THE VERDICT IS IN. I WILL BE LIVING IN...

the same place for now. So, I get a call from the hiring manager and he tells me that he is swamped and is about to go on vacation for 2 weeks. So, I won't hear from him until then! Good grief! That means he'll be back 3 days before I leave for New Zealand and then we'll have no contact until August 15. I guess I don't have to worry about any work related thing conflicting with this trip.

If it wasn't for the fact that trying to get into the trading area of my company is my first preference, I would've have dropped this pursuit a long time ago. Yet, I've been feeling such a strong compulsion that this is the right move for me, professionally. Perhaps this diddly doddling by the hiring manager is a blessing in disguise. I can't imagine what state of frazzled-ness I would be in if I had to deal with making a career decision, getting ready for a triathlon, getting ready for an overseas trip and deciding whether or not to move out. Holding patterns are okay. Patience is an ongoing lesson.

Everytime I go to news.google.ca, I seem to see all the depressing headlines. This was highlighted in our last small grouop meeting when we discussed current world issues, many of which centred around food crisis' in Africa, terrorist bombings and possible garbage strikes. As I was standing in line today at the Ministry of Health (had to get a replacement health card because I lost it years ago; funny, though, because I've been able to get health service just by telling the provider what my number is) and reading CNET News.com, which sends daily feed to my PDA, I realized that the bylines found here are usually positive:

"MIT's Anklebot to help stroke patients" (basically, the same company that made the popular Roomba vaccuum robot is making a contraption to help recovering stroke patients learn to walk again)
"IT worker confidence rebounds"
"Microsoft gets friendly with Alien" (a collaborative effort in radio frequency identification technology; come on, when was the last time you heard Microsoft be friendly about anything!)

I just thought that it was an interesting contrast to the "Debbie Downer"-ish discussion we had the previous night, although I'm glad we did, because awareness is the first step to action.