Catching Up

 No blogging yesterday, as I...simply crashed.  To be sure, I needed the rest, and it felt good to do so, until I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't go back to sleep.  Oi.  Plus, my legs hurt, for some odd reason (sometimes I have leg pains, no reason why), so I ended up popping an ibuprofen, which I guess helped.  But it was still odd; I think it is stress, honestly.

I had a second interview this morning -- bright and early -- and that went fairly well; one never knows with these things.  But, as I told my sister at dinner tonight, all of these interviews have come from the high-intensity job search; crazy as it may have seemed, if it leads to a new career, it will have been worth it.  I then rushed off to help prep for a fundraiser dinner this weekend (I may or may not attend; I just like to be helpful in this time of enforced idleness, as the good karma cannot hurt).  I did this until it was time for our SVDP quarterly presidents' meeting, which was this afternoon.  That was largely fine -- always good to catch up with what everyone and downtown is doing -- but there was one particularly humorous episode.  People will call downtown with help for rent and are referred to a parish (particularly the cash-poor parishes in MY district).  The parish tells them that they cannot be helped.  Downtown is concerned about this, of course, but as I pointed out (and this was backed up by many at the meeting), but the parishes have discerned that they cannot offer rent assistance for a reason -- the rent is too damn high, if you will.  (To say nothing of scammers and the fact that in many cases, people are several months behind, so...)  Something like food or utilities is simply easier to handle.  Plus, once you help one person... ten others come to you.  We joked that downtown could bankrupt itself in a month and have twice the number of requests the next month.  More seriously, it is a big problem, but this is not the way to solve it (if there is one).

Then it was off to dinner with my sister -- her turn to pick, and she chose Tropical Bay, right in my neighborhood (I could have walked there but given the storm I was glad I did not!).  It is basically a high-end Chipotle -- you can order a bowl or some menu items, and to be a pain, I ordered a mofongo, which had to be cooked.  But... everything was quite good!  I would definitely go back.  And, it was good to hang with my sister and catch up on things, hear her criticisms of my life (like crazy job interviews and semi-excessive frugality), and exchange the usual gossip.  My turn next month, and I hope I will be able to pick a place without using the gift card pile...

Funny; with all the stuff I had to do today, I handled ALL of the stuff that came into the inbox (in both of my email accounts) today.  There is still some stuff from yesterday that has to be taken care of (some of it fairly major) but... I felt good about that.  Of course, I am hoping that between Thursday and Friday, I will be able to take care of ALL of the stuff that needs to be done.  Probably not, of course, but.... aim high, of course!

I need to start reading again.  One, I have been busy, and two, I have been trying to do some of the Games magazines I have piled up; I reached the monthly contest in the one, and I think I have figured out how to solve it, so my one-in-a-million chance (not quite but almost) of $100 is in play.  I guess it is good to challenge myself differently, mentally.  The J! season is coming to an end; a sign of summer going away but also a chance to rearrange my schedule -- no need to be home, hell or high water, at 7:30.

Ron DeSantis Is Telling Quite a Story About His Religion (msn.com)
I don't know; I think he is trying to 1) energize his flailing campaign and 2) thread a narrow needle between Trump supporters who don't want the shitshow and Christian conservatives looking for a more moral alternative to the Donald.  Now, a Catholic is not much better, to a lot of these people, but if he can appeal to the Van Der Platts voters... well, it might be the only way to get the W in Iowa, and if that is what it takes...