Last night I stayed up late to register for the Sat May 9 teacher exams. $230. Man, I better pass the first time... It's the same day as the March of Dimes walkathon, Wilder Fair (annual fundraising event at Jayden's nursery school), and May Breakfast (annual breakfast at my UU church, Old Ship). I have to arrive at Randolph HS by 7:45am and take reading, writing and math exams until 6pm. It'll be a long day. I'm afraid I won't be able to do March for Babies this year, first year we'll be missing it since we started doing it in 2001.
Old Ship Church has a tradition each Sunday of congregation members "lighting" candles of joys and sorrows. My oldest son asked if I was going to light a candle of concern for myself, having been laid off recently. I said, nah, but I also said if he wanted to he could. So he raised his hand. The minister didn't see him until towards the end. My son stood up in our pew and said to all "I'd like to light a candle of concern for my dad who just lost his job. He's a little too embarassed to light one himself." I smiled broadly.
Without missing a beat, I raised my hand, high, next. "I'd like to light a candle of gratitude to my wife, Debbie, for being gainfully employed." That cracked up the audience :-). Later I spoke with our minister, Ken. I explained that Jesse had the best of intentions. That he really felt lighting a candle would help his father. He understood. Jesse is a good son... Later many people came up to me and offered networking opportunities and other leads. It also dawned on me that my co-teacher at the church nursery school, from when Jonah (now 7 1/2) was a toddler), would make a great reference for me to become a teacher. She said she'd be thrilled to write one for me. Standing next to her at the time was a co-teacher of mine from Spirit Play last year. She volunteered to be a referral as well, as she is a school administrator. Score! Just need one more referral for this teaching gig...
Yesterday, Saturday, we went to the house of one of our fellow Yangchun families. Easter egg hunt, Papa John's pizza (love their garlic butter dip!), Boston creme pie (brought home the leftovers), and fun with all the kids. Great time. Saturday morning the boys had their "performathon" duets with their Suzuki violin teacher, Ashleigh Gordon, pictured above with Jonah, at the Barnes & Nobles in Hingham. They sounded great! Took video of most of their performances on my cellphone. [4/26/09 - Just figured out how to download the video onto a microSD card and then upload it from my Epson Workforce printer to my PC to YouTube!] Check out the video and note Jonah's poise at carrying on despite some flubs.
Tonight I am revamping my resume, integrating the feedback from Debbie and from the outplacement agency. Hopefully I can blast out copies to folks tomorrow. Tomorrow need to start studying hard for the teacher exams, too.
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