New Job!

You may wonder what a jobless person does to keep busy. A jobless person says, "Plenty." If I didn't have a job, I could still keep going on all the odd jobs around the house or social outings with friends. Maybe that's what I should be when I grow up, a socialite.

Anyway, I have been keeping busy with substitute teaching and doing some PR projects for an old employer.

The big news is that I just got word that I'll be working with EF Smithsonian student tours this spring. This is a student travel company that does a lot of its tours in the D.C. and NYC area. I'll be heading to Boston Dec. 6 and 7 for an orientation and then I'll be scheduled for a shadow tour. This is not a full-time position like the Holland America/Alaska gig, but just a few tours through the spring. Once I go to the symposium in January I hope to be hired by a few more student tour companies to help fill up my calendar.

I'm still playing it by ear and hoping it all falls into place. I've never felt stressed by my situation, which I believe is a God thing. I hope this means many more tour jobs to come ...

Home on the Range

Not being gainfully employed keeps me busy! I've had a great time since I've been home. I was able to go home to visit my nephews and spend good quality time with them. I helped my friend, Donna, with her garage sale and my mom spent last Monday through Thursday morning with me. During that time we tiled my front entrance and helped an aunt get settled into a nursing home.

Today was my first day of part-time employment. I worked a half day at a local Christian school subbing junior high science today, and I'll do the same tomorrow. Monday I have an interview with the North Kansas City School District for a sub position, so wish me luck. And, yes, I do want to do it!

Tonight I'm working with a destination management company on an event in the jazz district, and I'm already scheduled to work with them again later this month. It looks like things will be rolling in shortly, which is fine by me!

I'll continue to look for tour jobs, and if I get anything this fall, it's more likely to fill in for someone. I'll be able to solidify more jobs in January when I travel to San Diego for the ITMI symposium. There I'll be able to interview with a number of tour operators and hopefully get myself scheduled for the year.

Me and Chase

Working on the floor. It seemed to take forever since the original subfloor had a million staple nails in it spaced about an inch apart. It was not meant to come up! Now the next person that tries get this tile up will think the same thing ...

Using the wet saw in the dark!

Voila!

Donna and I working hard at the garage sale.