Life imitates art?

Its been a wacky couple of days around here. Sunday we went to visit wendy's aunt peggy in San Rafael. It was the nastiest rainy day you could imagine for a trip over a bridge across the bay. The San Rafael bridge is a double decker like the Bay Bridge, and due to the large amounts of construction looks even more rickety. As we traveled east on the lower deck back to the Oakland side of the bay, the rain was blowing in so hard you'd have no idea there were three lanes of westbound traffic suspended 20 feet above our heads. I finally got in a trip to a trader joes, a very cool concept for grocery shopping. But, as you might guess a novel shopping idea brings out huge crowds. It was not a fun trip.
Sunday evening we had some drinks with wendy's other aunt rosita, who typically acts as a go between for wendy and her mom. A cousin, her boyfriend and her parents fresh from Germany were in town visiting, and quickly picked up how uncomfortable I looked in the presence of someone who admits not liking me just because of what color my skin is. Fortunately for me I presented myself well otherwise, so no one else understood what her beef with me was. She looked like a complete ass.
While getting ready to go to rosita's house I happened to be watching the Oscars when Chris Rock passed off an Extremely funny line about guess who's coming to dinner. The timing was Ironic, but BIG PROPS to my mom for exposing me to this movie and the kinds of things I'd be up against later in life.
We thought for a while we would send me home Tuesday or Wednesday, so I spent the whole day monday sufing the job boards. I found an open house at a ajilon finance branch nearby, and decided I'd drop by. I also applied for an analyst job with an unidentified company through a staffing firm. The job was for a Junior Financial Analyst so I thought I'd give it a shot.
This morning I jumped out of bed got all suited up and ran to Pleasonton to meet with an Ajilon rep, I think it went pretty well. They had me take an Excel Test that I totally rocked on and they were impressed. We'll hope for good things from them. I had just walked in the door when the phone rang, and it was the agency I'd applied to yesterday for the junior FA job. Turns out I'm a good fit for it, I have an interview tomorrow at one, I'm sensing a multi-round interview process 1st with the staffing firm and then with the company itself, so not sure how many more delays I'll experience on my journey home.

Well, at least the Sushi is good

I was originally a little turned off on San Leandro because I had encountered really lousy sushi. But on Thursday night I had sushi good enough to cheer me up about yesterdays news. The place is called Sushi Avenue, and is fully decked out to look authentically japanese. The rolls were both creative and huge, so I was suddenly feeling much better about life. To cheer me up even more today Wendy took me to my original favorite San Leandro restaurant Perry's food for the soul (this review is less complimentary than mine, but perhaps improvements have been made in the last year) This is the restaurant that Jennifer Bowden took us to on my first trip here. The greens are delicious and may help me miss mom's cooking just a tiny bit less. (they don't add ham hocks, a big no-no as far as I was concerned.) The final coat of paint went on today, so you can expect to see pictures soon of the completed project. It's safe to say we won't be painting anything for a long time.

Got a plan C?

"So long Stinktown!"


My fate on leaving Tampa was officially sealed today with this email

Jason
The math test did go well. However, we have hired someone who has experience in banking and finance to fill my immediate need. Barbara should be contacting you at some point. The thought is that our Orlando office may be looking for someone in the summer or fall. What are your current prospects and is there anything that I can do to help?
Bob

What are my current prospects? Ha! Thats a good one.

So that officially signifies the begining of contingency plan A.

1. Store anything that won't fit in car
2. Load car with everything else
3. Drive west until Pacific ocean.

I had contingency plan A sealed in a big manilla envelope always thinking that I wouldn't have to open it. I'm not sure whether having such a plan jinxed me or constitutes being prepared.

I wanted to have something interesting to write about here, once again I should be careful what I wish for.

Maybe everything in life should be like my computer

The seafoam incident

He says there are no easy answers. I say he's not trying hard enough!

I thought I'd get back to my roots today and break out a simpsons quote, If I behave well and work hard all day the boss lets me take a break to watch the simpsons. Today we spent absolutely the whole day painting. The first blue coat went on the bathroom and the first green coat went on the kitchen. The first coat of paint looks absolutely nothing like the color we selected, its very very very sea foam green, and not sage green at all. Wendy is paniced, but I have optimistically assured her that it will start to look more like the color she wanted after a few additional coats *fingers crossed!* I'd hate to think we'll have to put another primer coat on the kitchen and start over.

Warning! Gratuitous reminiscing ahead!

Wendy doesn't ever let me stop working, but at least we're safety conscious.

While painting today, I was reminded of how much like my grandfather I really am. I'm a ridiculous perfectionist about home improvement projects and insist on working until finished. I thought about the first time I ever opened a can of paint today. As I fumbled with a screwdriver my grandfather looked on while I struggled, refusing to help. I remember my grandmother saying George help him open it. My grandfather's response: "If it was candy, he'd already have it open." Well, there certainly is something to be said for experiential learning. If not for learning by trying I wouldn't know how to fix anything. Later in life I took pride in letting my grandfather "supervise" repairs around his house, I didn't need the help, but he always appreciated my efforts to be inclusive. I hope someday when I'm very old someone treats me so well.

Passive-Agressive behavior at it finest

Lets start this post by saying Wendy's mom doesn't like me. Deep inside she doesn't like me because I'm a serious threat to take away her control over Wendy. She hides that under the clever old-fashioned guise of racism. She doesn't like that my dad is black. She doesn't like that our children could possibly be darker than their parents. She worries about how difficult their life might be. She worries about how people might look at Wendy. I don't know if she knows I know about this. When she came in last night she managed a half smile and exactly four words to me.
SG: How are you?
JH: Good, How are you doing?
SG: Good (puts head down scurries into spare bedroom not to return except to use the bathroom)

Before that exchange she had a lively conversation with Wendy about how much she hated the new bathroom color including how 60'sish the blue paint looks, and why it wasn't painted white instead.

This morning 10:00 a.m. a text message arrives saying "change the color I don't want to say any more about it its still mine too."

If you'd like, I'll repost the same batroom pic as yesterday, so you can see how hard we're working to grant that request.

By popular demand.

Here is the long awaited picture of wendy's guest bathroom remodel. This started out as a very dark wood stain and after much sanding and priming is much lighter and gives the small bathroom a much warmer and more open feel. Yes I have been reading a lot of design information, No I do not usually describe rooms as feeling warmer.

I Jason, being of sound mind and body:

Just in case something bad happens to me in San Francisco. Get your own Tombstone

Wendy's New Closet

Here is one of the long awaited new pics of wendy's new closet. I really could use some of this stuff at home since my closet is terribly inneficient. I know what you're thinking, and no she is not tall enough to reach many of the top shelves, but that's why she dates someone tall handsome and intellegent. Today officially starts her vacation so expect some before and after pics of the master bathroom and kitchen.

I could learn to love this city.

Yesterday was a flurry of closet remodeling, and I would have gotten wendy's closet finished had they not shorted us on the screws used to install the hanging bars. Expect pictures on the next post. Then we made a rare trip out of the house that did not result in a visit to Lowe's. We ventured in to San Francisco to eat dinner with Wend's friend/co-worker Scott. He's a VIP at this wonderful italian restaurant in North Beach called Tommaso's. Their Cesar salad has an amazing dressing with just the right amount of anchovie. Then we had a veal dish that had veal piccatta rolled up and stuffed with proscuitto and mozzerella cheeze. It was amazing. We split a calzone with similar stuffing ingredients that was just as good, and finished with wonderful tiramisu. Your reward for clearing your plate is assorted cookies and biscotti that you can dip in an italian liqour. It would be the perfect restaurant if it wasn't across the street from Larry Flint's Hustler Club.

10 reasons why I hate closet maid.

I spent my first few hours this morning sending out resumes again, something I'd kind of given up on for a while during the IPA fiasco. There is still one job left out there for me in Sarasota, but I haven't heard anything since math test day. The rest of the day was spent renovating Wendy's closets a task that has left me tired and covered in dust. Its a good thing I like her a lot or I'd take my tired butt home. I found out something cool about California today, you have to be 18 to buy spray paint. Cool, that makes it totally leagal for me to go around tagging up the city since I'm of age. Yet another way I can live out all my San andreas fantasies.

Is the west coast the best coast?

I finally arrived in San Leandro today. Flying standby actually worked out for me for a change. I have decided that I don't like window seats on the airbus A380 though, since it assumes that my shoulders aren't very wide and neither are the person's next to me. This of course was not the case all the way from Tampa to Denver, where perhaps the three broadest-shouldered men on the plane were crammed into three adjacent seats. The only saving grace was that we were in an exit row, so at least our legs were comfortable. It was a rainy gloomy day in the bay area today so getting me and and all my junk in and out of the rain was not exactly a picnic. Wendy and I had dinner at a restaurant called the sushi boat. I loved the concept: a large oval sushi bar in the middle of the room that has a littler river with boats full of sushi on it. when something you want floats by you reach under the sneeze guard to grab it. The sushi was sub par given the large local asian population and proximity to water but some places in Tampa and Sarasota have spoiled me. I had to catch a cab at 5:15 a.m. eastern, and it is now 11:28 pacific so its fair to say that I'm not exactly running on all cylinders anymore. I'm watching wendy enjoy her closetmaid toys from lowes. Maybe she just likes me for my cordless drill.

I smell like a cypress jungle

I had a day today that would seem really busy for a saturday if I actually did anything during the week. I rushed down to make it in time for Youth Sunday rehearsal, and I have no fear that my high school kids will put on a great show tomorrow and make me very proud. It was the usual kind of rehearsal, you should be here when... look up at audience... slow down, the old people won't understand you... that kind of thing. Then it was off to mom and grandma's house to finish up the giant landscaping project. Kind of a shame I got an MBA last year I've determined this week that I could make a good living in moving or in landscaping. So now that their house looks great I can leave for the west coast for a while with slightly less guilt. I finally got to see Ray today, and for the first time in my life I actually said out loud "Now that's an Oscar worthy performance". Based on what authority do I say that you ask? None whatsoever, but I've been a long time Jaime Fox fan, loved his show (even if I did watch mostly to see Garcelle Buvais) But that brings me way off topic. Oh yeah what was the topic? I guess cypress mulch which has me smelling awfully fresh today.

Math Test? Part 2

Me fail english? That's unpossible

I get a random email from the recruiter at the company I took the math test for yesterday. It says "We are anxious to move you through to our next round, but we cannot do so without the results of this test." So I call in and say well, I did take the test didn't you get it. The answer was yes, so I decided to be brave and ask how I did. The answer I got was a less than enthusiastic "O.K. not the best but certainly not the worst we've ever seen." She then asked if I'd experienced any trouble. I said yes, it kicked me off one time. She said oh, well then I'll delete your score and you can take it again. I of course assumed that it was reactive like the GRE or GMAT, so I would simply see a different set of questions based on how I was doing (guessing) on the test. Not so however, It was Exactly the same test!!! Well lets just say I was confident about every answer this time and it took me a mere 32 minutes as opposed to the 51 from yesterday. So now I either look like a real genious or someone who doesn't learn at all from his mistakes, I'm not sure which.
...
Wendy and I have shifted our sights towards London instead of Frankfurt. Both of these will make the Where's Jason? page useless since I was only counting on domestic travel when I created it. Yeah, I know... Quitcher whinin.

Math test?

A condition of employment with the big last chance gig is a very exciting math test. I'm not sure how my ability to look at a company's financial statements and determine what debt instruments it should use to fund future capital expenses is affected by my ability to find the perimeter of a 5 sided polygon given side lengths and angles, but somehow it tells the company how smart I am.
...
I actually had a chance to IM long lost MBA classmate Laure. She ended up working in HR in Amsterdam. Wendy and I are trying to fit Amsterdam into the big vacation plans. Not having a job and European vacations generally do not mix, but you can get a pretty good deal on a 2 country rail pass which would allow us to see Germany and Belgium/Netherlands/Luxemburg for only $280 a piece. Add that to a reasonable discount on a flight from SFO to Frankfurt, and its not oppressively priced.
...
Explaining to people that I might not come back from San Francisco for a while is kinda fun, I'm basically buying a one way ticket and hoping for the best job-wise. If you look closely you'll see that I removed the link to the company that allegedly was going to make my dreams come true. It keeps me from spamming everyone who provides an email if I can't visit their site.

So, Got a plan B?

So, I waited for a whole month for the famous BP to call me back and hand me a job, and the moment he got hold of my resume he immediately decided I did not have enough experience despite the glowing reccomendation I got from 2 key company insiders. So I'm down to one big hope before I take off for the west coast. My contact TC called me yesterday, to ask if I'd reached BP yet, and my answer was oh yeah, I talked to him alright, and all these stories you've been telling me about how i'm definitely in, its a done deal, we'll set you up for training were B.S. since our boy BP wielded the big hammer on me in the end. So now I'm down to one final hope of staying here if it doesn't work, I leave for SF on Monday to return someday with some experience and a real job.

Neglecting my blogging duties

"Run for Congress? But I hate the government, they've been on me like hump on granny"

Yes it has been terribly long since I have posted, fortunately for you, the reader, not much has happened in the last two weeks. I still don't have a job. Allegedly that may be a thing of the past tomorrow. I finally got to the guy who doesn't return calls and we're supposed to chat tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. Chicago time. I have heard this story from him before, so i won't be holding my breath just yet. I spent a weekend in Gainesville, a place that is terribly uncomfortable for the Auburn Tiger in me. Other than that, its just been the same old couch jockeying. I'm definitely ready to head off to San Fierro--sorry, San Francisco. I spent way too much time last week playing Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. It made me lose large blocks of time which eased the pain of not going to work. My only concern is that if I actually end up in the bay area I will forget that I'm not allowed to drive like I'm playing the game. (Don't ask me about my last trip to miami after Vice City)

What's wrong with this picture?

This is me in very very foreign territory. Pointing to the exact location where Frank Sanders made "THE CATCH" in 1994. I actually am not sure if this is the correct endzone corner or not, but it seemed like a good idea since I had to be there