Remember when I said I'd have free time soon?

Haaaa, that was funny.  See, the thing is, there's this certification exam for folks in my profession, and I had registered to take it in November and then promptly forgot all about it.  Well, that's not exactly true.  What I forgot was that I needed to submit a request to postpone the exam date until May.  At the end of October, just three days after the deadline to postpone, I remembered that I had forgotten to postpone it and that I therefore would have to take the exam in a few weeks.  In 24 days, to be exact. ("Don't panic! Don't panic!")

I'd heard that you're supposed to study for 80 to 100 hours before taking the exam.  It's only offered twice a year, and it costs $500, so blowing off studying, failing the exam, and then re-taking it in a month or so was not an option.  Those three days of vacation I'd planned to take at the end of October, when I was going to sit around the house and read books all day?  Not vacation.  Studying.  But at least I was reading, right?  Right?

Yuck.

But the good news is, I passed the exam.  After spending every weekend doing nothing but studying while JLR did all the chores and ran all the errands, and with a lot of prayer from friends, I passed.  Hurray!!!

So *now* I'm hoping to have free time soon. 

In other news, having passed a certification exam does not mean that people take my opinion more seriously, in my professional life or personal life.  It seems to be as meaningless to the people around me as it was before.  But on the plus side, JLR and I had lunch with our friend JK yesterday, and JK made us some toffee for Christmas.
Last night's plans:
(1)  Watch The Man from Nowhere/아저씨 -- check!
(2)  Eat lots of toffee -- check!

Thanksgiving was good.  Stayed at home with JLR, ate cereal and pizza, watched a marathon of a tv show we liked, and walked for a few miles in the beautiful fall weather.  No stressful family. Very low key, very nice. 

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving holiday!