Wow, so much has happened since last week it's hard to believe that was only 7 days ago. First of all, Drew called early in the evening on Valentine's Day to tell me that he would be staying in Geneva until Saturday because of an AudioVault issue. After that conversation, Alice told me that the repairman came to check out the furnace and the news wasn't good. It was going to be really expensive to fix the furnace but Matt had wonted to replace the whole heating system in the spring. So he didn't have the money to replace the system yet, but he didn't want to spend the money to fix the furnace, just to replace it. So the solution was to buy a hot water heater and have Alice's brother install the unit, but he wouldn't be able to get there until Sunday. So no hot water for 4 days! I boiled three pots of water to wash my body, my hair, and my face. It took me an hour to feel clean again. At that point I decided that if it was ok with Drew, I would be driving up to Geneva on Friday after work and spending the 3-day weekend with him there. I was sure that they would have plenty of hot water. So Drew called me back later, I ptiched the idea, and he thought it was great. He also had had dinner with the AudioVault programmer, and Owen had offered Drew and interesting propostion of employment. Owen is contracted by BE as an installer/programmer for some of their bigger and/or more difficult contracts. He travels a lot but he also gets to dictate his time off. Owen has to go over the sales figures to make sure he has enough business coming in, but he's been looking to bring on a third contractor and he wants Drew. It might take a little while to pull things together but when he does he'll call Drew and then Drew will have two weeks to get his business in order before he leaves for training. Drew and I talked about it a lot on Thursday night and prayed about it and decided that it was something worth going for. It's going to be hard having him travel a lot but I know it's the right thing to do because God has really been working on me to be reliant on Him instead of my husband for everything I need, especially my happiness.
I only got about 4 hours of sleep on Thursday night and Friday was a crazy busy day at work so I ended up experimenting with an energy drink and that stuff is cheap, legal, over-the-counter crack. I left work at 6pm, sang along with my iPod at the top of my lungs all the way to Geneva and was totally wigging out on the caffeine. I arrived at 10:30pm, grabbed a quick dinner with Drew, and then completely passed out on the bed. I don't think I moved an inch all night.
The rest of the weekend was completely different than anticipated. Drew and Owen ended up working from 11am on Saturday to 2am on Sunday at the studios. I spent most of the day shopping, then I went back to the hotel, watched TV, read, and knitted until about 9pm when I finally called Drew and he said to come on over to the studio. At that point I stayed there until we all left together at 2am. At one point I fell asleep propped up against the wall in the WLLW studio. The following morning we all met up for breakfast and Owen also told Drew about an engineering job in Orlando that he might be good for and Drew jumped on it in a heart beat. I'm no so sure how I feel about going to Florida but I know Drew really wants to get away from his current job soon.
Much later that day, Drew and Owen finally finished up at the studios, Owen left to go home, and Drew and I decided to go to Rochester to have dinner and see his old stomping grounds. I was very preoccupied because I was still thinking about the Orlando job and how much I really didn't want to move there. So we talked about that for a while and were able to come to an understanding that if God wanted us to go there then He would make it happen and we would go but if it wasn't His will and it didn't happen then we would just keep looking and be patient.
On Monday we slept in and Drew's parents spontaneously called us and drove up to Geneva to have dinner with us. It was a good visit. After dinner I was supposed to drive back hom but instead I took an extra day off of work and stayed the night to spend a little more time with Drew. On Tuesday I took my time packing up my stuff, then met Drew for lunch, and then started the 5 hour drive home. It's a much nicer drive in the daytime though I would definitely get bored having to make the trip every week like Drew does. I rrived hom and started doing laundry and cleaning the apartment in preparation for Barbara's visit the following weekend. And guess what?! We finally had hot water again.
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Thursday, 2/14/2008
Happy Valentine's Day! I'm so apathetic about today, it's weird. I'm not depressed or upset, I'm just not really thinking that today is any different than any other day. Probably because I won't be seeing Drew today and with everything else going on, Valentine's Day is just one more responsibility to take care of, one more event to plan for, to spend money on, to make time for and exert energy on, and to meet unspoken expectations. I always thought I was a romantic person, but all I really want to do is leave work at 5, pick up a chick-flick at Blockbuster, pick up a box of chocolate covered cherries, and go home, change into comfy clothes, curl up in a warm blanket, drink hot chocolate, eat my chocolate covered cherries, and watch my movie. No flowers, no cards, no fancy dinner. And I'm completely ok with that. I just hope that I finally have hot water at the apartment. The furnace has been acting up the past couple days; sometimes it will work and other times it won't. Yesterday it stopped working all together and the repair man was supposed to come today to check it out. Here's hoping.
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Tuesday, 2/12/2009
I've been listening to Christian radio every day on my way to work and home and it's really been affecting my approach to everyday life. I know I still have so much work left to do to even begin to feel that I'm walking with the Lord but I think that sanctifying my mind and my heart is the first step. There's a new Christian talk show on the campus radio station and I listened last night and was very impressed with the peace of God coming from these young men and their determination to share God's truth in love. I prayed through most of the show because DJ called them. DJ is someone who really needs to know God because he makes it his personal desire to antagonize and destroy believers. Sasha and Christian are being used by God in a might way and it's so exciting to witnes it. My prayer verse is Proverbs 37. What an encouragement for believers in this world!
Every other week for the past month I've been attending a Wednesday night knitting club. I've been working on little blankets for puppies and kittens to be donated to the Ulster County SPCA. I've also been working on a blue and green baby blanket and a couple of ponchos. Once I've finished these projects, I want to make a baby poncho, hat, and matching blanket for James and Christina. Then maybe learn how to knit socks. I started reading a book last night entitled The Friday Night Knitting Club and every time I read a little I want to stop reading and knit some more. So much for a relaxing book in bed.
Last weekend Drew surprised me by telling me that he had talked to Matt (the landlord) about getting a small dog! I was so excited that I started crying and kept saying "I'm ok" over and over again until I could regain my composure. I want a dog so badly and my only concern is that we won't be able to afford one. I know anything else we can work around but it could be a larger financial strain than we're prepared to handle right now and that disappoints me a lot. I'm waiting until the summer to decide whether or not we can really get a dog right now. I really hope so because I need a companion.
Finally, I've finished assessing the 54 different graduate programs I found and 34 of them are programs that offer what I'm looking for. Now I'm going back through those 34 and determining which ones offer tuition waivers for full-time employees. Those will be the colleges that I'll be applying to for employment. Drew is ready and willing to go wherever I get a job. He really wants me to move to the next level, start working towards my graduate degree, and hopefully he won't be working as many hours either or will be compensated for his overtime and will be able to take some engineering classes at whatever college I'm w orking. It's a long process but I have motivation; every day at my current job is motivation.