Today we have news!

And the news is ... I'm officially employed! I start at the full-time gig on Monday (after being vetted, assessed, panel interviewed, drug tested, background checked, and educationally verified), and I finish my training at the learning center today, so either Friday or next week I start tutoring solo. 

And I called four barns to arrange walkthroughs. 

Feeling pretty good about myself right now. Sure, there's definitely a lot of obstacles and tasks ahead of me (including: finding a small animal vet, getting additional vaccines for Pepsi, finding a way to trailer, creating an entirely new budget plan, making a new exercise routine, and making friends), but this is an excellent step in the right direction. 

And not to brag ... but did I mention I'll be making about 75% more with these two jobs than I was at my previous two?

Yep, that's going to make that whole "horse" thing a LOT more sustainable.

A totally unexpected post about math.

Yesterday was my first day at "work" (really just paperwork and review of materials) at Huntington Learning Center in Glen Allen. Training basically consisted of my supervisor handing me four humongous binders with lesson plans and teachers' notes for each section of the SAT (reading, writing, math) plus a vocab section, and instructing me to read them. So I spent four and a half hours doing that.

Then I returned later in the day to witness some tutoring in action. My supervisor had already told me I would be working with one of the most experienced tutors, which was definitely the case -- he was softspoken but effective and obviously knew the subject material backward and forward. While he worked one on one with a student, I followed along in my teacher's manual, watching him effortlessly transition between sections and alternate between explanations and having the student work through problems on her own. It was really impressive how well he communicated with the student.

After their two-hour sessions was over, he asked me if I had any questions or concerns. All the reading and writing material is straightforward and easy to understand, and the Huntington strategies are simple to remember, especially with the teacher's edition in front of you. But it's been a long time since I've done SAT-level math (that's Algebra I and II and Geometry, more or less) so I asked if we could review some of that.

Now let me say, I am not good at textbook math. I've never found it particularly interesting, and the way math was taught to me in high school was as a series of increasingly abstract concepts, making it difficult for visual-learner me to grasp the connection between strings of numbers. I've always been kind of ashamed of this, because I'm an intelligent person (I have a BA from a great public school! I speak two languages! I read books about epidemiology for fun!) and I should be able to read a textbook and intuitively grasp the principle behind the problems. Generally it is not so.

The tutor I was shadowing had a different approach. I've done plenty of basic math in handling the books for the Wine Guild this past year, so I asked if we could skip to functions and (gulp) quadratics. I basically remembered functions, which we renamed "function machines" because you put one set of numbers in and get another set out, which I liked. Then we started graphing stuff, which made my head spin a little bit, so I'm going to look my notes on at that more today. But I remember it making sense at the time!

Oh, and then we talked about circles. I discovered I still know all the formulas for finding area, circumference, etc, but I never had any idea why those rules worked. We talked about a simple one, finding the circumference (2pi*r or pi*d). He explained, with a diagram, that if you imagine the diameter like a string, and you take the string and start wrapping it around the circle, it always goes around 3.1415.... times! No matter what size of circle you have.

I almost fell out of my chair. And then he said, "you're going to learn so much math here."

Voila, the different between memorizing the formula and understanding the concept.

I can't wait to figure the rest of the math out so I can start showing other people how to do it! They sent me home with a workbook ahead of my second shadowing session tonight. So this morning I'm voluntarily doing math homework. Craziness.

Up next: a possible weekend in Charlottesville, the ongoing quest for a new barn, and my birthday.

Coffee for breakfast

Bourdon, my laptop, has finally returned to service after a few dicey weeks in the back of the Apple store. Welcome home, bumblebee!

To celebrate, we're trying out Chrome, the free browser that definitely proves that Google has staged a total takeover of our online lives. I'm distinctly creeped out by having my Gmail, Dashboard, and Youtube accounts all attached to each other ... but the search/navigation bar and the minimalist settings are dangerously seductive.

I still have Safari and Firefox, just in case. You know.

Otherwise, no news. It's September and I'm still trying to adjust to RVA. I'm hoping by October, most of that will be behind me. I'm falling into another two-job scenario (more on that as things move forward, I don't want to jump the gun here), but with potentially significant increases in pay rate and benefits, which pleases me. I'm tired of looking for jobs and I need a source of income, stat.

As far as I'm concerned, the big effort of September will be getting Pepsi relocated to a barn closer to me. I've got a list sitting in my email of barns to check out as soon as I get my financial situation settled down / equine budget established. Having him an hour and a half away is terrible -- we're both cranky, erratic, and stiff when I see him on Sundays, and I'm constantly worried that something will happen to him (although I know the barn owners are taking great care of him as always). I've got too much time on my hands at the moment. 

Final unrelated thought: I let calls go to voicemail when I don't recognize the number, because I want to listen to the message and have time to think about my response.

sit back down where you belong, in the corner of the bar with your high heels on

Oh, Gaga. I've always had a soft spot for your crazy theatrical costumes and your catchy songs, but your VMA performance? In drag as a lean, scrappy butch, sitting on a piano and rendering row upon row of gender-inflexible celebrities dumbstruck? Even better was the catchy, classic-rock throwback vibe of the song itself. It has a very karaoke / get up and dance at the bar feel to it (in the best way).

My little dyke heart melted like butter in the sun.

If you haven't seen it yet, what are you waiting for? Full monologue + song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi2KSTHbXo8

wear it out

Why am I so senselessly in love with this song? Something about it is perfect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0CGsw6h60k&ob=av2e

i hear you're good with them soft lips
you know word of mouth

just a test: apparently i can still do this.

Il faut boire.

J'éspère qu'il n'avait rien à dire, particulariment à me dire, autour de ce sujet.

On peut dire que je bois trop. Mais c'est quoi, ce "trop", si seulement je ne peux pas me lever, ne veux pas me régarder le lendemain en face du miroir? Peut-être c'était l'idée originale, de me déposer à cet état de vivre sous les drapeaux, enfermé aux nuages en coton.

Je suis ... quelquechose. Intelligente, oui (dans un sens accotumé et normal), mais aussi crainte, impolie, difficile, amer. Le dernier, c'est possiblement là où je me trouve ce soir.

C'est le sentiment amer qui me chasse, là-dedans -- enfin identifié. Je diraient rien, sauf qu'il existe plusieurs forces autour de mon centre à ce moment. Il y a aussi des influences internes, plutôt qui me soulage et me conseille à la discretion, la silence, et les pensées independentes. A mon avis c'est la définition d'être "adulte" -- se silencer.

Il existe des femmes, et aussi des hommes, qui peuvent me toucher, me casser, m'écraser avec un seul régarde.

Je suis vulnerable, et bien contente.

Donc, il faut boire.

I still prefer the Ataris cover, but.

Today is my 12th day in Richmond.

I'm supposed to be 1) applying for jobs and 2) organizing our apartmenthouse. That's what I've decided to call our place. It's the top floor of a big townhouse dating back to the 1880s (we think) -- larger than other city apartments, but not an independent house. apartmenthouse.

I lost the apartmenthouse motivation about ten days ago ... it turns out that trying to pack a three bedroom house into a twoish-bedroom pad with a galley "kitchen" (I use that word in a rather broad sense here...) is somehow frustrating and tedious at the same time. I like the way things look when they're precisely organized, but I lack the motivation to perform the constant, repetitive cleaning / rearranging required therein. It's pretty clear that "our unmade bed" and "tower of dishes in the sink" habits aren't going to reform just because we live somwhere smaller.

Things are slightly more active on the job-finding front, mostly due to my impending lack of funds ... I had a brief courtship with an insurance company that wanted me for my sales mojo, which was flattering but ultimately futile since I don't want to do sales and I think working for commission is extortionist. Barring that, I've had a couple of interviews at VCU but their HR department is either super slow or not interested in showing me any love at the moment (sad), and a few heartbreakingly unrequited applications to the Library of Virginia and VMFA (like I'd get that lucky). The rest of my prospects are being pulled from the internet (hello, Craigslist "administrative assistant" ads, though I'm trying to be savvy/choosy and pick things I'd actually enjoy doing / places I'd like to work) and some limited in-person hustling (wine stores, no luck there yet). Finally, I'm registering with a staffing agency Thursday morning -- I had a personal referral there through a Wine Guild contact, which was cool, and the agency specializes in temp-to-hire admin positions at (drumroll please) medical establishments and nonprofit agencies! Basically my first choice of adminning would be at one of those two.

Oh, and I've started to branch out in my choice of "doing it part time / just for the money" jobs. Today I applied to tutor SAT students part time (can you say "teaching experience"?), work at a bakery (cake!) and two more office jobs in fun-sounding places. If I have to work something non-serious, why can't it be fun too?

This just in: plans are being formulated to venture out in the big city on a quest for ice cream. I will continue to fill you in later!

For now, go listen to Don Henley's "The Boys of Summer" and think about fall, like I'm doing.