Requesting major concerted vibeage towards Redwood City, California Kaiser, starting around 11:00 a.m. Pacific time this morning. Nic's got the biggie.

I'm happy to report that the jobma was extremely effective - I was offered the job less than twenty-four hours after the interview! I'll be starting week after next. Yay team employment!

Okay, I've done it! It's time for me to request grant-ma. Our major funding foundation will be having their board meeting this Thanksgiving week. Our app was in sometime in September. We're not sure when we'll find out, but it will probably be sometime in December.

And I just submitted (with many thanks to the lovely Buffista editor corps -- Deena, deb & meara) a preliminary application to a new foundation that we've been cultivating a relationship with since our failed app with them last year. If they are interested, we'll be asked to submit a full application to them. Again, don't know the exact dates, but their board makes their final decisions in January, so I'd expect to hear if they want a full app next month as well.

Since our organization consists of just the SO and me, and although we have lots of lovely and generous individual funding, our primary source of program and operating support comes from these foundations, so the grants can make or break us.

I know we're getting into TMI here, but we have a relationship with the first org, and they were pleased with their site visit last year, so I have high hopes for it. The second org, I feel we match really well, but we're brand new to them, so it may take some time. Still, I am hopeful.

Thanks for the -ma!

Damn.

So, Nic got his preliminary bloodwork back.

Diabetes, type 2.

More as more is known. May I just say, though, that while it obviously could have been a lot worse, 2004 - like 2003 before it - can kiss my arse?

(stupid wonky DSL is repeating: sorry)

Requesting health~ma and strength~ma for some family friends. Just found out the dad has liver cancer.

Lost In The Grooves is now up properly at Amazon. Feel free to blurb it. It is, after all, the most Buffistaful book ever published with contributions by Hayden, erinaceous, Jilli, Michele, Knut, joe boucher, JZ, and Jon B. Needless to say it is an excellent Christmas gift.

Heh.

"Customers who bought this item also bought these items:

The Famous Flower of Serving Men by Deborah Grabien

I'm on NPR's Talk of the Nation tomorrow (Weds, 11/24) blabbing away. Noon west coast time, 3pm Eastern. Check your local listings.

I'll be in Chicago next week for a book promotion event at Quimby's, on Saturday, December 4th. I expect there will be drinking and carousing afterwards. Chicagoistas should contact me at my work email address (just updated it at my profile).

Dark as a dark thing for awhile until we obtain a new router and ifure out what in hell is wrong with our internet connection.

Damn it.

Update.

PhD plans are on the back burner if not totally out of the question for now. Money, lack of insurance, and overall stress factors are going to make it a no-go.

However, all is not lost. My real passion has always been writing, and my friend J. has been working on his Creative Writing MA at the Harvard Extension School, which has a great writing program. I think he may have convinced me to give it a try. My focus is shifting here--I see this as a way to get myself motivated and give myself some structure for my writing (not always putting it last in the priority list) as well as making some connections and learning from some truly fabulous profs. This is no longer about the degree; I have an MA already (though dif. focus area). Now it's about what school should really be about--the learning. Cliche. I know. I'm sorry. True though.

The classes are a low price...plus they offer half off for teachers on top of that. Since I'd still be teaching, no loss of salary, and health insurance will still be all good. Also, no GRE's needed to this program, and the admission is simply based on getting high passes on three classes and then submitting writing samples.

Long story short, I think I'm going to take one class next semester and see what I think. It's a long commute to Boston from here, but I have some friends up there... t looks hopefully at Somervillians and it would only be one night class a week, so it shouldn't be too bad.

It's a start.

I will be honest, though, I'm a little bummed by the whole process. It's been stressful, and I am kicking myself that I told anyone that I was thinking about doing the PhD thing. I'm only announcing here because I had asked for GRE ~ma that I apparantly don't really need. I release it into the wild and ask instead for making-the-right-decision-for-my-future-happiness and not-letting-my-pride-get-in-the-way ~ma, please.

I'd like to request some apartment hunting-ma. Things are coming together so that the next few months will be the perfect time for me to upgrade my living situation, and psychologically I'm ready to do it as well. I finally worked myself into a serious purge mode as well, so I'm hoping to have my stuff down to a more manageable size.

Anyway, all vibes would be welcome. This would be the first time I moved under my own steam instead of having to move for one reason or another, so it's a big step for me personally.