Just Keep Swimming

I should write more. I don't know what happens, really. At the end of the day, driving home, I always think of brilliant, witty, insightful things I want to write on here and then I get home and.... Crash. Being someone else's teacher for the day is pretty draining sometimes, but it shouldn't be enough to wipe my short-term memory. Maybe all the pressure I put on myself to work EVERY DAY and have money to pay for crap takes up all my brainspace. Let me clarify something. I'm not whining about having to work every day. I WANT to work every day. But as a substitute, it's possible on Friday that the following week's calendar will be totally blank, and you just have to hope someone has a reason to stay home those days and that they call you. Being a substitute is a little like being a vulture.

As it happens, I HAVE managed to book my week. Next week has one little star on it (I put stars on days I work, so that one day when I look at my month at a glance it will look like the night sky. And I will be content), but that's it so far. Even though, for the most part, I have gotten called every day, it's still stressful going to bed and just hoping you'll do something with monetary gain the next day. That being said...

October is a landmarkedly awesome month. And do you know why? October (which, despite it not being the month of my birth has always been my favorite) is the first month that I get to... *drum roll* ... let's make this super dramatic....

PAY ALL MY BILLS ON MY OWN!!! Yeeessssss!!! Yeah, because sometimes even after graduate school you still have to have parentals and kind strangers (note: I have taken no money from kind strangers) in your corner to bail you out with the unemployment lasts a liiiittle too long. Like it did. But now, behold, for I have deposited my FIRST PAYCHECK!!

It wasn't actually as much as I was expecting. Freaking taxes. You mentally account for them, but it always, always feels like they take more from you. Boo, hiss, fairtax, please?

Before this gets too political, I'm going to end it here with this last little tidbit. Things are actually going pretty well and seem to be looking up somewhat. Lots of sub work, some long-term stuff on the horizon, and still running job searches and sending out "please hire me" letters every chance I get. I feel like I get progressively better at my "please hire me" letters, but, oddly enough, I never get any more hired.

Oh. And, because it totally deserves an update: Ferris has mastered the hallway. He now follows us into every room upstairs, freely and without reservation. The stairs are another story. In a related story, sightings of the resident animals upstairs have become increasingly less frequent.

A true champion