What I'm looking for job- and housing-wise

I wrote this up to share with my local discussion board and on facebook, and thought perhaps I'd share it here as well -- cause ya'all are very tolerant of my thinking-out-loud posts.  I don't really think I'm moving back to Indiana anytime in the next two years, but at the same time, when opportunities are not arising here, Indiana is in the back of my mind.

Housing--
I am looking for housing for my seven-year-old daughter and myself.  We are used to small spaces and I've been looking at studios as well as one-bedrooms.  We do need a bathtub and laundry facilities (ideally these would not be the same thing:)).   Being close to public transportation is important.  Things we'd love to have, in an ideal world:  hardwood floors, cats allowed (though we do not currently have a pet), wi-fi included, proximity to library/groceries.  I've been looking at places in the $400-550 range and looking wistfully at housing up to $625 if it has lots of other redeeming qualities.   Communal living is also a possibility for us.

Location-wise:
In Denver I'm looking at north of 6th, west of York, and south of the Arvada/Westminster border -- ideally north of Colfax and west of Broadway -- though I suppose it depends where I end up working.

In Indiana I'm largely thinking of Goshen but am open to possibilities in Warsaw and Fort Wayne as well.  In Goshen:  close to downtown and/or Assembly.

Job --

My background is in education -- I have a B.A. in Early Childhood and Elementary Education with a minor in TESOL.  I'm open to working in education but very interested in exploring many other fields as well.  I've recently worked for a public library and for The Container Store.  Since being hit byu a car, I don't think that a job that involves large amounts of lifting would be a good match right now.  Ideally, at least for this first year or two, I'd like to have a job that is finished when I leave for the day.  I'm quite willing to cobble together two different part-time jobs to make my life work well, especially if they seem like a good fit.  And I'd love to work for a local business. 

Some possibilities I've been mulling over:

• working with animals
• data entry
• working with older adults
• working with books/reading
• customer service
• food service
• education
• office work in general
• something with the Spanish language
• childcare with the right family

So this is just a little of what I've been thinking.  Feel free to ask me more questions and share your ideas.

Book Beginnings and Friday 56 -- The Hypnotist by M. J. Rose

Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by A Few More Pages. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence, or two, of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading.

Time played tricks on him whenever he stood in front of the easel.   

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice. Check out the rules and join in the fun.

Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
Turn to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog. Post a link along with your post back to this blog.

Malachai's father had thought his son's desire to learn magic tricks was pointless, but the knowledge helped immeasurably with the children.

Just starting this one -- my review will be up on Wednesday.

I hate divorce

I don't hate it like I hate torture and child abuse -- with a strong belief that they should never happen.  I hate it with a deep sadness and anger over how much it affects and how much it hurts.  I hate that it became the right choice for us, even as I am certain that it was, indeed, the right choice.  I hate that better choices weren't made sooner and that it impacts people who couldn't do anything about it. 

And yet, I have hope.  I have hope that living in two different homes doesn't need to mean that either of those homes are "broken".  I have hope that life can be peaceful and that the dust will settle and we can sweep up and open the windows to let in the fresh air.

I am grateful.  I am grateful to those who are supporting me during this time.  I am grateful for feeling safe when I go to bed at night (in contrast to many others in the world) and for waking up each day and being able to use my body and be with other people.  In the midst of being scared and overwhelmed, of looking for jobs and looking for housing, I have hope and I am grateful.

I Was . . . I Am by Allison Moore

I Was . . . I Am is Allison Moore's story of her life leading up to and during her imprisonment.  My brother is currently in prison and I picked this book up to see if it might be relevant for him.  Unfortunately, when a book is poorly edited, it is hard for me to get past that to the story the author is trying to tell.  Such is the case with this book -- poor spelling, disagreeing verb tenses, superfluous phrasing, and a disjointed chronology that made it difficult for me to follow the story.  There may be others who will enjoy and benefit from this story, and I'm glad that Moore is proud of the changes she is making in her life, but this book was not enjoyable for me to read.

Teaser Tuesdays -- The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB @ Should Be Reading. To participate, all you have to do is the following:

• Grab your current/upcoming read
• Open to a random page
• Share 2-3 "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers!  

"This is the most terrifying thing I've ever seen," Wilem said quietly.  

"Do all the women in the world secretly know each other?" Sim asked.  "Because that would explain a lot."


~page 254, The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

This is The Kingkiller Chronicle:Day Two. The Name of the Wind was day one and it came highly recommended by my sister Kristal.  Rothfuss knows how to spin a story.  I'm only about a quarter into this one (it's 994 pages total) but I'm just as drawn in as I was with The Name of the Wind -- and giant fantasy-ish novels are not necessarily my usual cup of tea -- in this case, the story-telling overcomes any constrictions a genre might normally impose.

Theme Thursday -- Female Relationships -- Horton Halfpott by Tom Angleberger

Hosted by Reading Between the Pages
Rules:
*A theme will be posted each week on Thursday
*Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from the current book you are reading that features the theme
*Post it and don't forget to mention the author and title of the book
*Event is open for the whole week
*Link back to Reading Between the Pages


This week's theme is Female Relationships -- any relationship one has with a woman.

Lord Emberly, great man that he was -- a hero of various expeditions to unscaled mountains, unnavigable rivers, and uncharted jungles, gave a brief shudder and added one last chilling warning:

"And if you upset his mother, you really will be in trouble."

~page 100, Horton Halfpott or The Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor or The Loosening of M'Lady Luggertuck's Corset by Tom Angleberger

At first I wasn't going to use this as it didn't seem to actually reference a relationship.  But then I decided it works after all, since Lord Emberly is speaking of his daughter-in-law and this excerpt certainly tells us a fair bit about that relationship.  :)

This is a book that Fiona and I are enjoying.  (By the way, she thinks this quote really needs an exclamation point at the end, but it was lacking in the book.) It's by the author of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, about which I've heard only good things.

The Lens and the Looker by Lory S. Kaufman

Let me just start by saying:  With The Lens & the Looker, Lory S. Kaufman begins a YA trilogy that is post-dystopian -- definitely not the norm these days! 

I'm a sucker for time travel and so I was interested to see what The Lens and the Looker would be like.  It's set in a 24th century where humans have partnered with artificial intelligences to create a harmonic society.  From the back cover:

To make equally perfect citizens for this world, the elders have created History Camps, full-sized recreation of cities from Earth's distant pasts.  Here teens live the way their ancestors did, doing the same dirty jobs and experiencing the same degradations.  History Camps teach youths not to repeat the mistakes that almost caused the planet to die.  But not everything goes to plan . . . three "hard cases" refuse the valuable lessons History Camps teach.  But when they are kidnapped and taken back in time to 1347 Verona, Italy, they only have two choices:  adapt to the harsh medieval ways or die.


I will be looking forward to reading the second book in the trilogy, The Bronze and the Brimstone.