Move In Day For Me Today!

Today is move-in day for me. I should get the call this morning telling me the realtor will meet me at the new place to give me the keys. Then Wendy and I will start unloading the U-Haul. Jackie will join us sometime after noon when her meetings in Olympia are finished, and another friend of hers will be along mid-afternoon (about the time Wendy has to leave to clean a lady's house) to pitch in. So I should have 99.9% of my stuff moved in by day's end. (.1% is here at Jackie's house and can be taken over in Jackie's SUV.)

Jackie and her brood fly to Maui tomorrow, so for the next few days (until Sunday) I'll be on my own, getting boxes from Jackie's garage into her SUV and bringing stuff over piecemeal. Then on Sunday two big, strapping guys (Denny Mullens and Jeremy Wallace) will come to Jackie's in the Weir's truck and load up Jackie's big stuff -- furniture, beds, etc. -- and bring them over and unload them. If all goes according to plan, Jackie won't have much to do when she gets back from Hawaii. She needs the rest -- she's been burning the candle at both ends for too, too long. I'm going to try to get most of her stuff put away for her -- the stuff where I feel comfortable knowing where it should go... There will still be some "mystery" boxes for her to unpack -- anything I'm not absolutely sure about where she wants it to reside in the new place.

Update on the Library position: I passed the tests. 40 people have applied for the two open positions in Orting, so the odds are 20-1 that I'll get it... if they all pass the tests, too. My one ace in the hole is that Jackie knows the lady who would be my supervisor in Orting. (Having a sister who manages two bank branches and does a lot of outreach is a godsend!)

Re the testing: Gads, it's a good thing I'm a reader and inveterate learner: One of the tests was a list of some classics and pop culture favorites. I had to match the author/composer/actor to his or her Named Title. (e.g., Will Smith and Men in Black; HG Wells and War of the Worlds; L Frank Baum and The Wizard of Oz. These are just examples -- not from the actual test.) I mean, it was a challenge! I got over 60% right, and the lady told me that was GOOD -- most people get less!

The other tests were composition (easy for me), typing (also easy for me), and filing. I did fine on the alphabetical filing, but an optional test was on filing by the Dewey Decimal Classification System. I didn't do so hot on that, but fortunately, this test didn't relate at all to the specific job I'd be doing in Orting, anyway. The H.R. lady was just screening me for other open positions at the library by giving it to me. As soon as she showed me how the right-hand extensions on the filing number worked, I got it and quickly rearranged the cards in proper order. I could pass it now, and was invited to go back in two weeks and re-test so I have a good score on that, too. It will open up more options at the Library if I don't get the Orting nod.

The Library has health, dental, eye care, and life insurance, too, even though it's part time... so getting in there would eliminate my need to have an individual health insurance policy. That would save me a bundle every month, for sure!

What else? It's gonna be a scorcher on Sunday -- above 80 degrees. That's why I want to get as many boxes moved before then in Jackie's SUV as I can. I don't do well in high heat (and it's humid here, too) and the guys are going to have enough to do moving furniture. My hope is that nearly all the boxes will be over there before Sunday so Dawn and I (the ladies) will be pretty well "useless" during the final move. I don't wanna get heat stroke!

That's about it for now.

Oh! I should be able to blog the entire time. Jackie is leaving her Internet connection intact until she returns from Hawaii, so if I can't figure out how to get mine up and running at the new place on Friday or Saturday, I'll still be able to use hers. (My techie nephew Phil will be in Hawaii, so if I can't figure out the new modem connection and get it up and running, I'll have to wait until he gets back to make it go for me.) In either case, whenever I'm not moving, I'll do my best to stay in touch and let you know I'm still alive and kicking!

Prayers, please! It's all going well so far -- so your prayers are working wonders!