I got a new job today. I got a part time job in Texas that I will work here or there. I will be teaching an online English class to college students at the college where I used to work. I wrote an inquiry letter the other night and got a reply saying they would "welcome [me] back with open arms" and offering me any classes I wanted including online for the spring. I accepted instantly. That way if I am here I have extra moving cash and if I am there I have the part time job lined up too and don’t even have to go out and drive up there!!! PRAISE GOD!! The first person I told was my pastor. Get that man praying for favor for you and stuff happens!

That inspired me and I sent another inquiry letter about a longshot job. No word on that yet but I sent it past closing time in Texas. Who knows. A lot would still have to happen. And a silly thought I have is if I came home at midterm, people would not react as positively as if I came home in June because they might miss me more if am gone a long time and forgive me for going and returning! I worry far too much. The people who love me and are my true fiends will accept me anytime and the others are not worth bothering with.

Deep inside I think I have an idea of what is going to happen, but due to my recent record of accuracy (NOT!) I shall refrain from writing about it!

I am doing better in many ways by the day. This is not to say I am suddenly ecstatic at life in LA. But here is a great example. This morning my freeway had a major accident. There is NEVER serious traffic on my way to work—I have probably never been delayed more than five minutes. So I pull out and it was gridlocked BAD so I exited to surface streets. It took me forty minutes to get the 8 miles to work (usually 15-20 minutes) and I was almost half an hour late. And I was fine. First I figured it was not my fault so what could I do? And then I drove. I didn’t cry, didn’t want to scream, did not lose it inside. I have not cried on my way to work in about two weeks, I think. That in itself is a breakthrough.

I still don’t like work. I try but I don’t. In fact it is even getting harder with the kids. It is not them personally. I LOVE them—they are fun and exciting and it would even be hard to leave many of them if I left this year, but it is their language and cultural desensitization to sex and violence. In Tyler I could go weeks without hearing a single swear word—even teaching public school. Here I hear swearing every day. That affects a person—especially a word person. In fact now that I am retelling this I recall that it was after another swear word that I was inspired to write the letter about some jobs—not the other job hiring—that just came at the same time. It is really starting to get to me and it was like it just HIT me suddenly there in class. At my next break I wrote the letter.

And I say all this but there is that pesky matter of a work contract and an apartment lease. Hello!!!!! But I guess I don’t worry about that because nothing has happened that indicates I will go home before the end of July anyway. Just hope.

I crossed the picket line. It was actually less of a big deal than I thought. No one even said anything to me. I went to a huge Ralph’s in Glendale. Two things motivated this. One was that I needed stuff badly and could not afford to pay prices of other stores that could not offer me deals. The other related to an article I read in the Times about the facts for the strike. Basically it boils down to them having to pay a lot more for health benefits. But the fact is, that is a NATIONAL crisis. My friend who is a teacher here in the LA area found out her first day back to work she was going to have to pay some big amount of money for insurance. In Texas for two years I went WITHOUT insurance because even though it was offered I could not afford the paycheck deduction. This is life in the real world in a nation with a health care crisis and management and business running health care. So it is hard for me to pity them when even professionals have the same crisis.

Anyway, this night is over for me early—I am heading to bed to read and write and relax. It takes a few days to recover from the Texas/California trip. Even though PA is farther and Another time zone, I only work one day after the trip (and that is sitting at a workshop, not teaching) and then I get a day off to rest, so that will help.

I am encouraged. I think something is going to break. It is just a feeling, but I think it is right.