Land of Employment

You would think with all the news articles claiming the employment market is excellent for college graduates that I would have an entire lineup of jobs waiting for me when I started looking for them. I not only earned my degree last April, I did so with highest honors. I was in the top 2% of my class, for Pete's sake! I have job experience, too. Before I married Steve, I had worked for close to 15 years. Yet when I entered the job market in late December/early January, I got nowhere. I applied to many jobs, but no one ever called me for an interview.

At long last that changed. I have been hired by a national tutoring company. I went for my fingerprinting today. Once they confirm I am not a criminal, I will begin tutoring. The program is in Bradford County, which is about 30 minutes from here. I will be helping kids with their reading and math. We have a national program called No Child Left Behind, which provides school districts with funding to insure kids who aren't performing as well as their classes get the extra attention they need. My tutoring is a part of that program.

I'm excited. I'll be doing something worthwhile and getting paid well for it. And it's something I need a degree to do. So I not only landed a job, but one my education helped me attain. I suppose the best bit, though, is that it's flexible enough that I'll be able to go to England for three weeks in April without impacting my employment.

In other news: The microwave no longer smells burnt when we use it, so we're thinking it lived through Steve's hashbrown torching (see A Big Breakfast Oops). Each day brings us closer to our trip. We can't wait to step off that plane.

In two months from today . . .

. . . we'll be in England. We really can't wait. Yesterday, Steve would periodically announce, "Just two more months." It's a bit of a pain losing the day in travel coming over. We leave on Thursday, but aren't there until Friday. But oh well. We also lose several hours upon arrival, because we're sleeping! LOL

Actually, I'm hoping we'll sleep well on the flight this time. We have to be at the airport at 5 a.m. for a 7 a.m. flight. We arrive in New York City at 9:46 a.m. and don't fly to Manchester until 10:10 that night. We gave ourselves 12 hours to play around New York City, because we love it there and haven't been for quite some time. So I'm hoping that after a long, full day of walking around New York, we'll be exhausted. Especially with the flight leaving after 10 p.m. That's our normal go-to-bed time, so I'm hoping we'll drift off.

My first trip to England was scheduled similarly to this. I was up about as early and worked all day. I had a friend drive me to the airport, but weather canceled my flight and I caught a different one leaving from another airport. I didn't leave there until after 10 p.m. It had been such a long, busy day that I fell asleep right after dinner service and didn't wake up until breakfast. I had no jet lag fatigue that day at all. Granted, I was in business class, but I'm hoping this trip may offer a similar experience in just a more compact space.

Anyway, so two months from today we'll be in Manchester. It's very exciting.

A Big Breakfast Oops

It was Sunday and Steve was making himself some breakfast. My breakfast was easy that day: Two Special K waffles into the toaster. Steve was making poached eggs and hashbrowns. He likes the frozen hashbrown patties. He puts them in the microwave for one minute, then into a hot pan on the stove. Our microwave has a quick cook feature where you can just press a number and it will cook your food for that many minutes. For instance, you press "2" and it will cook for two minutes. Well, Steve was distracted and he was thinking he would cook his hashbrowns for 60 seconds. He pushed the "6" and the "0" and walked away, forgetting all about that handy-dandy feature.

Four minutes and twenty-four seconds later, the microwave starts smoking. Luckily, Steve spotted it and stopped the cook cycle. He opened the micro's door and smoke billowed out. The burnt smell was very heavy. Inside was his charred patty. He poked at it, but it was welded to the plate. A second later, the plate cracked in two!

Despite a heavy scouring, the microwave still smells burnt. It seems to cook okay, but Steve thinks his faux pas may have burnt more than the hashbrown.

So whatever you do, do not underestimate the power of a microwave!