Well, of course now that (as of yesterday) Kyle has gotten his ideal job with the Orbis Cascade Alliance, a job that interests me at my undergraduate alma mater Oberlin College has become available. I love living in Oregon, but job opportunities do seem pretty limited here, as Kyle is fond of reminding me. Oberlin is a really wonderful place, so it’s hard to resist applying for the opportunity to work there. Especially since I’m growing increasingly frustrated with my current job, and there don’t appear to be any more attractive local alternatives on the horizon.

I’m currently involved in a production of Once Upon a Mattress at Pentacle Theatre. The production isn’t going all that well; we’re way under-rehearsed, some of the actors in lead roles haven’t mastered their lines and/or songs yet despite the fact that we open in a week, important details like props and costumes haven’t been worked out yet, etc. I’m not particularly stressed out about it, though. The people are nice enough to work with, we’re having fun, so I’m able to just enjoy the process and go with the flow. I feel like I’m doing the best that I can with the things I can control, so I can be satisfied. I wish that I could get the same feeling at work, but I just can’t seem to relax my expectations that much. It would also be nice to get a compliment or at least have someone recognize that I contribute something unique and valuable to the library/university once in a while. In a play, the audience will applaud at least a little bit, even if you suck…

Don’t know why I got to thinking about this, but 7 years ago today (February 8, 2000) was the day I had a bicycle accident and fractured my jaw in three places. I’m all healed and have been for quite some time, but once in awhile I reflect on that time, which was probably the biggest medical crisis of my life. To remember how it felt to forget about all of those mundane concerns that get me down every day and just focus on healing my body and mind. Having a fractured jaw was a pretty miserable experience, but being forced to withdraw from the world for a few days was very nice.