Starting when I owned my first house in Vegas, I planted a tree every year for my daughter and my birthdays. You almost need a pick axe to plant anything in Vegas, but we planted a flowering pear. I planted another one at my house in Simi and it was much easier to plant and grew like a weed. Today is my daughter's birthday and it was a beautiful warm day and Home Depot's garden center was open! I did not want to spend money on a tree, but Home Depot had a bunch of them including a Coral Bark Maple. Oh, when I have my Idaho house I want a Coral Bark Maple in front! Instead I bought a blueberry, a Northblue, and I planted it in the backyard this afternoon.
Early this evening a quail stood on my garage roof and made some noise. Looked (and sounded) like a California quail, what is it doing in Idaho?
Mom got a chance to see the commission in person, the recipient loved it and cried. Hearing this reminded me of why I want to do commission work.
Monday I went to CostCo, got my eyes examined and ordered new glasses. Everything cost about what I expected and I can't remember the last time that happened. New glasses in two weeks. While I was at CostCo, the universe decided to finally crack open for me. I got a call for an interview, which I went to on Wednesday afternoon.
Honestly, I was just thrilled to even get a call. The interview was with Idaho's Vital Statistics. The interview was with three people, was well over an hour long, and ended with some personal conversation, always a good sign. Apparently you have to have somewhat of a morbid sense of humor to work with Vital Statistics, too many ridiculous baby names and long, detailed descriptions of how people died. I like the idea of Vital Statistics because government doesn't mess with them. No ridiculous changes to implement at the legislature's whim, just people dying and being born. I thought I had seen this job posted before, apparently the guy they hired did not make it through his first break. Went out for his break and never came back. I was one of the first interviews, which go on into next week, but I should hear something after next Wednesday.
I'm glad I did not get that job as a coordinator for Food Stamps. Here they are supposed to call it SNAP, that stupid name that Congress mandated a few years ago so that the program would sound like a nutrition program. How much money do you think that cost? Not just to change the name, but debate it in Congress and every state Senate and House? Each state can change the name to something else they want, but they have to change it. After a long, serious debate, California settled on CalFresh. Oh yes, that's much better.
In Idaho some grocers complained that everyone gets their Food Stamps on the first of the month and they get too busy on the first, so they want Food Stamps issuance spread out over a few days. We want your business, but we want it when we want it. That should take a few million to change. Then there are several states that decided there were too many people on Food Stamps, so they need to make them harder to get. Since we have so many people on Food Stamps, lets increase the administrative cost so we can save a few bucks on not giving people food. Large families get so much money that they probably feed the entire neighborhood and some people sell their cards for drugs, but it's just food, for God's sake. Being part of these debates would have made me crazy and I'm glad I missed them.
In my last two interviews they asked me how I define success. Actually the interview before Vital Statistics was with an employment agency, but it felt like an interview. I'm glad I have been working on answering that for myself and I think success to me is everything that I have today, it's just missing an income.
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