What on earth is going on with the Mississippi River south of NO?

A normal river would be content to end at the sea. The Mississippi, on the other hand, endeavors to split the sea into two. 

For centuries the Mississippi has been carrying sediment along, slowly extending its banks by hundreds of miles.

The Carnival ship that was side swiped last week. 

Last day in New Orleans. We've had a great time. Lots of coordination as the family we are with brought there kids. But wonderful non the less.

@Tommy, why didn't you tell me that New Orleans was so vibrant and charming?

Job search is proceeding.

Thursday and Friday I had interviews with an interesting smaller company. I think they went well. We shall see.

I still have not heard back from the social network company

Am also arranging interviews with the search company. Those will happen sometime in January.

Friday I had a big interview with the big social network company. I think I did well. I'm not going to dwell on it. Because of the holidays, it may be weeks before they get back to me.

Our cat has passed on. He took a turn for the worse about a week ago and we were treating him. But there was no improvement so we made a hard choice. He was an old cat, who had lost a lot of his agility, so I'm relived as well as sad.

And the interview I had a few weeks ago... they said a very polite "No," because they believe I am wrong for the role. They asked me to apply for other jobs at the company.

We've had a busy couple of weeks.

The job hunt is coming along. I've applied a lot, passed a few screening calls, and now am studying to pass the main, day long interviews. The material is pretty intense. There is a lot to read and to practice.

We have also been traveling. We spent a couple of days in LA, then went for a week long cruise to Cabo, Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta.

Did you hear about the ship that was hit by the Norovirus? That was our ship.

Onboarding was a mess. They delayed everything by hours to allow the crew to sanitize.


During the cruise, Norovirus control meant that the staff was constantly sanitizing everything (tables, chairs, elevator buttons, railings, etc) and that everything had to be served. For example, you couldn’t just get a glass of water as passengers couldn’t touch the fountain. A steward had to pour and serve it for you.



At the buffet you couldn’t get your own plates or cutlery. They had to be served. Salt, pepper, butter, jam all had to be served separately. A simple ask like “May I have some toast?” took up a lot of serving time on a ship that was already full. It was a few days for the staff to figure out how to streamline these operations. I also got the feeling that by the end of the week, the staff was tired owing to all the extra sanitization and service duties that had been foisted on them. 

But, now we are back. I'm studying for work. All I need is one job offer.

One step further on the road to U.S. citizenship-- today, I had my finger prints and photo taken. 

I think the interview went well. We shall see. I got some positive feedback. Also, the hiring manager spent two hours with me; we talked a lot about what the job is actually like.

Life goes on. The BIL will be at our place for a few more weeks. He is trying to figure out his future.

Tomorrow I have an interview with a big company. I've been prepping for it for a while. The prep work is pretty much a full time job.

The interview is six hours long. I can bring notes and reference in.

Bring it on...

We picked up the BIL as scheduled. The first day at our home he told us he wasn't ready for deep conversations. He slept a bit, watched TV, ate. We talked about his trip to France. We talked about the news.

This morning he has started to open up to the Husband. They are resetting his passwords and going over his bank statement to see where the  money went.

He is hiding things in our bedroom (underwear, latex gloves) I'm sure he thinks he is being funny. I'm not ready for this brand of humor given what he's gone through. 

The flight from Paris to Seattle has an 8 hour layover in Heathrow. The husband happens to have cousins within commuting distance of Heathrow, so they met him at the airport. They are making sure he has some food and is getting proper rest.

Early in the morning they put him back on a jet for the final leg to Seattle.

I've packed up all the alcohol in the house and am storing it at Clem and Bates. I've also put locks on a couple of rooms with valuables.

When I dropped the alcohol off at Clem's, he asked why we were doing this. The BIL is free to live as he chooses. We have no obligation to rescue him.

We do have no obligation to rescue him.

This is the second time in my life that I've tried to help someone on a death-run. I no longer see the respect in it.

Live blogging the BIL (Brother In Law)

At three in the morning we received a call from the U.S. Embassy in France. The BIL was there. They were making him a new passport. The people on the phone seemed to care. They understood that he couldn't be trusted. They said they would watch over him the best they could. They also made it clear that the BIL is free man. If he chooses to leave, then he can't be stopped.

We cashed in many air miles and got him a ticket from Paris to Seattle. I booked him an Uber. I am pleasantly happy that someone in Seattle can book an Uber for a drive in France. The Uber driver was a bit confused when I explained the situation to him, but he went along with it.

Cars are not allowed at the U.S. Embassy since the Paris bombings, so the driver had to meet the BIL at a hotel down the street. Because the BIL lost his cell phone, we had a few tense minutes after the Embassy staff let the BIL out the door, but before the Uber driver confirmed that the BIL was in the car.

For an hour, I watched the Uber app as they drove towards the airport. The BIL is now at the airport. Security knows about him, and we've arranged for Wheel Chair assistance.

The flight has an overnight layover at London-Heathrow. He arrives in Seattle on Friday.

Keeping our fingers crossed.

Loving detachment... Should we have done this? This isn't the first time that the BIL has had an alcoholic meltdown. It won't be the last. The BIL has lost job after job due to alcohol. My Husband has rescued him far too often. 

The brother in law is still drunk in France. It sounds like the he somehow got his hands on more vodka, and just kept drinking, The B&B host eventually called emergency services and had him sent to the hospital. 

On the topic of my wayward brother-in-law, Tommy writes... "Sounds like the making of a good Southern Play....... where is Tennessee Williams when u need him."

It is. Want to fly to Paris?

The weather has been unusually gorgeous for this time of the year.

C2 was in town for the weekend. He now lives and works in Denver. He visits Washington State regularly as he has family here and he owns a few properties in the area.

C2 has stuff in storage in a few places. He has boxes at his sisters, at his dad's and at our place. He's had this stuff in storage for years.

We went through some of it this weekend. Most of it's near-garbage. You know-- stuff you don't need, yet is not in poor enough condition to throw out or give away.

A vegetable peeler. Internet routers. A shoe shine kit. An old LED alarm clock. A futon that's breaking down. Boxes and boxes of stuff. I'm encouraging C2 to throw it all out. He is still very attached to it.

C2 and his sister are not talking to each other. From what C2's step-mother said, they are both pointing fingers at each other. Neither will take responsibility for rebuilding their relationship. Neither shows empathy or curiosity.

Consider... "I'm in town. Do you want to meet?" v.s. "Hey. We haven't talked in a long time. Let's meet and catch up."

Its important to each that they be unrelentingly right. Or maybe they both want to play the victim to the others lack of social grace. 

We talked about showing empathy. C2 said "I can show empathy when I need to." My thought about empathy-- unless you can show it when you don't need to, then it's not really empathy. 

Family.

My brother in law-- when he's sober, he's a wonderful loving man. Danger, danger when he's not.

The brother-in-law spent a few weeks in France. Some of it was for a work-away. Some of it was at a Buddhist retreat.

Something happened on his way back to the States. The brother-in-law lost his passport. He made his way to the U.S. embassy and managed to call the Husband. The Husband wired him money to get a new passport.

Something happened after the brother-in-law picked up the money and before he got back to the embassy. The brother in law got drunk. He wound up somewhere. Maybe a hostel. He stayed there for a day. He lost the key to that room.

Since early this morning, the hostel owners and the brother-in-law has been on the phone with the Husband. The brother-in-law is asking for something. Not sure what. Mostly the brother-in-law is crying and saying he's sorry. The Husband has suggested to the room owners that they send the brother-in-law to the hospital to sober up.

The husband has been rescuing brother-in-law for years. Seriously, for years. I remember the husband helping out the brother-in-law over fifteen years ago when the brother-in-law had another melt down over drugs and alcohol.

The Husband is torn and has been reading about loving detachment. 

So far so good on the interviews. In the next month, I have two all day interviews coming up. These are with large companies.

I had two additional tech screens with smaller companies, but have not heard back from them. I've been told this is not unusual. Weeks from now they may ask me for another round of interviews. Or, I may never hear from them again.