The latest...

For those that have asked, or for those that are wondering...I have made *some* progress on what in the world to do with myself. ;) Here are my current thoughts...

1) Photography business. Well "Tulip Town" has agreed to allow me to set up shop and offer family portraits amongst all the beautiful tulips. Tulip town is a tulip farm http://www.tuliptown.com/ . When the tulips bloom it is absolutely magnificent, with rows and rows of colors....a photographers dream! People come from all over to visit the farm (and others in the area) during the month of April. I spoke to the owner of Tulip Town and she said that she has had really terrible experiences with photographers. She said they tend to be extremely pushy and they can never make it work because there are waaaay too many people, and no good place to set up shop. But....we met, and she has a good feeling about me...and she wants to give me a try. So....I have some work to do to get prepared for that (business cards, a sign, and I need to get some hay barrels). I'm not sure where I'm going to take my pictures but I need to go there to scope it out and find a place that is out of the way, yet amongst the tulips. It will be a challenge, but I think I can make something work. With a little luck, I might be able to get some clients in the area.

2) FBI. Put to bed for now. Moving around at any time, all the time, isn't what we want and it isn't fair for Craig, as he would have a difficult time with his career with this kind of lifestyle.

3) Nursing. Golly, I had to put this one to bed...again. I had all my pre-reqs lined up, application in, and then, the school called and said, "we can not accept your statistics class you took in engineering school." Great. As much as I have attempted to make this work, no matter how hard I try, it never works out. Maybe later, but for now, I have to leave this one alone.

4) Hold out for an engineering job. This one is becoming extremely frustrating. I can not tell you how many jobs I have applied for. Some...I have gotten as far as a second interview...and then, the job is closed because the company goes on a hiring freeze (sigh). Other jobs...well, for some reason, they don't need someone with space suit experience...geesh. On the other hand, I am not taking just anything. Anything with HVAC, is out! I don't want to find myself in a miserable job like my last one. I have no interest in air conditioning, and I never will. The other problem, the large majority of engineering jobs are a good 1.5-2 hours away from here. So even if I did get a job at one of these places, we would have to move from Anacortes, and ...living in Anacortes is the very reason we moved here.

5) Last but not least...teaching. The good news, I have been asked to come in for an interview for the program. During this interview, I have to teach a 7-9 minute lesson....so they can see that I am capable of teaching etc. I'll be needing to pull this together this week. I have a few huge fears about pursuing this option. First, our area is going through massive teacher lay offs next year, because of the huge drop in student attendance. I can not imagine going back to school for another year, without a salary, and acquiring more student loans, just to come out and not get a job at the end of the day. At this point, I will be an unemployed engineer for 1.5 years...which will not do me any good on the job hunt.

The bottom line, I am completely and utterly frustrated in every direction. When moving out here, there were a lot of good scenarios.
1) The Naval Air Station would be a great job....didn't work...at all
2) I would get a job at one of the four local refineries.....well....all 3 of them are on a hiring freeze, and the fourth wants 20+ years experience in all engineering positions.
3) Boeing had many job opportunities...however, they've been laying off more people than they've been hiring people this past year...with no end in sight.
4) Go back to school....well...

So....that leaves me where I'm at. We sincerely love Anacortes. We love to hike, bike, fish, etc., and I am trying really hard to make something work out for me, but with every passing day I'm getting more and more frustrated. With all the scenarios, you would think one should work out. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be. I do know one thing for certain...God certainly has a way of making me learn patience (sigh).