vindication

I had to wait a bit for Foundation Day and the Buddha's birthday to be over with, but as she'd promised, Miss Cho at Sookmyung Women's University wrote back to me today... and her email included a PDF copy of my employment certificate, which I'm sure she simply typed up on the spot given the vagueness of the dates on the certificate: It shows only "2005 to 2008" and not "April 2005 to April 2008." Whatever. The document seems to have all the official trappings and stamps, so I can now say that, in the eyes of Sookdae, I did in fact teach there. It's nice to have confirmation that I existed.

Getting this document was like pulling teeth, but none of this would have happened had it not been for British my ex-colleague Zoe, now living in England, who had made the suggestion to dig up my tax documents as proof of employment. So thank you, Zoe!

That's one more piece of the puzzle.

Job stuff:

✓ 1st diploma copy, converted to PDF & apostilled (arrived)

✓ 2nd diploma copy, converted to PDF & apostilled (arrived)

☐ FBI criminal background check, apostilled (no word yet)

☐ 2nd letter of recommendation, converted to PDF (coming soon)

☐ 3rd letter of recommendation, converted to PDF (coming soon)

✓ copy of 4th certificate of employment (2005-2008) (SMU)

☐ sealed transcript from Catholic U. (grad school—on the way)

☐ sealed transcript from Georgetown U. (undergrad—on the way)

☐ health check; scan form and convert to PDF for job hunting (receiving 2moro)

Personal stuff:

☐ colonoscopy scheduling

✓ completed (& uploaded) first movie-review ebook ms

☐ get listed on Soomgo

☐ sample lessons for universities that prove interested in me

☐ sample lessons for KMA (which probably won't hire me)

☐ lessons for private tutoring (lower priority)—test prep & various subjects

☐ more Substack material to last through September

☐ more interactive quizzes for Substack (w/different question formats)

✓ ebook version of the first movie-review book, published

☐ dead-tree version of first movie-review book, ms prepped

☐ dead-tree version of first movie-review book, cover prepped

☐ dead-tree version of first movie-review book, published to Amazon

☐ ms for the second movie-review book (long-term project)—start working on it

I also went in for my health check at the local doc today; I can pick up my report tomorrow afternoon, so I'll be by around 2 p.m. for that. My BP this morning was low at 97/67 (123/63 at the clinic, a few hours after having taken my meds this morning), and my blood sugar was down to 108, which is a lot better than it had been. At the clinic, they did a blood draw and got my urine sample; I also got a chest X-ray that required me to remove my shirt and wear a smock. The nurses were all very friendly. Unlike the last time I'd done a health checkup at this clinic, I didn't have to fill out a long patient history, thank Cthulhu. They weighed me, took a measure of my height (I think I'm shrinking as I age), and gave me an eye test with my contacts still in. I think I did okay with those tests. I think. I'll know more tomorrow when I read over my health report. All that really matters is that I be healthy enough to teach.

Some universities require that you get a health check from a specific clinic, so we'll see whether I have to go through this rigamarole* yet again. I hope not. I hope this health report will be enough. One more document for the repertoire.

__________

*I grew up with riga-marole. The first time I heard rig-marole, I did a double take, then looked the word up. Apparently, both are legitimate—rigamarole and rigmarole. Which do you say? I think rigamarole rolls off the tongue more easily.