Before I forget, you must go visit my friends at Monkeyshine. These are two of the coolest people I know and they've just put out their first CD of songs written, played, and sung by the two of themselves. (All of my friends are so cool and talented!) Please give a listen and if you're so inclined, purchase the disk for yourself.

Thanks for the birthday wishes, if I didn't thank you personally. I was a little busy around then. (Hee!) I do try to have the good attitude about aging - mostly because I'm not sure I'd like the alternative.

I hate job hunting. I'm sure I'm not unique in this, but it's still pretty degrading. I used to feel that I interviewed well, better than my actual experience. But now it seems like I've let so much time go between this job and the last time I worked in my "field" that I don't know how to deal at all. I tend to think falling on my knees and begging people to please, please, please give me the job won't really give the impression I desire. Nor would what I really want to do:

"Look, Buddy, you have my resume' in front of you. It lists my skills and the fact that I don't have any form of degree. What it doesn't tell you is that I will show up for work, on time, and put in my requisite 6.5 worker hours in any given 8 hour day. If I'm needed to stay late, I will. If you thank me, I won't complain about it either. If you let me be flexible with my time, I'll hardly ever call in sick. And if you pay me what the guy next to me is making, I'll never ask for a raise because I know that's more than worth it. Hire me, cause you're not going to find any snot-nosed college kid who's got my work ethic."

I'll leave out the part about the three or four days a month where my co-workers turn into idiots and I'm not afraid to tell them about it.

Anywho, I got a call last week on a job that is perfect for me and would put me back in my old salary neighborhood (but in the better area of that neighborhood, actually) and would require of me nothing I haven't done a million times with tools I'm probably very familiar with. It. Is. Perfect...except for the commute which would involve a horrendous hour in the car each morning and probably more than an hour each evening. I hate the very idea of it but not as much as I love the idea of significantly lowering our debt by Christmas.

Also, it might allow me to sign the Boy up for his 8th grade trip to D.C. after all. In our current situation, I find the price of over $700 for a four-day bus trip to restrictively stoooopid. Add to it, the "dress code" of not being able to wear jeans, shorts, or t-shirts (have these people ever been to D.C. in May? And what makes them think 8th-graders are going to be impressed by a dinner cruise on the Potomac with dancing??) and I'm drawing a parental line. The Boy doesn't really want to go and I'm pretty sure I could arrange a family trip for the three of us for $700. Jeez.

Anyway, wish me luck that I'll land this fish.