So yeah. 🙂 We’re pretty psyched. The story behind it is a little unusual, though. He applied and interviewed for a contingent (short-term, like a year or two, as long as the funding for it lasts) proofreading position at the Church. They really liked him and told him that he was one of their top candidates and that he’d hear by the end of the week. The week ended—no word. We (or at least I, but I think Jonathon too) were getting really worried. Then another whole week passed with no word. We started to wonder: at what point is it okay to ask what’s going on?
Finally, the following Monday, Jonathon got an email saying they had hired someone else for the contingent position but that they wanted to create a position for him and were working on getting approval to do that. Another week passed. We had no idea whether they’d actually get approval to hire Jonathon, or, if they did, how long that would take. We started looking in earnest for other jobs, and Jonathon even began applying for one in Arizona. I have to admit, I was getting pretty grumpy about the whole thing. He’d been unemployed for three months now, and while a large freelance project in June/July and another smaller one in July, plus Jonathon’s writing gigs, plus my piano teaching had allowed us to coast, I had wanted to move during the summer so that the boys wouldn’t have to move during the school year, especially with Duplo starting kindergarten this year. It would be so hard for him to start kindergarten at one school and then move a month or two later, and unless we kept getting large freelance projects, we were facing either getting a job and moving or not getting a job, running out of money, and moving in with parents in the next few months. I didn’t see any way around moving during the school year.
Anyway, apparently the job-creation thing is a go! It is awesome to think that they were so impressed with Jonathon that they made room for him. He’ll get to work with a guy he used to work with, and they get along great. I think this job is very nearly ideal for him and for our family. (One downside is that he’ll have to shave his beard. But I guess we can’t have everything, right?)
And here I am, at 4:30 a.m., writing this because I can’t sleep. I woke up at 3:00 with El Guapo, and afterward, my mind was buzzing so much with to-do lists and what-ifs and general excitement that I couldn’t fall asleep again. Depending on Jonathon’s start date at the new job, we’re probably going to be moving in two or three weeks. We’ll need to find a place ASAP, as in, hopefully this weekend. I’m supposed to register the boys for school at their current elementary tomorrow, but I’d rather do it at the school they’ll actually be attending, which means I need to know which school that is.
Suddenly all the realities are beginning to sink in: I’ll have to tell my piano students I’m moving. That makes me really sad. I hope they find excellent teachers and don’t just quit. I’ll have to leave my calling in this ward as the primary chorister, which I deeply love. I’ll have to leave my tomatoes behind just as they’re beginning to ripen. I wonder if my landlord would mind friends and family stopping by from time to time to harvest them. I do plan on digging up all the carrots, beets, and lettuce I have in the garden before we go. Isn’t it just human nature to see the “grimy lining” of any great thing? I feel so ungrateful to even be thinking about these things, but any change, no matter how positive, is going to be a tiny bit melancholy because of things left behind.
Well, I was hoping that writing this all out would help me set my thoughts aside enough to sleep, so I’ll stop there. It may be a while before I post again, but I’d like to write up the post about my garden before I leave it and I forget. It was a big part of my life this summer, and I want to remember it.
