Alrighty....so we're long since moved into a cozy apartment and now even have internet access.  This, in my opinion, is both good and bad.  It's good to be able to get online any time and check my email or find something I need help with.  However, it is bad when Alex stays on the computer until 12:00 and the next day is ruined for me because I'm over tired.  Can't I go to sleep before him?  Well, yes.  But usually my mind is so busy that just about when I'm about to fall asleep, or just after, he comes in and it wakes me up.  Then it takes me another half hour to an hour to get back to falling asleep again.  Stupid brain.

Before we had internet, there was Pokemon Diamond!  I rediscovered my DS after some unpacking and have been happily playing along for a few months now.  I've finally beaten Leaf Green, Diamond, and Sapphire.  Woot!  I've also began a new and somewhat INSANE project.  I blame my slight OCD nature. >.<  I must try and get one of -every- pokemon.  So far...I have around 400 something.  I am kicking myself that we missed Darkrai.  We didn't have internet yet and just didn't see the ad!  Much crying and whining ensued when I learned (the day after) that we could have had one!  Anyway, collecting away, battling and breeding.  It's hard work...but somehow fulfilling.

If you read this and should happen to want to trade, thereby sparing at least a little of my sanity, drop me a reply and maybe we can work something out!  Trading with the strangers in the global network seems lame.  Everyone wants lvl 100 legendaries for even the most basic stuff!  Losers.

I thought this was really funny.  And you know....using snuggling might actually be a better punishment than my yelling when Sami uses the bed for a scratching post!  Sami hates to be picked up and snuggled.  My mother calls them "hug attacks."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHXBL6bzAR4

I've had a lot of alone time in the evenings lately since I work in the morning and Alex often works in the evening.  To fight off boredom I've been swimming through reading and rewatching lots of my anime.  I just rewatched all of Fushigi Yuugi and Angelic Layer.  Still love those.  Now, I'm rewatching Fruits Basket.  What am I going to do when I run out of movies!

Netflix is sounding really good about now. 

Alright, so life has taken another quick turn and sent Alex and I in a new direction.  So far...it seems to be a very good direction, so I'm very much relieved.  Things weren't going very well and there was much stress and unhappiness.  Now, things have calmed down and at the moment all is well.

Last weekend we moved out of my parents' loft and into a new apartment.  This was a much needed move and it took much longer than I had ever imagined when making the decision to leave Florida. The apartment itself is a little small and in a neighborhood that borders on being a little dangerous, but it feels comfortable and I feel so much better now that the tension between my parents and Alex is not weighing on me.

Sami took a while to adjust to the move this time.  It seems that as she gets older she handles things with less enthusiasm.  Poor, confused kitty.  My mom really misses having her around to talk to and sit with in the mornings.

Alex has done well with the transition as well and he's been a big help both during the move and around the house.  I'm so thankful for that because as it is I've felt destroyed by all the lifting and lugging on top of going to work.  My body is complaining quite a bit through muscle spasms, aches, and this annoying weakness that makes picking up the smallest things feel impossible.

In other news, Alex is now an official college student!  He's enrolled at Davenport University with a major of some sort of computer security or something. >.<  His classes start in May and I'm totally geeked that he's taken this step and excited for him.  College was a big challenge but I also enjoyed it a lot, too!

Anyway, I have to go again.  I've been online from mom's house since we don't have internet yet.  If you want our new mailing address just shoot me an email!

Okay, so I'm home from the job fair.  I don't have a job.  That was the most frightening and overwhelming thing I've ever done.  I'm still trying really hard to take it all in.  Because of how scared I was, I only took on like...four interviews.  I was in one school's top three...but dismissed hours later with a typed, fill in the name slip of paper saying sorry a little later in the day.  And one lady flat out told me that I don't have what it takes to teach overseas and that the school I taught for was such an oddity that my experience pretty much doesn't count.  I was floored.  I appreciated her honesty...I really did.  But dang is it hard to sit and smile and hear that and not feel incredibly tiny and stupid.  So, yeah.  What are we going to do?  We only have a short time to get ourselves together, rent a place and get new jobs...I am so worried and frustrated.  I don't know what to do.  I'm sort of glad I wasn't picked.  I'm still scared to go through what I've been through.  And I hated my time teaching.  Even student teaching.  Why am a beating a dead horse career path!!!

Simple:  I really don't know where to turn or what to do with myself. 

I can't believe it is here already....in an hour or so I'll be on my way to Iowa for the UNI International Teaching Job Fair.  I've got a mixture of feelings about this: hopeful, terrified, sad, frustrated, excited.  There is a part of me that is really ready to head overseas and have an adventure.  Another part of me wants to stay near my family and host holiday events and be an active part of the family.  Still yet another part of me is terrified of teaching and doesn't want anything more to do with it.  I don't have a clue what I want...but I know I need to get a job.  If I don't, well, we will be in trouble.

I already have one interview set up and a school that wants me to stop by and see them.  Rainbow Bridge International School in Shanghai and Hayah International Academy in Cairo will be the schools I see first.  *gulp*  I hate interviewing.  I'm so scared.

Ten minutes and counting.... 

This morning I got an email...it is from a school in Egypt that apparently read my info on the UNI job link and would like to meet me at the job fair.  Argh!  Scary!  It's an interview invitation!  Here's the link to the school for anyone curious.

 www.hayahacademy.com

Take a break from RL a momemnt to learn how to become World of Warcraft's most powerful Shaman ever!  >^.^<

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=2969688265&sid=1

"OH NO WHY IS ANIMALS ON MY FACE?!" 

I took a breath, gulped, and turned in all that we had in savings to go to the international teaching job fair in Iowa.  I'm...admittedly....terrified.  But, I took the step and I'm going to do it.  There are no jobs in Michigan and I don't have the money to go back to school.  If I can get another job, I can go back for special education certification -- unless I'm happy and decide I don't want to after all.  Anyway, here goes nothing!

Now...If only I could put together an impressive resume and small portfolio to bring with me for the schools I choose to visit. I'm not really sure what a good teacher's resume and packet would look like! Argh!

Wishing you all a happy New Year!