I recognize that my finding a job is not a priority for anyone else (other than Chick, Dex, and Snowy), so I know I can’t be totally bummed because that job POSSIBILITY (not even a sure thing that the job is there to be filled as they may go a ‘different direction’) has not moved forward any further at this point. That might happen in due course, it might not.

I’m not sitting still and hanging all my hopes there — that’s a lesson I learned long ago and it’s been reinforced this time around.

I continue to cull for postings on line through all the various sources. A few of my friends are keeping eyes and ears open and running commercials for me at appropriate opportunities — I love them for believing in me that much.

I have started looking further into expanding my connections on LinkedIn, something I never really thought about so hadn’t checked out how really to make that work. A book I’d gotten for inspiration with the job search mentioned it again and again as well as one of our dear neighbors, an HR professional who has also been pushed out of a highly skilled job with a major national corporation due to this economy. After they visited yesterday (mostly to see how Dex had grown) and we swapped some of our search stories, she sent me an invitation to connect this morning and I used that opportunity to explore the site further and more. That will be interesting in any event, whether it helps with the search or not.

ALSO, I had decided that I needed to be sharing some of my ability somehow somewhere so responded to a volunteer posting for a mediator, to find that the sponsoring group wasn’t doing such anymore. But they referred me on to the Guardian Ad Litem program through the local court system. I had a phone ‘interview’ and then went down to the courthouse annex the other day to meet with the director in person.

After watching a few of the videos, filling out information, responding to a wide array of questions, I was given a hugely thick binder and directions for additional on-line courses of study that I must complete before I go in the end of next week for a full day of training with other volunteers. There are a lot of steps involved and a lot to learn from both studying, observing, and working under the direction of the pros — social workers, judges, attorneys, etc. It is all very important, and they are trying to find enough volunteers to cover over 800 children who are “in the system” and need someone to listen to them and be an effective voice for them. There are just too many kids who currently have No One to do that for them.

They ask for a commitment of 1 year — an approximate time for moving the case one is assigned to through the system. I’ve told them that my ability to do that is subject to my job situation, and they understand. A lot of the people in that office are worried that the state is going to cut funding and jobs for them, and they are terrified every time the phone rings and it’s “Tallahassee”.

The country is just in a pickle right now, and nothing is the same as it was “before”. We all have so much to figure out with this.

But I’ve been lucky enough to get to hold my precious grandson and entertain him with my silly faces and songs and noises (he loves a good “raspberry”), and I’ve made him his own playlist on my itunes that I crank up when I get to hold him in one arm while I manage my computer work with the other hand. There’s nothing more rewarding than to have him look in my eyes and get a merry twinkle that spreads to a smile and then a quiet chortle as he finds amusement in this beat up old Shu.

[Here he is loving his Snowy: ]