Productivity

Funny how for months I've been unemployed and yet my days have been just packed, somehow, and I've accomplished very little. But now that I'm adding this CPA stuff to my routine, I seem to be more motivated to get other stuff done as well.

Wednesday evening


Wednesday night

Last night, for example, I took down the vintage aluminum Christmas tree and put the ornaments away. Getting that done in the wee hours of January 8th doesn't sound the least bit impressive, I know. But consider this: we often put it off until late January or even February, getting it done on Candlemass, if then. I distinctly remember, our last Christmas but one in Columbus, Ohio (1984), we took down the long-since dried out, real Christmas tree at Easter. So I count taking it down the night I said I would, right after Epiphany, as a minor triumph.

Thursday night.


One last thing cleaned up: the ottoman the tree was on.

Then today, I took down the rest of the Christmas stuff, such as it was, basically the stuff on the mantle, the tree stand and the color wheel. The tricky part was repacking the big Christmas bins so they could be closed and put away. I found and removed several things that shouldn't have been in those, including my water-damaged, broken-framed, irreplaceable Quantum Leap prop photo from the episode "Good Night, Dear Heart," my Arizona license plate from before I got the one that says MAVARIN back in 2002, and a state quarters collection folder. I need to do something about the photo, before it deteriorates further.

Anyway, the point is that the Christmas stuff is all done except for the heavy lifting, which I leave to John. In the kitchen, I've scrubbed the burners and the protective metal bases, the latter of which John will be rewrapping in foil to keep them from getting stained. I finished a single lesson (2 total now) in the CPA review software, including passing the section tests. I also revamped the contacts page of the church site, which I was having a little trouble with earlier this evening. As I fussed with the alignment on the page's first table, the house was suddenly plunged into darkness. Our whole neighborhood was without power!

With limited batter life and no desire to sit in the dark offline, I packed up the computer and headed over the Borders. I didn't feel like spending five or six bucks to connect to their wi-fi for half an hour, so I did some editing on Chapter Three of Heirs and then came home to the re-powered house.

See? Productive.

And a good thing happened today that was beyond my control. Wednesday one of my recruiters had called with another nibble from a potential employer. The job description called for some mortgage-related tasks that I haven't actually done, but which shouldn't be a problem to learn. Today my recruiter called back to set up an interview. It's Friday at 2:30 PM. I don't expect the pay to be as high as the last two nibbles, but it shouldn't be a pay cut, either. More important, it's more than a nibble. I'll let you know how it goes. Overall, though, I'm very pleased with the way 2009 is going so far, and have renewed hope that this streak of unemployment is almost over.

If there is one thing that's fallen by the wayside a bit in my evolving schedule, it's blogging. My old evening blogging routine long since became an after-midnight thing, and then early morning, and most recently the following afternoon. Now I seem to have come round to the following evening again, which probably means I owe you a posting, somewhere in there. Let's just count in one of this Fridays in which I posted both a Feline and Furball Friday and a Weekend Assignment entry, okay? Or maybe tonight's two postings will do it. The new Weekend Assignment entry should be up before I go to bed. Now, if I can just come up with a topic...!

Karen