I CANNOT CONCENTRATE

All right, so it's been almost a month now. I have been stuck in Gipsy Hill for the most part, and although there is a library there that I can use to access the net, I only have one hour time slots to sign up for, and that's only enough time to apply for one or two jobs, so I've been pretty much restricting myself to that.

In the meantime, I've had a couple of job interviews. The one that is the most promising is for a job I really, really want. It's working for a very fun ad agency in London--they do things like radio spots and little online chats with minor celebrities after they've done guest spots on the radio stations. I'd be doing all of their web work, basically. At the first interview, they told me that they do everything in mySQL and PHP, so after the interview I rushed off and bought myself a book on PHP, installed mySQL, PHP and an Apache server on my computer at home, and have been developing the cutest little application you ever did see. This is my way of teaching myself the stuff, but it's also because in the interview they mentioned something that they thought would be nice to have but is impossible. And actually, it's not impossible. Furthermore, I know how to do it, and so since I had to teach myself mySQL and PHP anyway, I figured I'd use them to do this impossible thing.

It took me all of two days, but I'm pretty well finished with it. It's boring, and I've geeked you enough already, but basically what it does is put together surveys. You basically fill in a form that says "I want this information to be on the survey, and in this format" and it generates the survey, analyzes the data, etc. It's very cute. I don't know why, but I love this little thing I did that adds the response choices to a little box and, well, let's just say that I'm a geek.

I really want this job. I absolutely loved the company and the people who interviewed me. I loved the projects. It's in the part of town I want to live in. I am not seeing a downside.

(Ack! Ack! I can't believe I typed that! knock on wood! knock on wood!)

Oh, except for the fact that I have a plane ticket back to San Francisco, leaving on Thursday, which is two days after my second interview. And I have no place to live in London if I get this job. And I have no money, and have been eating fried dough and raisins because my cupboard consists of a) raisins, b) oil, c) flour, d) salt, e) baking soda and powder, and f) a few spices. Oh, I have also been eating leftover birthday cake, because I made Matthew a cake for his birthday.

It is snowing!!!! Can you believe it? This is the second time, now! And I picked my friend, Michelle, up from the airport this morning, and we rode back and walked around a bit, and it's snowing!

I am really happy to have Michelle here. It's so nice to feel like I can show someone around, and well, it's just all fun and happy and wonderful. Of course, if I don't get this job, things will be dark and dreary and dismal and life will not be worth living, so take all of this happiness and bonhomie with a grain of salt. Yes, salt is one of the ingredients in my cupboard, so I can say that.

Oh, wait, I also have yeast left over. I mentioned that in my last post. The bread turned out moderately all right, although it's not something I would write home about.

I really want this job. Have I mentioned that? I thought so.

Well, I am going to go and see if I can't find something to drink because I am dying here.

It's snowing!

Oh, Michelle and I are going to go to a dyke club tomorrow night. Remind me to tell you how it goes.

Oh, wait!!!!! Matthew tells me that Maggie finally came out in some online forum or other about being transgendered. Yes, this is "Homophobic Scott's ex-girlfriend, Maggie." Yes, when I tried to tell Scott that Maggie used to be a man, he had fits and told me that I was a horrible person for even thinking such a thing, how could I possibly be so awful to think such a thing of poor little Maggie. I was only trying to be nice. I figured he'd want to hear it from me rather than find out some other way. Oh, well.