Thursday, July 19, 2007

It's a five o'clock world when the whistle blows

I got some jobs! Hooray! If I have a successful phone call this afternoon, I will top out at three. As of now, I have two - caring for my old man Melvin, again, and working with a medical billing company. Working for Melvin is about the same as it was before he fell, except lots more not-sleeping, and working for the medical billing company, so far, means talking into a phone headset and typing my fingers off trying to keep up to date on insurance claims. Still not sure I know what's going on there, but they're friendly enough.

If I can talk to someone this afternoon, I'm looking at getting a job as a tutor/teacher for an agency/school in town, working 24 hours a week. I'm really hoping it works out, as I really connected with the woman who runs the agency and I would like to utilize my teaching skills while I am currently waiting to see where they bring me, ultimately.

Speaking of teaching, I got my primary teaching license yesterday. It is crisp and white, with a shiny gold seal on it. Very official.

Back to jobs, if I can get this third one, I'm looking at working solid 65 hour weeks. Sounds fairly innocuous from this side of things, but I have a feeling I will be getting exhausted. However, that is 65 hours a week with nights and weekends mostly free. Which is awesome.

Lastly (?) I'm moving in with some friends from high school in a month-ish, out of my parents' house. I'm excited about it a lot, mostly because we have decided that everything we eat in the month of September will be grilled. Any fave recipes would be greatly appreciated.

This post reads like I'm on crack. Or maybe the July monsoon heat/humidity is driving me slowly crazy. Or maybe I haven't had a cookie in a while.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Goin' to the chapel

I love my parents. Today they celebrate their 27th wedding anniversary, and just yesterday they were snuggling after they both got home from work and my mom turned to me and said, "Bethany, I love your dad so much." Priceless.

It's easy for me to take my family for granted. Comparatively, we are a bizarrely functional island in the midst of a vast dysfunctional sea. Many, many of my friends have parents who are separated, divorced, or not happy together, so to have been brought up in such a contented, trusting household is an amazing blessing. My parents have been a shining example to me and my sisters, as well as to our church family, their coworkers, and even the friends I bring home. And it's not because they coexist in a "Leave it to Beaver" type lifestyle. Both work 9-10 hour workdays, which meant we were in daycare a lot growing up. They come home tired, sometimes cranky. But they are so willing to give to each other, which makes them so compatible. Maybe I will never be in a relationship like that, but it's nice to know that, should the opportunity come, I've got a great example in my parents.

Here's to you, Mom and Dad. Happy 27th Anniversary, and many more, Lord willing!

In other news, I went to go see Transformers. It wasn't AMAZING, but it was pretty rockin'. And it's raining outside right now. Not men, but hallelujah anyways.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Better grab an umbrella, I make it rain...

Today's post is brought to you by Fat Joe and Lil' Wayne. And the letter M.

No West Nile. Bummer, eh?

My mom and I were talking last night about the immigration bill that was just shot down. She is more inclined to be skeptical about it than I am, since I am more inclined to be 'liberal' than she is, but even so, we agreed that whoever rose up en masse to defeat this bill, it wasn't people from Tucson. In fact, according to our Sunday newspaper (I've taken to loving the newspaper, by the way), an online group called Grassfire.org is claiming that they are responsible for shooting the bill down, flooding the offices of members of Congress with images of "the scarlet letter of amnesty". Guess where they're based. Oh, that's right. Small-town Iowa.

I really hate that people on both sides of the political spectrum treat this as a black and white issue - conservatives hate the illegals and liberals love them. What those of us in Southern Arizona are able to understand, and I believe John McCain saw this too, is that what is being argued back and forth are people's lives. Small town Iowanians don't read in the paper every week about dozens of people dying in the desert because they were willing to give everything up for a chance to have a better life. I am not calling for open borders, but I am asking that the American people forget their petty political squabbles and have a heart.

What do we do with illegal immigrants? I'm not sure, but I believe Christians, especially those of us so near the border, need to figure out how to love them.

In other news, the monsoon is supposed to start this weekend. Who's excited? This girl.

And I bought Chaco sandals last weekend. This pretty much forever destroys my hopes of becoming a badass with a heart of gold, but now maybe I can be a hippie without the marijuana.