I GOT THE JOB!!!!!!! HOLY CRAPPOLA!!!!

Thanks to all that made this a reality. Thank you for your positive thoughts and prayers. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Obviously, I am pretty psyched.

One of the guys that originally interviewed me called on Tuesday morning just to say, "We're still considering you as a candidate and wanted to tell you that we're still thinking about you." I said, "Cool. Thanks so much for calling." He said, "Expect another call from someone in our office by the end of today. They'll set up a second interview for you." I said, "Wow, awesome! Thanks so much. I'm looking forward to the call." We then said, "Bye-bye!" The end of the day arrived and...no call. (What the fuck!!) So I fretted all day on Wednesday, waiting for some sign, some something, to no avail. Wednesday afternoon arrived and I said to my co-worker, "Should I call them?" He hesitated and said, "No, I'd wait until tomorrow morning." So I took his advice and waited. Good thing I did.

Thursday morning rolls around and as I'm brushing my teeth, I hear my cell phone ringing. I rush over to the phone, see that it's the interview guy, and answer the phone with a mouthful of toothpaste. "Belinda?" he says. "Yeth," I say (and then rush to the bathroom sink to spit out the offending toothpaste with my hand over the cell phone microphone). Long story short: Moments later, he offers me the job. Stunned, I nearly shout, "Yes! I accept!"

I am now the proud new owner of a much-better-paying (42% increase in salary over what I'm getting at the present job), retirement-benefits-intact, excellent-health/life-insurance-benefits job. Yippeeee!  Yahoooooooeeeeeee! (pant, pant, wheeze).

It's been a long couple of weeks. First, the job situation. I had the first interview for the prospective position, and it went quite well. During the interview, I learned that hundreds of people applied for the job and that they were conducting three different rounds of first interviews for this job. I wasn't too surprised. It's an excellent possibility for this type of publishing job, and there are tons of people who live in this area who are well qualified for this position. Nearly two weeks after my first interview, one of my references got called. One of the guys who interviewed me called my reference and told them that I was at the top of his list. And that I would definitely be called back for a second interview. Yay me! They haven't called me yet to set up the second interview, but I'm not concerned (too much, that is), because they haven't even finished their third first round of interviews. That is supposed to happen this coming week. So maybe late next week they'll call me. Unless, of course, they find someone else that they'd rather call for a second interview during that time. That's just my worried, anxiety-filled side talking. So, who knows at this point what will happen?

Next on the list is that Caron has started his second semester for his Ph.D. degree. He's busy, but relieved that he's completed his second analytical exam for the degree process. Thank GOD that is over with. He's much more human now, and nicer to talk to.

Also, I've started coaching another little soccer team for a recreational league in a nearby inner-city location. It's a mixed boys-and-girls team with kids aged 6-8 years old. The league is a bit slipshod, and I am a higher-level of coach that none of the parents have ever seen before. They're impressed with me. That feels a bit cool, but I'm really here to teach my buddy Joe how to be a coach. He's my "co-coach," and during the first team meeting I tried to let him be the lead on nearly everything. I jumped in only when he seemed at a loss as to what to do next. He has taken so much of the actually administrative pressure off my shoulders that it's much easier for me to just show up, coach and then leave. I really like it. The kids are really cute. However, of the 7 girls on the team, 3 have the same name and 3 others have a different, but yet same name. How we're going to tell them apart, I don't yet know.

Oh, I went to a women's bible conference yesterday. Very interesting, I tell you. I went with Caron's mother. Though I'm really glad that I had a chance to do that with his mom, something happened at the end of the conference that was quite disturbing. There was a time for prayer at the end of the conference and the speaker encouraged the entire audience to come up to the altar for prayer. That wasn't so bad, and not unusual. However, then she encouraged all the rest of us who were still seated (Caron's mom and I didn't move from our seats) to pray with each other. Her actual words were: "Turn to the person sitting next to you and confess what you need to." (Yikes!) Anyway, I could see that Caron's mom was uncomfortable with that possibility, so I just took her hand and held it. She relaxed. But what was wierd was that just after the speaker told us to confess our sins to our neighbor, the worship music faded a bit and there was this loud din of voices. It sounded like there were lots of people talking at once, but the words were totally unrecognizable. It was completely unsettling and I started to get this instinctual feeling that something was very wrong here. Just as my panic started to mount to a level that I'd actually have to do something about, the music started again and I couldn't hear the voices any longer. Though that unsettling feeling didn't really leave me, I didn't feel compelled to bolt out of the sanctuary, as I was beginning to feel just before the music started again. It was a wierd, evil-feeling thing...as though I had encountered evil and I was going to have to leave its presence. I know what evil is and feels like, and there's been times that I've had to remove myself from its presence, so I knew what was going on...it was just crazy that I'd be running from a bunch of "Godly" women.

Alright, I can't concentrate any longer on this blog posting. Caron is rapping to Bono's song "With Or Without You." In fact, he just burped the entire phrase, "with or without you." I've gotta' go. Talk to you later.