Here we go loop-de-looooo...

I'm at work- I don't have time to write what just now popped into my head. Just wanted to let you all know that I'm alive and still waiting to hear from Shedd. I have called this week, but had to leave a message. This week has seen lows and (while maybe not "highs") some mid-altitude plateaus of rest.

I will write more later. I am going to a play with dana tonight at her church. It's about Job. Hmmm. Job the guy forever associated with angst and suffering despite loving God, and job, the cause of much of my angst and suffering despite loving God. Interesting…. *grin* love you all!

Today is Saturday, April 21 - I worked this week at the Rotary International World Headquarters, which, go figure, happens to be in Evanston. I'm entering into a database the names of literally thousands of Rotary Clubs from around the world that have qualified for a special commendation. I spend my days at a computer in a lovely little cubicle, reading all sorts of names and matching them to the database. It's very interesting, as far as all the clubs in all the places... some of the names are really neat. It sounds boring, and it is. but it's not horrible. the actual office environment is very pleasant, the people in the Awards Department have so far been very amiable and seem to get along with each other very well- there's laughter on a regular basis. another affirmation that a work environment doesn't have to be horribly stressful. I enjoy going to this job, even though what i'm actually doing IS kinda boring. they have hot chocolate and tea bags in the kitchen area, too. i'm learning a bit about what Rotary clubs around the world DO, too- it's NOT just a bunch of old rich guys eating lunch, like it sometimes seems to be in America. *grin*

The Rotary building is a 16-floor highrise in Evanston, one of the tallest buildings in Evanston, doncha' know. What's nice is that the area i'm in is on the east side of the building. this means that about 20 feet from my cubicle is a wonderful view of the Lake. And if i look very sharply to the right, i get a great view of the City- Hancock Center to Sears Tower. and in the middle, halfway between me and the City, is a cluster of buildings distiguishable as Loyola University's campus, which is two blocks from my apartment, so in a way, i can see where i live.

this job at the Roatary International offices is through the temp agency i'm working for, and is supposed to last for a couple of weeks. this is good, since i'm not too hopeful about getting either of the jobs i interviewed at over the last week. I was told by the woman at Shedd that they hoped to make their decision "early" in this week (the day of my interview on last friday was the last day of interviews for the position), and that i would receive a call "either way". since i did not receive any call this week, i'm thinking that i am at least not their first choice- perhaps they have not called other candidates pending acceptance by the first choice person, etc. i did call on Monday to thank them for the interview and to say that i enjoyed it very much. i dont' know if i should again. i probably will.

the reception/secretary job i interviewed for on Tuesday went ok, but not spectacular. i don't think we hit it off to any impressive degree. just sorta lukewarm. i'd be okay in the job. it's got a great location- downtown, but right on the bus route that goes right past my house, and in an office building right across from the Art Institute and Millenium Park. i do enjoy being downtown. but, this job would be REALLY on the low end of my salary requirements. really. but it'd be full time with benefits.

the other job i was supposed to interview with on Tuesday i postponed- for various reasons; but i'm not sure it's practical for me- it's only very part time, and the kind of work means it's on weeknight evenings or weekends. and they ask for a 9-month commitment, and with temping and not knowing when or what hours i'd get if i get a job- well, this job was a good idea as a second job filler, once i know what the main job will be. anyway.

as far as general finances go, Cindy and i were feeling pretty good about our ability to meet all obligations and maybe even have enough to get our brakes checked out- and then i did my taxes. *sigh* for the first time in YEARS (if ever) I ended up owing both federal and state taxes. due to the fact that unemployment benefits do not have the option to withhold for taxes...

so, i'm feeling a little anxiety about things again, since $325 suddenly was due on April 17. please continue praying for my peace of mind and for my trust in God's provision. I will be getting one check (from this week) before rent is due. but i was kinda counting on the money (now gone) so that i could make a payment to my chiropractor (for my treatment last year)- i'd stopped making payments temporarily, but now need to make a payment to avoid defaulting and being referred to debt collections. and i don't need any more of THAT.

meanwhile, i am enjoying:

• spending time with a family from church with two young girls (and a third on the way),
• the nicer weather which allows me to go back to my times of relaxation on my favorite beach (and yes, collect more lake glass...),
• going through the EXperiencing God small group study,
• continuing to fellowship and pray for the wonderful people in my small group,
• reading Phil chapter 4 and other assorted scripture.

speaking of scripture, tomorrow is sunday, which means i should get going on my way to bed. maybe we can be on time tomorrow morning! hee hee.

i love you all, and pray for my friends and family more now than i ever really consistently have. Feel free to drop me a line or leave a comment with a way i can pray for you. praying for others helps me focus on God and what HE can do and has done and is doing in the lives of so many people, instead of just focusing on me.

btw- thanks to cousin michelle for this wonderful pink knit top i'm wearing, and for the awesome zip-up pin-stripe blouse (that gave me something else ot wear to work this week), among other items of clothing that no longer fit her. the little things like wearing my "new" clothes and remembering the people in my life who love me- that also helps me focus on God and what HE can do, is doing, and will continue to do in the lives of those around me. Praise Jesus.

Shedd interview update

I don't have much time, and will add details later, but i wanted to let you all know that my interview at Shedd was yesterday at 9:00 and went as well as i could have hoped. the interview was fun and i was sorry to have to leave! I think that i have a real shot at being offered the job, and now am concentrating on praying about whether to take it if offered. right now i am leaning toward yes, but am still offering it to God, since this particular position means working on Sundays. on the other hand, if i take it, it could be a way in to an organization that i could make a career with... so please pray for me as well.

i love you all! thanks for your prayers concerning this interview- i really felt God's peace.

---

When it rains... again...

so, apparently it's raining. not just outside, where it's 35 degrees and so raining slushy crud, but in my life of job searching, too. the latest interview update and therefore prayer items:

• Shedd Aquarium: Friday Apr 13 @9:00 (for a program interpretor position interacting with the general visiting public. at the interview i will be presenting a 15 min demo about coral that i created- did you know vinegar dissolves coral?)
  
• Jewish Family & Children Council: Tuesday Apr 17 @10:00 (for a one-on-one mentoring position for children and adults with developmental and mental disabilities- part time to supplement- ofc is nearby in West Rogers Park)
  
• Christian Century Magazine: Tuesday Apr 17 @3:00 (for a receptionist/editorial assistant position beginning in May- downtown ofc right across from the Art Institute)

You'll notice i have two on next tuesday- that is because i will be working a temp job starting on monday, but i had already told the temp agency i was not available on the 17th for a job that ended up falling through. SO- i will start working in Evanston (about 20 minutes by train) on monday at the Rotary international ofcs- putting data from letters received into their database and generating return letters, i think. it is a job predicted to last 3-4 weeks and pays $13/hr! This is such a relief and (of course) another answer to prayer! Just when i start to feel overwhelmed, God comes through again. How do people live without God?

Also, I received a call today from a woman at church who had a job lead for cindy. cindy also is dog-sitting this weekend in addition to her part time daycare assistant hours this week.

i applied for a forebearance on my student loans for three months, and was worried it would not go through before the loan payment was automatically deducted; but i checked online today and the forbearance was approved and the autopayment did not go through!

i am hopeful that tomorrow cindy and i can take the car for an estimate on what damage has been done to our brakes, so that we can plan on how much we need to repair them so we have a car for use when job searching, as well.

it's cold and crappy weather outside, but the rain i'm feeling inside today is sweet and refreshing! Thank you Jesus!

(by the way, does anyone out there need an almost-full bag of hydrated lime?)

why i have new carpet, and interview update

about a month ago there was a night of rain, freezing rain, then rain again, resulting in massive amounts of slush, which acted as dams for the rain... my bedroom is on "garden" level, meaning it is half-basement, so windows are AT ground level. my bedroom is also in the back corner of the apartment building: i have a wall with a window that looks directly onto the alley and the wall adjoining that is the outside wall that has the gate into the back"yard" area. (so i can hear quite clearly whenever anyone comes in or out through the back gate.)

now, the water drainage at that back gate corner and out through the alley has always been HORRIBLE. but usually the water at least gets into the alley and pools in the middle of the alley- which makes getting to the dumpsters interesting, but at least there's not 6 inches of standing water at the back corner of the building by the gate. Until that night i just described... the slushy snowy dams kept water from going anywhere- well, anywhere except for into the cracks that were present (apparently) in the concrete flashing along the foundation and within the foundation, and water started listening to gravity and permeating into those little cracks which the cold apparently made worse and some of the concrete had broken up, and well, i ended up with lots of water in my room. but i'm getting ahead of myself.

in my bedroom, in that back outside corner, i have this little "closet". it's not part of my real closet, not even on the same wall, just this little build-out from the wall with a folding closet door. and when you open it you see the unfinished rock foundation on the bottom half, and unfinished brick wall on the upper half. and affixed on the brick wall is a big gray metal box, with a huge pull-lever inside, labeled "ON" and "OFF" and "Emergency Electric Shut-off" handwritten on the gray metal. yes, i have the master power switch to the entire building in my bedroom.

so this particular sunday morning after that slushy night i've already described, half my carpet squishes when i walk on it. and it's the half of my room radiating out from that back corner, the unfinished corner. meaning that the water is seeping in from that corner. cindy and i spend more than an hour moving everything on that half of the room. we call the landlord; the leaking appears to stop while landlord is there (he also shovels the snow/slush/water). but later that night, it's dripping again- well, more like oozing, water seeping in through the rock foundation. we borrow a wet-vac, and pull about 18 gallons of water out of the carpet in about 5 hours. and i examine the leaking corner and realize that if i could just get the water to drip OUT away from the rock face and INTO something, instead of just flowing down the rock face and into the carpet, maybe i wouldn't have to move everything out of my room. (we did anyway, including taking my bed apart around 1:00 a.m.) so, i remember my physics and go find some Bronco Blue pipe cleaners i have and push the ends of the pipe cleaners into the cracks where it looks like the most water is flowing. Capillary action and gravity do their job, and the water follows the pipe cleaners out away from the rock face, and drips off the ends of the pipe cleaners into the 9x13 pan i've set up below. as you see in the pic, i rigged up quite a few pipe cleaners. and that 9x13 pan filled up every 20-25 minutes for several hours. This picture was actually taken more than a week afterwards, so some of the pipe cleaners have fallen out, and everything is dry. but, there is supposed to be carpet on that floor. The building handyman came immediately Monday morning and ripped up all the carpet and padding to prevent molding.

and so for 3 weeks my room looked like this, except emptier. this pic was taken when my parents were in town, and we put an air mattress down on the concrete floor for my dad and the chair was left there. The power shut off leaking corner closet is in the middle of the picture. (some of you might be saying, "i thought she said the corner closet wasn't even on the same wall as her clothes closet, but i see clothes hanging right beside it..." Yes, you do, because i'm strange and moved my closet rod to the opposite wall and used my real closet as a little nook for my bed. yeah, i'm weird.) so anyway, nearly a month of cold concrete in my room with nothing else, including my bed. i slept on my mattress in either cindy's room or in the middle of the family room. but, on March 23 I got new carpet! I was out of town that weekend, so when i came home, i was greeted with the unmistakeable scent of Eau de Carpet Nouveau and my wonderful sister Cindy had moved some of my furniture back in and put up this cute little Indian-style purple canopy thing around the real closet and placed that orange chair and a table in the closet and it was such a cute little reading nook! i don't have pics yet of my new room and carpet- when i'm all moved back in, i'll post a few.

no, i'm not all moved in yet- i had one week of being home with the new smelly carpet (couldn't really sleep in the room yet cuz it was so bad) and then cndy and i went to Indiana for a week last week. (see cindy's blog at www.zeeblebop.com for info on that.) and we got home yesterday and now i'm spending most of my time taking anti-cold/allergy meds (man, i haven't had this much runny snot in YEARS) and preparing for my interiew at Shedd Aquarium.

Yes, my Shedd interview is still pending. I never received an email i was suppsed to get regarding preparing for the interview (Shedd's server was having issues) and so Samantha (the woman in charge of the department i'm interviewing with) called and gave the info verbally but rescheduled the interview from last tuesday to today because i didn't have enough time to prepare. (i have to prepare a 10-15 minute presentation on any aquatic theme with at least one hands-on activity.) well, it was then supposed today, but i realized last week there was NO WAY i'd ahve enough time to prep a good demo when i was doing painting and childcare for that time, and not getting home until the day before the interview. that didn't give me nearly enough time to see if vinegar dissolves my coral pieces and to find lime (chemical) to combine with water to make limewater to make limestone... anyway... so, i called Samantha and left a message explaining my lack of actual usable time and wondering if she had something open a few days later... if not, i would be there on tuesday, for sure, but no harm in asking.

so, long story short, Samantha was on vacation last week too and called me back from her home yesterday to let me know that postponing my intervew for a day or two is JUST FINE and totally not a problem. she's calling me this afternoon to tell me what her schedule looks like, and i will be doing my interview hopefully on Thursday or Friday.

This was an answer to prayer, and i praise God for it, cuz the "lime" we found yesterday and tried to make limewater did NOT work AT ALL. the lime we got today is upstairs all mixed in water and looks to be separating out just like it's supposed to. AND vinegar (even at only 5% acidity) DOES dissolve coral! this is good for my demo, but really not so good for the oceans... but i won't get into that now.

Please pray that my demo will come together well in the next 24 hours as i actually script it out and practice it with the hands on stuff just described, and pray for my actual interview of course. Also please continue to pray for me to have peace and follow God's prompting in my job search and in His provision for my financial needs. This is very hard for me to do. without completely panicking. sigh. also, i have another connection that gave me the name of a temp agency that her friend runs, and i'll be calling them this afternoon as well.

I love you ALL! (especially since you actually read all the 'schtuff' i write!)