Life is like a box of chocolates:)

Nope, you just never know what you’re gonna get in this life, or at least I sure don’t! I have been trailing in behind Dennis to volunteer at the library in his school just for something to do and to get me out of the house. The woman who runs it thinks I am a wonder woman or something even though I have explained that I am not! LOL! She is constantly being interrupted so any project she takes on will always take her days or perhaps weeks to finish whereas I can just concentrate and finish it within the day usually. She is beginning to give me better projects to do since she has also realized that I will not inundate her with an infinite amount of questions like the student volunteers will. Life experience and all I guess!

So life was going along at an idyllic pace when Dennis got an email from another teacher at the school on Monday night. She and her hubby have adopted one child and have been on the waiting list for another. They got word during the summer that they were finally at the top of the list and put on alert that the call could come any time so she lined up a long term substitute. The problem is that it’s a waiting game and she has no idea exactly when the call will come in and her substitute got tired of waiting and got another job.

So in her panic she came up with the bright idea of asking Dennis to ask ME if I would do it! My response was "nice work if you can get it, but I can’t". I don’t have any kind of college degree. If I went back to all the colleges I tried to attend 25 years ago and added in the online course I took, I could probably come up with a little more than a semester’s worth of credit, but that’s it. So when she caught me in the hallway the next day, I told her I would love to, but am not qualified since I don’t have a college degree.

"I don’t think you need one!" she says to my disbelief. She kept talking and telling me I could do it and how she had all the lesson plans done and with 6 kids, I knew how to handle them and on and on. Finally I told her I was willing if she could find a way and off she went. I was 100% positive she was wrong and forgot about it…until about ten minutes later when she came tearing into the library to show me a piece of paper with one line brightly hightlighted that said

"…or a letter of recommendation from a county principal or assistant principal or…"

"Are you kidding me?" I was astounded! I told her I didn’t know if I could get the recommendation though and she announced she had already taken care of it! Wow! And Damn! LOL! So I am filling out all the paperwork and getting my work references sewn up…one of which is coming from the woman that runs the library I volunteer in. Gee, I wonder if that will be a good one? LOL!

Yesterday Dennis told me she would need me to cover her class for one day next week and I informed him that while I am hurrying, there was a chance I couldn’t get all the paperwork in that fast and he informed me that I could substitute up to three days without the paperwork! Jeez, can anyone out there say "railroading"? LOL! But I am excited about the whole thing. This IS a great way to make a living until I get back into school myself. From what I hear, the school is desperate for substitutes so once I am certified, there will be plenty of opportunities for me to pick up as much work as I can handle and if I don’t want to work a certain day, I just don’t call in to see if they need me. Hey I can handle that schedule! Something else I can handle is the pay which is twice what I made at the store AND I even get a ride to work everyday! *grin*

And if that’s not enough to talk me into it, Dennis was thinking out loud and mentioned that with 6 weeks of guaranteed pay, it just might be possible that we could afford to finally and actually fix the rotted siding and gutters!!!!!!!! YES!! That has been worrying us quite a bit…or at least it’s been worrying me! I just didn’t see how we could afford it without taking out yet another loan, but we sure can’t sell the house until it’s fixed.

So in 4 short days, I have found a well paying job without even looking, not to mention it will look wonderful on my resume when I apply to get into the program at college.

Oh yes! I almost forgot! Representatives from the college I am bound and determined to go to will be at the school next week! I bet they aren’t expecting a 47 year old woman to inundate them with questions, but that’s what they’re gonna get! LOL!