Mea Culpa

No, I haven't posted for awhile.

As a close reading of this blog will have revealed, I have A Secret Identity. Two, actually. I not only am a hapless and not very efficient house renovator, I also am a Licensed Architect.

And an Ordained Minister in the Presbyterian Church USA.

Shocking, ain't it?

I got laid off my fulltime architecture job early last April; shortly thereafter, the head of my presbytery told me the ministry committee wanted to interview me for some fulltime pastorates in the area.

This would have been ideal. So I called repeatedly since then to bug the committee to put me on the agenda. Wait, I was told. Agenda's full this month. Then, oops, summer's come, we don't meet in July; maybe we fit you in in August.

Late July, I rang the presbytery exec. And he told me that the churches in question had gotten tired of waiting for the presbytery to act and had found pastors on their own. Didn't know they could do that, under their particular circumstances, but I guess they could. Learn something new every day.

So since the first week in August, I've thrown myself into sending out resumes for architecture jobs and going to the subsequent interviews. And I've adopted and am domesticating two semi-feral kittens some friends found in their new barn. And I've discovered the mindless joys of making lolcat macros (well, when you have cute kitties, it's ungodly tempting). So other than a fiddling and failed attempt to install a ductwork grille and clearing out space in my basement to set up my sawhorses for woodwork stripping, I've done absolutely NOTHING on the house.

Nothing, that is, unless you count cataloguing the contents of the numerous physical file cabinets in my study. I have files and papers everywhere: Papers I haven't sorted for years: items I brought home from my recent architecture job: brochures, warranty manuals, business cards; correspondence, notes, phone messages; receipts, statements, invoices; articles, clippings, web printouts. I'm tired of years of making new file folders and discovering I had one of that category already. I'm sick of not remembering where anything is, especially when I need that particular bit of paper now. I'm weary of toting tons of paper from abode to abode, when a great deal of it could just be thrown away. I have to get this mess organized.

So I'm cataloguing my files, and when I'm done, I'll know what to do with the mess. And no, the answer is not, "Throw it all away." Not yet.

The really important thing is that I clear up my study so I can do freelance architectural work in it. I go for a second interview at a certain area firm tomorrow. I may or may not finally want to work for them; they may or may not finally want me. Whether or not, I've got a line or two on some contract work, and a bit more income could only help.