I make way too many lists...

So I'm sitting here in my stolen Harry Otter t-shirt (Stolen from a friend who was going to gift this thing away. Who is she kidding? A shirt with an otter that has a lightning bolt scar and is wearing Harry Potter glasses- uhhh, love it.), and I'm reminded of how much I loved my senior year of college. This in turn reminds me of how I'm consistently pegged with the sentimental label. Fitting because, according to my astrological birth chart, I'm supposed to be very sentimental and hold on to memories of good times. Which is why yesterday I made a list (count: 1) of the best and worst days of my college career. I'm happy to say the best days side has more entries than the worst days side. About half those best days came from my senior year. Kinda crazy to think that 4 or 5 of the best days in my life occurred in the last 10 months really. Weird.

I also made a list (count:2) of things that make teaching high schoolers sorta awkward:
1. My students tried to guess my weight in class on Friday. Awkward because a)who does that? and b) upon hearing my precollege weight (the only way to more or less end the discussion), one of my students remarked "You were a lightweight!".
Uh, yes. But not acceptable for you to know that! I had a hard time keeping a straight face when said remark then led to the connection that I once had mentioned that I usually don't have more than a glass of wine at a time- "No wonder you only have a glass of wine- that's enough to do you in for a night!" Also true and also not kosher for you to know. Sigh.
2. Seeing my students facebook friend my brother in an effort to find me on facebook.
Actual comments regarding my facebook:
"Ms. Wright, I looked for you on facebook and went through over 400 people trying to find you!" (Uhh, kid, that's a bit creepy. might want to ease off there...)
"That was when I thought you didn't like me, so I was trying to find something to blackmail you with [by searching your facebook]" (Okay, really? You admit that? And you honestly don't think I would keep all truly blackmailable pictures etc. off facebook? silly children!)
"I saw your facebook picture!" (Yes. It is so much more exciting to see a picture of your teacher than to see her in person EVERYDAY.)
"Your brother is kissing some girl in his profile picture! Does your brother have a girlfriend? Do you like her?" (Boundaries. I need to establish better boundaries with these children. Sigh)
3. When my students discover I have a younger sister, they ask how old she is and suggest getting together with her. I try and say that she's in college and therefore too old for them (even should they meet her high standards), they are not dissuaded.
4. Hearing my students talk about boys and it sounds word-for-word like a conversation I used to hear at srat lunch.

And then this morning I online window shopped and made a list of clothes/accessories that I want (count: 3):
-oxford heels
-black boots
-black booties (not entirely sure if short legs + booties = cute?)
-vests (new found love for vests)
-grey wool dress (I love grey clothing. Also, tangent- grEy vs. grAy always. Yay British spellings)
-nice brown belt (how do I not own a brown belt?)
-a simple ring
-penny loafers
-wool scarf
-navy blue blazer

I actually made another list the other day (count: 4), but I lost it quickly and it was more akin to grocery list so the sole reason for talking about it is to emphasize that I write too many lists.

You'll Never Come Between Me and My Sister(s)

My sisters both request a blog post devoted to them.

Here it is.

It'd be more exciting, but as neither of them currently lives at home, I have rather little to say about my usual interactions with them. Which, I suppose, is also a reflection of my horrible job maintaining contact with them both. I do feel awful guilty for this since my sisters are quite the interesting pair and liven my life tremendously. As it is, I'm currently engaged in a fierce rematch in the wonderful game of Words with Friends (I narrowly lost the first match, but I think I'm quite in my element in this second game). As for the other sister, well, I'm hoping she'll contact me quickly as to the appropriateness of a visit to her college the weekend of Nov. 12th... I'd have time to drive up and visit her at school and meet the many friends I've had an opportunity to meet via skype.

On a side note, my students were shocked that I said I didn't want to get married anytime soon today. They couldn't understand why I said I wanted to wait awhile. This is partially because a) they live in a sort of fantasy world where they believe I should be involved with a fellow math teacher and have "smart math children" (direct quote) and b) they haven't grasped just how young I truly am. I think if they realized that I'm only 2-5 years older than them, then they wouldn't be surprised by my disinclination towards matrimony. Silly kids. Getting married is for adults. And, as much as I'm not a child, I am not an adult. (Perhaps it's just the influence of having watched the Britney Spears themed Glee episode tonight but I'm feeling very "Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" tonight). I live with my parents for pete's sake. Sheesh. I'm sooo cool. Who wouldn't want to be a 21 year old math teacher living with her parents?

I love JCrew (but mostly just sales in general)

This weekend was the long awaited J. Crew warehouse sale in Lynchburg. In addition to this meaning I was getting to catch up with my sweet collegiate (and some alums!) friends, it meant shopping extravaganza. I managed to escape the sale with 4 new pairs of shoes (3 pairs of heels!), 1 pair of pants, 3 cardigans, 1 vest, and 2 dresses. I'm mildly in love with the vest. To the point where I have actually uttered the phrase "I love Vest" multiple times in the last hour. I love Vest. I'm working on becoming a bit more trendy and I think Vest fits the bill. It reminds me of England and riding and tweed and that whole vibe. Anyway, just now I was retrying on my clothes as I put them away. I mean, doesn't every girl love playing dress up in her closet? Testing out new outfits and clothing combos? I really think four year olds have the right idea on how to live life- finger foods (chicken nuggets, pizza, hamburgers, french fries... really, the most delicious foods are all eaten sans silverware), nap time, dress up... The list is endless really.
Anyway, as I said, I was trying on my clothes when my brother came in to ask a question about his Spanish hw. Next thing I know, my brother is serving as my mini fashion consultant. He hasn't done that since I was in high school. I used to get up in the morning and the way timing worked, I could get his approval on my outfit while I was brushing my teeth and he was just getting up to go to elementary school. If my brother said I didn't look cool, it meant I needed to change clothes ASAP. Usually, my 10 year old brother would kinda shrug and say "looks decent" and I would feel like I was in acceptable high school senior attire. Flash forward five years and now he's approving my work clothes. His descriptions of how outfits made me look were dead on. One of my newest dresses made me look like "Madeleine" (one of my favorite literary heroines-she says pooh pooh to the lion in the zoo, after all). He noticed that high waisted dresses/pants make my short stumpy legs a bit less short and stumpy. He warned me when certain cardigan/shirt combos made me look like a granny. He helped me figure out what was trendy and professional enough to wear to school and what was trendy to wear on a weekend and what I really should never attempt to wear in public ever. I love my brother. He's so cool. I'm not exaggerating. I realize this makes him sound a bit limp wristed, but it isn't like that at all. He's just very fashion conscious. And more men should be.

You Can Never Go Back Home

Recently, a friend told me that I need to fly the college coop and make new friends/get settled in my new adult life. While I appreciate her concern, I'm not sure how much that's exactly what I need to do.

Yes, I'll admit, I do keep in touch rather ridiculously with my friends from school. I'm considered quite the sentimental for all the things I'll reminisce about. However, I think it's fair to say that I'm one of the rare people who never had true friends like the ones I made in college. My high school friends? Eh, those friendships were more formed based off circumstances and not an actual connection. Even the group of girls who I do maintain regular contact with from my high school days are ones where the friendships didn't really flourish until after I graduated high school. And yes, to an extent my college friendships are based off circumstances also. Joining the same sorority was a major circumstance behind the vast majority of my female friendships in college. But the closest ties within that sorority? Based entirely off actual connections.
One of my dearest friendships with a remaining member of the No Luck Club was formed one night when we spent several hours discussing our mutual interest in not having children ever and just being the cool aunt someday. We were shocked and surprised to find someone else who shared our views. That disinterest in motherhood led to the discovery of many other similarities, not the least of which is a profound love for the movie The Last of the Mohicans. We were firmly agreed that motherhood might agree with us if Nathaniel "Hawkeye" Bumpo was the father.
And that's just one example. If I gained nothing else from college, I will always be grateful for the people I was able to meet and befriend. I didn't realize what it was like to have a real friendship, a real connection with someone of a similar background and with similar interests until I went to college. Most other people developed a feel for that luxury in high school. A good friend of mine even told me, "I'm not afraid of losing touch with you. You try and keep in touch with all of us because you didn't have high school friends." As much as that makes me sound like a lonely pathetic schoolgirl, I rather think she hit the nail on the head with that observation. If flying the college nest means letting go of those friendships and going months, rather than days or even weeks, between conversations with the first people I felt truly comfortable with- then no, I refuse to follow through with the doctor's orders.

As for step two of the recommended growing up procedure- making new friends/a new life for myself here...
1. I'm not interested in settling here. My boredom clock is ticking. June 15th, 2011- please arrive with a job in a new location!
2. I've lived here for 15 years. While I would never presume to call myself an expert on the fun things to do, I would say I'm more than familiar with the available activities and recreation in the area. As it is, the one new recreational activity I've become interested in, rock climbing, isn't available within 40 min. of here. Lame.
3. I have no clue how to make friends here. How on earth do you meet young, single, professionals outside of work? When you don't really have people at work who can make introductions for you? This is a serious question for any few remaining readers. My mother has already suggested joining the church's "Social Activities for Young Single Catholics" club. Wasn't aware of its existence before today, but I promise to look into this suggestion at the least. Other recommendations have included taking classes at the Y (yeah... not really my thing. I never really understood how people met people at the gym. "Hey! Nice Nike shorts! I have the same ones in blue! Want to go shopping with me sometime to get new ones?" or "I saw you doing squats over there. Nice form. We should discuss how much you bench press over a beer sometime") or signing up for pottery classes and the like (a more tempting offer, but really, who goes to these things besides old women?). So yeah... I'm taking suggestions on how to meet young, single, professionals. I've already considered the possibility of a classified ad, "Wanted: Friend. Must be young (under 30), single", but that sounds like I'm looking for a cheap escort. Gah.

In school news, I had my first interaction with a not overjoyed parent last week. When I first heard that a parent was requesting a meeting, I freaked. I called upon a fellow No Luck Clubber (one good thing about this Funemployment thing, my friends are always available for chatting) and proceeded to freak out to her. I was filled with self-doubt about my teaching abilities and anxiety over the possibility of getting chewed out by a parent. I then wasn't through freaking out so I freaked out to my mom. Major plus about living at home? Mom can hold me while I cry to her and feel like a failure. My mood would swing out of control as I would alternate between being angry and defensive about the upcoming meeting ("Your child is a high B, low A student! You're an obsessive helicopter parent!") to anxious and guilt ridden ("I know my tests are too long; no one finished on time. But what if the bad grades are because I can't teach? What if I'm a horrible teacher?"). And like much of my life with regards to things that freak me out, the meeting was no big deal. Silly me. However, I am now fully confident and prepared for any future meetings I may have with parents.

Teacher highlight of the week: Seeing a student's grade raise from a C+ to a B- after one particularly successful quiz and finding myself cheering for said student in my room.
Teacher lowlight of the week: Chaperoning on a school retreat. It is myself and the other young math teacher on one bus and the older, more established theology teacher on the other bus. When the theo teacher comes to get the headcount from us, the bus driver asks, "Are there even any adults on this bus?!" Awkward. When the theo teacher points out that we are adults, the bus driver grimaced. More awkward.

Perk of living at home

When you've had a miserable day and you're just absolutely stressed and your feels alternate between anxiety, guilt, apprehension, fear, anger, at least your mom is there to hold you and reassure you that everything will be better.

Moms make everything better. Big fan of them.

the lonely life at home

Work is fun. I love my students (some are such characters... others are character builders), the faculty is really inviting, and I generally enjoy teaching.

Highlights of the past two weeks:
-being asked out (jokingly, obviously) by a student
-being asked about my ethnicity (apparently being Catholic rules out the chance I might be Native American? Not sure what these kids are thinking)
-being asked about my age (the current guess is 23, a belief solidified by the fact that whenever they say I'm 23, I laugh and therefore prove it's true haha)
-shocking my students when they found out I had a tattoo

The first test I'm giving out is on Friday. Big deal. Kids are freaking out. I'm freaking out trying to make the test before Friday.

Homecoming is also apparently a huuuge deal at this school. Or maybe homecoming is always a huge deal in high school and I've just forgotten. There is a door decorating contest that I'm hoping goes well for my homeroom. I predict a shabby showing so far, judging purely on my homeroom students.

However, as well as work is going, it doesn't eradicate the fact that I find life at home lonely. I don't really have any close friends in town. Most of my friends have schedules incompatible with constant communication with me. It'd be nice to find someone to talk to on a semi regular basis who is in a similar place in life. I don't really make things easier for myself I suppose. I haven't really gone searching for close friends in my hometown. To a certain extent, I don't know how possible it is for me to find close friends my age. I'm sure I can find good friends my age (with some serious research), but I don't know about close. Most people, and by most I'd venture to say 99%, who are recent grads and living in this area are here because they want to live in this area and work in this area and settle here. I'm still stuck in my indefinitely long "I want to leave this state and area for good" phase. I have a hard time imagining how well I'd relate to someone who is happy to settle here when all I want to do is escape. In high school, my only close friends were the kids with similar views on escaping the state for college. I just don't relate or understand people who are content to remain within the same 50 mile radius of where they were born. It's hard for me to fathom. I need to make friends soon though or I'll sink into depression from the sheer loneliness. As I've always said, I can't handle isolation.

long overdue

Alright, so I apologize for the lack of updates in recent times. Being a fully fledged adult with a full time job is much more exhausting than previously anticipated.

School has started! There's almost too much to say about the whole experience thus far. In short, however, I will say that teaching is as hard as I expected, more fun than anticipated, and much more lively than could be imagined. It's been truly overwhelming how quickly I've grown to really like my students and view them all so optimistically. One student might be a bit grating on the nerves, but I still am able to focus on how intelligent she is. Another might not be so academically inclined, but he has a wonderfully inviting and engaging personality. Granted, it's only been 8 days. I might not speak so positively in a month.

Memorable highlights:
-Being asked on the first day if I was my ex's ex-girlfriend. Word travels fast. In this case, it was the younger sibling of one of my ex-boyfriend's high school buddies. Said interrogator is also a student of mine. Awkward when I then had the realization that I spent my prom night at a student's house.
-Asking a student to give an example of a polynomial and the response I get is "decagon?"... I realized later he was thinking of polygons. Funny to me, but so far no one else has been amused by this story. Must be an inside math joke only math nerds understand.
-My students seeing my tattoo and thinking the morse code is cool and not nerdy. Glad I've got someone's approval for it, even if they are a bunch of 17 year olds.
-Being told by sycophantic students that they like my clothes. Points for me for not buying into the ugly teacher clothing syndrome!
-Three fire drills in as many days.
-Already being involved with the quiz bowl team.
-My students having class averages of approx. 61% on the quiz I gave Friday.
-The shocked look on my students' faces when I interrupted their debate over whether to go on Senior Week or go to France for the summer by saying "Hey, the difference between them is that what you'll do on Senior Week is LEGAL in France"... almost as if they thought I didn't know that students drink? Idiot children haha.
-Being asked out to lunch on the first day. By a student. Bahaha.

So, life is good. Today I went to my brother's soccer game. Exciting match, with most of the excitement provided by an obnoxious rival team fan section. I've never wanted to act immaturely as much as I did today. I was seething at the behavior of these parents. Cheering/claiming the kid is faking when a rival team member is injured, to the point of twitching on the field, and having to be taken off the field? Despicable.

Agenda for tomorrow? Bake, tan, clean. The young 20s future housewife version of Jersey Shore's ubiquitous GTL routine.

Note to self: buy stamps. Note to readers: Send me your address and I'll write you a letter.

working girl

For the past two days, I have been at work for the entire school day. Tomorrow is the first day for students. AHHHH. So so so nervous. I'm sure everything will be fine, I'm just a bit unsure of how exactly everything will pan out so I'm a bit on edge. I've laid out my clothes for tomorrow. I'm anticipating freezing in class, but I think it'll help keep me focused. My classroom is like an icebox. It's also incredibly bare. Guess my geometry students will have to make colorful fun constructions soon to decorate my classroom for me...

A great thing about living at home is the fact that I'll get to spend time with my brother. I just got back from a soccer scrimmage of his. I haven't really been to a game of his in years. I was in college for most of his middle school/freshman year games and the games before that, well, I wasn't interested in wolf pack style soccer games. He's grown into quite the young man and it's exciting to be around for his continuing growth. Which sounds weird, but it's just nice. There's a 7 year school gap between us so we don't really have that strong of a relationship. I'm hoping this year will change that.

School starts in 4 days...

I've been trying to figure out what it is exactly that I've been feeling lately. I think I've finally pegged the emotion gripping me- fear. I'm afraid of failing at this job. Not necessarily in the sense that I'm worried I won't do well and that I'll be at risk of being fired (I suppose that is a natural thing to fear, I hope?), but more in the sense that I'm realizing the greater significance of the work I will be doing. If I fail at this job, I won't be losing a company money but affecting someone's future. Teaching has an extra responsibility to it than just doing the job fundamentals. I am responsible for someone else's education. That's a lot of pressure.

I'm terribly glad I live at home, however. I would be so bored if I lived alone. I would have to have a roommate or something. A pet pig. Hah. I had forgotten how lonely it can be to have little human interaction after the work day is done. I more or less did that one summer when I lived with relative strangers who never really became more than such until after I had moved out. I may be young and living at home with all the disappointing stigma attached to "living with my parents", but at least I'm happy. It's going to be exciting watching my brother this year. I haven't been home for so long that my relationship with him is not very strong, unfortunately. My sisters and I have always been close, even if I tend to relapse into non-communicative status every month or two. My brother though? He's always been the little kid who it was a treat to see when I came home. Now he is growing up into a mini adult. I suppose in return I'm relapsing from adult to mini adult haha.

In other news, I entered a drawing to win a house today. I'd love to win; the house is amazing. A bit isolated on a mountain ridge, but if I won, and my family then moved, I'd have my own suite. Living at home would become that much more fun...

Exhausted

Alright, quick update before a much longer one tomorrow.

Yesterday, I went to the diocesan new teacher orientation. Incorporating Catholicism into the classroom as you will. The only thing I know I'll be able to do for sure is hang a picture of St. Hubert, patron saint of mathematics, in my classroom. St. Hubert is better known for being the patron saint of hunting interestingly enough. Quite fitting for the state.

Today, I helped out at orientation. It was a trifle overwhelming. I kept meeting new teachers and parents and appraising my future students. Should be a good group, but one can never tell.

Tomorrow, I get to help out with middle school orientation. Students who are smaller than me! Yay!

Sometime between now and Monday, I have to organize my classroom, double check my lesson plans, get a dress to the dry cleaner's, sleep, not stress out, pay my credit card bill, look into buying an external hard drive for my comp and get a birthday package in the mail. Lots to do.

eHarmony

So the other day when I was busy driving 80+ miles so my brother could spend a precious few hours with his new girlfriend, I realized how utterly boring my social life is, at least with respect to members of the opposite sex. Granted, I haven't really been "on the prowl" this summer. In any event, I embarked upon a self-pity party and texted my friends that I was considering creating an eHarmony profile. One of my friends responds and through the course of the conversation, she begins to create her own fake profile on eHarmony. I have always been interested to know what these "300 questions of compatibility" are and since my friend was making a fake one, I decide to too. Thus, I now have my own profile on eHarmony. I created it under a pseudonym, obviously, but honestly, it probably isn't that hard to figure out who I am should anyone try and find me.

This eHarmony profile however, has certainly been a worthwhile pursuit. I may not actually follow up on contacting any of my 12 potential matches, but I do enjoy guessing what these people may be like based off their profiles.

For example...

There is the gentleman who when asked what he cannot live without listed "laptop/blackberry, zagat restaurant guide, 24 hour gym" among other things.

The gentleman who listed Nickelback as one of his favorite music artists.

The gentleman who spends his leisure time playing cricket.

Tutoring

I am now going to be tutoring a future student of mine for the last two weeks of summer. I spoke with him on the phone today and it was unnerving to be called "ma'am". Guess I'll have to get used to it. I am, after all, teaching and hoping to be Southern someday. Both come with ma'am.

In any event, I start tutoring next week. Next week is my indoctrination into the world of official professional teaching. I have new Catholic teacher training (I think this will best be summarized as "How to Bring Religion Into The Classroom" aka "Teach Kids To Say Prayers Before Tests"), high school orientation (my first look at all my students or "Wow, They're All Taller Than Me") and middle school orientation ("Why am I not teaching these kids instead?!"). Time to bust out my professional clothing. Eeeeeek.

Why is it that now that I have to look professional, I keep finding deals on ridiculously awesome casual clothes? Like my wonderful brand new boots that I got from the children's section of Target. Child size three. I think it goes without saying, I have the smallest feet.

Other things to look forward to:
- Return to my school for a night which means dinner/drinks with a friend. I love saying that I'm grabbing dinner/drinks with a friend. Sounds so adult and that is a sensation that won't get old for at least six months.
-Wedding with another friend. Having not been to a wedding since the ripe age of four, I cannot say with any certainty, but I do imagine I love weddings. I'm considering this one my test drive for my cousin's wedding in December. Knowing my family, I can say with certainty there that that will be quite the shindig.

Well that's about it actually. Not too much going on to loof forward to. School is starting, but that's also bringing with it a slight sense of foreboding about the challenge...

Two weeks

In two weeks time, I will be in control of my own classroom. Crazy. I'm busy editing my syllabi as it is. Hah, I have syllabi. Crazier. Still not entirely sure how this will all go down, but I had a sort of confidence-epiphany yesterday. I was walking to my car from my bra selling job and it just sort of hit me- I can do this. I am older, wiser, and generally just such an adult compared to the kids I will be teaching. I had been nervous about the very small age gap between my students and myself that I hadn't been thinking about how I truly am an adult and they are truly just children. Which sounds so demeaning, but it's true. I'm an entirely different individual than I was as a senior in high school. College changes people. My personality is more or less the same, but amplified. I'm sure I sound insane right now. So just take me at my word when I say that I'm more "me" than I was in high school.

Anyway, I'm having fun editing this syllabus. I have a grading policy (daily homework/participation grade) and a late work policy (I don't accept any). I feel so teacher-like. The last time I got this detailed about teaching, I was 8. I had decided I was going to teach my little sister basic math/spanish (why didn't I realize my future majors sooner???). That little experiment didn't last too long. My sister went crying to my mother and the entire project was more or less forbidden after I gave the girl an F on her first quiz (in my defense, she didn't even try and I wanted her to realize that education was serious).

I have to go- younger brother's first girlfriend is here to visit. I want to play the role of protective sibling so I must evaluate.

Before I leave, a few last remaining thoughts:
- I refuse to shop at any store that you can smell before you see it. Decided this yesterday upon passing both Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch. Ugh.
- I told a girl about our special price on "undies" (the store's term, not mine). I was standing next to the very sign that listed the price and felt very silly. After all, she was looking at the sign. Imagine my shock when the girl was surprised by the deal. It was ON THE SIGN. People cannot read, apparently. Or, they choose not to. Idiots.
-Facial recognition software is ridiculous. And hilarious when it screws up. But technology is amazing.

Blogging returns

Sorry for the long delay in posts. A quick trip to Florida with stops in GA and SC made it difficult to stay on top of the exciting world of living at home. I was a teensy bit worried that the living at home bit would also be invalidated because I got a tattoo in FL without any real discussion with the parental units. No worries though. Still living at home for the following year.

More book reviews because quite frankly all I do is read and watch trashy tv. A review of the tv shows I watch would be embarrassing...

The Girl Who Played With Fire: Sequel to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which I was not a fan of, but I do like this one. It's less gross/disturbing and has more insight into the characters. However, as my little sister pointed out- you don't really get a plot line until 300 pages in. The author could have used a serious case of editing. 7/10

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: So so so so good. Fun, lighthearted and incredibly interesting. It's set up as a series of letters which makes you feel like you're missing out on all the details but that mystery keeps the book fresh and exciting. It's a quick read. 9/10

Gone With the Wind: The movie is surprisingly like the book. It's probably one of the best film adaptations of a novel. All the best lines in the movie? Originally in the book. Makes the book not so exciting a read if you remember the movie. Granted, I do know several guys who thought Gone With the Wind was about a singing family who escapes from Nazis over the mountains (not sure which is worse- that so called Southern boys at a Southern college didn't know Gone With the Wind or that they confused it with Sound of Music...) so perhaps it's worth the read. 8/10

Other exciting news- I got an iphone for my birthday and it's finally up and running. It's amazing. Much love for the new gadget. Which is good because my computer is officially obsolete at this point. I had to order new memory for my laptop so I can update the OS on it. In the past 4 years, my computer has received a new hard drive, battery, power adaptor, memory, OS. You'd think I should just buy a new one. Sadly, I cannot afford to do so until the school year starts. And after buying all this stuff, I might want to wait on the expense of a new computer. Especially because I'll want to use the extra money I do have to go visit my friends in DC. One of the No Luck Clubbers just got a job in DC and is living with several good friends of ours. I'm very jealous of this arrangement.

Apology in advance

There will be a dearth of updates for the next week. I will be out of town and MIA. Hopefully, said out of townness will provide me with more appropriate blogging material.

Figuring out my future...

I have this annoying habit of speaking in an accent for hours upon end sometimes. Tonight, for instance, I said a phrase or two in my "Southern sophisticated debutante" accent of a persona that I created once and ended up speaking like that for the rest of the evening. My poor mother. She has to put up with so many pet names. When I use my southern voice, she's "Mama" and when I use my Indian voice she's "Mamaji", British and she's "Mother" or "Mum", and when it's just a normal day for me I call her "Maj". So many names. But I digress. There was, at least, a point to the accent this evening. I have decided that of all the regional personas found in the US, the most romantic and sophisticated is probably the Southern persona. Not that all Southerns are sophisticated. No, no. Just that the Southern ideal is the most glorified. After all, there isn't really an ideal "Bostonian" image or "New Jersey" image. Therefore, I have decided that if I am to ever adopt a regional attitude, I want to be Southern.

I imagine I could assimilate fairly well.
I was an officer in one of the largest national sororities (sorority life = Southern).
I love to talk (women who gab and gossip = Steel Magnolias = Southern).
I love Chik-fil-a (Chik-fil-a = Atlanta = Southern).
I love Coca-Cola (Coca-Cola = Atlanta = Southern).
I own my own set of pearls (pearls = Southern).
I love warm weather (heat and humidity = the South).
I love lemonade (drink for warm weather = Southern).
I have tons of sundresses (sundresses = Southern).
Really, the only hard part would be learning to refer to my father as "the Yankee".

On a completely unrelated note, I have set a new goal for myself. I want to travel to all 7 continents before I turn 30. That leaves just 9 years to hit up Australia, Antarctica and South America. I'm figuring roughly $20,000 total would be necessary due to flights and the Antarctic boat/ship I'd need. Gotta start saving... In a perfect world, I'd have a substantial sum saved so that in 2014 I could go to the World Cup in Brazil and then hop on down to Argentina where I'd then take my Antarctic cruise. World cup, South America and penguins- oh my!

Another weekend in WV

Thursday night I went out on the town. Big birthday and all. I went to a bar with a few friends and when the waitress found out it was my birthday, she told me to talk to Allen, the legend of a bartender. Apparently, Allen is generous with newly 21 year olds. So I went to visit Allen. It ended up being a surprisingly fun night at home.

The next morning wasn't exactly a picnic, but the day was relaxing. Until that evening. When I went to work. I had to work from 9pm-3am to do the "floorset". Floorset is when the lowly worker bees rearrange the entire store in the most inefficient/drawn out process ever created. I ended up being at work until 4:30 am. The kicker? I had had so much caffeine to stay functional that I then could not fall asleep when I got home. Two days with less than 8 hours sleep between them. Rough.

However, I had the pleasure of playing hostess to three of my friends who came to visit this weekend. I had fun showing them around town and just getting to hang out with them. We made sangria and played catch phrase. Excellent end to my weekend. This weekend also helped me realize that I feel truly blessed by the people in my life. So many wonderful people that I am lucky enough to know.

Looking/Acting my age

Yesterday was when my sister, brother and I taught a dance class. Well, they taught and I learned along with the middle school campers. At the end of the session, the campers asked the three of us who was oldest. Their response when I said I was? "Shoot, you're the smallest one!" It was a trifle bit demoralizing.

And then today, I went to buy a bottle of wine. Exciting first purchase and all. I picked out a nice Spanish red table wine that had the Pythagorean theorem on the label. Perfect for a math/Spanish major, no? Anyway, my mom bought her own wine and then I went to check out. The cashier asks for my ID. He analyzes it for a long time and then finally says "Okay, I guess I'll give it to you. Happy birthday. We can just pretend your mom got it." Um, excuse me? Why do we have to pretend my mom bought the wine? My license clearly states that today is my 21st birthday. Last I had heard, on your 21st birthday you can legally purchase alcohol. Not your 21st and 1 day birthday. So why are we pretending my mom had to buy the wine I can clearly purchase myself? Very confused.

I did it.

My original goal in creating this blog was to be employed by July 15th. It is now July 15th and I am employed. Both full time and part time. Good job, me.

Having secured gainful employment rather soon than I expected and having only minimal hours at the mall, I have lots of time to devote to pondering life's biggest questions.

1. How long could you live in a CVS? You know, in one of those hypothetical "nuclear fallout" type situations. The over/under is 2 years at the moment.

2. Why is always so hard to adjust to a new brand of toothpaste? On a tangentially related note, I got a new toothbrush today. It's got lots of bells and whistles and my goodness do I feel all of them when I brush my teeth. It's like a mini massager for my teeth. It's great.

3. What is the appeal in Silly Bandz? Don't get me wrong; I own several. Hell, I got my mom to splurge and buy me a pack of alphabet shaped bands today. But really, what is it that makes them so appealing???

4. How important do you have to be for your death to be ruled assassination and not murder? Would the death of a state political official like Sec'y of State be important enough? Or must you be an international/national bigwig?

5. How close to full Asian would I look if I died my hair black and wore dark contacts?

Yesterday, today, tomorrow

Yesterday I helped my mother paint our computer room. I think every single room in our house has been redecorated at least once, probably two or three times, since we moved in. Granted, when our half bath downstairs came equipped with 2" pea green shag carpeting... Remodeling is to be expected with an old house. The house is easily a 100 years old. Peeling off panels and wallpaper from the walls is like being an archaeologist. "Ooh, wallpaper that ugly has to be from the 70s" or "Guess this used to be the baby boy's room"

Today, I was more of a hindrance than a help to my mom in completing the redecorating process. So instead, I removed myself from the situation and embarked on a youthful spree. It's been raining torrentially these past few mornings so my sister and I decided it was a prime situation for a dance in the rain. We ran outside and were completely soaked through in under 2 minutes. We frolicked up and down the street. We even waltzed together at one point. My most extremely intelligent moment of the day occurred during this rainy adventure.
Myself: "You know, I don't know when the last time was that I've been this wet..."
My sister: "...uhhh, when you took a shower yesterday morning"
...Right. Forgot about that whole showering business.

Tomorrow, I am going with my sister to teach the Thriller dance to a bunch of middle schoolers. I don't actually know the dance yet and I'm rather uncoordinated at times so this could be quite interesting. I'm also planning on finally buying the sweatshirt material backing for my still unfinished sorority t-shirt blanket. The backing is all I need at this point.

work, work, work

So I've been working at the mall the past two days. I've come up with a short list of things I think about while working.

-Why is this 75 year old grandmother holding up a lace mesh thong? Oh dear... why is she now telling me she prefers thongs because she likes how the fabric (or lack thereof) lets her cheeks breathe...

-This is obviously West Virginia because I have mutual acquaintances with most of my coworkers (who I had never met)

-Wow, someone who has heard of W&L? Shocking.

-Do I really look just like a freshman in HIGH SCHOOL? Uh, thanks?

-Tester body sprays should be banned.

-I much prefer reorganizing the clothes and racks and putting things away to pestering people while they shop.

-Being surrounded by fitness apparel makes me feel utterly pathetic. It makes me want to go work out or something, a foreign sentiment.

Sadly, I have to work tomorrow at the same time as the World Cup final. I'm sure I'll have many more thoughts to share...

Living with my brother

This weekend my parents and little sister are gone to her new student orientation in Delaware. Meaning my brother and I have the house to ourselves for two days. It's really painting what next year will be like. For starters, my brother just got a new girlfriend. Being the over protective big sister, I've been grilling him for details and asking him when I get to meet her. That introduction might be tomorrow, actually. I'm working at my bra selling job and the girlfriend will apparently be in the mall. He's trying to arrange a way for her to come shop while I'm there. It's rather endearing how he takes my request to meet her seriously. I have to say, this girl better make a good first impression. She's already been knocked down a peg because she loves Twilight. Sigh. What is it about those books/movies that appeal to girls?

My leading man wouldn't be a century old sparkly vampire who doesn't drink human blood. He'd be Daniel Day-Lewis in Last of the Mohicans. So I suppose my standards are just as crazy. Not nearly as embarrassing, of course. What man wouldn't aspire to be DDL?

And on this episode of Hoarders...

My mom was frustrated with the job I had done with cleaning my room so the other day we attacked and reorganized and thoroughly cleaned. Three trash bags/goodwill bags later, my room finally feels like my room and not the guest room. I have a desk and space to sprawl- both necessities lacking from the prior room arrangement. Cleaning my room led to the discovery of yet more treasures. These treasures consist of money actually.

Found:
15 Somalian shillings
5 Jordanian piastres
5.29 Euros
10 Slovakian korun
11 Israeli new sheqalim, 10 Israeli agorot
6 Swedish kronor
9 Czech korun
8 Croatian kune, 50 Croatian lipa
5.42 British pounds
7.10 Mexican pesos
150 Italian lira
4 Nepalese rupees
31 Canadian cents
100 Egyptian piastres
1 Putt Putt coin
1 flattened penny with a design of hearts that say "you are very special to me"
about $5 worth of pennies

I'm telling you, coins were just being found everywhere. It was like an Easter egg hunt. Most of these are leftovers from my sister's crazy jaunts last year, but some of the Euros/pounds were probably mine as well.

Read, Read, Read

It seems like all I do lately is read. I read when I get up, I read when I go to the pool, I read late into the night before bed.

Thus, time for book reviews.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo:
Alright, I had been hearing a lot about this one. Everyone seemed to just love this trilogy (this one being the first one). I even read the intro and was intrigued enough to buy the book. Anddddd..... I was disappointed. It was good, but not great. It was pretty disturbing. Reminded me of a really sick/twisted L&O: SVU episode. Good and gross, but not terribly deep or impressive. Just a good way to pass the time. 6/10

The Help:
My mom recommended this one to me. I more or less picked it up on a whim and was hooked. The characters are incredibly realistic and developed. I kept making predictions that were all shot down in the end and so I appreciated how the author wasn't predictable. Plus, the one real joke of the whole thing was more than sufficiently funny to make up for the seriousness of the rest of the novel. 9/10

The Forgotten Garden:
Random find on our many bookshelves at home (definite perk to living at home... especially all 7 Harry Potters). Good, not as fun to read as The Help, but equally as gripping. Written from 4+ perspectives with each perspective equally appealing. I was disappointed with the ending, but otherwise pretty good. 8/10

In other exciting news, one of my friends from school will be in Charleston for the evening on Wednesday. Excitement.

Lesson planning!

All I really have to do on the work side of things in the next month is start my lesson plans for the year. It's a bit nerve wracking to realize I am the sole figure responsible for making sure these kids learn everything necessary. I'm completely confident in my abilities, but that doesn't relieve all the pressure. I'm also not one hundred percent positive whether the work I've already outlined is too difficult, too easy or just hard enough. It's like the Goldilocks dilemma of lesson planning. Argh.

Also on the Goldilocks spectrum is the subject of what to wear. I want to look professional and older, but not dowdy. I want to dress my age, while still coming across as commanding. I think this more or less means I need to invest in more heels. Surprisingly, for a short person anyway, I'm not always crazy about heels. I love the height they give me and the way they can make an outfit look, but they're terribly uncomfortable to wear all day. Strange to think that I used to wear heels to high school. Then again, I think I've provided more than enough evidence as to how strange I was then... But once I commit myself to wearing heels, a new dilemma presents. You see, I have rather small feet. Size fives usually. At Target, this means I can fit into a child size three. They just don't make cute shoes for small feet. Most people with feet my size are either a) children or b) really really old people. Neither age group tends to be in the market for anything other than sensible shoes. Ew. And when I wear flats sometimes? It looks like my feet have either had all the toes chopped off or suffered Chinese foot binding.

However, on a completely unrelated note, I'm really enjoying this nothing ness. My work schedule for the mall job hasn't been finalized yet so I find myself going to the pool. I haven't spent hours at the pool in years. Probably not since after my sophomore year of high school, honestly. I've had a job every summer since. Also, yesterday provided entertainment in a different fashion. One of my friends rides horses and invited me out to her barn for a mini riding lesson of sorts. Much more enjoyable than I expected. Granted, half the time we were walking around with my horse on a lead so it's not like I had to do much.... All the same, I'm a fan of the sport. My friend is trying to convince me to actual start taking riding lessons. It's tempting. After all, my summer is pretty much a blank slate.

Daily Routine

8:00- Wake up. Probably grab whatever book I was reading the night before and sit in bed reading.
9:00- Try and finally escape my room. Take aforementioned book with me downstairs while I one handed-ly scavenge for food.
9:30- Give up on scavenging attempts and resort to eating shortbread cookies for breakfast.
10:00- Consider the soccer game on tv. If not tempted, continue reading.
11:00- Shower.
12:00- Finally get dressed. Scavenge for lunch. Run errands with Mother.
2:30- Consider the soccer game on tv. If not tempted, consider going to the pool.
4:00- Spend obscene amounts of time online catching up with friends, playing sporcle, reading cakewrecks.com
6:00- Chat with Mother while she cooks dinner.
8:00- Hang out with family and practice bartending.
11:00- Come upstairs and respond to a certain No Luck Clubber's plea for more blog updates.
12:00- Bed.
Rinse. Repeat if desired. Gentle enough for every day.

Seriously though, my life is boring. Hopefully when I call in on Thursday I'll find that I've been scheduled a lot of hours these upcoming weeks. Also, occasionally play dates with friends are scheduled. Such as tomorrow. I have a friend with an undying amount of patience and access to a horse barn who is going to teach me to ride. I say undying amount of patience because I've found that being at home causes me to speak in even more ridiculous accents than usual. Tomorrow I plan on testing out my feminine John Wayne accent as I learn to ride my hoss.

Weekend away

I know, I know. The blog has been silent too long. In my defense, nothing happened.

This past weekend I went back to my college town to visit friends doing research or working for the summer. I found that while I'm perfectly okay accepting my alumni status and the fact that last year's juniors are now seniors, it's weird to see last year's sophomores be called juniors. Maybe just because they were the first group that just seemed so young to me when they entered. The class behind mine was only a year younger (many of them actually older than me) so it's okay to see them grow up. Two years behind however? Eerie. All in all, it was a good weekend. I got to see two other alum friends and catch up with them. It felt strange to have to "catch up" when it's only been a month since graduation, but a lot has happened. Amazingly enough, the real world has just as much drama and intrigue as college ever did; it simply adds bills and housing and jobs to the mix.

Saturday was spent with pretty much the entire undergraduate crowd at school for the summer in one of the two bars watching the soccer game. Sad result, but incredible atmosphere. Somehow, I doubt I'll have any similar experiences while I continue to watch my beloved Spanish side throughout the rest of the World Cup...

Unfortunately, or maybe not, my weekend was cut short due to the need to be trained for my part time job as a sales associate (aka retail drudge) at a store in the mall. I woke up and drove the threeish hours back home in order to be at the mall by 11:30. That journey was mildly uneventful with the exception of my first true roadkill accident. I was driving along, minding my own business, not speeding terribly much for once (recent ticket encounter has caused me to be a bit more cautious), when out of nowhere BAM! A small winged creature made contact with my car. I saw it happen in slow motion practically. Bird flying low, crossing my path, making contact with the left hand side of my car. Feathers exploding and going everywhere. It was like a mini down pillow fight taking place in front of my car. I was a trifle traumatized. The poor bird. Not to mention, the feathers. I had feathers in my windshield wipers. Luckily, I had no reason to use my wipers or each swipe would have been a little reminder, "bird killer.... bird killer... bird killer...".

In any event, I came home, took a quick shower and was off to be trained. Which is when I discovered that being in a sorority does have some benefits. Years of training in recruitment procedure has made retail a cinch. I felt like I was sitting in a recruitment workshop all over again when the managers were explaining what to do to be a successful sales associate:
- try and use the customer's name whenever possible to put him/her at ease
- find a way to relate to the customer ("I have that same skirt! I just love it!" vs. "I have that same skirt! I just love it!")
- find a way to bring the customer's interests back to the store's interests ("You know what would go great with that skirt of yours? This lovely little tank top!" vs "You say you love volunteering? Our sorority is SO involved with philanthropy!")
- compliment the customer ("I love your necklace!" vs "I love your necklace!")
- ask open ended, as opposed to yes/no, questions ("What kind of clothes do you tend to go for?" vs "What did you do over Christmas break?")
- if a customer has an item in her hand, suggest similar or complimentary items ("This cardigan would go great with that dress!" vs "You like watching football? My friend Tara is absolutely obsessed with the Patriots! I'll have to introduce you guys!")

And so on and so on. Glad to know that if the whole teaching bit doesn't fare well for me, I can always go into retail.

Bar opening

Mom and I went to the liquor store today. It was nice, roaming the aisles, knowing exactly what all the lesser known liquors and liqueurs were. Mom made some purchases towards my own bar and tonight I will begin my bartending for real. Up to now, I've only been studying recipes and techniques and the flavors of the alcohol. Time to put my studying into practice. I think I'm going to start with a gin fizz. Or perhaps a martini. Or even maybe a daiquiri. I would say the sky's the limit, but we didn't get a complete bar just yet. I'm going to focus on the clear/white liquors first. Play around with those flavors.

My family

Living at home has reminded me of some the more interesting quirks of my family. For instance, our various collections over the years.
My older sister had the most normal collection. She collected stamps. Not sure if she has her stamp collection, but she mostly got interested in stamp collecting from all the various foreign stamps we would receive when our grandparents would travel and mail us letters.
My little sister has probably the most unique collection. She collects plastic spoons. As she pointed out tonight while eating her ice cream, you never notice how many types of plastic spoons there are until you collect them. There are quite a variety of spoons. There are the short taste testing kind you get at the ice cream store, the wide spoons that come with your fast food soup/chili, the ones with long handles for drinks in big cups...
I had the weirdest collection. For a span of about 3 years as a kid, I collected travel brochures and paint samples. My mother must have hated me. I imagine that this collection doomed me to be labeled as a hoarder forever. I would go to Lowe's or Home Depot and discretely take as many paint samples as possible. I say discretely because I once was told off by an employee for taking too many. Hah. Then, when I got home, I would do the worst thing I could do to a stack of hundreds of paint samples. I would cut them up into each individual shade, creating a pile of squares of paint colors. At least this collection was arguably artistic in value; my collection of travel brochures was pointless. Every rest stop or tourist stop on any of our countless trips would secure me at least an extra one or two brochures. These travel brochures were then dutifully filed away in alphabetical folders by name of the attraction. At one point, I know I had over 400 unique travel brochures. I have no idea what I meant to do with them. I was a rather odd child.

Rejections

Got an email this morning informing me I was rejected from one of the many places I applied earlier this month. Only serves to reassure me that I did a smart thing accepting the teaching position.

Lesson planning!

This weekend was filled with the usual humdrum nothingness that results from having no real occupation. I spent most of it at the pool rereading Harry Potter (hard to believe I read my first HP book 11 years ago!) or getting together with friends. I need to find a new hobby. The quilt is still half done, but that's because I'm waiting for the appropriate backing. I plan on going back to my college town this weekend to visit with all of my friends doing research and while I'm there, I figure a trip to the overpriced school bookstore might supply me with a sweatshirt blanket complete with appropriate school insignia that I could use as my quilt backing. Who knows?

In the meantime, before I head off this weekend, I can start my lesson planning. I picked up my two texts that I will be using next year. In addition to the mixture of junior/senior students I will have in my trig/pre-calc classes, I am now teaching a geometry class for freshmen/sophomores. I get to teach such a broad range of students; it's both nerve wracking and pretty exciting. I forgot how nice it was in high school to have answers to exercises in the back of the text. Now, as an educator, I have to figure out how I'll assign hw around those freebie answers. And plan tests. And quizzes. And figure out how to come across as the right balance of demanding without being ridiculous. Of course I did none of that today and instead worked on how to dress like a professional teacher without looking frumpy. Mildly challenging. There are several stores in the mall that scream "only teachers shop here!". Needless to say, I avoided those.

Also, my room is a complete mess again. I suppose that's not entirely accurate though, as I never really had it perfectly neat/clean to begin with... At school, I would allow my room to stay messy for about three weeks before I'd reach my limit and force myself to clean. At home? My parents are getting home in an hour and I feel like I need to shove the mess under my bed or something. I haven't really felt accountable to anyone like this in years. Unnerving.

So many exciting things to do at home

There is a big arts festival going on at home right now. Today are the big (hah) annual Weiner Dog Races. Apparently, there are quite a few dachshund aficionados here in town. Who would have guessed? Supposedly there are flash mobs happening also. Yet another sign of how Glee is taking over the nation.

On an unrelated note, this weekend, unlike last weekend as previously thought, my parents and brother are out of the house. My mom was worried about food for my little sister and I so in addition to going to the grocery store and loading up on everything, she left us giftcards to go out to eat if we want. Mind you, my parents will only be gone for three days and my sister and I are both out of high school and perfectly capable of scrounging for food. I've become quite good at sustaining off eggs, cheese and tortillas for days upon end. I also know how to cook. Or if not cook, I know how to follow a recipe. So I was a little surprised by my mom's need to provide multiple sources of food for us until I thought back to my last kitchen experience. I decided to make Martha Stewart's salted caramel chocolate cupcakes. Besides making an all out mess of the kitchen, I discovered the hard way that burning sugar is disgusting. It smells horrible and can be hard to clean. Considering it took me about 3 hours to make the cupcakes and clean the kitchen, I realized that perhaps my mom wants to prevent any serious damage to the kitchen while she's gone. Maybe I should stick to watching Top Chef as opposed to trying to be on it.

Adulthood

I was discussing with my mom the practice of calling people by his/her first name. Growing up, unless specifically told otherwise, my friends' parents were always Mr. and Mrs. So and so. Now, as I get older, it's much more common to call my friends' parents by their first names. I kinda feel like the threshold of adulthood is crossed when all adults are referred to using their first names. It's this little club where everyone is on a first name basis and we're all considered to be on the same respect level. I don't have to talk "up" so to speak.

Other things that come with adulthood- paying my own phone bill. I've been looking into the costs of a phone bill and have to say that I wish you could pay a flat rate for texts and pay an additional charge for talk time. I rarely use my phone for a phone call. Texting, however, comprises 95% of all phone communication for me. I hate that I have to pay a minimum of close to $40 for 450 minutes of talk time (of which I'll probably use maybe 20 a month) and then another $20 to text. Why can't I switch those around? Pay $40 to text and then, if I want to, I can add in minutes? Lame lame lame. However, I think as a present to myself for landing a job, I might get an iPhone. I'm a sucker for Apple products. I get that they're over priced and what not, but I love them anyway. So fun. So sleek. So snazzy. Even when their products don't function 100% (like my laptop battery), their customer service is even fun. I didn't mind being on hold for a while today because their hold music is good music. None of that elevator music baloney. Kinda awkward when you're caught singing along though.

Also, with any luck, I got the job selling bras part-time in our mall. I realized that there is a potential I might end up selling bras to future students. Hah. I can't even begin to imagine how mortifying it would have been for me in high school if I had seen a teacher while I was buying a bra. Or worse, a thong. Granted, most of my teachers were all old enough to retire.

Speaking of clothing, it is strange to be home. At school, I hated doing laundry. Who doesn't? I lived in the dorms, I mean, residence halls, all four years. That means four years of scrounging for quarters. And when a machine would eat a quarter? And you had counted out exact change? Frustrating. Not to mention the hassle of dragging your laundry to the laundry room, scouting out free washers/dryers, waiting for it to finish, coming back to find a load finished early and some punk put all your clean clothes scattered about on a table, dragging it back to your room and then folding it. Thus, I avoided laundry for as long as possible. I could make it a good 3ish weeks before I had to do a new load. Which is why I was disconcerted when my mom had me bring my laundry down since it was laundry day. She had just done laundry last week for goodness sake! Very unnerving. But, I'm always a fan of more clean clothes. Could be good to live at home next year.

Employed!

Although I haven't technically signed the contract, so I suppose it isn't 100% official just yet, I have accepted the teaching position! After thinking it over, soliciting the opinions of friends and discussing with my family, it seemed like a good fit for me. I hadn't realized how on edge and stressed I was about the prospect of finding a job until I got one. My body is 10x more relaxed and I feel like I can now enjoy the nothing ness that every day entails. However, I am still working on a part-time job for the summer. I have an interview at a store in the mall this afternoon and will hopefully get that job.

Plans for the summer:
Start preparing teaching lessons. Terrifying to think I will have to control a classroom, but oh so exciting as well.
Part-time employment.
Relax.
Continue improving my bartending skills.

I have discovered that I have more readers of this blog than originally expected. I knew one member of the No Luck Club more or less stalked this having received angry texts when I didn't update regularly, but I did not realize that more of my friends depended on hearing about the boredom/job search to make their own jobs more enjoyable. Not wanting to deprive anyone of my ready wit and humor (hah), the blog will continue. It will be renamed, of course. I imagine I'll accumulate several interesting stories over the summer to keep the summer material flowing. And then in the fall, this will turn into a blog on the joys of living at home and being a working professional. My younger sister will be going off to college in the fall so it will be just my younger brother and me. It'll be an interesting dynamic. I have never really spent an extended amount of time with my younger brother without another sister around.

In sum: FUNemployment will hopefully become Fun Employment now.

one more thing...

My email inbox currently has 770 emails in it. I must delete these.

New blog name?

This blog might be defunct in the next 24 hours. I just received an offer of employment by the local private school. I'd be the junior year trig/pre-calc teacher. Which ironically enough, is the math class my younger brother will be taking next year. If I take the job, I won't be unemployed anymore, now will I? I have 24 hours to decide whether or not I'm going to take the job. A lot of soul searching is going on right now. If I take it, it will mean another year at home. That's really the main con to the job. Do I want to be that girl who lives at home? Decisions, decisions, decisions.

My weekend...

I recognize that I have not blogged in several days. It coincides with a definite dip in my applications. I've still managed to apply to an average of 2 per day, so I haven't lost track of my responsibility. However, I need to get back into the job search. After all, it seems to be the only thing to blog about because I do very little else.

Saturday was actually a decent day. I, along with two other friends, went over to an old high school friend's house to watch the world cup game. Tragically, in the 88th minute, the power went out. While it came back on almost immediately, the tv box had to reset. By the time we got the tv on again, the game was over. All the same, good job to the USA.

Yesterday, I walked 3 or so miles to the pool. Miserable. It was humid and sticky. Luckily, it wasn't that hot, but the humidity was pretty unbearable. That's my physical exertion quota for the week.

The best part about yesterday was the two phone calls I received, approximately ten minutes apart. One was for an English teaching opportunity in South Korea and the other was from a friend who tipped me off to a potential job. I love networking, if it works in my favor.

The good job news continued this morning when I received an email letting me know I had passed onto phase two of one of my applications. Phase two meant taking a test of "which comes next" questions. I usually love those kinds of tests. It's logic and analytical thinking- two things at which I'm generally pretty good. I used to love solving those logic puzzles as a kid. Even wrote some. This test, however, was incredibly difficult. I took to guessing on a couple. I wish they had an answer key so I could figure out the harder ones.

Today also saw me making major headway on my t-shirt quilt. Part of my path to domestication- I was using the sewing machine today. Tricky little devil, but I managed. I now have 5 columns of t-shirts sewn together. When I finish, my quilt should measure 5' by 6'. It's looking pretty good so far, but I still have to sew the columns together and then find a backing for the quilt.

I might also have temporary employment soon. My younger sister and I went to the mall to apply at various stores. One store scheduled an interview with me for Wednesday. My sister was a bit, ahem, peeved that I was the one who received an interview when she applied to many of these stores weeks ago. I suppose this mainly is because I am the only one of us who is over 18. I remember the terrible time I had trying to find a job after my senior year of high school. I wasn't 18 yet and only finally found employment in the form of being a "courtesy clerk" for a local grocery store. Courtesy clerk is a polite way of saying "minimum wage job that sucks the life out of you". I bagged groceries, cleaned bathrooms, put away unwanted food items and gathered carts from the parking lot. All for $5.15 an hour. It was hell.

Application count: 28

Cooking class cont.

I learned a new recipe today. Black bean salad. I'm trying to commit these wonderful recipes to memory so let's see if I can remember the ingredients: 1 package italian dressing, 1 can black beans, 1 cup crushed pineapple, 1 bunch cilantro, 1/4 cup lime juice, 1/2 cup red pepper, 1/2 cup sweet onion, 1 cup white corn. So good. I'm becoming domesticated haha. Which makes me sound like a dog.

Seriously though, certain actions make me feel more like a grown up. Vacuuming out my car for one. Or well, half of it. I vacuumed the mats and the seats on the driver side of the car but the vacuum acted up when I got to the passenger side so.... Messy passenger side of the car still.

Also contributing to the feeling like an adult thing, thinking about all the stuff I have for my future permanent residence. The window seat in my room has a pile of kitchen utensils; my mom has a set of old dish ware for me and a table; I have countless knick knacks from my travels that would help any apartment feel like a home.

Just got to get that apartment first...

My mom suggested I look into becoming a travel agent today. I love traveling and planning my trips. Do I want to make that a full time profession? If it meant free traveling for me, probably.

Applied for a waitress position today. Here's to maybe getting it?

Application count: 27

Day Eleven

Desperation has set in. I have several friends either in Europe currently for vacation or school and another moving to Europe in a couple weeks for work. I realize that the only way I will ever return for a similar visit is if I start making money. And to do that, I need a job.

I wonder what my final application count will be before I get a job. I'm considering having a betting pool. My current bet is 58. Anyone else want to join in? In today's market, it could be the hottest new gambling trend...

Yesterday I met up with an old friend. We went to Applebee's for lunch and amazingly enough ended up being there all day. Neither of us realized what time it was when we finally got up to leave. Oops. My friend just graduated and is an officer in the Navy so he has a career (for the next five years at least). I'm so jealous of that security. I mentioned this to my mom and she suggested I consider applying for officer command school. I could become an officer in the Navy. If still jobless in September, I will consider the suggestion more seriously. As it is, I don't know that I'm cut out for that line of work. I don't know that I stepped foot inside my university's fitness center more than twice in the last two years. And that twice is probably an over estimation.

I finally got around to more or less cleaning my room. I found a copy of an old student newspaper, one that is now obsolete. In my sophomore year, the paper ran an article of a March Madness style bracket to determine the member of the student body who had most made him/herself into a public spectacle. Quite the controversy. It was interesting to reread the controversial article in question and relive that whole debacle.

Also on this edition of Hoarders: Buried Alive:
a record of "Babar's Birthday Surprise"
a copy of my high school transcript
a list of movies I watched in March of 2008 (17 in the first 17 days alone...)
a yellow recorder

Day Nine

Applying for jobs is exhausting. I'm sick of the number of times I've written my name, primary residence and contact number.

However, probably not as sick as my little sister is right now. Dinner was hard for her. Mom likes to use vegetables straight from the garden. As my sister learned tonight, sometimes little snails get stuck on lettuce even after Mom washes each leaf individually. Ewwwww.

Application count: 25

Rejection

Today was my interview for the teaching position in town. It was also the day I received my first rejection. Well, rejection of this current round of applications. One of my friends at school kept a wall of rejection letters in her library study. It was quite aesthetically pleasing, actually... if not perhaps, the most uplifting of artworks. In any event, I'm not completely disheartened by this rejection. I applied for two positions with this company and was only rejected from one of them. I suppose I can take that to mean I might still have a shot at the other position?

Hobbies/goals for this week:
-put bartending reading into practice (as in actually begin making drinks)
-seriously finish unpacking
-seriously find a part time job (the aforementioned friend was making dog walking flyers last I heard...tempting idea)
-World Cup
-master 3 solid dinner recipes
-make a t-shirt quilt of all those sorority t-shirts I'd never actually wear in public anymore

Application count: 19
Interview count: 1
Rejections: 1

Haircut

My dog received a haircut this morning. A porcine little pup, his longish hair always makes him look a bit more rotund than he actually is. For some as of yet unknown reason, my mom decided to trim some of his hair. But wait. It wasn't a complete trim of all his hair. Just his rear. My poor dog has this short crop of hair on his rump and long hair everywhere else. It's like a poodle cut, but so so much worse. I wonder if dogs can be embarrassed?

Living week to week

I really do save too many things. I have two large plastic tubs beside my bed, filled with various remnants of my college career, that in all honesty should probably just be thrown away. I'm forcing myself to get around to the odious task of actually sorting them into trash/save piles.

Hopefully between the tubs and applications, this week will go by quickly. After all, this weekend is the World Cup! Currently, I believe my parents and brother are going to be out of town at my cousin's college graduation ceremony (not sure yet about his employment status...), leaving my little sister and I to house sit. She just graduated high school and is summer jobless so we've got nothing better to do than plan a WILD PARTY!!!

...Just kidding, Mom and Dad. Figured I'd check and see how often my parents check up on me on this thing.

But seriously, I anticipate a weekend that at least one of my fellow No Luck Clubbers would appreciate- junk food and high def soccer. I'm rooting for USA of course, but realistically rooting for Spain. Iker Casillas captured my attention during the Euro Cup two years ago and never lost it. He's the reason I'm a half hearted Real Madrid fan. I know, I know, Barca is the more legit club since they home grow their talent. Whatever. A No Luck Clubber who shares my appreciation for Casillas sent me a website with "15 World Cup Hotties". Four of them are Real players. So Barca may be more admirable/talented as a team, but Real is the better looking one. Looks aside, the games should be exciting to watch as well. USA vs. England?

However, the truly pressing issue at the moment is my interview tomorrow morning. Nerve-wracking! Some people get stage fright over something as small as presenting in class, but the one thing that really gets my stomach churning is an interview. Worst interview question I ever had?
If you were a body of water, what would you be?
My answer? An ice cube. Needless to say, I didn't get what I was applying for that time.

Day Seven

I hate writing cover letters. Somehow you have to convince someone that you are worth looking at and you have to list some of your qualifications for the job, but yet, don't repeat anything you list in your resume! Because of course, everyone has so many qualifications for everything that they don't bother to list the good stuff in his/her resume already and so have extras to share in the cover letter. Argh. Also, I hate marketing myself. Trying to toot my own horn is difficult.

Application count: 19

Emails

I woke up this morning and finally put my finger on why checking my email has seemed so weird for the last several days. After four years, I no longer receive the daily campus notice from school. I am now considered too old to be bothered with who lost what, what movies are playing on campus, what organizations want volunteers... I've been kicked to the curb so to speak.

High school friends, or lack there of

In high school, I more or less had a one track mind. "Get me out of this place, get me out of this place, get me out of this place." Think Dorothy and the ruby slippers, but the exact opposite meaning. I wanted nothing more than to escape the state and get out and see the world. I've done a fair bit of seeing the world, but as I'm currently back home, I haven't escaped yet. However, since I had tunnel vision about the whole going out of state thing, I didn't really connect with many of my classmates in high school. My group of friends that I would eat with were generally all thinking along the same lines as me- get me out of here. Out of the main group of six or seven of us at my usual lunch table, we all went to different colleges. A surprising feat, honestly. We graduated and dispersed and never looked back.

Which means now, when I'm back at home, I don't really have a group of people to hang out with who are all in the same place as me. The friends I did try and keep in touch with during my college years are all still in college. They're great, but it'd be nice to have a circle of post grads to hang out with and complain about the job market together.

Granted I just might be the fun new kid on the playground after I finish this monster bar tending book I have. Only just now reaching the recipes section and I've already started picking out the ones I want to try and make/learn. Luckily, perhaps due to our wonderful Scotch-Irish heritage, my parents are very supportive of this hobby.

Recipes I want to learn/try (bear with me, I'm still just in the gin section so they're all gin based drinks):
Gin Fizz
Tom Collins
Martini
My Fair Lady
Lady Killer
Bee's Knees
Maiden's Blush

Day Six

At this point, I feel like all I do when I'm bored is submit applications. This most recent application would hopefully propel me towards a future in travel blogging...

Application count: 16

The Joy Luck Club

Of my recent grad friends, three of my closest friends are also engaging in this game called "finding a job". We are all in constant communication with each other, exchanging tales of boredom and respective failure in the job hunt. It's like our own little Joy Luck Club, but I think I might have to rename it the No Luck Club. I was speaking with one of the No Luck Clubbers today, comparing our Friday nights (She spent hers alone in her room watching bad chick flicks and eating various snacks while I spent mine watching the 2010 national spelling bee. Tough to say who had the more uninteresting night.), when she told me quite possibly the most horrifying stories I could hear at this point. My friend's friend, a chemical engineering major, applied to over 100 jobs before she got one. Terrifying. It made me feel even worse about the fact that I slipped up and didn't apply anywhere Saturday (though I forgot to update that I submitted four more on Friday, bringing my application count up to 15). I am going to have to step my game up to accomplish my goal of employment by my birthday.

Throwing this out there, for any and all with the means and interest in helping me- my dream job would be to travel the world and blog about my adventures (and obviously, get paid to do so). I kept a blog from the semester I spent in Sevilla my junior year and wrote over 30,000 words. I had considered printing it off... then I realized I didn't have enough remaining printer ink for that big of a job. So if anyone is looking for a travel blogger, send them my way.

However, the home front has been growing both more and less fun the past couple days. More fun in the sense that I have reconnected with old high school friends and gone out with them, but less fun in the sense that I am feeling very useless in my unemployment. I need some way to occupy my time. Though, I suppose, I could finish unpacking.

Update on the cooking lesson: spaghetti making success. I can now make spaghetti sauce and meatballs. And no, I'm not referring to opening up a jar of Ragu. Crushed tomatoes, onions, garlic, basil... delicious! Let's see if I can remember all the ingredients for the meatballs- ground beef (or maybe chuck?), 1/2 cup bread crumbs, 1 egg, 1 tbsp of onions, 1 tsp salt, some pepper, chopped fresh parsley. Speaking of parsley, dried parsley is more or less the devil incarnate with respect to food. At least, that's the impression I got.

Also: living at home with my younger brother has introduced me to the world of men's body wash. During my shower this morning, I discovered that RedZone makes a body wash called Swagger. Apparently, Swagger smells vaguely like old man and baby powder.

Applications, applications, applications

Thanks to the wonder of the internet, I have just submitted not one, not two, not three, but five more applications. Granted, all within the same company. It's nice when you apply for multiple positions with the same company and all you have to do is fill out one form and hit 'apply' over and over and over again. It would be nicer if someone were to respond to my submissions so far. Can't have everything I suppose.

I feel like all I need to do is get my foot in the door somewhere. One foot, one door. As soon as I have a full time job and have to support myself, I think the world will just kinda slide into place for me. Sure, I don't know the ins and outs of taxes or cooking for myself, but I relish the opportunity to have those challenges. I'm already on my way with the cooking thing. Mom is permitting me to attend cooking "class" this evening while we make dinner.

Tonight's cooking lesson: the perfect spaghetti sauce. Skills I'll practice while making said sauce? Chopping and cutting. Gotta start somewhere. As long as no digits are lost in the process, it should be a success.

Application count: 11

Day Four

My first job interview! Next Tuesday, at 9:30 AM, I will be interviewing for the teaching position in the parochial school here in town. Here goes nothing...

Day Three

My, my, my. What a busy day.

I started off by running an errand to the doctor since, after all, I have nothing better to do. This was followed by a quick trip to the mall where I applied for yet another part-time job to tide me over for the time being (application count of part-time jobs: 4). And then I returned home. Where I submitted more applications. Two applications in with the same company, another fashion company. My philosophy on job hunting is to apply to companies whose products I enjoy. I've accumulated quite a list of products and brands I frequent/enjoy and am making my way down the list. Also, I accompanied my mom on other brief errands throughout the day.

The highlight of the day, however, was a lead on a potential teaching job in a parochial school here in my home town. I have to call the school tomorrow and schedule an appointment/meeting/interview for next week. If I got the job, I would be teaching high school trigonometry. My mother has graciously promised me rent free living for next year if I get the job. I would be responsible for car payments/insurance as well as taking over my own phone bill, but I don't anticipate either being as costly as finding my own place to live. It would be an excellent experience, so I'm hoping that this pans out successfully.

I've been doing some mild soul searching. I've come to recognize that few times in my life compare to the semester I spent abroad. I spent my fall term of my junior year in Sevilla, Spain. More or less, every other weekend was spent in a different city, exploring the world with Europe as my main playground (there was one week long foray into Morocco, a decidedly non European country). That being said, any future career or occupation I have will have to be one that will afford me the opportunity to embark on similar travels and adventures. I have three continents left to explore. My current goal is to save up enough money so that I can do South America and Antarctica in one fell swoop that also permits time to play with penguins. An unemployed girl can dream, I suppose.

Application count: 6.

The Little Things

As miserable as it may be to have to return home at a time when the world is ready to accept me as a full fledged adult member of society, there are a few little things that make up for the self-pity party.

Mom's cooking.
As much as I enjoy cooking and have many of the tools to do so (Mom decided to start giving me various kitchen supplies for every major gift giving event when I entered college. I might be one of the few people my age with my own 17 piece Pyrex glassware set, cheese grater, cutting board, chef's knife, etc.), nothing tastes as good as when Mom makes it. Part of that whole reliving my child hood thing.

The Dog.
I love my dog. Minus my minor allergy to animals, I would love to own a dog someday. However, even if I had my own snazzy apartment somewhere in a building that permitted pets, I doubt I'd be capable of looking after a dog at this point in my life. So I'm cashing in on the dog time I have now.

Big screen high def tv with DVR.
I have a feeling I will appreciate this most in approx. 8 days when the World Cup starts. I never used to understand the appeal of high def until I started watching sports.

The library.
My little sister has a library in her room (complete with colored stickers on books to denote genre etc.). Whenever I want something new to read, all I have to do is go next door. Current reads include Empire of the Sun and The Case for Israel. I've missed pleasure reading.

Day Two, cont.

After waking up at noon (one perk to having no current responsibilities) and leisurely getting ready for the day, I tried to do something productive.
I have so far mailed out all but two of my thank you notes.
I am still organizing my room, but I have made a small dent into the pile consisting of the last 4 years of my life.
Most importantly however, I applied for yet another job.
This time I applied for a retail analyst position with an international fashion company. Sending out these applications has reminded me that the worst is yet to come. The Wait. Waiting for a response, of any kind, from these companies will surely be just as miserable as it is to try and figure out a way to market myself.

I need to get around to finding a job in town. If I do not get a part-time job soon, I will find myself broke and bored. Two terrible things that do nothing to alleviate the pain of each other.

Application count: 4

Day Two

It is currently 12:05 AM and therefore June 2nd. Which makes the application I just submitted online count towards my one a day total. A position for someone with some Python programming experience, a college degree, skills in analysis? Hire me! Not to mention, it's a position with a company with a reputation for being inviting and fun to work for...

Somehow, I seem to find it easier to find and start applications online than clean my room. Go figure.

Application count: 3

Another gem discovered while cleaning/organizing...

I found a collection of poetry that I wrote between 2003 and 2006. I found this acrostic to be particularly insightful into the kind of childhood that I led. It is perhaps a good thing that I decided not to pursue a literary career. At least not one that involves creative writing.

Poems

Padlocks

Or

Enforcement

Means

Security.

Life at home

It is amazing really, the ability I have to accomplish very little in a day.

I have begun the arduous process of moving back home. I have not lived at home since the summer after my freshman year of college. Even then, I was not truly moved in. My room at home is a little used room often referred to in other households as the "guest bedroom". Therefore, I am not comfortable residing in said room for long periods of time. Clearing out an old dresser to move my clothes in feels odd. Even odder is the little row of dress shoes, shoes which I imagine might not be worn again for a very long time, looking a tad forlorn under the dresser.

My friends who are also in the process of moving back home (oddly enough, none of us seem to have any idea what we are doing with our lives and are all capitalizing on the free rent provided by the Mom and Dad Rental Co.) have been discussing how we all seem to belong on the show Hoarders: Buried Alive.

Fun relics discovered include, but are not limited to:

-an unopened box of 3.5" floppy discs, unusable by any relevant computer

-Who's Who in the Bible: An Illustrated Guide

-a Hillary 2008 campaign poster

-American Girl paper dolls

-frog magnet from Costa Rica

-leftover wallet sized senior portraits from high school

-a small pouch containing 1000 Lebanese livres, 2 Bahrainian dinars, 1 Euro

Day One

Day One of the Plan.

I have successfully just submitted not one, but TWO applications to be a health and benefits analyst for a major international consulting firm. Success.

How do I plan on celebrating this monumental step forward in my quest for employment? By writing thank you notes, cleaning my room, putting things in the attic, paying my credit card bill, depositing money in my bank account (should probably do this before I pay my credit card bill actually...), reviewing my French and Japanese and perhaps going to the pool where I will read about bartending. Funemployment has a surprisingly large amount of responsibility attached. Who knew?

Goals for the week:

-Officially move into my parents' house so I don't feel like a guest living out of a suitcase

-Find temporary employment to allow me some form of fun on occasion

-Apply for at least 7 potential careers

Application count for the Plan: 2

The Plan

Who: I am a 20 year old recent college grad from an excellent liberal arts college with a BS in Mathematics, a BA in Spanish and a good GPA. I held leadership positions in various organizations on campus and was a member of a couple honor societies. In short, I should be employable.

What: My birthday is approx. half way through the summer on July 15th. My goal is to be employed, full-time, by that date. If I wanted to get nit-picky, my goal would be to have a job in DC by that date.

When: The Plan kicks off on June 1st and ends when I'm employed. Which is hopefully before July 15th. I want to truly celebrate my 21st.

How: Think Julie & Julia except instead of a recipe a day, I will submit a resume/application a day. I'll update on my progress, as well as provide insight into the life of the unemployed college grad who is living at home with good ol' Mom and Dad. The first week or so might hold updates on my search for a part-time job to tide me over.