Tired Jen

This is tired Jen. She's home alone, it's 10:18, and all she wants to do is crawl into bed and sleep. However, as it's been a long time since last posting, and since I recently took Marley out of his room and it would be cruel to put him back so soon, I decided to stay up, post, think about what I can possibly say in the job interview tomorrow, and then scoop cat litter, brush teeth and hit the hay. Arlo's bartending right now. He got a job in Racine at one of the bars he's been going to with his dad since he was a wee tot. I think, as tonight is Wednesday night, he should be listening to live music right now, and I'm sure he's probably happy about that. Excuse me. I just had to go play intermediary between cat and dog. Right now, we exist within a complex system of individual bedrooms and baby-gates, all intended to keep the animals from harming each other. I just completed a routine intended for behavior modification, called "When I See Him, I Get Treats!" While the animals stare each other down from either side of the baby-gates, I throw treats to each, praising each for not hissing, whining, or barking. It's quite amusing, and so far seems to be working. The other night Sidd went Kamikazi, jumping over the gate, but Marley was on the chair, and by the time he noticed, I had his leash. For the next hour, Marley slept on the one side of the gate, and Sidd stared at him from the other.
I do realize that sharing all of this animal information makes me sound A.)like there's nothing else going on right now and B.) like the kind of woman who talks about her pets like they're her kids. These statements are indeed partially true, no doubt, but a bigger reason for all of this is that I'm freakin exhausted, not thinking straight, and my mind is drawing a blank. So, let's get organized, shall we? What's been happening since last we spoke?
1. Arlo and I have been to one movie and one concert. Movie, Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, Concert, Ray Lamontagne. Guess which I liked more. For those of you who guessed movie, you're WRONG! The movie was good, it was cute, sweet, and everything I love about a good chick-flick rom-com. 'Cause that's definitely what it was, despite having funny lines from Michael Cera and cool music. Definitely still a chick flick. It's funny, it makes me realize that I'm getting older, as rom-coms are now appearing with seemingly younger and younger casts. Weird. Anyway, the other event was the Ray Lamontagne concert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddX1FOD1Yx4&feature=related. For those of you not familiar, he's a fantastic singer/song-writer/hetero-sensitivo with a gorgeous voice, who looks surprisingly like a combo of Zach Galifianakis, Iron and Wine, and some woodsy forest ranger. BTW, check out Zach here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JeUTEtP1lE&feature=related, he's a hilarious comedian, and he looks a lot like Ray Lamontagne. Anyway, it was a stirring, beautiful concert, and it made me jealous of his kids/future kids to have a dad who could sign the pants off any lullaby. Damn.
2. I have been working steadily at my new job at Louise's Trattoria. It's not exactly steady pay, however, as I am finding mostly famine with a couple of feasts. The people who work there are cool, however, and I'm enjoying trying to remember all of the Spanish I learned in high-school (as the cooks are mostly Latino).
3. I have been hired as a substitute teacher. This is another temporary job as I am continuing to look for gainful employment as a social worker. No dice on that, though there's an interview tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. I haven't done any gigs as a teacher yet, but I do have an orientation Friday morning, so let's see what happens next week. Who'd thunk that I would be back in the classroom after all of these years?!?! I feel like I'm repeating the last 10 years of my life, waiting tables, then teaching.
4. I've created a compost bin and started composting. Believe it or not, this is very exciting to me. It feels really good to be able to recycle even more of our waste. I don't have much in there yet, but it's a start!
5. Not really about me, but I wanted to share and to invite everyone on my list to go and check it out- Arlo started a blog!!! http://arlosbloggitybloggyblog-blog.blogspot.com/ It's meant as a more interactive blog about all aspects of pop culture, music, movies, television, etc. Give it a go. I have to say it's way funnier and more clever than mine, with less animal adventure stories, so you will probably enjoy it.

Alright I'm out. I really want to get a good night's sleep tonight so I can get up butt early and get ready for the interview/interrogation (depending on how you see it.)

Miss my peeps on the East Coast. Keepin' it real, yo.