In addition to my upcoming interview (keep those good thoughts coming, people), I forgot to mention that the Spouse has a phone interview for a pretty good job tomorrow. There also may be another potential opportunity for him doing something that he really wants to do, although it is not yet clear where things stand on that.
I have made valiant efforts to get out and meet people, and it’s going well. I had lunch today with a person who works at a local college and has very similar interests to mine. She knows a few people that I know from the local university, and is a cool person in her own right. We already have tentative plans to meet up again with spouses/kids in tow for a weekend coffee break. Some friends of ours from back in Alabama are in town for a visit and introduced us to some amazingly cool people that they know here. We’re both hoping to get to know them better and have even more cool friends in our new home.
In other interesting news, I may be participating in a clinical drug trial for people with my particular type of IBS. I’m not sure if it will have any positive benefit for me, but I’m certainly game for helping researchers figure out why the hell people like me suffer as we do. It’s been somewhat hard following my diet here, although I do have much better access to ingredients that fit with my restrictions. Avoiding onion and garlic is a toughie, since most of the chile sauces here are made with at least garlic, if not onion, too. Most all salsas have onion in them. Some places don’t have wheat-free bread. However, the grocery stores here have been a godsend. Trader Joe’s happens to carry awesomely cheap (and awesome) corn pastas, so that allows us to eat pasta frequently without going broke. Our local natural grocery store sells loaves of spelt flour bread for the same price as regular bread. I finally tracked down asafetida powder, and boy does that stuff stink! I currently have our bottle sealed in two Ziploc bags, and yet I manage to catch a whiff of it here and again. I am almost scared to put in my food for fear of what it might taste like (and what I’ll smell like later).
Once we are both gainfully employed, I am thinking of taking some sort of class. My first thought is to do flamenco class, although I am not sure what I do with that outside of class. Maybe belly dance? I took classes a while back and enjoyed them, but again, I am not sure what I do outside of class. I’m pretty sure that whatever I do will be some sort of physical activity, so that I can find other ways of staying fit. Biking is loads of fun, but I feel like I need to diversify a bit.