Okay. New tactic.

Tonight I turned both knobs the right direction after taking a shower at my mom's house. Allow me to explain why this event is both landmark and tragic. You see, at the grad school apartment, for reasons beyond the realm of human logic, the cold and hot knobs must be turned in opposite directions. So at the end of a shower, both knobs must be turned away from each other. This was always confusing when I would make trips home because, inevitably I would turn them the way I was used to, which often resulted in scalding myself (something that NEVER happened in the grad school apartment, because I rarely had enough hot water for a full shower. Ever.). But tonight I got it right. This means that the grad school apartment's shower knob directional patterns no longer occupy the "normal routine" space in my brain. Which means that I am, at least subconsciously getting used to not living there anymore.

I miss that apartment so freaking much.

Look how pretty...

But, soon enough there will be a place for us to call ours again. I watched HGTV for... about 6 hours today, and I found myself getting really excited for the future. Because one day, I WILL have a job, and Michael WILL have a job, and we WILL have a house. Unless, I guess, the world ends before that. But really. Did the world end in 2000? No. So will it end in 2012? Unlikely.

Anyway. My days aren't as unproductive as they might seem. In fact, I have a system. Allow me to share it with you:

I start by visiting Teach Georgia. I run my standard search. I then visit GISA, NAIS, and SAIS, all sites dedicated to independent and private schools. Then, I pull up a map of Georgia Counties, find mine, and visit the web pages of each county surrounding my home county. Then I pull up the web pages for the counties that are one more layer away from my home county. If I find anything, I apply. In the mornings, I use what I call "The Window of Productivity" to make my calls. The Window is a special time of day, after most school officials have had time to settle into their offices for the day, but before lunch. Roundabout 10:00AM-12:00AM. After that is lunch. After that is what I call "The Incommunicado Period," because after lunch stuff gets crazy and you will never get to speak to a principal. When calling human resource departments, it is a little different. They usually will speak to you after lunch, but it's best to utilize The Window.

So after The Window, I run my searches... about 2-3 times a day, because you never know when something will come up. And I have come to a decision.

I think by now I have applications for most of the counties around mine. Sorry to those who have had to write all those recommendations, honestly. I am. If something comes up within 30 minutes of home, I am going to apply, but outside of that, I am not going to worry anymore. If I have to substitute for a while (maybe not even a year. You never know when someone is going to quit or leave, or... whatever else), it won't be that bad. We will probably still be able to afford the one house we wanted to rent, provided Michael gets something gainful enough. So, it should work out okay. Maybe not easy. We might not get to travel or do anything fun. But we'll have a place of our own-ish.

In the meantime, we are going to do what we can to make the bedroom into our own -- oh I hate to use this word so much -- space. It's a little like dorm living, and we know I have done plenty of that, so it shouldn't be too hard to do it again for a little while. I really wish I could screw my hammock to the walls. That would be so cool. But also very damaging, so it's definitely not going to happen. The house we want though... Oh it is so cool - It has a special place on the front porch for a hammock -- little hooks for my straps to loop right in. And one day, it will be ours (sorta). Or if not that one, then a different one. One day, SOMETHING will be ours.

This morning, I looked in my purse to find a note from my dad. It said, "Things get better if you let them. -Dad" My Daddy is a wise man.