Buzzing With Potential Energy

Today I had fingerprints taken for an emergency teaching credential, which will allow me to be abused for up to 30 days apiece in any number of Bay Area classrooms. It felt good to actually put these papers I've been carrying around to use (college transcripts, passport, and etc.). I also talked to a woman at a museum where I will be teaching a class tomorrow morning - this may lead to other classes. So I'm finally starting to get some potential coals into the fire and things are just starting to look semi-decent at least in terms of being able to pay rent and eat, fine, fine, good good.

So we can just leave things as they are but wait a second, who is that I see walking down the street while I'm sitting in the aforementioned Local Coffee Shop but an old acquaintance who now works for an organization that, well, let's just say that I was very happy to have run into him, and I am going to be forwarding my current information.

I am buzzing with so much potential energy that I am writing run-on sentences and I don't even care.

Fingerprints...again.

Today I get to head to Hayward to get yet another set of fingerprints taken. I have been fingerprinted in California three or four times, and in Seattle once. Or was that twice? I've definitely been background checked twice there.

I keep waiting for them to come up with something interesting.

My Local Coffee Shop Annoys Me

While in Seattle, I got into the coffee shop "scene". It's a perfect setup: lots of rain means there are lots of cozy places to settle in for the day. Here in the Bay Area, there aren't a lot of places that have it down. There's either not enough seating, or the atmosphere is all wrong. The coffee shop up the street has the right atmosphere, and there are plenty of places to sit, and the food's fine, but the staff just rubs me the wrong way. They busy themselves playing music way too loud, or way too ironically (today it was "classic soul" a la Smokey Robinson and the Supremes), and shouting to each other, jumping around in ways that are designed to garner attention, and just generally acting cooler-than-thou.

True though this may be, they don't need to rub it in.

Reconnecting With My Roots

After going to New Wave City the other evening, I've found myself listening to a bunch of my older CDs, and loving every minute of it. Last night I stumbled across a very bizarre interpretation of Duran Duran songs, apparently performed by a string quartet. You can listen to some samples on iTunes, or right here on Amazon.

The other ridiculous thing I did last night was finish up a knitting project, that just turned out silly. My favorite response to my worry, "are the bows too big?" came from Joshua, who said, "Define too big!"

They remain Too Big, which is just as they should be.

Finished Something! Well, almost.

A pair of gloves is *almost* finished. All I need is a nice piece of ribbon and that'll be that. I began them at a grad student retreat on Whidbey Island last year, when a bunch of us decided to get together on a weekend and talk shop. Someone was illustrating a point by saying something about how we're surrounded by X and Y all the time, but we don't take conscious notice of it. Then they said, "For example, we're all, oh I don't know, we're all wearing socks, but we don't even notice things like that."

I stopped the comment and said, "Er, I've actually noticed every one of your socks today."

So anyway, I have these nice gloves to remind me of that day's adventure and that's fun.

Tomorrow morning I get to hang at the social security office to get a replacement card - that oughta be an adventure!

And as for right now: I have me some Peter Murphy on the stereo, and I couldn't be more satisfied.

Girls on Film

I'm going to New Wave City tonight for the first time in, well, a few years. Should be fun - it's Duran Duran night! So I'm heading out into gale-force weather today to get a couple of things I need, most notably...earplugs. This goes well with my declaration that, if faced with the prospect of being trapped on a desert island, the first thing I would want to have is...sunscreen.

You can count on me for health and safety basics.

No, *Really*, a Finishing Frenzy!

I am doing what I can to make FOs out of UFOs, with varying degrees of success. It'd be nice if I had room to block, or at least a steady paycheck to get me some o' them interlocking foam tile things from Amazon that are manufactured for use in baby rooms.

Oh by the way, I am back in the San Francisco Bay Area, slowly getting my life back on track. I am a master (or a mistress, depending on who's asking), and the jobs are sadly not yet rolling in.