Wellp, I never heard back after that job interview. I was told to expect a phonecall either Monday or Tuesday if I made it to "round two" of the interviews, and... It's Saturday now, no word. So I'm starting to think I didn't get the job. Dave says to wait until about a week has passed, just to be absolutely sure, but... IDK.

I'm a little bummed out about it, but ultimately I know it's not really the end of the world. Yeah it sucks that I didn't get what would have essentially been my dream job, but I keep reminding myself that that one single interview wasn't my ONLY chance. I know what I want to do with my life, what career path I wanna go down, and more opportunities will turn up with time. <3 Just because it didn't happen now, doesn't mean it won't happen eventually!

In other news, I ordered a really pretty nautilus shell pendant on eBay almost a month and a half ago. I was really excited about it as it's basically perfect, but it still hasn't arrived and I'm pretty down about it. I've been going to the postbox every day for the last two weeks expecting it. Dave finally talked me into filing a chargeback today, and I feel really guilty about it because the seller has been so apologetic and a total sweetheart about this the whole time... :c Ugh. Maybe it'll still show up eventually, though. But for now I'm going to give it up as lost. BOO.

Triops! I mentioned a few journals ago that I was starting a sort of hatching-and-raising thing with these little dinofishbugs called Triops. It's been going well so far! <3 They're about three weeks old now, and the largest is a Longicaudatus named Lysander who's about two and a half inches long now. She's the prettiest one, by far. <3 She shaped up really nicely and has long, flowy buttprongs. I have one Cancriformis, two other normal Longicaudatus, and I even lucked out and managed to hatch an albino Longicaudatus! ALBINO.

I've never once run into a shiny Pokemon in any fuckin' game I own, but somehow managed to score a shiny in real life??? GO ME.

They're old enough to start laying eggs now too, so the sand is FILLED with eggs! I have no idea how the hell I'm gonna harvest the damn things since they're kind of... Everywhere... So I'll likely just leave it for now until I go to replace the sand and clean out the tank.

I managed to score a 30-gallon aquarium off of my older stepbrother a little while ago. It's filthy as hell from being in storage for who-knows-how-long and I have no idea how I'm going to clean out the filtration system or whatever the transparent hose is, but the plan is that once I get them all cleaned and up and running, I'll be moving the residents of my 3-gallon into it. Won't be for a while yet, though. Not sure if my current lot will still be around then, since they generally have pretty short lifespans, but I do still have half my Longicaudatus eggs and a fair-sized pack of Australiensis eggs left, so I'll likely hang onto those until I've established the 30-gal.

AND THE MOST EXCITING NEWS OF ALL: My tax return cleared (a little over $1200) last night and I just paid off my mermaid tail! <3 I've already been talking with the maker, Morticia of Siren's Calling, about the design. She's going to put in the order for the neoprene and materials on Monday, and then while that's all being shipped we're gonna come up with some ideas for the fluke shape.

This is the reference she'll be working off of for the design: https://www.weasyl.com/submission/562839/starfrit-mermaid-tail-concept-design

I wasn't sure if I wanted something more orca/dolphin-shaped like the left+bottom templates, or something that suggested more of a "sea-dragon" kind of like the top right template (since my design is based off of a dragon character of mine), so she's going to come up with some fluke designs that are kind of like a combination of both. I'm really excited to see what she comes up with; I've basically given her free reign with the fluke shape, and I know that whatever she comes up with is gonna be incredible. <3 I can't WAIT until the tail is finished and I can finally swim in it! I've been practicing for weeks now at the pool near my house with flippers (that are admittedly a size or two too small for me, but it's the closest the pool has atm), so it'll be interesting to see how much faster I move with an actual, proper monofin.

So yeah. This week has had some downsides, but there's also been some upsides. <3