after one long season of waiting

Well, I found out this afternoon that Amity is "unable to offer me a position." Back to the drawing board.

In an act of spite, I guess, I came back from work and applied to a random publishing company in New York City. Soon, it will sink in that I'm stuck in Chicago for at least another six months, and that it's now going to be nearly impossible for me to work out a way to go abroad, and so I'll probably spend the weekend curled up in bed denying the existence of the rest of the world.

Goshdarnit.

Though, I mean, after the first interview I wasn't really sold on the whole thing anyway. Too corporate, too focused on looking "genki!" rather than actually teaching things. I mean, there wasn't a bit of talk about teaching methods or anything. I honestly still have no idea what they were looking for. And I knew in the second interview, by the end of the teaching demonstration, that I didn't stand a chance with the interviewer I had. I just figured maybe she was stoic, and that I wasn't reading her right. I should have bounced up and down, and cared less about content, I guess. But it is my curse to overthink things. Hopefully the (dying) publishing world will take me in.

Or maybe the museums will stop being dumb-butts and start looking for people other than Education Majors.

Sigh.

(Yes, I'm limiting myself severely here, but I still can't consign myself to being an office wench forever.)

Urgh, I have a wonderful idea for a lesson about prepositions that involves a spider puppet and a fly puppet, but it'd require two people, and I can't really get a volunteer for the fly and expect them to know when to giggle maniacally. Or when to give the spider a concussion so everyone has to direct him in how to finish his over-under-around-through web. Sigh.

Mr. Spider was going to be a policeman. I may have even done a terrible, terrible gruff British accent. (... Vimes!Spider ftw.) The puppet would have a lovely little policeman's cap.

Maybe I'll take tomorrow off and crochet them anyway.

( Lesson Plan v. 2 )

Needs a lot more editing. And I'm not sure about spending so much time talking to myself. Other drawbacks: the likelihood of me using the words "nemesis" "antagonist" or "formidable opponent." Today I was thinking about explaining to the "kids" that they'll never have to use a word like "preposition" unless they grow up to teach English like me. But then I went off on a mental tangent that ended up trying to explain how to pronounce antecedent. One should never say the word "antecedent" to a roomfull of ESL students, right? Maybe there can be a third puppet called Auntie Seedant, who grows a lot of flowers and hires Mr. Spider to get rid of the bugs. His web holds the power of prepositions, and it's all for Auntie Seedant. Though Mr. Spider is... actually the antecedent in most cases. So Mr. Spider... is... Auntie Seedant? And this is where it stops being an ESL class for children and starts being some kind of psychological drama.

(I'm pretty sure this is a sign that I'm well-suited to teaching kids but goshdarnit it is not helping me get ready for anything official.)

(Or it's a sign that I'm in serious need of help.)

Still scared. (Tally for refs is at 50%. Several non-responders. Nervous.)

Also, it's safely been ten years since I heard of Moxy Früvous, and probably six since they broke up, and I still know what Murray Foster is up to. Man my high school obsessions were hardcore. (Somehow most of them look younger now than they did last I saw of them. Suspicious.) Oddly, yes, Great Big Sea came up at lunch today.

Anyone have any podcasts to recommend? I've rediscovered their magic, but so far I haven't made it much past NPR and the BBC.

All right, I feel accomplished. My list of things done this weekend:

- Got the internet working
- Made several attempts to come up with a workable solution to the wire problem in my kitchen (though I'm still working on this, there has been Progress)
- Bought a wealth of wonderful DS games (okay, only three. But how can I go wrong now that I finally own the last two Phoenix Wright games and Hotel Dusk?)
- Got my hair cut (there would be pictures, but my webcam seems to be angry at me.) I have bangs though now... because the girl didn't really give me much of a choice once I suggested it. But I'll live (it actually looks good most of the time, though I'll be living in fear for a while until I get used to them). At least they're long enough that I'll be able to tie them up with the rest of my hair in a few weeks. Temporary bangs, woo.

- And the crowning achievement of my weekend: I e-mailed the regional director of DI and told her I wanted to coach a team. Hopefully I'll hear back from her. This is officially Step One in the grand Get Decent Experience with Kids and then Go Teach Abroad Plan. Step Two is Actually Applying Places. Considering how long it took me to write that e-mail... this will probably take until December. Goshdarn me.

There are tiny ants living on my desk. Since I've made an actual effort (and succeeded) not to eat in here... this is a bit unnerving. But at least they aren't carpenter ants. And hopefully they'll go away if I ignore them and don't give them anything to eat.