I haven’t seen the television in a week. I haven’t read a newspaper. I have read a few cnn.com articles. The devastation in the world this week is beyond anything that I can begin the comprehend. What makes it worse is to understand that for the survivors the suffering is not over. Disease, famine, finding shelter. How do you rebuild your lives after this? We had 9-11 but we had someone to direct our anger toward (or misdirect it in many cases.) This? This is just out of control.

I have been trying to keep up with the news, without coming across visual representation of it. Why? I’m not sure. I wonder if seeing the pictures of what happened is some sort of penance that we should pay for being lucky. I wonder if not seeing the pictures will make it less real? We’re so visual with our news – the memory of those planes hitting the towers is burned into my memory. Do I need a visual of this to grieve, to better make sense of it? I don’t know. For now I think that all that I can imagine is probably equal to the devastation that I would see.

Mother Nature is powerful. It’s wrong to ignore the possibility of natural disaster in any of our lives. Global warming will change what we view as “normal” in our world. What can I do beside send aid to those in need? I can petition my government to recognize that unless our country works with the rest of the world to curb industry and emissions disasters such as these could happen more frequently. It may not be in my generation, or in my grandchildren’s but it will happen someday and it scares the living crap out of me.

With all of the announcing the new job excitement I forgot to tell you the coolest part – HOW I GOT THE NEW JOB. The past few weeks as I’ve shared my fun news with friends and family we’ve all marveled at the pure beauty of “how things happen.”

Disclaimer: I truly believe that all things happen for a reason. There may or may not be a master plan but in the end all that occurs to you works out. If not for you, for someone near you in your universe. To me it is one of the only ways the world can stay balanced. This is not to say that there is no right or wrong.

So, a few months ago I was riding on the T and I saw a woman knitting miles and miles of I-cord. I was late (the new way of life post marriage to a slow southern man) and was a bit harried. I noticed a red plastic bag and thought to myself, I have seen that bag before. I rushed off the train and zoomed on to work. At work I spent my usual morning waking up and checking email. My blog was in its infancy and there was little action on the comment front. This morning I had a sweet comment from a woman named Elisa. I traveled on over to her blog and whoa and behold – this was where I had seen the red plastic bag?! To make a long story short – I met Elisa not long after at the Circles Anniversary Party. We hit it off and got to talking. During conversation I whined and moaned like I do to any stranger about my desire to find a new job and this and that and blah and bunk.

Well…Elisa suggested then, and again later, that I give her my resume to submit to the organization that she worked for. Being the frank on a bun that I am I let her know that indeed I would take her up on that and she must not offer unless she was serious as cancer about this service. You see, as most of you know, a resume submitted by an employee gets you a phone call. A resume submitted to HR gets you a nice long stay in a manila file folder that absolutely does nothing for your complextion.

Resume submitted I prepare for the long, albeit now shorter, wait to a phone call. Two days later – I am told to contact a hiring manager. Two days later I’m asked to come in for an interview in two days. Two days later I go for the interview (in my new suit, yah new threads) and spend not the two hours I was told I would spend there…but five hours with four different people. Miss Elisa treated me to some much need nourishment somewhere in there but really, at this point, it’s all a blur. I’ve never been through such a mentally exhausting day. My thesis defense was less of an effort. One week later I was offered the position. Two days later I accepted. One day later I notified my current employer. Two weeks after my interview. I start in two weeks.

Not much time. Funny how things fall into place.

No knitting = No blog = no blog friends = no opportunity for new job = whining and complaining Bookish Girl.

Crazy huh? Thanks Elisa, you rock.

btw – I can’t access my email, so if you’re trying to get to me, wait on…I’ll be home soon.