Conversation the first, overheard in the loo…

Girl in the bathroom #1: I wanna go on Thunder Mountain.
Girl in the bathroom #2: What? Magic Mountain?
Girl in the bathroom #1: No Thunder Mountain.
Girl in the bathroom #2: I don’t know that one. Where is it?
Girl in the bathroom #1: Um, Pioneerland.

Conversation the second, overheard on the tram ride back…

Mom (to chubby kid): You’re gonna need a Slurpee on the way home, aren’t you?

First free week and my house is getting cleaner by the moment. It’d be even cleaner if I didn’t drag Paul out dancing three times this week. Mondays at Memories are quite reliably fun lately. You new swing babies should stick around for dancing at 9pm. Only $3. Thursday a few brave souls headed out to Pasadena. Bit of a hit and miss night, but did get to dance with a much loved childhood science icon. Friday night we lazily and eventually headed out to Irvine and danced until 11:30. Smallish crowd, but very fun. Okay folks, back on the horse next week. I know it’s Thanksgiving on Thursday, but Monday and Friday night are business as usual!

On the bright side, I have a brand new computer to type blogs about unemployment on.

1. I am unemployed as of 11/13/09. Yup, that’s Friday the 13th.
2. In a related vein, my swing dancing addiction is still picking up speed, so it’ll be nice to have all those 40 pesky hours of work free to devote to more important endeavors.
3. Does anyone want to start paying me to swing dance? You might, if you knew how much fun I was having. Sort of a charitable thing wherein you could be supporting the increase of joy and crazy-fun in the universe.
4. All the squirrels at my neighborhood parks are hibernating. It’s bumming me out.
5. Not hibernating: a black neighborhood cat that Paul has been feeding which thinks it can use the threat of violent mauling to get whatever it wants from me.
6. Mayonnaise is delicious.
7. Lindy Groove this Thursday?

There are parks on all my routes home. No matter how I try, I cannot help but pass a park on my commute.

Last week, I drove by El Dorado and, according to my usual custom, peeled the old eyeballs for squirrels. Two were playing – or fighting to the death – under a tree, and then another was running on the sidewalk. That’s three squirrels.

I can get excited about a two squirrel day, but THREE? Gosh. It was a good day.

Today, I found a quarter in the hall at work. I won’t stop for a penny, and nickels and dimes aren’t much to judge by, but a found QUARTER day is a good day.

I know what you’re thinking, it’s Monday! Monday is never a good day. But Monday is always dance day, and that’s always good. It’s also Monday after a weekend wherein I shirked all work-related responsibilities, probably for the first time since licensure and boy is that good for me. Squirrels never work. (I don’t count hiding nuts. You can’t get a W2 for that.) And what’s good for a squirrel, is good enough for me.

I’m having it (the best week ever). In no particular order, this week I am having:

-So much fun dancing.
-Job opportunities.
-Good books.
-Good company.
-Good time teaching (and first paycheck).
-Amazing weather.
-An amazing new gray dress.

We have hardwood floors, and I spent time today mopping gobs of dust and spiders off the floor underneath our bed. I found many wondrous things, not the least of which is an old copy of Mere Christianity. My dad’s name, complete with the address we last lived at in 1987 and a phone number of similar vintage, are listed on the flyleaf.

Anyone else get weirdly nostalgic when reciting the address and phone number of your youngest childhood? That ever-so-important information which you had to have ready for your kindergarten teacher so that you could also deliver it faithfully to the police should your six-year-old self ever be found wandering lost after a night of revelry. 8722 Cavel Street still has a nice, comforting ring to it.

but it has been a peaceful week. No deadlines. Everything on my to do list is there because I put it there, and is to a degree negotiable. Several times this week I have found myself reading a book, and realized that there is nothing else I needed to be doing instead. My God, what a gift! Many new challenges to face, but none of them are a dissertation or a 20 page paper or a year working as a student for minimum wage (even unemployment is preferable to these). I attempt to await, in peace, whatever God has for me next.

All I do now is wait for a fancy piece of paper to come in the mail. Free time, here I come!

So a few things to discuss, in the midst of our blogging drought (we must be sunbathing, rather than typing). I’ve been doing some very summery reading–all leisure, no literature–which I’d like to recommend. If you’ve never tried any Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Identity is tons of fun so far. I’ve never read an espionage thriller, but I’m considering adding the genre to my circle of interest. More particularly, I will recommend the works of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. I’ve just finished his first novel, Casino Royale, and just purchased the second, Live and Let Die. A bit more literary than Ludlum, but not exactly Jane Austen. Casino Royale is the novel which introduced the world to Bond’s famous dry martini, The Vesper, though you’ve probably never heard it called that.

In between hours of reading spy fiction, I am studying for my second and final board exam this Saturday. I am billing it as “The Last Test Ever,” at least for me, and I plan on putting a bullet through it’s heart without spilling a drop of my celebratory martini.