Unemployment Chronicles, Day 50

Fifty days of unemployment! Holy cow.

The first big news from the weekend is that Saturday the HR rep called and said I was chosen to move on and have an interview with the president/founder of SWSG! It will be a phone interview today at 2:40pm for about 30-40 minutes. She said, "She's (the pres) really excited to talk to you. She really liked your stuff." My stuff! I have no idea what my "stuff" is, but someone likes it!

I've also got something in the works for a few weeks in December, so hopefully that will work out and I won't have to panic (as much) about moolah. I had a fun weekend, though!


Today is my Mom's birthday. I'm not entirely sure how I feel. I've felt a little emotional in the last few days and I'm homesick, but the problem with that is the only cure for my homesickness is my Mom. I get a fix when I go home to Texas or talk online with my sisters, but there's nothing that ever really quiets the deep longing to see my Mom again... actually to talk to her again. I do see her from time to time in my dreams, but I want to talk to her so much. She would have been 58 today. (the pic is her as a girl)

In the nearly three years she's been gone I have changed so much. I wish she had the opportunity to know this version of me. I wish she had been around to benefit from the sanctification God's worked in my heart. Although, I suppose, lots of it has come as a result of the suffering I've experienced since her death. What a bummer, huh?

This week is Thanksgiving. Another family favorite and I'm here in Boston again. It feels easier already than it did last year, but I still wish I were in Texas. There's something about missing people that becomes a heavy weight if you allow it to. I think about my Mom at some point every day, but the days when I can't breathe or would rather stay in bed are more rare. I thought of her yesterday as I helped out with the Day of Thanks at the Boston Rescue Mission downtown. Some of our friends from church work there, so a few of us went to help serve meals. It was really fun. I forgot how much I enjoy volunteering and serving people I don't know. We actually served them at their tables like a restaurant - isn't that cool? (the pic below is Thanksgiving 06 w my Grandma Barbara)

I spent a few summers in middle school volunteering at a nursing home near my house. Have I told you this? Maybe. Well, anyway, it was so fun. We did activities with the residents like singing, crafts and reading to them. They also had a little ice cream shop we worked and had to be sure the diabetic residents didn't try to come back for seconds and thirds. I loved knowing these people. I haven't worked at a nursing home in a while and definitely not in the last three years. We tried to Christmas Carole in one Christmas of 06, but I only made it through one song and had to excuse myself to sit outside and cry until they were done singing. There was something about my Mom before she died that was very elderly and like some of those residents and seeing them tore me open. I hadn't expected that because I love elderly people. I'm not sure when my heart will be ready for that again, though.

Anyway, I'm babbling. The holidays are a tender time of year for me. I love them because my Mom taught us to love them, but that can make the sting of her absence more intense. One day at a time...