Here's an update for you:

1. I received my acceptance letter from Mary Washington today. I will be enrolled in Graduate classes beginning in January. I am very excited and relieved. I have been waiting a long time to hear about this.

2. I had my orientation for my tutoring job this afternoon. The school is in the inner city and has a lot of problems. When I arrived at the school, they were on 'lockdown'. There was apparently a large fight in the cafeteria at lunch-time and the police were there arresting kids. I am going to try my best, but it is definitely going to be a challenge. The neighborhood has a gang problem, and the members of the gangs attend the school. This, not surprisingly, causes many problems. Fortunately I am going to be teaching 9th grade so the problems should be less than if I was instructing an older grade. I am excited, but intimidated, and after today I must admit I am fairly frightened. If anything happens where I feel that my safety is in jeopardy, I am out of there. I am going to be well compensated, but not well enough to endanger myself. This may seem overly pesimistic but in fact its realistic. With all the problems that they have you would think that they would have metal detectors, but they don't.

Lots of news on this front, so here goes:

1. I am no longer a vegan. Doctor’s orders. Apparently I am one of those people who needs (i.e. really shouldn’t do without) animal proteins to properly generate white blood cells. Turns out my diet was adversely affecting my health. I am still an ovo-lacto vegetarian though. I must admit that the change in diet has definitely led to improved health. An added bonus is that the change in diet has enabled me to put on some of the weight I lost while I was sick. I am currently on a self imposed 3000+ calorie a day diet. This is not enjoyable from the gastro-intestinal perspective, but successful from the weight-gain angle. At this rate I should continue to gain weight at approximately 1 1/2 - 2 pounds per week. I have been joking that my goal is to begin the holiday season underweight and emerge overweight. It feels good to look in the mirror and not feel that Iam looking at someone who has a terminal disease.

2. I start my first teaching assignment on Monday. I will be working as a contractor for the Richmond City School System. The assignment is temporary (through mid-December) and will be assisting students who are re-taking various tests. I will be teaching 7 different classes—3 World Geography, 2 World History, 1English, and 1 Mathematics. All are at the 9th grade level and I will have 5 students per class. I am very excited and a little nervous of course. It is a really good opportunity to gain some experience and the pay is pretty darn good. I am still working at the restaurant in the evenings. Basically I will be working 60-hour weeks for the next 3 weeks or so, but it’s worth it.

3. I am supposed to be getting a raise and a promotion at the restaurant. This is what the owner told 3 of my fellow employees, but he has yet to talk to me about this directly. I am keeping my fingers crossed, but not holding my breath. The one thing I’ve learned from working in restaurants is to never count on something, until it actually happens. I’m not saying that it won’t happen, but it’s not like things like this haven’t gone overlooked in the past. I know that I deserve both the raise and the promotion and it looks likely, but you never can tell.

4. I still have yet to hear from Mary Washington. At my interview they told me that I should hear within a couple of weeks, and it’s now past the 2-week mark and I have heard nothing. Hopefully I will find out this week.

I hope that everything is going well for everyone. I will post about the restaurant and MWC as soon as I find out.