All right. It happened! Most of you already know but I got a job. I will be a 1st grade teacher for the upcoming school year. I have been trying to get work since I got here and it happened. I went out with some friends and other people in the ward to celebrate. We had good food and laughter. I am enjoying living here. It's been super hot the last few weeks, but I like hot! I had an adventure on the way to getting the job and that is share-worthy. So I rode my bike 25 miles from chandler to the school for the last step in the interviewing process...teaching a mini-lesson. I was a little nervous on the way but mostly I felt calm and ready. Part of that was I felt sure they would give me an offer after I taught for them. Which I was right about of course!! Oh the bike riding, right. If you are thinking 'that is far', you would be really right, but quicker to ride my bike than to bus there. I thought I would be super-duper tired when I got to the school, but to my surprise I felt great! It took 2 and a 1/2 hours, with a breakfast break in the middle. Where did I eat? IHOP of course!!! probably my fav. breakfast food place. I arrived by 830 with enough time to change and make copies to prep to teach. Everything went SO well!!! Only a little hiccup in the lesson, I should have helped the kids through the chart a bit more rather than setting them loose. The interviewers were in agreement after that it went really smoothly and they told me that I was a natural teacher. I am so blessed to have the talents I have been given. So the trip home is where it all went insane!! I made it for a couple miles but my bike seat had been acting up and suddenly the problem got much much worse. Everytime I tried to sit normally it would slide all the way backwards, which hurts!!! When I would try to adjust it would slip forward all the way and that hurt also. My shoulder (old other bike injury from idaho) started to ache a bunch from trying to balance myself. Then I gave up and started switching from walking to riding for short spurts without sitting on the seat. Keep in mind that by this point it was 113 degrees outside and I could feel the sun burning me. I realized I forgot my sunscreen at home so I had never reapplied and I really was burning!!! oh crapola!!! So I took another break (it was hot ok!!! so I drank 3 liters of water over the whole 4 hour episode...lots and lots of breaks) and went to buy sunscreen. I reapplied and waited a while to cool off. I went trecking on, walking and then riding in bursts. After a while I was so super tired and sore and then a blister that had been forming popped and I needed a band-aide...STAT! Another store pit stop (once I found one, I was in kind of a getto area at this point so it took a while,) to get some no slip bandaides that were also latex free.(which took some time let me tell you!) I applied the bandaide. At this point Jamie was already on her way to save me from the agony of another probably what would have been 3 hours of this. So that was it. I am still sunburned today, not as bad as it looked yesterday. But I have a job and that's really great! I am grateful for what life keeps giving me. That's it for now!
