one step forward, two steps back, right? yeah, that seems to be it. cube wound up rescinding his acceptance of the offer from maryland. turns out the princeton place actually did want him. oops. the woman cube was contacting misunderstood and thought they didn't want him when really they did. anyway, he got an offer from them for more money AND it's closer to home so he's able to stay home and pay off more of his student loans rather than having to shove all his money straight into an apartment. so it's a better transition than maryland would have been. that's the step forward... BUT staying at home with his rents is kind of a step back because obviously we aren't moving in together AND we are still unable to spend significant amounts of time together. we still have the gym membership, so he leaves his house pretty much every day to "go to the gym" and probably half of those we actually go to the gym. but now that he's working, he gets home later, so he eats dinner later, so he gets to my house later and even though he leaves here later, he's going to be earlier, so we actually spend less time together. but it's all for a good cause, haha.

anyway, i'm glad he's working and i'm glad he's doing something he wants to be doing. i wish i could say that for myself. don't get me wrong, i LOVE this new job. the people are great, the work is fairly easy, the atmosphere is relaxed and comfortable... it's great. the pay isn't fantastic, but i'm part time and right now i'm in the probationary period. my 90 days will be up in time for when the company starts up the new year. cube kinda looks down on my job because i didn't have to be a college grad to do it. it's not very challenging. but it's just such a great place to work, i like it. i like the position i'm in because it allows me to interact with both sides of the company. i talk to the people on the outside who want a job and i talk to the higher-ups who are offering the jobs. i like the interaction i get with people that i have never gotten at a previous job. in this job, people rely on me to be a judge of character. to the management, i'm a sound board... what do you think of this person, sit in on the interview and tell me what you think... and to the applicants i'm their contact... they confide in me things they won't tell management (which can help or hurt their chances... not that they realize that). but i like it. and then if i get promoted, i still get the interaction with the applicants, just doing different things with them. i kind of just want to see where this job can lead me. if i notice down the road that it's not leading me anywhere, i can always leave, but for right now, i want to give it a chance. once i move in with cube, i might take some classes at night towards something else. i've been debating with a science career. i know, totally unlike me. but i was thinking maybe a nurse practitioner or an x-ray tech. for some reason, i've been thinking of putting myself into a career that will "always be there" - like if the world is suffering so much that we can't have all the luxorious things we do now, what jobs will still be necessary? for instance, when my college would close for snow, or when we closed from the anthrax scare, emergency personnel was still required to come to work. those people have jobs that will always be there, no matter what state the world is in. no matter what we're doing, people still need health care. it's a safe profession. if the world bans the entertainment industry and all the actors and artists have no jobs, the nurses and doctors will still have work. people will still get sick. so i've been thinking of getting into it while there is still a demand. and it will pay well. a nurse practitioner is practically a doctor... and x-ray techs start around $25 an hour. pretty damn good. i haven't really looked into it all that hard yet, but i think i might. i've already wasted close to $200,000 on an education that's gotten me nowhere, maybe i should invest a little more and actually make something out of myself.