So today Angelina completed a shut-out of school this week. We expected to get the results back from the lab after the doctor’s office visit on Wednesday came up negative. That’s what happened last time: doctor’s office negative, lab positive. She seemed much better today, despite the lingering cough and very slight temperature. Part of that, of course, has to be chalked up to her apparent misunderstanding that she had to stay in the living room, mostly on the couch, the whole time. Apparently she heard it when both Carole and I told Alexander early in the week that that’s mostly what she’d be doing, and she took it to heart. She was all smiles when she discovered that wasn’t the full sentence.

I scanned jobs on Craigslist this morning, having not heard back yet from Jason McSween about the pharmacy route. Nothing jumped out. But then this afternoon he did call to say that the delay had been caused by their sending the wrong contract to Walgreen’s corporate for consideration. The right one had finally been sent and everything was ready to go starting Monday, so could I start Monday? Sure, I said. He wanted to know if I’d be willing to stop by there today, though, if I had time, hopefully with him, just to meet the principals and get some face time before starting. Sure, I said.

Unfortunately traffic got him here to the house so late that we weren’t able to make it before the lady who was our primary target had to leave for the day. So we just came back to the house and I filled out the ridiculous amount of paperwork necessary for going to work for Intechra Logistics — the new name of Business Courier Service. Turns out they’d been bought over a year ago and he’d somehow not managed yet to tell me about it. That was kinda funny. So if I do still have my old BCS shirts, they can officially be shirts for sweating now. So 2:00 on Monday is my official start.

On the work front, I told Carole today — and Dad — that I’m coming around to the idea of living on a small portion of the inheritance for several months to a year, providing it is just a small — tiny, actually — portion. As I’ve scanned the part-time job offers the last several days I couldn’t help but wonder when, if I were to be working essentially full-time, I would actually get the training and education I want and need on the things I want to learn for what I actually intend to do as a career. Granted, I’m still not completely clear on what I want that career to be, but it will become clearer as I begin pursuing the various vocations, and I can only pursue them with any vigor if I have the time to do so.

So as long as I’ve got some kind of job that’s paying most of the bills, which this route should once the house is paid off, it will only cost a few thousand dollars out of pocket for us to get by for a year. In doing so I’ll have gained my entire mornings and part of my afternoons to start learning what I need to learn. And lose the stress of juggling two jobs and, more important, trying to find the time to learn the real stuff. Yeah, I’m liking that plan a lot. We’ll see how it works in practice.

We watched the re-broadcast of the premiere of Pushing Daisies tonight. The Amelie inspiration seems inescapable: the vivid, high-contrast visuals; bold compositions; business-like (though more whimsical here) narration; quirky characters; delightful music. Brave endeavor, since if the imitation had been poor, it would be highly irritating to those of us who sigh at the mere thought of Amelie. Fortunately the imitation is original and executed well enough that what made it work for Amelie makes it work well here, too. It’s just a fun way to experience a story. It is a fine line to tread, though, especially in serial form, which is why I can’t help but see that novelty being the early end of it, just as it was was with Twin Peaks and, it could be said, with Northern Exposure. (Yes, NE was on for six or seven seasons, but it was only wonderfully good the first three.) Even so, any number of seasons of Pushing Daisies could be a fun ride while it works.