Job Hunting

A bane of my existence is job hunting. I don't know if there is anyone out there who actually does it enjoy it but if they do, hey, more power to them. Luckily, two of the times I have been looking for a job included a severance check from my previous job. Not as good as a steady pay check but it does help the process a little. It gives me more time to procrastinate, ahem, I mean, do adequate research to find the best possible job.

Okay, seriously. I have no idea when I'm going to find time to go job hunting. I've been spending the last couple of days learning if I am capable of working at home. So far the answer is yes. I've accomplished a lot, and not just increasing the number of novels I can read in a week. I honestly don't know how to accomplish everything I needed to and go to work. Sigh.

So for my post today I want to tell two funny things I learned in my most recent job hunting experience.

1. Some call center jobs are no longer for the bottom of the pool. They now expect people to have at least a year of sales experience. It doesn't matter how old or experienced you are otherwise. (They told me to get a job as a sales clerk somewhere and come back in a year. Part of me was miffed.)

2. Applying online can be great, if you don't stumble upon an application page that is only being tested. (I thought they should have thanked me for testing out their process by giving me a job. Oh well.)

Anyways, I guess I'd better stop playing around on the internet and look for a job. Although, job hunting has been a great motivator for other things. I can't look for a job right now, I'm editing. (Something else that I don't enjoy but hey, anything is better than trying to market myself in this economy.)

9 June 2010

Great Old Movies

A couple of days ago, I visited my parents. They let me borrow a couple of movies. My mom had one in particular she wanted me to see.

“It's silent. Do you want it?”

I couldn't believe it. My mother asking if I was okay with a silent movie. I love silent movies. “Thief of Baghdad” with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. Really makes me happy. I mean old movies are great. I grew up watching the Marx brothers, and Danny Kaye. There are days I really wish that more newer movies could compare to the older ones. Though don't get me on remakes, there are only a few that even compare with the originals, let alone surpassing them.

Bring on the invisible rabbits, painted on mustaches, metal eating birds, men climbing clock towers, magic wishing dust, flying cars, and magnetic jousting.

16 June 2010

Blood Suckers

This weekend I had an experience I hope I never had to repeat. Late Friday night, my husband felt something odd on his side. He had me look and I came face to face with a tick. Not a pleasant surprise in the least. We called around, woke several people up, and asked what we should do. When I called the emergency room, they told me to check their website. I was not amused but looked anyway. While my husband talked to his grandmother, I consulted the website.

I was pretty freaked out when I first saw the tick but after a few minutes I calmed down enough to attempt to remove it. Luckily it hadn't burrowed in and I could still see the head. That little sucker really held in tight. The biggest piece of information I got from the website was not to crush it when I pulled it out with the tweezers. After an especially hearty tug, I pulled the critter off and stuff it into a plastic bag. I cleaned the wound and was worried when my husband said the head was missing. I could see a little black spot in the opening and we decided I needed to try and get it out.

Ironically I cleaned a knife my father gave to my husband as a gift. It had never been used and had a sharp blade. So, I stabbed my husband with a knife from my father. Okay, not really, I didn't have the courage to break the skin and after I while I resorted to cleaning it out again. As I was cleaning my husband looked at tick again and realized that the head had no come off. About that time, I got the little black spot out.

We had a difficult time sleeping that night. We actually sang a song to try and calm down. It's not as if my husband went hiking or picked it up in a field. He was at work all day, in the shop, working on cars, though he is pretty sure he knows which vehicle it came from. He's sworn off working on that vehicle ever again. I'm inclined to agree vehemently with him. I never want to do that again.

I bet you thought this was about vampires. Don't even get me started. There is a time and a place for them, but I don't believe cults should form about such creatures. Than again, I don't believe there should be cults around anything.

23 June 2010

Cheap Art

I can't believe it is already Wednesday. Lately I've been prepared. I write the post Tuesday night and get everything ready so it posts automatically at Blogger and I just have to drag the new files over when I get up for the website. Yesterday I was distracted and it didn't cross my mind at all that today was Wednesday. Enough of the reasoning for being late.

I have been unemployed for just over a month now. I've actually enjoyed it more than I should have. I have quite a few hobbies and it has been nice to have the time to actually do what I want. This last week was the annual community music and art festival. I entered an art contest. On Monday I signed up and then I had until Wednesday morning to paint a scene or two from the valley. So Monday and Tuesday afternoon I spent trying to use my water colors.

With the pictures framed, I took them back to be entered into the judging. Apparently there was also a silent auction. I had to chose a starting bid price and a buy now price. I had no idea what my art was worth. Certainly not very much. I decided to have the starting bid price cover the frames and the buy now at twenty-five.

When we went back that night to the little reception, I learned I won an honorable mention for one of my pieces. My art was definitely the cheapest there, by a good fifty dollars. Granted some of the art was done by professionals and I could see why they were priced in the hundreds. The happy thought is I sold one piece for the buy now and someone bid on the other one. I am planning on entering next year and I'm thinking of pricing my art a little higher.

30 June 2010

Break In

The summer before I started junior high we took a family trip to California. My little sister is enough younger that she was still in a car seat. The van fit our seven person family quite comfortably but with the car seat, it made it awkward at times. Someone was always stuck next to the car seat. My memory has me being the willing sacrifice to sit next to her. (But that could be completely wrong.)

On the ride home we stopped off at Hershey California. We bought some souvenirs, as was necessary when stopping at a chocolate factory. As with all our trips, we brought most our food along though we didn't normally eat in the car. When we had lunch, my little sister had a drink she kept as we continued. The drink ended up all over my lap and on the seat.

That night we camped at Yosemite. All of our food was stored in a bear box. The next morning we learned that our van was visited by a bear. It broke through the large side window, climbed into the back, opened up a plastic box, pried open a soap container, and licked the soap. (It may have also licked the seat where my sister spilled her drink. It was damp.) Luckily none of the seats had been damaged but there were paw prints and broken glass everywhere. We drove the rest of the way home with cardboard duct taped to the window. Very exciting indeed.

My older brother's theory on the broken window was Yogi Bear used the door to the van and the paparazzi broke the window trying to get a good picture.

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