On and on

Not much new to report.  Mom headed to Arizona a couple weeks ago so we've moved into her little house, much to the joy of the pets.  Jake has the couch, the cats can play race-cars up and down the long hallway, and we have a real bed to share with all three of them.  It's staying warm enough inside (surprising, since we're relying solely on portable electric heaters) and there's snow on the mountains across the river today.

We're both still applying for jobs like crazy - the job interview in Bend went well, but afterwards I realized that I really wouldn't fit in at the company (six people, all hard-core liberal hippies, and me, an only slightly left-leaning Republican... kinda hard to hide your differences in an office so small), and that B would have to take a job completely outside his realm.  It would have been miserable for me and unfair to him, so we decided to keep looking.  So, here we are, still looking.  I have a handful of applications out that I'm really hopeful about, and B has a couple to apply for this week that would be awesome too.  We have days where we just ignore the fact that we're unemployed and essentially homeless and just sit with a book and a crochet project and veg out.  Then we have days where we just want to scream and give up.  Mix in a couple completely productive get-shit-done days and that's where we are.  It's draining.

But we've been spending time with my long-lost friends and family, getting reacquainted with my hometown, and enjoying the scenery, if not the inconveniences of living in the sticks.  We drove past the house I grew up in a few days ago, which I was incredibly nervous about.  Mom had to sell the house a few years ago when she realized she couldn't take care of it by herself anymore, and the impression I'd gotten was that the people that bought it we're taking very good care of it.  In reality, it was just a matter of different taste - they painted it a dark pine-green-gray color with white trim, as opposed to the light gray with blue trim that Mom and Dad had liked, and they fenced a portion of the side yard for their dog and to keep the deer out of their sizeable vegetable garden.  I was surprised to find how much I liked what they'd done to it.  

I drove though my college campus too, which has grown tremendously since I was a student nine years ago.  I haven't visited my old high school yet, and I kind of want to catch a football game there to try and catch up with the coaches and teachers that are still there that I knew and loved.  It's been quite a trip down memory lane, and exciting to see how much the city has changed.  To think, all those years ago I couldn't wait to leave, and now I'm actually glad to be here.