New Year of Newness

It's official: I now know what it feels like to be a contestant on "The Bachelor." You know, minus the cocktail dress, the fake tan, and a "look at me, look at meeeeeeee!" gimmick. (On this season's premiere, one of the chicks waxed the Bachelor's arm hair as her "memorable moment" during the first cocktail party, because she does body waxing for a living. Seriously? If I were on the show, I guess I'd have to be like, "Hi, Brad! *batting eyelashes* I teach kindergarten, so I thought it would be fun if I taught you the "Months of the Year Macarena" and then tied your shoes for you!" How alluring.) As an added bonus, my 2011 job dilemma has officially been resolved. Yippee...I think. Here's how it went down:

1) Bear and I decided that my going back to teaching full-time at my current school isn't going to happen next year. Babysitting/day care issues and half-day kindergarten transportation issues were some of the deciding factors: figuring out how much it would cost for half-day child care for Keira plus all-day care for Elliana really put a damper in my whole "we could use my full-time salary to help others" scheme, especially when we also added in the 60-mile round trip to my school every day powered by gas that experts say may cost $4-$5 a gallon by summer (OMG). And then there was the mom-guilt issue, and my daycare paranoia issue...basically, we had issues with this option, and so we nixed it.

2) The second part of my dilemma was whether to keep jobsharing at my Current School (which would invoke the same gas price problem as above, but not the daycare or mom-guilt issues), or to team up with a new partner at the school near our house...like, five minutes from our house. How awesome would that be?! New School does have its drawbacks, though: namely, it is not Current School, meaning that I'd be getting used to a new principal, working with a new partner, teaching a new grade level (the fourth one in 8 years, which means I'm well on my way to scoring "blackout Bingo" by covering every grade K-6), learning a ton of new technology that we've never received at my school but is widely used at New School, and basically leaving my comfort zone at least 30 miles behind as well. Change is stressful; the question was, would it be worth it to eliminate commuting?

I wasn't sure, but last Friday, I met and chatted with Potential New Partner over breakfast to try and figure that out. It was kind of like being on a blind date, except that it was a 2-year jobsharing commitment on the line rather than just a second date. We got along well and she seemed like someone who's friendly and easy to work with...but did we "have a connection"? Was she "here for the right reasons"? Where were the drinks and hot tubs, anyway?! (I know. It's a terrible, tacky show. I can't help it!) At the end of the date meeting, she said she had one other person to meet with, and that she'd let me know by Wednesday night whether she wanted to go forward with me.