A busy day and now I am feeling the stress.

We had breakfast and a walk and then I bathed and dressed in my good suit, complete with necklace and good shoes. We were running a little late, so Ray got out of the car on South Milledge. I had to find the office where I needed to take a test to be a housing processor for DCA. I got there with two minutes to spare, with my calculator, pens and pencils. I was the last of about 15 and we waited for the test administrator. I think I did pretty well on it, especially the part where you calculate 30% of people's income. There was a policy booklet to help answer the rest of the questions (true, false). Can you rent from your cousin using DCA funds? Does your monthly payment change--when you lose your job? It was a timed test, one hour, and they will ask people to interview based on their scores.

Then I waited around and Becky joined me for lunch. We had a lovely time eating at a sandwich shop owned by friends of hers. Unfortunately, it is closing the end of the month, driven out of business by another restaraunt that moved in next door recently.

It was a rainy dark cool day, not my favorite for spending a lot of time driving. On the other hand, it was not the kind of day that would have been really nice at home. I drove to the downtown post office and bought 200 Love stamps for the invitations, before the price goes up next week. Yay! for me.

Then I drove to my 2:00 interview. I waited in the car for half an hour so I wouldn't be too early. It was the typical, even grueling, interview. Three different people (all women) took turns asking me prepared questions and writing notes about my answers. Most of them I did well with (I think), but they did ask me to name developmental milestones at three different ages, which was suprisingly difficult. Can you name three between 12 and 24 months? 24 and 36? Even harder was a question about whether I preferred administrative or case management work. Of course, the answer is, I'll take any job...please hire me...which makes it hard to answer. I tried to suggest I was excited about working with children and parents again and away from homeless people. Also, that I was ready to leave the world of non-profits. I didn't get the impression that they were thrilled with me, but they did ask for a writing sample at the end. Now I wait. I'm glad that I have more than one possibility at the moment, although nothing says I will get any of them for sure. And, if I did, how would I get all this other stuff done??

I got some groceries at Earth Fare and picked up Ray. We drove home (in the rain) and stopped to feed the pigs. I would have gone home and changed, but Ray had his boots and grungy pants in the car to put on, so he did it while I waited. Captain Mudge was at our house. He had brought some pig food from Porterhouse and was watching TV. It was pretty cold in the house. Ray built a fire and I started on supper. It wasn't too long before we had a pleasant meal in a warm house. I whipped up some meringues for a party tonight--they looked good going in the oven, where I left them overnight.

We watched a few TV shows and then we reluctantly headed out to watch a band at a bar. Becky and Kent met us, but we were all pretty tired. The band was enjoyable, but Ray did not want to dance. It was more of a blues band than a swing band, so not right for the wedding.

It was about 11:30 when we got home and I sure wish I had slept longer this morning. Still rainy out but warmer.