On the right path

I made fish tonight for the very first time. I had bought half a pound of flounder on a whim and frozen it until I decided what to do with it. Well, tonight I finally got sick of eating leftover chicken, so I googled flounder recipes and found a really easy flounder bake. (I also found some really nice-sounding recipes that I didn't have any of the ingredients for, but that's OK)

Basically I used salt, pepper, and paprika to season the fish, and made a sauce from melted margarine and lemon juice. (You're supposed to use fresh lemon juice, but since I didn't have any lemons I used bottled juice. It still came out fine) Then I baked it for 30 minutes.

This was SOOO good... I had cut the three fillets in half but I ended up eating all three, with some glazed carrots. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm full after eating fish.

In other news, it looks like I'm going to be employed soon!!! I went to the District Office for an informal interview this afternoon. It was me and one other girl from my program with the HR specialist. There are 15 positions open so maybe we'll both get jobs.

Anyway, basically the HR person acts as an agent to get your application out to the schools. I still have to get her my references... I'll fax them tomorrow so the people can start working on them... but in the meantime she's going to start circulating my application. She said I should expect to hear from school principals within a few days! I'm supposed to call her when I get an interview, or if I don't hear from anyone.

I am so excited. Well... I'm a little scared, too. There's a part of me that's afraid I won't be able to do this. I try to remember how much Dave believed in me.

I wish he was still here so I could tell him all about this but I'm sure he's watching from Heaven. Their starting salary, which according to the HR specialist, is "not as high as it should be" is about $2800/month, plus a bonus at the end of the school year.... all in all, about $30,000 for the year. That's more than I've ever made in my life--even when I taught at USC I only made about $15,000. That was plenty for me to live on in LA--now I'll be making twice as much money while prices are half as much. One thing's for sure: when I can afford it I'm getting wireless. Every time I want to upload pictures using my dial-up connection, I lose half an hour of my life. I also promised myself that when I get my first paycheck, I can get one of the expansion packs for Sims 2, although I'm thinking about buying that now in celebration of job I'm sure I'll have.

In preparation for this interview, I got a haircut and some more new clothes--I fit into a size 14 about half the time, and the rest of the time still have to wear a 16. So far I've lost 3 pounds since I started Weight Watchers... if I keep going I'll have lost about 20 pounds by Thanksgiving!

Anyway, here's me in my new suit that I bought for this interview:


And one of me just hanging out:



I like my hair much better short like this. It's easier to manage and it looks really good. I feel like a grown-up when I look at myself. Plus, somehow I look less fat since I got my new haircut.

The main reason I had kept my hair long was because Dave found long hair attractive... so it was hard to cut off for that reason, but I'm glad I did it. I'm sure if he was still here he would have found me attractive anyway, because I am :)