Hrm, it said 33 weeks
The thing on the homepage said it had been 33 weeks since I've posted here.... that seems like a long time to go without updating people.
SO... big life changes for Heather and I. Let's see, when we last left our heroes, they were languishing in Canton waiting for deliverance in the form of a new job.
We spent much of the spring and most of the summer looking for a teaching job for Heather somewhere. New York State is one of the most competitive for teaching jobs; they have several teaching colleges, and due to its amazing union (one of the most powerful and well-known teaching unions in the nation) the competition for jobs is huge. Many jobs in common areas like English (the one Heather was applying for everywhere she could) can get literally hundreds of applicants for jobs.
So, we had an uphill battle. Heather signed up for a job fair in Utica, and it was there that we got our first real lead, of a sort. A guy interviewing Heather learned that she had previous experience in French, a degree and fluency among other things. He spent most of that interview telling Heather that she'd be a fool if she didn't get French certified, considering that she was concentrating on English which has a plethora of applicants.
She took the advice to heart and signed up for the French certification exam, which she passed in July. After that it was a matter of finding every open French position and applying for it in the hopes of finding a late job that was looking for a newly-certified French teacher (though her certificaiton was and is still pending approval by the state).
Finally a school district posted a job opening for a French teacher in Turin, New York. Turin, since I would wager significant sums none of you have EVER heard of it, is a small town on the western edge of the Adirondacks, about an hour north of Utica. In a flurry of driving and interviews, Heather was hired by Turin as their new High School French Teacher.
We were very excited to finally have a break in our long search for a job, but it came with its own issues. She got the job a scant 2 weeks before school started (Thankfully schools in New York generally start up after Labor Day or we would have had maybe a week before Heather had to start work).
So, we went from waiting for anything at all to happen to being completely buried in work. Heather of course had to look at the curriculum she'd be teaching (which was nonexistant due to the oddities of the previous teacher having left very little behind), and we were both well occupied with packing up our old place, not to mention searching for a new one. Then of course I had to put in my 2 weeks and close up shop at Clarkson as well.
To make a long story short, Heather did get her curriculum underway, and is doing spectacular now as a French teacher. She just had her first open house last night and was greeted with many happy parents and students who really enjoy her and her classes. We did pack up our old place, though in the rush we couldn't clean up very well and had to lose some of our security deposit. This was okay though because we found an awesome apartment in Rome (an unfortunate 30 miles from Heather's school) with a pool and a great leasor who knocked off half our first month's rent because we rented a place she hadn't prepped completely yet (thus balancing out the loss of security deposit from the old place!).
Our moving day(s) were.... difficult. Within the space of almost 24 hours, we rented a U-Haul, put the truck up behind it, packed up both with all our belongings, drove both down to Rome, unpacked the U-Haul, and returned it to the U-Haul place in Rome. It very well may have been the most work I've ever done in a 24 hour period, but at the end of the day, we had our new apartment with our stuff and we were ready to move forward with everything.
Which is mostly where we are now. Our apartment is unpacked, Heather is excelling at school, and I'm at home taking care of things until my job situation becomes more clear. At the moment it looks like I will be working at a tech support organization the state runs which does support for the school districts in the area. I got a lead on them from Heather's superintendant, and I had an interview with them on Monday of this week, and they seemed pretty impressed with me. They hire civil service persons, so I had thought I'd need to wait about a month before I could get hired because I'd need to take and pass a test, but they have apparently found a way around that for me, so it looks like I could be employed pretty soon, which is kind of exciting.
Hrm... Heather and I are also starting to look for a new car. At the moment we're focused on a Toyota Yaris Hatchback. The mileage is amazing (34/39), it looks nice and it's a Toyota, so it won't start needing $500 repair jobs every 4 months like the Explorer has after 100,000 miles.
*phew* Well, that's about all for now, and quite a lot at that. YOU all need to post some more too.
Talk to everyone in 33 more weeks! Kidding.
SO... big life changes for Heather and I. Let's see, when we last left our heroes, they were languishing in Canton waiting for deliverance in the form of a new job.
We spent much of the spring and most of the summer looking for a teaching job for Heather somewhere. New York State is one of the most competitive for teaching jobs; they have several teaching colleges, and due to its amazing union (one of the most powerful and well-known teaching unions in the nation) the competition for jobs is huge. Many jobs in common areas like English (the one Heather was applying for everywhere she could) can get literally hundreds of applicants for jobs.
So, we had an uphill battle. Heather signed up for a job fair in Utica, and it was there that we got our first real lead, of a sort. A guy interviewing Heather learned that she had previous experience in French, a degree and fluency among other things. He spent most of that interview telling Heather that she'd be a fool if she didn't get French certified, considering that she was concentrating on English which has a plethora of applicants.
She took the advice to heart and signed up for the French certification exam, which she passed in July. After that it was a matter of finding every open French position and applying for it in the hopes of finding a late job that was looking for a newly-certified French teacher (though her certificaiton was and is still pending approval by the state).
Finally a school district posted a job opening for a French teacher in Turin, New York. Turin, since I would wager significant sums none of you have EVER heard of it, is a small town on the western edge of the Adirondacks, about an hour north of Utica. In a flurry of driving and interviews, Heather was hired by Turin as their new High School French Teacher.
We were very excited to finally have a break in our long search for a job, but it came with its own issues. She got the job a scant 2 weeks before school started (Thankfully schools in New York generally start up after Labor Day or we would have had maybe a week before Heather had to start work).
So, we went from waiting for anything at all to happen to being completely buried in work. Heather of course had to look at the curriculum she'd be teaching (which was nonexistant due to the oddities of the previous teacher having left very little behind), and we were both well occupied with packing up our old place, not to mention searching for a new one. Then of course I had to put in my 2 weeks and close up shop at Clarkson as well.
To make a long story short, Heather did get her curriculum underway, and is doing spectacular now as a French teacher. She just had her first open house last night and was greeted with many happy parents and students who really enjoy her and her classes. We did pack up our old place, though in the rush we couldn't clean up very well and had to lose some of our security deposit. This was okay though because we found an awesome apartment in Rome (an unfortunate 30 miles from Heather's school) with a pool and a great leasor who knocked off half our first month's rent because we rented a place she hadn't prepped completely yet (thus balancing out the loss of security deposit from the old place!).
Our moving day(s) were.... difficult. Within the space of almost 24 hours, we rented a U-Haul, put the truck up behind it, packed up both with all our belongings, drove both down to Rome, unpacked the U-Haul, and returned it to the U-Haul place in Rome. It very well may have been the most work I've ever done in a 24 hour period, but at the end of the day, we had our new apartment with our stuff and we were ready to move forward with everything.
Which is mostly where we are now. Our apartment is unpacked, Heather is excelling at school, and I'm at home taking care of things until my job situation becomes more clear. At the moment it looks like I will be working at a tech support organization the state runs which does support for the school districts in the area. I got a lead on them from Heather's superintendant, and I had an interview with them on Monday of this week, and they seemed pretty impressed with me. They hire civil service persons, so I had thought I'd need to wait about a month before I could get hired because I'd need to take and pass a test, but they have apparently found a way around that for me, so it looks like I could be employed pretty soon, which is kind of exciting.
Hrm... Heather and I are also starting to look for a new car. At the moment we're focused on a Toyota Yaris Hatchback. The mileage is amazing (34/39), it looks nice and it's a Toyota, so it won't start needing $500 repair jobs every 4 months like the Explorer has after 100,000 miles.
*phew* Well, that's about all for now, and quite a lot at that. YOU all need to post some more too.
Talk to everyone in 33 more weeks! Kidding.