I'm feeling great right now, better than I have in a long time. I just want to shout it out to the entire world.

It all started last week. As some of you know, I'm living with my parents right now and my father and I were both looking for employment. I was looking because I didn't have one waiting for me when I quit my last one and moed, and well, we don't need to go into my dad's reasons. Last week my dad had three very fruitful interviews, one local and two on the other side of the country. The local one seemed to go well, but he felt they would take too much time to make up their mind, dragging their feet and all that. He had an interview in Michigan, and one in the Washington DC area. Both went well and both companies made offers. DC paid quite a bit more, but the contract was only for 3 months, verses 2 years in Michigan. He also had to take into consideration cost of living, and what it would take to maintain their current lifestyle. After a bit of research, Michigan won out.

This move is great for me, but isn't all sunshine and roses for my parents. My father has to report to work two weeks from today, but my mother is an elementary school teacher. She can't just pick up and leave. This means they'll be apart until June, when the school year ends. If you think that's bad though, just wait, it gets worse. Although my mother qualifies for retirement, she'll get a significant amount more if she holds out for an additional year. So my parents will be apart for a year and a half, with only a summer, and the occasional three day weekend to see each other.

Okay, I know you're wondering why this is a good thing. It honestly doesn't have as many positives for my parents as it does for me, but this is about me, so we'll move on. What are those positives you ask?

Well, there's only one, but its really big.

Education.

I moved back in with my parents so I could go back to school to study interior design (not interior decorating, there is a difference) and the local comunity college has a program. Well, Michigan is home to Lawrence Tech, which was voted in the top 10 schools for interior design, by top design firms across the country. Right now I know I couldn't get in, but Michigan also has Oakland Community College, which has a very strong 2-year program, and from what I can tell, its much stronger than the one here. So I have every intention of transfering to OCC so I can eventually get into Lawrence Tech.

Now on my own search for employment I've had a few interviews, but it was Barnes & Noble that finally came through for me on Saturday. I start work on Wednesday. It's only a temp seasonal job, so I was planning to get settled in and then start looking for a second job to bring in more money and keep after the holiday season, if B&N doesn't want me to stay. Well, with the MI thing I was like, "Dude! I'll just wait it out here and then move to Michigan in January." Sounded like a good plan to me.

Now something else has happened that is even better for me. My friend, we'll call him Tom, works night audit at a hotel three nights a week, and another guy works the other four days. The other guy just received his mission call for the LDS Church and will be leaving in like a month, leaving his job available. Now the hotel is very fond of nepotism, which is how Tom got his job, and how he'll get me the newly opened position. Tom is almost 100% positive he can pull the right strings to get it for me.

So this totally threw a kink in my January plan. But hey, if I can get a good job here, at a good hotel (not some crappy Motel 8), and out of the retail business, I'll take it. It's a good career move to help me pay for college.

Well gosh, what do I do about school now? I turn to the class schedule for the community college here, which just happened to arrive Saturday, and I almost threw away because I didn't think I'd be needing it. I used the OCC program requirements to map out a schedule here. If I take one class over the five week intersession and five classes during spring semester, I'd get six classes out of the way, that are either required or highly recommended at OCC. A good move because OCC costs $56 per credit and I thought it was only $26 here, but it turns out their lowering it to $20. So I'll totally be getting six classes out of the way for less than half the price.

My new plan: Stay here until June, get some school out of the way, save up money, and get experience in a new field, hopefully allowing me to transfer to a hotel in Michigan.

Now my problem is what to do about money. I have to save a lot between now and February, but I've got some plans. I'm sure it'll all work out.



Have you ever had a time in your life when everything just fell into place, as if by magic? or divine intervention? or whatever?