New Day!

Ooff--I didn't like even blogging just now about my last day at the thrift store--even though the day itself went beautifully. I felt loved and seen--but I also felt DONE. Done, done, done.

I'd thought I'd feel all reflective about the past six years and want to blog about Lessons Learned and that sort of thing, but I don't. Not at all, not at this point.

Shake it off,
I am BEGINNING anew!

This morning I completed the (I think) final bureaucratic steps for my new job: I sent in a photo for my ID badge, and I got a transcript from the U.
In my early twenties, I went to college part-time, off and on, and paid tuition myself (my mother had no money, and my father and I were estranged.) I could afford it though, even working as a janitor at the Uptown movie theater, and later as a fry cook, and then as a student library worker.

Funny to be reminded of classes I took. I was interested in Japanese culture, having being entirely baffled by Kawabata's Snow Country.
"What is this human experience of which I know nought?"
And I took that Postwar Polish Culture class after going to see Man of Iron about the Polish Solidarity labor movement (1981, Andrzej Wajda) at the Uptown and being entirely baffled by that too. Taught by a Polish professor of comparative lit., it was the best class I ever took.
Bafflement can be a good guide.

 

After a break of several (six?) years from formal education (I studied lots of things outside of college, like in paper- and book making), I went back to college at thirty-one.
I was working at the art-college library by then--part-time, but they paid okay and had a college reimbursement scheme. My father and I had reconciled, and he helped pay tuition at that point too.
I got my BA in Religious Studies in the Classical and Near Eastern Dept. when I was thirty-five.
I did take out some small loans. I graduated with a debt of, was it $3,000? Minimal, anyway.

College has kept getting more expensive, but starting this fall (2024), MN state schools will be free for eligible (not rich) students. Which is terrific!

And NOW...
I am job-free for two weeks!
I'd said in passing that I'd help train my successor, if they hire someone soon. I also said I was going to take a vacation. If they ask for my help, I may conveniently be out of town. I will write up instructions online.

Today I'm going downtown to bank, library, post office, and Target for cleaning supplies. (Fresh starts require clean floors.) I like tending to this sort of thing.

Tomorrow I'm getting blood drawn--will the slightly wonky readings have righted themselves? Fingers crossed.
Even if they're normal, I've felt better and will continue not-eating red meat, not-drinking cow milk, and, if drinking any alcohol at all, only an occasional glass of wine.  

Forward!