After spending most of the weekend reading about combat stress, fear and PTSD I managed to get an assignment completed this afternoon. Only 6 more papers to complete in order to catch up on in the next week and a half! I think I’m going to try and spread out the days by class so I’m not spending all my time on a single topic. This evening I’ll spend 3-4 hours on Stats and tomorrow I’ll work on my Experimental Psych class before cyclin back to Mil Psych. Here’s hoping I can stick to my plan!

Got my first Stats assignment back this afternoon. I’ll have to ensure I study it well in time for my exams since I managed to pull of a 90% and I’m still not certain I understand any of it. Granted a lot of my classes seem to follow that pattern until I have my big “ah ha!” moment close to the end of the semester.

Not everything has been about school today. I did manage to get some housework accomplished. I shoveled snow from the weekend storm and spent far too much time scrubbing my basement floor in an attempt to get it to stop smelling of peeved puppy revenge. Now it just stinks of lemony Mr. Clean. I think it’ll need another good scrub or two to be truely clean.

As much as I love the dogs – who forget I exist the minute Drew walks into a room – I do wish they didn’t come with so much baggage. Rescue animals come with some deep seeded issues and Hypnos’ all surround abandonment and food! Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good little beastie and behaves very well when I’m home. He’s got a great personality and is very friendly. He also has the worst case of separation anxiety I’ve ever seen and seems to only think with his stomach. Hopefully he won’t misbehave when I start the new job in a few weeks. Otherwise Drew will be spending his vacation time after returning home scrubbing floors too!

Speaking of the new job, I got a touch base call this afternoon. They seem to be as excited to have me as I am to start. I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed that I don’t disappoint anyone. It’s a new department and I’m really looking forward to being part of their new beginnings. I like to think I have a lot of experience and knowledge to offer my new employer.

Going to spend the next little while learning my way around downtown, getting clothes tailored – still many pants to have hemmed and cuffed – and catching up on papers and school work. Not sure how this will impact my blogging schedule.

You may remember that a few months back I was participating in a charity project via Twitter called #tweetsgiving [details here, here and here]. It was the brainchild of Stacey Monk (@StaceyMonk) the founder of Epic Change and challenged users of Twitter to band together and raise 10,000$ for the development of a classroom addition to a school in Arusha, Tanzania.

This month Epic Change is at it again.  They’re raising funds to expand the school to include its first technology lab and a boarding facility/orphanage for students. They’re hoping to raise 77,777$ by the end of March 17th and still have a long way to go before they reach the goal.  You can learn more at tweetluck.org or by following @TweetLuck or the search term #tweetluck on Twitter.

Take a few minutes, and the cost of a cup of coffee or two, and donate to Epic Change’s TweetLuck project. Then join us in telling the world how lucky you are 😉

I am lucky because I have friends & family who care for me & accept my eccentricities.

You can see pictures of the classroom built on gratitude at the Epic Change Flickr account.  I was originally disappointed that I couldn’t find my Twitter handle on the wall – but then I remembered that the project had nothing to do with me or my ego – rather it was about building hope and helping to develop a bright future for children half-way around the world and that was certainly accomplished.

I’d like a new nose please.

For as long as I can recall I’ve had sinus trouble. When it gets bad and the pressure builds up my eye starts watering. Today my eye is doing an impression of a giant fountain. Bah!

On the bright side I can’t smell anything when my nose gets like this so I didn’t have my usual gag attack when walking down the hallways at work. I like perfume or cologne as much as the next guy or gal but I can’t stand it when people bathe in their preferred scent.

Still. I wouldn’t mind a clear nose all year long. If anyone has any suggestions for relief I’m all ears.

It’s been freezing cold here this week and I’m desperately awaiting the warmer weather local weatherman @joshclassen has been predicting. A -20C drop overnight to get us into this mess and a jump from -30C to -10C to +3C over a few days to pull us back out of our cold weather funk and back into the sunlight. I miss grass and leaves. I hope spring patio season arrives soon!

In non weather related news (is that even possible?), I received my formal end-contract notice today. My name was spelt wrong on the letter and it was dated two days ago. Despite being hand delivered to me today. I suppose I could complain but why bother? It won’t change anything. When I think about it I realize that I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s a fitting representation of my time here over the years.  I might even frame it.  Or at least post it on the fridge for a week or two after Drew comes home.

Still managing to get things done while we wind down work here. One more course finished and handed over. 40+ more to go. I don’t expect to have more than 10 finished (approximately 1 per week) before we leave so I do hope I’ll receive a priority listing for the courses soon. It would certainly help me determine which ones need to be worked on first!

Seems today is the day for jobs to post in my field. I’ve got leads on 4 new ones and will be applying to them as soon as I can tailor my cover letters and contact my references. Before the weekend certainly. This makes me feel a bit better about the probability of success in the on-going search for work. I just wish my field was a little less specialized and a bit quicker to hire. Lengthy posting and interview processes mixed with openings that are few and far between tend to make me nervous.

With so many of us vying for the same jobs it’s sometimes hard to remain upbeat and confident. After all, in positions where other co-workers and I are both applicants, I know exactly what my competition’s skill set and capabilities are. It’s not a case of hoping to get selected for an interview or an offer over random guy you’ve never seen before. It’s a case of hoping to find work knowing that the job you accept is one more that a former co-worker won’t have available to them. Then again they might not be feeling as guilty when it comes to their own job searches.

Whatever the end result may be I am grateful for their support during this process. If nothing else our cohesive group continues to share a very strong bond. Many of the new friendships I’ve made since beginning this project have made the price of playing in the big leagues well worth it in the end. Y’all know who you are.  Thank you.