Friday, May 18

There's a nifty little pop-up bubble at the bottom of my screen telling me that thanks to new advances in technology, Blogger now saves my drafts automatically. Oh, what delight! Ooh, it even tells me when it auto-saves, and leaves a little note reminding me when the last one was. 10:06, in case you're keeping track.

Well, I'm suitably impressed. Now if they'd only stop using the first fifteen words of my postings as the titles for untitled posts, life would be good. I'm sure I can do something about it, but I'm sure I don't have the energy to look around aimlessly, overturning rock after rock, looking for that one little check box that allows me to do what I want to do. Oh Blogger, you may auto-save my postings, but you are far from perfect.

Now watch my computer freeze up, sensing the dastardly act of having insulted the mighty Blogger. Oh well, at least it auto-saves.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the May long weekend, for those of you who maybe live in a cave or have jobs in the service industry, where statutory holidays simply mean having to work harder. I hated stats when I worked in food service. Especially the summer ones. I worked at the airport, and everyone travels on the long weekends. Everyone. Plus, on the sunny long weekends, we always had some minimum-wage slacker call in "sick"--usually a case of the 24-hour summer flu that can only be cured by exposure to full sunlight for a day.

Anyway, I mention this because we're going camping this weekend, which should be fun and very crowded. As one who never grew up camping, I've taken to it quite well throughout my adolescence and early adulthood. My wife is an avid camper, so she was able to show me the ropes a bit. Still, there was a learning curve (I'm not much for being away from the comforts of home, by which I mean running water), but I've gotten better.

This weekend will be all the more fun because it's my father-in-law's 60th birthday, and the whole stinkin' family is going to be there (consisting of two step-sisters and their husbands, two nieces and a nephew, and two dogs, along with my wife's dad and step-mom). We're likely going to be the only ones stupid enough to sleep in a tent--the rest have campers--but it'll be fun. I hope.

Two concerns about the weekend: rain, and toddler-related issues, neither of which I am able to do much about. It'll rain or it won't. Although I've taken to camping well, the one thing I still can't handle is camping in the rain. Normally, I find camping relaxing; in the rain, it just sucks.
As for the boy, well, either he'll take to camping, or he won't. He loves the outdoors, which is a real plus, but he also likes to have a vast array of toys at his disposal, which he won't have there. Additionally, I'm not sure if being outside for 24 hours a day will lose its sheen after a while, but I hope not.

We're planning on staying up Friday night and at least until dinner on Saturday (it's the big birthday dinner that night, which is going to be followed up by an even larger birthday celebration the next week. I love other people's birthdays--my output is minimal, and I get a great meal). After that, it's all about the weather. We'd love to stay until Sunday night, but if it's raining, I have a feeling I'm going to be cutting the weekend short. We'll see.

I mentioned yesterday that I might have some news on the employment front today, and it turns out that I do. Sort of. It turns out that I'm still battling for the position that I'm battling for with one other candidate. We've both gone through the first steps of the interview process, and now it's at the point where the leaders want us to meet some people in a lay leadership team, who want to interview us themselves, given the nature of the relationship they'll have with the successful person. Sorry for the sketchy detail--I will eventually make all things clear, but not now. I'm going in on Monday evening at 6:00; the other candidate is following me at 8:00.

I'm nervous. Sort of. I don't really get nervous per se, but I'm anxious, I suppose. Meeting this group seems like an audition at Canadian Idol; you only have one chance to impress, and, although you may be the stronger candidate, if you don't show it then, you're out. My mind is racing through scenarios and possible questions and answers--I'm even rehearsing how I'm going to greet them. Gosh, am I over-thinking this? Yup. But can you blame me? I hope not. And now I have all weekend to think more about it. Great.

At least things are moving forward. I have to say, I'm getting antsy sitting here enduring the monotony of jobless existence. Every day seems so much the same, and the wheels feel like they're slowly grinding to a halt again. They're not--things are happening--it's just that they're moving very slowly. As much as I want to use this time to pursue things I haven't been able to pursue for a while (music, gardening, video games, reading for pleasure, etc), I always have the spectre of no employment hanging over me. I feel like I should be doing more, but there's not really much more to do. The waiting game is getting old, for me and my wife, which is yet another pressure.

Oh well. At least I have my degree, and I've got a good prospect for employment, even if it's not a solid offer right now. Even if I don't get this job, there are others, and there's always the option to re-join the secular world and do ministry as a volunteer because I love doing it. There's a novel thought. We'll see what happens, and of course, I'll keep you posted.

So, how am I coping with boredom? By annoying my wife. I'm pretty sure she's getting tired of asking my why I'm so fidgety, and I have this feeling that we're just getting into each other's hair (as is wont to happen). We haven't snapped at each other yet, probably because we've got the boy as our buffer, but there's definitely some tension. Not much, mind you, but it's there. My anxiety over the general state of things meets her anxiety about the general state of things, and it's a potent and deadly combination.

So I go out into the garden and play with my plants. Seriously, I love not having a job because it means I can get so much done around the house (which, coincidentally, is why I hate not having a job, but whatever). Today I did some more work in the garden--I took out a rhododendron that wasn't doing so well and planted it in a rehabilitation facility (a container), and re-planted a couple other things to make them more tidy. I could probably spend time in there daily, but I don't think that's very normal.

In addition to gardening, I also installed some child locks on our bathroom cupboards. The boy has taken to opening them up and dumping things out, and it was right when he grabbed the Buckley's mixture that we both decided enough was enough. Of course, I grabbed my tools right away and went to work, which alleviated some of my pent-up anxiety for about 15 minutes. Those blinkin' child locks are more trouble than they're worth, and stupidly difficult to put in (especially lying on the floor as one has to do when one is installing them, and putting a screw into wood above), but they work really well. And now the Buckley's is safe, as are the rest of the drugs, along with my aftershaves and deodorant, which the boy had taken to un-capping and licking. Mm, arctic breeze.

So all in all, a productive day, and I can leave tomorrow knowing that I accomplished quite a bit this week. Now, if only my back would stop spasming, we'd be in good shape.

One final note: come on, no comments on the new addition to the family?! I thought that would be good for at least one, but nothing? Ouch. I was just going to check the traffic to see if anyone actually visited and saw the picture, but I realized that in the transition in designs, I forgot to migrate my site meter. Silly me. I'll take care of that, then.

With that, it's goodnight. Hope you all have a stellar long weekend. I'll be back on Tuesday with another installment, wherein I will tell you all about my meeting on Monday and, of course, how camping went. It'll be fun! See you then.