OK, so I’m in this weird place where there’s a job I might get, but don’t know when I’m going to hear about it (I’ll send a followup e-mail today at some point, regardless). I’ve learned to trust my instincts more and more, and I don’t have a rational reason for this, but right now it feels like I’m not going to get it. (Bear in mind, nothing has changed since I was giddily certain I was going to get it, except time.) Boy, I hope I’m wrong. But if it becomes clear that I won’t, then I’ll keep on as I’ve been keeping on.

But… if I do get the job, I figure I’ll have about a two-week window where I don’t have to job-search, but won’t be working yet. I have some home projects that I could accelerate, to get them done, but I’ll probably also want to throw myself into the study for the certification. I’ve been through the videos (the training) and am now starting to study in earnest. The annoying part is that I have to generate a list of work projects and how much of a percent of my time I focused on different areas… for the last ten years. Ugh. I don’t think it has to be that granular, and I won’t be hauled up on charges if the percentages aren’t reality (no intention of fibbing, but who remembers specifics for that stuff ten years on), but it has to be done. It’s more of a CYA thing, I think, so they don’t just hand out the certification to anyone. The real thing is the test, which is what I’m studying for. There are all sorts of resources – flash cards, mock exams, and helpful hints for pure memorization (mnemonics and such) are all designed to help you – clearly, the organization wants you to be able to pass. But it’s a lot of work, and I’m going to be more focused on that than the job search, regardless.

(and if I do get the job and start in an couple of weeks, even if I spend those weeks doing nothing but studying and preparing, I don’t think I’ll be ready for the test yet… which means I’ll have to finish this process on Sunday afternoons or such. Don’t really want to do that if I don’t have to.)

Anyway, cross your fingers for the job and that the studying will be worthwhile.

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Not much else happening. Power walks, and yesterday I did a bike ride to the newly opened Domino Park, which is really neat. Crossed over to Manhattan, up the East Side and back over on the Queensboro, 17 miles total. The weather has been total humidity, so this was kinda gross, but not too bad.

I’ve also become addicted to Spider Solitaire. This is a bad thing. Also Freecell (again).

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Media consumption: we finished One Day at a Time, still working through Pose and are now watching The Politician. I hadn’t realized that we’ve been watching almost nothing but Ryan Murphy projects, but there you go. Fun to see the actors who he likes pop up in various projects, like effing Patti LuPone.

I think we’re going to mix up our news watching too – Joy Reid starts her new 7:00 show next week, and we may substitute that for Rachel Maddow. I love Rachel, but I can listen to her the next day as a podcast, which is fine.

We watched two iffy movies this weekend, both of which I ended up liking a lot. One was Destination Wedding, with Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves. I went back and listened to some old podcasts by my movie reviewer friends and they hated it, but I thought it was a lot of fun. It’s very simple, and one of the gimmicks is that the only dialogue is between the two main characters. It’s two strangers who both end up at a wedding that neither of them wants to be at, and no one really wants them there either (He’s the half-brother of the groom, she’s the groom’s ex-girlfriend.) So they spend the entire wedding weekend (after first meeting each other and detesting each other immediately) hanging out on the fringes of the activities and snarking with each other. It’s very wordy in a theatrical sense (would make a fun play) and I enjoyed the hell out of it. (If they ever make a Dream Daddy movie, consider this movie to be Keanu’s audition to play Robert Small.)

The other was My Spy, which was formulaic, but kind of a hoot. Again, reviewers pointed out that, although its about a big tough guy befriending an adorable moppet, it was too violent and sweary for children, but not quite thriller-y enough for adults. It’s definitely a streamer, not a ‘go to the theater’ movie, but I had a great time. The giant and the adorable moppet are great and great together, and the supporting cast is also fun.

Bookwise, I finished my reread of the main Valdemar books, just have the Owl books left. Mildly pissed that I had to buy most of them again, but I don’t mind supporting authors, particularly when I’m not spending money on much else. I also read a Josh Lanyon book, Haunted Heart: Winter, which was really good – there’s a ghost involved, but the interesting part is that your narrator is recovering from a suicide attempt and all the things about that. There’s a sequel coming out at the end of the month. Now reading the second in KJ Charles’s “Gentlemen” series, the one involving S&M (which makes me cringe, and not in a good way), but it’s handled well; i.e., in a way that I can read it and sympathize with the characters.

I also realized that I had a couple of paperbacks stashed in various bags to read on the subway or whatever and they’ve been ignored since March, so I pulled them out to add to the list. The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg and Murder Between the Lines by Rahda Vatsal. Rahda Vatsal is a local author, friend of my friend Mariah, and this is the second in her series. I also started Bum Luck by Paul Levine. The Lassiter books are always fun, and I do have a weakness for batshit-crazy Florida novels like Hiassen’s. (One Lassiter book was written in the third person, not the first, and it threw me completely, couldn’t enjoy it. That was weird.)

Sidenote: there’s another author I used to read that wrote really dark novels and I thought that was Paul Levine, but it’s not. It was Paul someone. Let’s see if I can find … oh, wait, I actually have one of his novels on the shelf. It might be Peter Abrahams. Anyway…

Coming up soon, more piano videos and pictures of felt bowls (oo!). Enjoy the week!