I have officially been offered the job I really wanted at the brand new high school opening this fall. I talked to the principal — who has a Master’s from Harvard and a doctorate from Nova — just a little while ago. I spoke with the lady who will be my department head last night. Earlier in the day, I had sent her an e-mail just touching base (and hinting that I might have other offers). She tried very hard to reach me, ultimately telling me I could call her as late as midnight. It very nearly was before I reached her! She told me I had great recommendations from my references. I was so pleased. I am just so excited I can hardly stand it. I couldn’t fall asleep despite being exhausted last night.

Before I found out I had it, I went to a church, knelt on the steps in front of the large wooden double doors, and prayed. I can’t recall ever doing that before.

I am still finishing up Holy Blood, Holy Grail. I can’t figure out why the authors felt they needed to deny Jesus died during His crucifixion in order to prove their thesis that Mary Magdalene was the Holy Grail. They can deny His divinity without having to deny the crucifixion killed Him. I just felt that argument was wildly stupid. And they show themselves to be no biblical scholars, that’s for sure. By the way, I figured out another thing Dan Brown did. The character Leigh Teabing’s name is derived from one of the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Richard Leigh. That’s pretty straightforward and obvious. But I looked again at the last name, Teabing. It’s not a name I’ve ever heard, and I was sure it was made up. It was. It’s an anagram of “Baigent” — as in Michael Baigent, another of the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail.