Fire Officer Assessments and Legal Assistantships

Today and tomorrow, I have the pleasure of assisting my uncle, a fire chief in my county, with his fire officer assessments. He roped me in on Saturday because he didn't have enough actually qualified bodies to perform the assessments. My aunt has also been roped in. :) Anyway, it was quite interesting, I'm assigned to the presentation-resume portion of the assessment. Some of those dudes are seriously ambitious. They definitely have a better work ethic than I do to do all of the community service, training, and regular work that they do. Plus, 3 of 5 were married, so they have families to consider as well. One thing I came away with today - if these guys are any indication of the kind of men we have serving in our fire departments, I feel perfectly comfortable about paying taxes to pay for their stuff.

On another note, it appears that the only field I'm remotely qualified to enter that would actually pay my bills is legal support staff. Unfortunately for me, I didn't go to school for all these years to be an assistant, but getting one's foot in the door is quite difficult. So at the moment, I'll be happy with whatever doors open and then go from there. It does appear, however, that I will be moving to Bremerton, within 15-30 min walking distance from the ferries. Those of you who know anything about Bremerton and are now groaning and telling me I'm crazy, you just be quiet. Bremerton is having a resurgence, and the downtown area isn't so bad. Besides, I won't be able to hack my commute for more than a couple of months before breaking down. A bus, two ferries and another bus is simply too much if I want to reach wherever I'm working in Seattle by 8am.