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Just got back from Galena Illinois. My dear dear friend Jodi flew down from Washington with her mom to visit her mom's best friend in Galena. Unfortunately Puck had to work yesterday so I drove by myself. I am not such a good "alone" driver, but I could not miss the chance to see Jodi.

She used to work with Puck at the cross country ski shop and for a good while she lived with us in River Falls. We had some wonderful times and when she decided to move back to Washington it was very very tough. We do not see each other too often, but when we do it is always as if nothing has changed. It is good to have friends like that.

I had not seen her mom since Jodi's wedding (we wont talk about that jerk of an ex husband) and it was good to see her too. The couple whose house I drove to were the sweetest people and made me feel like family. They taught me a new card game and I lost miserably along with my 8 dollars. It was fun though and relatively easy to learn.

Jodi and I had a great visit and it was over too soon. The weather though was beautiful and the colors are perfect right now. Of course on the way down I followed my google map carefully and the first turn out of my comfort zone I met a sign telling me the bridge was out and the road was open to local traffic only. I decided to just check to see if I could get through and not have to rely on my own judgment to find my way. Sure enough the bridge was under construction and their was a 1 foot drop to the pavement. That route was out.

I hauled out the Wisconsin Gazetteer and poured over that for a few minutes to get my bearings and figure out a new route. Found a promising one and set off again. Got almost there and the directions failed me again. Now I was in real trouble since the Gazetteer was only Wisconsin and did not show Galena. I took a shot and it was the right one and only lost about 15 minutes. Coming home was much easier although I am a little geographically impaired.

Friday was a bitch at work. We got our first official notice about the job cuts and how they work. I printed off my mail and went into the lab to pick it up. Nancy works there and hers is the most senior job being cut. I sympathized and asked how she was doing. She then proceeded to tell me that my job was one of the ones she was looking at. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I was ready for someone else to cut my legs out from under me, but I did not think I would be the first to go. I am so low on the totem pole that I would have to wait for just about everyone else to bump before I even had a shot at any jobs. I should know very soon one way or the other

It probably was good to have the 5 hours in the car to think although I did not come to any fabulous conclusions. Right now I hold the insurance for the family and am the main breadwinner. We are not doing that great, but we are managing paycheck to paycheck. I was hoping that ETSY would be bringing in a little more business and I think over the next couple weeks I am going to try to put some smaller rugs up on the site.

I also wondered if I could try selling some of my costume hats. I do have a rather nice group of renaissance hats that I could reproduce easily. They might be something people would like. I need to find a good mannequin head to photograph them on though. Hmmm I do have a Roman bust that might work LOL He has sort of a pretty face and his head is almost life sized.

I need to find some kind of job where I feel valued. This probably means the end of middle school drama as well which bums me out very much. I have put a lot of blood sweat and tears into that program and I hate to see it go away. It is all so very frustrating.

Well I guess I better get back to felting and quit my bitching