i was going to try to keep up a regular schedule on the journal after holidailies, but things got quite busy over the last couple of days . . . sorta. some of that was business of my own devising - i'm working on the expansion drafts of book 3 and really want to get the first expansion finished. i've noticed a few of the holidailies participants fell off the bandwagon after the 6th, so at least i'm not alone in my laziness/business.

friday was my first day called back into work. high school social studies, college prep and tech classes. not quite sure what a tech class is versus a regular class except they are smaller. for college prep, these kids were certainly different than any other college prep class i'd had before. most college prep students are serious about their education. even with subs, they get to work, they get it done, and they do the best they can. that's been my experience anyway. but these kids were . . . well, not your usual college prep kids. i even had a first with one group. i gave them the assignment and they all just stared at me. no one pulled out a book or a pencil or anything. after about a minute and started saying, "come on, get to work." and then they started pulling stuff out. it was very odd. in another group, my authority to make changes in due dates was called into question, and a third group questioned my authority to request that they work without talking! it was very bizarre. but it was also good in the sense that they weren't an exhausting bunch and i was able to come home and write for awhile.

i guess i can say at least i'm starting to work again. monday i'm at an elementary school. same for wednesday (same school even). and the other schools started calling on friday too. this is all good, especially with saxy still not working. mcat has nothing for him, apparently, and he's not had a response from the other fella at all. so he's looking for another job. not sure how well that's going to go - saxy can do restaurant work and driving, but there's not much of that out here. well, there is truck driving, but he's not interested in long hauls and it wouldn't work anyway since we have 3 kids going to meet their buses at 3 different times. someone needs to be here until the last kid is off.

it really was starting to look bleak - saxy's not working was really going to hurt our catch up plans, but saxy's folks stepped in and caught us up with our utilities. linnorm's child support will take care of the last bill since we used some of the folk's money for food, but we're finally up to par with all the utilities. with us caught up, i plan to ask if they can move the due dates towards the end of the month, around the 27th or so. this will put everything due right around the same time and i'll use my checks and taz's ssi to cover rent and utilities all at once, and can do so without anything going past due. there's so little leeway time with the utility companies out here, i'd just feel more comfortable if the due dates and my paycheck all coincided a bit more closely. then we can use the child support for food and paying off creditors, starting with mcat and saxy's folks.

i also picked up a couple of books with things i can use as emergency sub plans in case a teacher doesn't have lesson plans for me. i have a few others picked out and on my wishlist to get as soon as possible. i'm also taking journal and writing exercises and creating other options to go with them or to use instead of them as emergency plans. we were given some activities in the subbing handbook, but most of them were for little kids. i don't sub for elementary schools all that often by choice, so i'm trying to build up a resource of emergency materials for the upper grades.

i've been working on the first expansion of my book 3 outline since friday night. i should finish it today, i hope. we have to run off and refill one of my son's prescriptions, but that shouldn't take long. working on the new book has been very good for one of my goals for the year: reducing my tv time. i'm hoping to get books 2 and 3 to a point where i can work on all three at once. i'd like to be able to make them fairly well integrated and have plenty of foreshadowing in the first 2 books - easier done when they're all being developed together.

i'm going to get back to that now, i think.