Summer in the city

Whoa, I am always surprised how long it's been since I've written in my blog. A lot has happened since World-wide Knit in Public Day. I've knitted a few other things, visited Sandy and Joe in Raleigh, and helped Shane move his stuff out of Tennessee back here to NYC.

There was also that second trip to Chicago for an interview. I stayed with friends of Shane's friends, which was a little awkward, but their apartment was a beautiful second-floor unit in a cute brick house in Logan Square. The school with which I had an interview was in the same Northwest neighborhood. The interview went well, and later the same morning I visited another school for an informal meeting.

About a week later, back in New York, I finally heard back from the school. The principal wanted to hire me, but he was worried about my lack of Illinois certification. I told him that I had already put in an application and would get provisional certification while I satisfied any missing requirements for the proper certification, but he seemed to need more reassurance. I contacted the certification office in Chicago and forwarded information about my application to the principal. This week I heard back from him that things looked good, whatever that means. I still haven't received an official offer, so I'm not sure what is going on. I will probably follow up again later this week if I haven't heard back.

In the meantime, I had a phone interview with a charter school in Chicago. They will probably get back to me soon as well.

I suppose things are going pretty well on the job front, but it's hard to be happy about things while waiting to hear back from schools, especially after experiencing a school going back on an offer earlier this summer.

Shane and I are hoping to go to Chicago again soon to find a place to live. We would like to move in early August, since that month is going to be pretty busy with trips.

These days we're enjoying vacation. Because I still haven't secured a job in Chicago, I gave up my summer job as teaching assistant in an elementary school program downtown. That means I'm just hanging out, knitting and emailing schools. Shane decided to move up here for the month because nothing's really happening in Tennessee for him this summer. So we do yoga every day, and Shane plays music while I knit or crochet. Shane's doing a little recording with his friend, and the other day Shane wrote a violin part for me to record. I sounded like crap, but I think there will be enough other stuff happening in the song to mask most of my playing. I should really practice the violin more.

On my way driving down to Tennessee to help Shane move, I stopped in Raleigh to visit my little sister, Sandy, and her husband, Joe. It was my first time to their house, which was cute. I even visited Sandy while she was working at P.F. Chang's and got to eat a free dinner thanks to perks from Joe's promotion to chef. The next day was their day off, so we got to hang out. I hope to visit them again soon.