So I unwisely accepted this humongous 40-school assignment with a Wednesday due date, because I wasn't 100% sure I'd have a job interview to go to this week. I do, on Tuesday.

So (gulp) I had to go all out for the past 3 days so I could free up all day tomorrow to prep for the interview, and then a half day on Tuesday for the interview itself and one hour drive there and then back. (I did free up time to have dinner with dad at the Chinese place last night.)

So I wrote 10 school summaries each of the last 3 days, which really wasn't easy since most take me 50 or 60 minutes to write. I worked from 7:30 am to about 5 pm yesterday, and from 7:30 a.m. to 3 pm today. Got done what I needed to. Phew. I will never do THAT again but it's hard to turn down a paying job in my situation.

I sort of don't even want this job I'm interviewing for but one thing led to another and since my friend J. is the recruiter who's been leading the charge, I feel obligated to follow through as I don't want to disappoint him. Tho I may have to if I get an offer. At my age, I'm just not sure I have the stamina for a 2-hour commute (RT) every day and who knows how long they'll expect me to stay each night.

At the same time, I feel a need to consider it because I need affordable health insurance and have 8 months left on COBRA before s*** hits fan.

As usual, this is my conundrum. I feel like I've faced this dilemma a thousand times.

I could take the risk of passing on this job and not getting another perm job interview for a long time. The last perm job interview I had before this was shortly after I was laid off last summer, so yeah, the quality job interviews are few and far between.

I could try it for 6 months or so and then ask to work at home 1-2 days a week, which could change things mightily as far as my tolerance for the drive. Or they could say no, and then what?

I look in the mirror and feel I look so old, going in for a job interview, it makes things even harder. No spring chicken here.

In other news...

My sugar snap peas are FINALLY emerging. Took rather a long time. I intend to have them twine around the metal vertical poles of the shelving system they'res sitting on, out on the sunny, sunny driveway. All the parsley and some of the butterfly plants have also emerged.

I heard back from driveway guy about the weed poking through the new asphalt, as happened last year right after they paved. He agreed it shouldn't be happening and said he could try an extra thick coat of sealer. I asked if he would do the whole driveway or just that one spot and haven't heard back yet. Becus I have a feeling this is going to keep happening and how may times can I reasonably expect him to return.

I gave $500 to my carpenter so he can buy materials for my built-in bookshelves. Hooray. I had to delay his start on them due to my job interview cus I wasn't sure I could think straight with him hammering away downstairs, etc. So he's going to start this Thursday and while I can't wait to see them materialize, I'm not looking forward to probably 4 full days of no privacy and banging noise here. I'll have to make sure to pill Waldo his meds before he arrives or he'll never take them.

I am excited about getting them and the ability to design as we go along, as I'm not sure if, under the window, I should go with a window seat that opens from top, a cabinet or a cabinet with pull out drawer. He'll do whatever I want.

I think I'll skip the window seat that opens from top as I don't want to have to clear whatever's on top of the window seat everytime I want to open it. Cabinet doors are kind of boring/predictable so I don't know.

He's also open to using matching fluted vertical trim with the little rosettes to match the trim on my double set of French doors in the living room/family room.

I'm glad he's looking forward to doing job nearly as much as I am but even though the job interview prep will be out of the way by the time he comes, will his work make it hard for me to work on another writing assignment? I'm turning in this assignment later on Wednesday. Carpenter starts work on Thursday; I don't know if he'd want to continue over the weekend, but if not, he might not finish up til Tues/Wed. I suppose I could afford to take a break from the writing, but maybe I should anyway because I'm kind of house-bound while he's working here so I'll need something to do anyway.

I took an hour walk today.

Tomorrow I'l take a break from my interview prep for an MS lunch in neighboring town. (I don't really need an entire day for it, but I do also need to assemble my portfolio, lay out an outfit to wear and write down directions.)

OK, so the very best deal I've come across after researching over 260 schools YTD for this freelance job of every kind is this: If you attend any CUNY or SUNY 2 or 4-year university in NY full time and if your family income is less than $100K, you get FREE tuition.

The only catch is, you have to have lived in NY for at least once year before applying for the program, and you also have to agree to reside in NY for at least as long as it took you to earn your degree. So if you went for a bachelor's degree, you'd have to agree to live in NY for 4 years following graduation. You could defer this requirement if you were planning to continue with grad school, but you would still have to meet the requirement after that or risk having to pay back the money. The program is called the Excelsior Scholarship and it starts this fall. It's the first program of its kind in the nation. The idea is to help make a college education affordable for middle-income families. In the next few years, the income cap will increase to $125K.

Wow, I wish I could have taken advantage of this program.