I will lose whatever self-confidence I managed to gain over the last four years.
8. Boomerang children are portrayed in society as couch potato nothings who waste their education and have no aspirations.

community

I found this amazing website last night. It's the site of a company that makes tiny houses. When they say tiny, they mean it too! The smallest (the xs house) is only 65 square feet!

At first the whole thing seemed quite ridiculous to me, but then I got to thinking and realized how much simpler life would be if you only had the stuff that you absolutely needed to go through your days and didn't have to worry so much about always expanding upwards and outwards. In the confines of a tiny house, you would be forced to be ordlery and organized as well as clutter-free. In the light of my incredibly messy room and my boxes of belongings that are spread over two separate rooms, it seems like a really great lifestyle.

But then, I got to thinking that it would get tiresome after a while because if you wanted to have friends over for dinner or celebrate an occassion, it would be difficult to manage, which is when I came up with the grand plan.

You get a big group of people together and buy a good chunk o' land somewhere outside town. You build a clubhouse type deal with internet access, a huge TV, a bunch of comfy couches and bean bag chairs and other entertainmenty stuff and spread your tiny houses out on the property. That way, when you want to be around a bunch of people, you can, but then at the end of the night, you get to go to your eighty square feet or whatever that is yours and yours only. And of course, the group would have a giant garden to grow delicious-type produce. And maybe a couple chickens. And absolutely, a big floppy, friendly dog that could sleep in a differnt tiny house each night of the week. Plus, the land could be somewhere totally awesome, like right at the base of the Tetons or even up on the ridge in the Gunx.

How fun would that be?

Computer

My dad put some work into my computer, adding a new harddrive and fixing my broken cover. It runs amazingly and I no longer have to prop the screen up on something to see what's going on as I type. It's truly amazing.
One of the best parts is now that I have a giant hard drive, I can finally empty my memory card (I've got stuff on there from Christmas!) I've been working on it for a little while now and came across these really cool pictures of the moon that I took a while back at night, right on my back porch.
I thought this one was definitely post-worthy:

Salve Regina and the quest for everlasting financial security

For some reason I have had songs from Sister Act running through my head all day. I do not know what brough on this strange brain obsession, but rest assured, once I figure out the cause, I will avoid it at all costs. Even it's something really great like apple juice or hitting snooze one too many times.

I finally got a job interview today! It's way over in Fall River, Massachusetts. It's right near Rhode Island, which is kind of exciting because I've always wanted to live close to the ocean. It's about a four hour drive from New York, across Conneticut down by the coast. I'm so excited it's like I've been offered the job already and it's just an interview. I guess when you're as stressed out over the prospect of being employed at just over minimum wage in a place where your four year degree would be better put to use wiping the sweat off your brow, even the first step towards a real job is enough to lift your spirits!

the almighty map

I used Googlemaps and paint to make a visual representation of my job search. The job I applied for in Hartford is not on the map because it did not fit. It should be fairly obvious that the reds have said no and the greens have not.

commence

I have decided I'd like to start (and keep) another blog. Not because I think my life is especially interesting or that anyone would like to read about the going-ons, but because when I look like this:

I believe very strongly that these little insights into my life and thoughts will provide me with hours of entertainment. That is, if I can still read.

I hope they still make pink pants when I'm 90.