Interview

David and I had our interviews today for teaching in Japan. Both of us have been nervous about it for weeks - it's great that we made it to the next step, but interviews are scary.

I woke up at 4 am, my heart racing, after an interview dream. Definitely unable to fall back asleep.

The actual interview... it's hard to say. Overall, I would give it a 6 out of 10. Maybe a 7. I'm more used to teaching interviews - the panel is easy to read, and you know when you've said something right. I felt totally lost - I could read anyone's expression and two out of the three seemed harsh and stoic. They painted a really bleak picture of what our life could look like next year.

What if your job asks you to work long hours, but David's doesn't. You have to work a lot and don't see him very much. Is that ok with you?

How will you react when he gets an invitation for a weekend away and you do not? Or vice versa? Would you accept an invitation to a wedding if he was not invited?

If you are chosen to participate you will be lonely
Will you be satisfied if you are the only foreigners in your town, it is dark and cold, you are lonely all the time, and, did we mention you'll be lonely?

Ok, that last one is a slight exaggeration. but they did emphasize the loneliness.

So I came home feeling very doubtful about the whole idea.

And All I Wanted To Do was talk to someone, but the couch ate my cell phone. So I burst into tears and wrote a blog instead.

I'm hoping by tomorrow my perspective will have evened out.

Lady Doctors and Mood Swings

I went to my yearly Lady Doctor appointment this week. It was everything I imagined and more, and I don't mean happy things. Male readers, ye be warned. This is a girl post.

She was a very nice lady - stoutish and wearing a red corduroy dress. She chatted about traveling and foreign films while feeling me up, and I wondered how many times a day she chats about those topics, over and over again, trying to set her patients at ease.

Easily the highlight was when she put on her cute orange latex glove, squirted a big ole dollop of KY, and turned her finger toward me. Waving the finger at me, she said in a finger voice, "Hi, Mary. I'm all jellied up, I'm cold, and I'm comin' in!"

Seriously.

I also appreciated, "I just want you to know that I am here for all your contraceptive needs." Well thanks, doc. Part of those contraceptive needs included a birth control switch, which immediately messed me up. Bad. I've gone from deliriously happy to hopelessly depressed within 20 minutes. Gah! Hormones.

Happy Superbowl Sunday!

Football is the third most boring TV experiences in the world. The first is golf, the second business/financial news. All three boring experiences are, coincidentally, always being broadcast simultaneously on the gym televisions. As my students say (the letters - not what they stand for or they have consequences), WTF? Even Billy Mays would be more interesting than this!

Aside from that tangent, today is the Superbowl, which makes me excited about $3million commercials and snacks, but for totally different reasons. I've been reading Mountains Beyond Mountains, and I'm pretty sure I could come up with more efficient uses of millions upon millions of dollars. Uses that include feeding hungry people, providing clean water, and vaccinating small children. Uses that do not include making a 30 second commercial. That's $100,000 per second. Just for the ads. If I start thinking about other endorsements, player salaries, stadium upkeep, etc. I just get pissed off.

Now that I started thinking about poverty, I don't really want to talk about snacks anymore. I'm going to make BBQ meatballs. I've never made meatballs before, but they seem like a pound or so of Squishy Good Times.