Employed!

After eight months of unemployment, I will have a job again in mid-May. This afternoon I interviewed for and was offered a job with a company evaluating web searches. Not only is this something that fits in with my career interests, but it also pays well, is part-time, and is done entirely from home. This means that I have a well-paying job that will cover the gap this summer between the end of my stipend and the beginning of FoxyJ's in the fall, that I will be able to keep said job over the transition from Seattle to Davis (and over the stay in Utah that will hopefully come in between the two), and that next year while Foxy is in school I will be able to be a stay-at-home dad and still contribute to my family's economic survival. Really, this is about as ideal as it gets. (Well, no, as ideal as it gets is Foxy winning millions on Jeopardy! while I sign a five-book contract with some big publisher.)

There have been several points in my life when I didn't know how I or my family was going to pay the rent or buy food in the not-too-distant future, and I've never worried about it because it always just works out. If there is a theme to my life, it is that things always work out, usually much better than could possibly be expected. It's tempting to attribute this good fortune to an omnipotent being who is watching out for me (and probably a more convincing argument could be made for an omnipotent being watching out for FoxyJ and her husband just happens to be in the blessed safety zone), but that raises the question of why said being doesn't provide other equally or more deserving people with the same good fortune.

At any rate, whether it's God or the Universe or simply the people around me who make good things happen, I do notice and I do appreciate it. I'll return the favor if the opportunity arises.

Insurance

Today I picked up a $45 nasal inhaler at the pharmacy and paid $15. Then I went to the vision center and picked up 12 pairs of contact lenses*, whose total value including the consultation fee is just under $200, and paid nothing. I realize that insurance is one of the great evils of the twenty-first century because it artificially raises prices on products and services that would otherwise cost much less, but it can't be all that bad if it's saving me money, right? Because it's all about me. Right?

Of course, I did have to pay an exorbitant fee for the insurance premium, and the only reason I feel like I'm getting my money's worth out of that exorbitant fee is because of above-noted artificially-raised prices. So maybe insurance is evil, even if it is all about me. (Which it is.)

But at the moment I'm just happy to get a free year's supply of contacts and a nasal inhaler at 66% off.



*I've been trying a different brand of lenses that are coated with slimy moisture-retaining goo that keeps them from drying out, and they're much better than any lenses I've worn before. Sometimes it even feels like I'm wearing nothing at all. Nothing at all!

Forever Found

Barnes and Noble had only one copy of Finding Forever--apparently alternative hip hop isn't a big seller in the University District in Seattle--and it was not the edited version. (I'm generally not a fan of any kind of censorship, but I do have two small children, the elder of whom has been known to sing along to my music. In my defense, this is not a Clean Flix guerrilla censorship thing here; clean versions of most albums with the explicit lyrics label are produced by record companies and if artists have a problem with being edited then they should take a closer look at the fine print of their contracts. [But then I have been known, in cases where there is no officially-produced clean version, to do my own guerrilla censorship, but at least I'm not selling or renting my censored copies.])

So anyway (starting a new paragraph because that was a really long parenthetical), I came home and bought the album on Napster. With Paypal money, which is like real money but not quite the same because it doesn't show up on my bank statement. Regardless, I'm unrepentant.

And Harry Potter is now "In Transit." The Amazon.com reward certificate has yet to show its face.

Just Received

But unfortunately I'm not the implied subject of that verb (or the implied object of the implied preposition "by" following the past participle, if you prefer to read it that way).

A week and a half later, the status of the book-on-CD version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at Seattle Public Library has finally been changed to "Just Received." Until now it's been "On Order." At least now it should just be a couple days (assuming they rush through processing, as they darn well should, with 480 people waiting) before I get my copy--I'm number 23 on the list and there are 23 copies.

I would have finished the book a week and a half ago, along with the rest of the English-speaking world, if I weren't so cheap--refusing to fork out twenty bucks to buy the book myself--and for that matter, picky. At one point I was number 12 on the SPL waiting list for the print version, but I listened to the first six books and I was determined to listen to the seventh book, so I switched over to the audio version as soon as it was available for placing holds. Little did I know that while the library is quick to process the books and get them on hold shelves the day of release, the same doesn't apply to the book on CD.

Sigh. One of these days I'll be cool.

In related cheapness, I've been holding off on ordering the latest album from my second-favorite* rapper, Common, until I get the Amazon.com reward certificate I'm supposed to be getting from my Amazon.com Visa credit card. The album came out today, though, and I still haven't gotten the reward certificate in the mail, so I think I'm going to commit a Fob family transgression: I'm going to stop at Barnes and Noble on the way home from work, and if they have the CD in stock, I'm going to PAY MONEY(!!!) for it.

Forgive me, Foxy, for I'm about to sin.



*After Lauryn Hill, of course.

Funding Options for 07-08

Plan A: Get a FLAS grant, which is where they pay me (tuition plus a nice stipend) to take Spanish classes in addition to my LIS classes. This would mean, basically, that we're set, and it has the added advantage of not requiring me to work, which opens up time for FoxyJ to get a job, which leads not only to extra money but, more importantly, added sanity for the whole family.

Plan B: Get the graduate student assistantship with the iSchool that I just applied for. This would pay tuition plus a nice stipend, but they'd actually want me to work for the money. Still, though, not a bad option.

Plan C: Get rehired at the admission office next winter. This would pay tuition plus the nice stipend for winter quarter, but I'd have to fend for myself as far as fall quarter goes. The nice thing, though, is that while the other two options require me to stay through June (the end of spring quarter), this option means I could be be done with school in March (the end of winter quarter, as in a year from now).

Plan D: Get rejected by all of the above options and resort to selling my body for sex and/or scientific research. This has the benefit of advancing the field of science and/or sex.