This week so far.

It is about 2 on Thursday morning.

On Sunday I didn't have enough money to get to church but I sold my last shotgun (The boys are not happy about me selling my guns.  They wanted then when I die.) so now I have enough money for my phone payment and some gas.  Of course, this means I won't be getting any spring turkeys.  Maybe some day in the future.  Who knows? 


On Monday I applied for a job as a bartender and was 99% sure I was going to get it.  The guy never called.  I've decided to stop counting the number of jobs I've applied for.  It is a little depressing.  A recruiter (a friend of my sister) looked at my resume and said "it's all over the place" and "it needs some work".  I know, the big companies like specialists.  But isn't that a boring way to live?  Isn't that kind of an insect way to live?  Soldier ants are only soldier ants.  Only one kind of bug gathers nectar from only one kind of orchid.  But I'm not an insect.  I'm a man and men are not specialists, We are generalists. 


I can do anything.  And if I can't do it I can learn how. In my life I've been an aluminum recycler, a sandwich maker, a parking lot striper, a soldier (which means I was a chaplain assistant, rifleman, clerk, and driver), an electrician's helper, a bookkeeper, a road paver, a data entry clerk, an advertising salesman (which means I was an account executive, copywriter, report writer, survey designer, researcher, guy who says to the engineers "Hey, I have an idea. Is it possible to..."), apartment manager, welder, mechanic, hotel front desk clerk, metal fabricator, cinema manager, shoe salesman, and car salesman.   So, I haven't had a lot of job stability.  But I've done more things than most people ever will.  And that doesn't even count the amazing things I've done as a volunteer for the Boy Scouts, political campaigns, and my Church. 


Well, also on Monday, I pulled in to the parking lot at Basil's school and when I got out of the car I heard a "click click click click" coming from the car next to me.  They lady's battery was dead.  So I gave her a jump. (I always carry heavy duty jumper cables, an emergency blanket, a box of road flares, matches, 2 gallons of water, and snow chains in my car).  Turns out she was the nanny of one of the other Orthodox kids at the school.  There are three.  Basil is in the third grade, then there are two girls.  One is in the 2nd grade and one is in the 1st grade.  When I walked up to the car the girl said, "Hi, Basil's dad!"  I thought that was weird until later when Basil told me she was Orthodox and that's how she knows me.  He said none of the Orthodox kids play with each other at school (different grades and sexes) but he likes it that he isn't the only Orthodox Christian at the school.


I ran into the 1st grade girl and her mother at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox in San Jose, which is where my boys go to Church School.  We chatted for a while. Turns out she and her husband used to be protestant.  Before they had children used to go to one of the churches in Silicon Valley I think of as a Rock and Roll churches.  But having children prompted them to figure out what they really believe.  One thing I thought was funny was when she said about her old church, "Matt, they had a fog machine but they never would have dreamed of worshipping God with incense."  I thought that was a very funny thing to say but I knew exactly what she was talking about. 


Tuesday I was feeling pretty low about my job hunt.  I don't want to talk about Tuesday.


Wednesday was good.  I applied for five jobs, took a nap, and went to Church for the praying of the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete.  One this one night of the year the whole Orthodox Church all around the world sings the Great Canon and reads the Life of St. Mary of Egypt.  They let me read it tonight.  It is always a shocking story. I love reading and chanting in church.  Maybe, if I ever get my life together again I can pick up with the training to be a reader.