OK, this week was a different kind of exhausting. My family was home all week, due to Spring Break, so I spent some time with them. Even so, I still spent a lot of time in my home office. Because of the many hours I spent in school last week, I made sure that I only went to class four days this week, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t spend my time doing other things. For much of the week, I helped my pastor and family move from their rental home into a home that they now own. It took three afternoons to do this, and each day, the stuff to move got bigger and heavier. By Thursday, I could barely lift my arms! I also spent two days doing my quarterly stock review. This takes a lot of mental power, and a ton of time simply putting numbers into a spreadsheet (at some point, I should really figure out how to automate this with a macro). My discoveries weren’t all that great either. The market is flat for the first quarter and is beginning to go down. What is yet to be seen is if this is a false flat, or the moment when the market crashes. I’ve put in a lot of stops and replaced risky stocks with more stable stocks as a precaution. Especially without a job, I can’t afford to lose a ton of money, like I did in 2008 when I didn’t have stops on any stocks. I also spent a day doing chip work.
On Friday, after spending three days moving, my wife and I went on an all-day date to Berkeley. We did this because she is taking ~80 AVID kids there next week. I also wanted to check out the Art History department, which has the only Doctoral program in the Bay Area that I can take, should I decide to get my PhD. The thing is, Berkeley is built on a hillside, and it’s pretty expansive. The BART ride there offered some rather uncomfortable entertainment, as we sat next to a mentally deranged person (possibly possessed and homicidal?) for about half the trip, but once off the train, we found some awesome Turkish food and then began our trek up the hillside. We hit two museums, four libraries, the stadium and the bookstore – several uphill miles and several stairs! This was great practice for next year’s Turkey & Greece trip. It also showed that I could survive that trip, but that some extra walking and stairs between now and then would be advisable. At our last stop of the day, Jeffrey called. He’ll be at Sheppard until early June and then he’ll be ready for his first duty station, which will be in North Carolina. He wanted something overseas, but nothing was offered overseas. He did get the only stateside base that deploys people overseas, so he’s still hoping to get deployed somewhere. After a couple of years, he may be ready for his next duty station, and that one may be overseas.
On Saturday, I did 10 solid hours on a single, 5 point assignment. Most of these 5 point assignments take a day to do. I can “hardly wait” to do the 10-12 point assignments in weeks 5 & 6. After doing all that work, I got chastised by the teacher for doing it wrong. I don’t think that I did it wrong, based on the rather vague assignment requirements, but she gave me full credit none the less, possibly because of all the extra effort I put in (?). I’m hearing from other students that they too have been “doing it wrong” on some of their assignments as well. I guess maybe I should ask more questions before I launch into these projects, but truthfully, I’m just trying to get through this class. The class is an unnecessary burden placed on us by the State of California, and I am not happy about it.
Oh ya, I passed my English CSET! This class, and $70., are all that remain in getting my English credential. I was so excited that I emailed my principal and the vice principal who interviewed me a few weeks ago. They had both asked to be “kept in the loop” on my progress. It seemed prudent to do as well, since I have seen or heard nothing about a job at the school. I know there will be multiple job openings next year, but so far, they haven’t posted any. Maybe this has to do with the change of principal. They’re still interviewing for that position and whoever gets it will likely want to be the one to hire the new teachers.