Breathing room - in fact, a bit too much

As the recent run of posts on my weblog might lead you to believe, I've had a little more time lately then the last couple of weeks. The downside of working with a partner on a project is that you feel morally obligated to give it 110% for his sake, even if you're inclined to just do enough to get by. . . or even if you've made it to 100% already and you want to stop for a bit. But it went well, and I think we gave the best presentation of the class. (It is surprisingly difficult to give a 30-minute presentation. Nearly everybody tried to give a 60-minute presentation, and lopped the last half off. I think we were the only group to finish in 29 minutes, only chopping off a couple of slides I put in as sacrificial cows in case I had underestimated the time.)

I'm not quite done, but I'm getting there. It's all over by Thursday, which is my last final this semester.

This brings me to the summer. Last summer, I worked for the University and took a class. This semester, the guy responsible for assigning those positions sent out an email about a month ago, which I immediately replied to (as in, about 10 minutes after he sent it). However, just last week, after I finally emailed him back and asked him what was up, did he say there isn't a position available for the summer. Oops. I had thought there would be. I had at least expected that after he knew there wouldn't be a position, he'd email me (and the others) telling us that...

(Another administrative snafu: I was never told this year when I can sign up for classes for next year. Normally, you get a letter and an email telling you the date. There is no other way to find this information out. By the time I figured that out, all the classes were full.)

So, I am now faced with an empty summer. What's worse, since I can't take a class, which I had planned on, that pushes my graduation date back by another full semester, and forces me to take classes I do not want to take if I want to graduate that soon. This disgusts me. After 20 years in school, I'm ready to be done with it. (What with all the administrative stuff crapping out, it's like the University feels the same way, on some unconcious level.)

So, I am now hunting for a job. If I can find something to tide me over the summer, I may do that and re-enroll in school next year. However, I'm really looking for a real job, with the intent of taking at least a year off of school. (I still want to finish my grad degree; half of a degree is too much to just abandon. But the fact is, I've taken most of the classes I want to take.) I'd really like something in the MidWest, which is a tall, order, I know. I may even pick something up locally. If you've got any leads, here's my resume, and my email is jerf@jerf.org.

I've worked in a "real job" before; I much prefer it to school.

I don't know how it's going to go, I don't know what's going to happen. In fact, this is as much uncertainty as I've ever faced in my life. But I'll get through somehow.