I had lunch with my friend, Charlene, today. We always take each other out for our birthdays at a salad restaurant that neither of our families will go near. We treat ourselves to “chick food” and a healthy three-hour-long marathon of chatting. She told me that the person who got the fourth grade teaching position in her school (for which I had interviewed) was none other than the school district’s superintendent’s wife, who also happens to be the next-door-neighbor of the principal. Political connections win again! This is why I will probably never get a job in my local public school system. It helps a little to know the decision was not a rejection of me personally. I never stood a chance. I think it helps,…maybe a little…a very little.