Comfort.

Sometimes it is amazing what can happen when you step out of your comfort zone. My comfort zone is a very comfy place indeed and I am totally fine there 99.9% of the time. But in such a comfy place it's easy to forget that sometimes stepping out just a little bit can produce great results. Hence this past Thursday when I decided to stop being a big baby and do something I NEVER like to do... ASK people for something. In this case, for a job. Tired of sending 5 million electronic (how everything is done now) applications for teaching jobs to no avail, I put on a nice outfit, did my hair and make-up, grabbed my stack of freshly-printed resumes, and headed out the door, bound for the list of private schools in the area that I had researched. My research had turned up the fact that there were NO JOBS AVAILABLE (ugh, economy, I hate you) but I decided that it would never hurt to ask... For subbing, for an assistant position, for anything. First stop was St. Andrew's School, a very prestigious private Pre-K to 12 school here on Wilmington Island. It was also my last stop, as they were impressed with my resume and definitely wanted me to substitute as much as possible and, amazingly, I ran into the headmaster in the office and she wanted to interview me for an after school teaching position. It's not exactly what I was looking for, but it was an excellent opportunity to get a foot in the door, and I was a little surprised that it had taken so little effort to get things rolling. I interviewed on Friday and was still a little unsure about the position, as it involves working with much younger kids than I am used to (3, 4, & 5 year olds) and more care than actual teaching (their poor little brains are pretty much fried by the time 3:00 rolls around) and you don't even teach a teaching license for the position, but I thought long and hard about it over the weekend and realized that you can't have it all, all of the time. That would be nice, but sometimes we need to take the little opportunities that present themselves as doorways to bigger opportunities. Or maybe not so much doorways as cracked windows.

I have been dealing with a feeling of purposelessness throughout this moving-and-job-hunting process, knowing that subbing was not going to help much with that because of its infrequency and unpredictable nature. I really needed, for my own mental well-being, something guaranteed every day; something to look forward to (or even perhaps not look forward to on some days). And I wanted to be a part of a great school. So, therefore, I decided to accept the position when the headmaster called yesterday to offer it to me. It's only three hours a day (3:00 to 6:00), but will be supplemented with subbing whenever possible, and, like I said, will give me that "something" each day that I need.

In other news, life is generally good. Our only disappointment so far in the whole starting-a-new-chapter-of-our-lives thing is that due to an emergency surgery for one of their adjunct instructors in the Culinary Institute, Gearry ended up picking up two extra classes this quarter. So, instead of getting off at 6:00 p.m. every night as originally planned, he now gets home somewhere between 9:00 and 10:30. Unlike when he was at the resort, however, he actually gets paid (and paid well) for this extra time, even though he is salaried. He has *gasp* a good employer -- the State of Georgia. So, it kind of stinks that we are not getting to see each other as much as expected but it's giving us the opportunity to put a bunch of extra money back toward our house down-payment fund and it's only for another month. When the next quarter starts in mid-September, he'll be done at 5:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11:00 a.m. on Friday.