How did all these cob webs get in here?

Yes I know, It has been far too long since I last posted. Lets take a look at what a day in the life of Jason looks like.
4:30 a.m. the alarm goes off for the first time. I generally snooze until 4:45
4:45 a.m. Face the reality that I really do need to get up, shower and dress.
5:30 Bag check: Keys, phone, BRO appoved shirt, 2 lunches (one for each job) BRO name tag, MOHP name tag, Bart ticket, and 1.50 for bus.
5:35 Walk (run if later) to bus stop
5:47 Bus arrives
6:01 a.m. Arrive Bart Station
6:08 a.m. Get on Train heading north
6:21 a.m. Train arrives at station in Oakland
6:23 a.m. Pay 1.25 for bagel and if late in the week buy coffee
6:30 a.m. Arrive at office begin work
11:30 a.m. Lunch I usually walk down to the steps of oakland city hall where there is a litle ampitheater at which people gather for lunch (pictures next week)
12:15 p.m. back to work
2:00 p.m. Leave MOHP
2:14 p.m. Board train headed south
2:31 p.m. Arrive Bart station
3:00 p.m. Begin work at BRO
7:30 p.m. Dinner time
10:30 p.m. Finish work at BRO wait for W to leave work
11:00 p.m. W leaves work calls me on phone, this is usually our longest sustained discussion of the day. Somehow we're back to having a phone relationship.
11:30 p.m W arrives at BRO
11:45 p.m Arrive home. briefly check email, phone messages, pack up lunch for tomorrow, iron if necessary and get in bed before 12
12:00 a.m. crash and burn the alarm is only four and a half hours away
I'm open to suggestion about where to fit in a post there.

only 6 hours of work? what gives?

Today I'm enjoying a rare relaxing evening. Yes, I did walk out the door at 6:00 a.m., but I get the rest of the evening to spend curled up in the living room with my old slacking partner Calvin the dog. He's in town until tomorrow. Things are starting to look up at the MOHP. I came in trying so hard to impress that I kind of wound myself up too tightly. But just in the nick of time, with the other temp who trained me out of town, I figured out how to produce a report that had baffled me for three days. The process involves SAP, Access, and Excel, and takes about 2 hours for someone who knows what they're doing, so i ended up spending most of the today and a good portion of friday afternoon on it. Now that I've got it down, i get to do it all over again tomorrow. My immediate supervisor seems to think pretty highly of me and has already admitted that she hopes I stick around since my personality seems like a good fit. Apparently regular turnover in the 2 temp positions is to be expected, but she's rooting for me to stick around a bit. That of course sounds like a great plan to me. So now I can add to my resume production of daily reports using the above mentioned programs, which makes it sparkle just a little bit more. I really like the feel of working there, I take the train into the heart of a big city from the suburbs, work in a tall building (24 stories) and return to a tail wagging dog who just wants me to pay attention to him. I'd say I have it pretty good right now. Things are still good at the BRO too, except that the last bus from there leaves at 7, which leaves me to either take the 3 mile walk from bart, or to wait until W makes her way back across the bay which usually doesn't happen until an hour after I'm done working. But if I continue to have this many jobs I won't be that far away from some meager transportation of my own. Now back to resting.

This is what I've been waiting a year for?

Tuesday was supposed to be my first of three whole days off, but that changed real fast. On monday my rep from the newest temp agency called and asked if I could come in Wednesday. Wanting to triple my salary sooner rather than later, I of course said yes I could. Unfortunately W and I had planned to make a day of it, since we didn't know when our next day off together would be, so we had to scrap that plan. Tuesday morning at 8:45 the phone rings, and its the BRO asking if I can come in at 10:00 I said yes, wanting to acquire the cash while I had the day off. My day was highlighted by someone filling out a survey card saying that "Jason is handsome, courteous and efficient" You should have seen the cheezy grin on my face the rest of the day. I worked my first 8 hour shift there and was exhausted but still found myself awake at 2:00 a.m. For most of the past 6 months that would have been no big deal. But today was my first day at the MOHP. I felt like I was dragging about for the better part of the afternoon, and will have to work hard to continue to impress there. Most of the people that I talk to think that the person with whom I interviewed typically under-estimates the amount of time temps will be needed, so I should expect a pretty lengthy stay as long as I'm happy and cooperative. (or as I have been described, handsome, courteus and efficient) I'm learning the job from a guy who's going on vacation next week, so I have to have it down by the end of the week before he leaves. He's another new MBA looking to get started, and the next supervisor up from him is another MBA. So there are a lot of us running around there, and at least I'll get an MBA sympathy vote if I ever am fighting for my continued work there.
So I'm really really tired now, since I've now been working for 7 days straight. I'm not due for a day off any time soon, so I have to throw myself into better sleeping habits soon or face consequences I'm not willing to put in print here. I woke up to a dark and stormy morning today, which combined with some mechanical trouble down the track left the trains running late and absolutely jammed. My building is right above the BART station which means that I didn't even have to go out in the rain to get from the Train to the office, not too shabby. W was gracious enough to give me a ride to Bart at 7:00 a.m. despite the fact that she had the day off.
I get one more evening off, and then friday comes the big 14 hour day. Wish me luck!

This really is a nightmare

Yesterday I was scheduled to only spend 4 hours at the BRO, but I am apparently doing a good enough job that I got asked to stay an extra three and change. I got home exhausted but spent a big portion of the night dreaming about sending people through my checkout lane. It was not a good nights sleep. I think its time for my first ever blog rant:
/begin rant

1. If you shop at my store and you come in my lane, take the stuff out of your cart and put it on the belt, that's what its there for. I don't have time for you to take things out of your cart one at a time while you watch your total climb steadily.
   
2. If you are paying with credit or debit, the card reader is sitting right there. Don't wait until you see the total before beginning to dig for your wallet.
   
3. If you just had your check cashed and have an enormous wad of bills, start unraveling them before I'm finished with your items. No one else wants to watch you spread your money out all over the counter.
4. I know, you don't want to carry around your change. Well, do us all a favor and don't stand here for ten minutes trying to count out 97 cents. We all have better things to do.
5. There are scanners every 15 feet in the store if you can't figure out how much something costs, take it to one of them, don't waste my time with it.
   
6. Be decisive. If you think you don't want something put it back where it came from don't bring it to me and admit that you're flaky.
7. Why do I care about these things? From the moment I scan your first item I'm being timed. The computer knows the number of items and the relative difficulty of packaging them, and calculates when the transaction could be finished. It does not stop ticking until the transaction is completed. So if I bust my butt bagging your stuff but you spend 5 minutes fumbling with pennies or the credit card machine, guess who gets blamed. That's right, the cashier sitting on his MBA suddenly looks lazy and uninitiated.
   

/end rant

Thank you, now that I've gotten that out of my system I feel much better. On a much more positive note, my real job at the MOHP should start on Thursday. I can't wait to have a nice relaxing sit down at a computer job. Yes I know, I will probably eat those words some day, but what fun is life if you don't poke fate with a pointy stick every now and then.

My cup runneth over

So thats how this is going to work? The minute I sign up at the Big Retail Outlet (BRO) the phone starts ringing. One of those phone calls has come through and I am officially fielding an offer from the Manufacturer Of Household Products. That means on many days I will be arriving at the MOHP at 7:00 a.m. working until 2 and then scrambling off to the BRO to work from 3:00 to 10:00. The best part part is they are 20 minutes apart on BART, and both within easy walking distance of a station. Dress at the MOHP is business casual so I will require a minor wardrobe change during my free hour, but other than that it sounds like a quick way to make up for not working for 5 months. When I talked to the guy at the temp agency he laughed when I told him the assignment might only last 3 weeks, saying it is never that short and they always need someone to do this job. So the threat of it only lasting 3 weeks may not stand up but either way I pick up a qulity experience. Its my last day home alone before W returns from Vegas. Its a good thing we live at the same place or we might not see each other very much for a while. She intends to come back and pick up some hours and I have (in my best jamaican accent) "Two Jobs Mon". That's right, I'm no longer a Lazy good for nothin'. To make this deal even more interesting I might even try to pick back up the personal training class teaching. I did spend $2oo on study guides for it, I should at least work enough to get that back. And yes you have done the math correctly, that would give me "Tree Jobs mon!"

There's always a catch

I barely managed to get out of bed on time for my interview this morning, catching the last train to San Francisco that would give me more than one minute to find my destination. I walked in right at 9:30 breathing a little hard and went through my interview. I apparently presented myself well enough and managed the Access and Excel tests well enough that I was passed on to a manager at the big household products manufacturer for a phone interview. The time was set for 4 O'clock so I waited around the house anxiously until then. At 4:30 the call finally arrived and I think I presented myself well again. The job is only supposed to last for 3 weeks which would mean burning my bridges at the Big Retail Outlet (BRO)would be a bad idea. So we may have worked it out where I could work from 7 to 2 and then head off to the BRO. I should know something by Friday. Tomorrow its off to my full time job or at least 4 hours worth of it.

Now the phone rings?

Yesterday W and I spent a really fun afternoon at Peggy's. I slaved over a hot grill while the girls chatted and watched TV. The menu for the afternoon: Grilled Portobello mushrooms topped with tomatoes and cheese, Grilled baked potatoes and corn, some pesto pasta and a great piece of Flank steak that had been marinating for 2 days in soy sauce, ginger, mirin, sesame oil, hot chili oil and sugar. I ran the grill out of gas just before the steak was ready so it came off just a touch rare which was no problem for those of us with good taste. Tuesday W got to take off for Vegas, but my distinct lack of cash prevented me from tagging along. The big retail outlet has already to put me work, I had orientation for 4 hours tonight. So now I'm home blogging after a hard day at work. Ahhh, that feels good to say. But, filed under when it rains it pours; My temp agency called at 9 this morning to see if I was available, I said yes just in case the job was great, so I might get an interview Thursday. Within 15 minutes my new contact at the medical company called to ask if I could fax over another copy of my resume. Since I was online I decided to drop by and see my friends at monster. I found a good looking job through a Temp agency specializing in Finance. I applied and within the hour a rep called to set up an interview for tomorrow. Yes this is the same phone that didn't ring at all last week. At least I'm one day closer to a paycheck, thank goodness!

Can you hear that...

That, dear reader, is the sound of a house down to just me and the dog. Gone are noisy teen/parent, teen/teen, teen/twentysomething, parent/parent "discussions". Now its just me and Calvin, and he's curled up in a tight ball at my feet, anxiously awaiting the next time I manage to peel myself out of the chair. It is a cool quiet day here with a breeze that occasionaly wafts in some barbeque flavors from a nearby condo. My Grilling day is tomorrow, since Tom "volunteered" us to Barbeque at Peggy's . He was willing to spring for the food before he left, and I don't require much arm twisting to go use someone else's grill, so its a task that I'm looking forward to. Its a good thing peggy approves of me, since this will be my 3rd trip there in the last 7 days. Yesterday we were there to fix a screen door and repair some sprinklers. We took off in the late afternoon and grabbed some dinner at Spengers in Berkley. I had a crabmeat stuffed salmon dish that was absolutely delicious, but after spending having $21 spent for me on an entree, I hate to leave hungry. It was, shall we say, diminuitive. I loved the atmosphere though and the service was excellent. I'd definitely go back if my intention was to impress. After dinner we took a wacky rolling tour of Oakland including a look at the home office of the company I recently found a contact within. I heard from Mike and Matthew about the car today. Apparently it checked out and will live on now with a CD player and a horn that actually works (2 things I always planned on doing something about but never quite got to). Well calvin thinks I should quit with the computer and play with him, and I can't say no to that face.

At least it sprays a little Jason Repellant on the couch

I went for my interview on thursday to the big national retail outlet and after about half an hour of convincing the manager that I really did need a job and that I wasn't going to go nuts with all this education going to waste I was made a conditional offer. ( I had to go pee in a cup before it was official) Amazingly enough I will be getting paid less than what I made my first year at HealthSouth. That means in 5 years I've gone backwards on the career ladder. The manager couldn't make me any promises but said "I think you and I will both be dissapointed if in 30 days you're still only a cashier. I expect no trouble from my drug test, so that means I should be going in for orientation next week.
Friday I got dragged around the outlet mall for 2 painful hours while the girls shopped til they dropped. Then we headed out for lunch at in-n-out for lunch. We've been craving burgers and the delicious fries from there for a while, our healthier lifestyle prohibited that kind of indulgence. Since I didn't have anything else on the books Friday I took off the family to beautiful Petaluma for a big friends and family party. Tom and I got assigned grilling duties which we gladly accepted. We Grilled up the best looking batch of New York strips and peppers that you've ever seen. Tom knows gas grill settings, and I have a sixth sense for when for when steaks are just the right combination of warm and pink in the center and our combination worked to perfection. I even picked up a hot job lead from someone who works at a company I've been sending resumes to for months now, more on that to come. W had to work so I had to fend for myself at the party a little, but I have been very much accepted by them which makes things very easy. Today I'm dropping of W to carpool and then its back to Peggy's to fix a screen door. The G family leaves tomorrow for vegas, so things will finally be a little normal around here again. If i'm not working next week I might sneak down there for some fun, but we will see.

I owe you some posts anyway

I managed to burn through my 10 free hours of Netzero internet service pretty early last week which prevented me from making any posts at all. After recovering from cedarkirk, I spent the rest of the week putting everything I own in suitcases or boxes to fly to CA or sit in storage. W arrived Wednesday morning and we snuck in a final trip to samurai blue (officially dubbed "our restaurant") and caught Kicking and screaming at the theater. Thursday we had dinner with mom at the Madfish Grill where I ordered the firecracker shrimp. I enjoy spicy food, but it was definitely one of the hottest meals I'd ever eaten. They downsized their desserts so that you can order several and sample but I still only wanted the white chocolate bread pudding. Friday was the spaghetti dinner and raffle for the Cathryn Yvonne Herron Scholarship fund. Saturday I was up early to Play in the CYH golf scramble. Myself, Todd Y, Mark S. and Marks friend who's name suddenly eludes me played a respectable (especially for us) 3 over. I managed to be fairly typsy by lunchtime from the black Russians Todd snuck in a flask, but had to pull myself together long enough to say a few words about Cathryn during lunch. The entire time I was thinking to myself... Please don't slur, please don't slur. Saturday afternoon was the tea party for W's sister Mel's graduation. I ate my first ever scones and found them to be irresistible. Fortunately Felicity had whipped up thousands of them. Sunday I spent most of the day doing the final apartment clean and pack, and Monday we returned triumphantly to CA.
Tuesday We cleaned house all morning preparing for W's family to visit. There are now six of us jammed into a 2 bedroom condo. After W went to work this morning Tom and I went out for breakfast at a little place called Pedro's where I had a delicious chorizo and egg burrito. My temp agent has some good things on the horizon and I have an interview tomorrow at 10 a.m. with a certain national retail chain. Las night I was responsible for dinner for the 6 of us. I made a soy ginger salmon that I cooked in a parchment paper pouch, cashew crusted halibut, biscuits with green onions spinach and cheese, steamed broccoli and herbed new potatoes with herbs fresh from our staircase. I tried to cut my finger off with my giant Chinese chefs knife, if my figernail hadn't slowed the knife down I probably would have visited the ER yesterday. So today its back to the application grind, I'm definitely glad to have internet back.

The end of an Era, Part II

I finally managed to empty out my apartment last week. I don't want to talk about how many times I went up and down the three flights of stairs or how many trips I took to the Trash compactor that was inconveniently located as far away from my apartment as was physically possible. If you would have been a fly on the wall here for the last three years you would have seen the hangout for the Graduate business assocition, with 20 or more packed into this space for wild games of Balderdash. You would have seen me sitting on the couch emailing thousands of fruitless resumes, Several people who had one to many at Jason's Bar and Grill and spent the night on the futon, Many arguments between me and the ex who thought it was OK to keep living there weeks after we broke up and the occasional good friend who dropped by to talk about life and share a mudslide. The new management (who renamed the complex "The Park at Stonebrook") is really making the place nice, so soon I won't even recognize it. I will however, have some great memories here. 

The end of an Era, Part I

Moving to California meant that I had to sell my car. This was the first and only car I have ever purchased, so you could say I have some special attachment to it. The really good news is, the car stays in the family. I sold it to my Big Brother Mike, for his son Matthew. So I at least get to visit it on my return trips to Florida. Its a '98 and had 109k miles on it, so it wasn't exactly new, but it still looks great inside and out and refuses to stop running. My friend the sunfire safely delivered me home from many many many trips down to Sarasota, was occasionally crammed with intoxicated Graduate students coming home from ybor or channelside. It survived a nasty crash on the way to Tammy and Justins Wedding, Had can of coke explode in the front seat, had one particular classmate throw up both in it, and while leaning out of an open door while still moving. It once made the trip from Sarasota to Tampa and back twice in one day but more often than not just went from my apartment to the business building at USF and back. I'll miss the old girl, shes been an important part of my life for the last 5 years, and I hope she serves Matt for at least that many more.  

Sleepwalking through the days

If I thought I was tired for my last post-red eye post, today is even much worse. This weekend was my church's Cedarkirk family camp which would be fun if the game of brain fry had never been invented, but is cranked up tons by having it available to play. This year saw the biggest crowd for the game we'd ever had, and was by far the most fun. I walked around zombie-like for most of the weekend because of jet lag, but it helped that I had rock star popularity because I had come from so far away just to play the game. Someone asked me to estimate the number of times I'd been to cedarkirk, and the best conservative estimate I can come up with is right around 30. So the decision to come back given the opportunity was not the slightest bit difficult. And its not like I don't have other stuff to do while I'm here. I actually managed to get some work done at the house this evening. All my home theater speakers are now bubble wrapped and ready for travel, and the waterbed frame has been completely dismantled. I found a great way to drain the mattress that I wish I'd known the last time I moved, it is actually completely empty and carriable. I have an interview the day after I get back to California with a store at which I'd applied, knowing they'd have good advancement opportunities. So hopefully I won't go to much longer without a paycheck. Time for sleep, I've got way too much to do tomorrow.

372 reasons why not to take the red eye

I'm tired no doubt about it, my flight from oakland to washington dulles was not the slightest bit fun. I sat in the very last row that did not recline. I sat in the aisle, so for the most part I knew the moment someone went in or out of the lavatory. I won't have much time for a nap. Since the post office decided not to put my mail forwarding request in, I didn't know my cable was up for getting shut off, I figured I'd get 60 days before it got cut and I could pay it when I got back. Ooops, no tv no high speed internet. Please stab me now! Especially since my playstation even lives in san leandro. This could be a very long week, I don't even have radio. yes the sound you hear is me screaming. But its not all bad, I made it here, at minimal expense and with minimal hassle. I can survive a few days in this apartment alone with my thoughts. The question is will the world survive after I've been alone with my thoughts for that long?

Jason had a little lamb...

This is Calvin, doing exactly what he's done for the last 3 days. He followed my every move, hoping that my next action would be to feed him, pet him, take him for a walk or play with him. He gets awfully jealous when I lavish W with attention, since he believes that's less time I spend paying attention to him. We stayed pretty busy all weekend, which made him sad every time we left. His strategy for keeping me here: Sitting on my feet when I try to put shoes on. On Friday we went to see Aunt Peggy who is looking quite healthy these days. She cooked so much food for us. Saturday we went to Rosita's for dinner to celebrate Nina's birthday we then cooked up the most delicious enchiladas for W to take to work. Sunday it was just us boys at the house riding out a nasty rainy day. Today I wandered off to Oakland to a new temp agency.This one happens to be one floor above the other one I've been to, so we'll see if they do a better job. I'm fired up about my triumphant return to Tampa this week, but I have sooooooo much to get accomplished. It would sure be nice if I had a job to come back to next week. Just when I was starting to feel a little down I got a great encouraging comment from my little cousin Lyndsey. I'm inspired by such mature faith in such a young lady.

I need one of these for Christmas

Today I spent some more quality time with Aunt Rosita's new kitty Prasha. He is actually cuter in person, its scary. We ate Rouladen, drank wine and laughed for hours. And for the record, our pie was delicious.

Too bad you can't be here for dessert!

This is the chocolate meringue pie W and I made for Nina's Birthday, It has a home made pastry crust and is the most chocolate-y thing you have ever seen. It represents quality comfort food since I found out yesterday that the Jerks at the company W works for do not intend to hire me. Why you ask? For the same reason no one else has hired me. I refuse to write the reason here again, feel free to read the archives. I had a run in with the wicked witch of the north yesterday, she dropped off Calvin because she's in town for the weekend, and was of course less than pleased about finding me at the house. TS I say.

(Fondly?) Remembering my athletic glory days

Today I went for the first run I've been on since approximately may of 1998. Worrying about not having a job and not doing much during the day have been causing me to not sleep very well lately, so I thought I'd throw my sleep system a curveball and get some aerobic exercise. A run gave me a good solid 20 minutes to think about the last time I actually went running. I was 20 years old, 3 years into a college education and assumed that knew just about everything there was to know in life. I made repeated attempts to prove that I was smarter than my track coach, and he proved me wrong by asking me not to return to the team the next fall.
At the time I could run a 15:02 5k, a 4:08 1500m, a 1:58 800m and a :56 400m. Nothing Olympic caliber or even scholarship worthy but it kept me off the streets while I was in school. I have finally reached that point in my life where fitness actually takes work, and getting out for a run is simple and efficient. So I had to get over my grudge against Coach A and just get out and do something. I know he has long since moved on from Auburn, so I should have long since moved on from my anti-running anger.

Settling back in for a little bit of normal

We spent a solid chunk of the weekend cooking or entertaining, so it almost feels good to be back in a chair glued to the laptop. Saturday we rolled out of bed pretty late and had much work to do around the house before company arrived. We squoze in our grocery shopping for the week including another trip to the Chinese store. We're still shocked by how cheap some of the stuff is, and bought up veggies like we expected a famine soon. We settled on serving seasoned ground beef, spinach & feta, and brie inside phyllo dough for appetizers. We thought we'd make 2 things for dinner and serve them over rice, so the winners were spare ribs in black bean sauce, and chili prawns. On impulse we also picked up some lumpia which are like a deep fried taste of heaven. After chowing down on all our appetizers and the Mojitos we had to cut down to one entree for dinner. Going with the chili prawns over rice. I am definitely proud of my effort on this one and have learned the wonder of those little skinny dried chinese red peppers. Sunday W's friends Michael and Cyrus dropped by for some more appetizers and mojitos (we invested heavily in fresh mint and limes) and then we went to Favorite India for dinner. They owed W a birthday meal, and we were glad to get exposed to a few other dishes since we always order the same thing when we go. We had about half an hour to ourselves before Nina and Neto arrived. We entertained them for a while and even let Nina take part in our Sunday evening cooking spectacular. W started up a big old pot of veggie tofu curry (with some chicken on the side) and I finally got to the spare ribs. After throwing out all of our company and finishing all our coking I finally got over my grudge against the DVR, since it had 2 new simpsons episodes and a brand new Family Guy waiting for me. Life is good.
Painful realization of the week. I graduated one year ago yesterday. This has been an interesting year.

Picture make up day

My Camera Cable finally reappeared today, so here are the pictures I've been promising.


Devi brought us Mauritian rum, and my new motto is: when life gives you rum; make Mojitos. On the plate is the delicious phyllo dough filled with brie that the ladies made while I was cooking

Great view from the 3rd deck on the right field line. In the background, the disaster wating to happen Oakland Bay Bridge 

The view from our seats before the game 

This is the herb garden picture I promised you a couple of weeks ago 

Walking is for suckers

I finally figured out how to use the bus system today, the stops that go directly to and from Bart are compellingly close, and spending $1.50 to take the bus is much better than showing up some place wet from rain or breaking a sweat. I wandered around the city looking for a short term retail job today, my choices are Target, Ross, Marshalls, or Office depot. And coming soon to the nearby (next Bart station south) bayfair mall.... a Bed Bath and Beyond. Of course W thinks if I get a job there, I might get a bill every 2 weeks instead of a paycheck. I had an MBA classmate who got into the management program at Target, and loved it, so it might be worth a try. My contact at the temp agency assures me I'll hear from him on Monday about a job that someone's interested in me for. I'm sure at this point he's just ready to have me stop calling him. If I continue to not have a job for one more week, I'll just standby my way back to FL a few days before Family camp and standby to Cali after the golf tournament. That is unless the big Monday interview pans out by next week. A friend of W who is from Mauritius is coming to visit us on Saturday, so I'm going to attempt authentic Mauritian food. It borrows heavily from Indian food, so it should be something I can handle.

Because it's what people do here

Yesterday we went to check out a Dim sum place in San Leandro called D.T. Dim sum and Tea. I had never eaten dim sum before, but I had heard that since I live near and hang out in San Francisco it was a requirement that I try it soon and then eat it regularly thereafter. I knew to expect lots of little dishes mostly of a dumpling nature, kind of like Chinese Tapas. The food was really good, and we got way more than we could eat in one sitting for $15. Then I had my first experience with a Pearl drink. Its like a Tapioca pudding smoothie with the biggest tapioca pearls you've ever seen. You get it with this giant straw so that you can drink it and watch as the pearls alternate with the smoothie. Ours was yummy mango, and was rich and very filling. Next door to the restaurant was a Chinese grocery store that I had been eyeballing for a few weeks now. Well, it was like paradise. The veggies were fresh, and cheaper than we'd been paying the jerks at Safeway. We couldn't resist picking up a big bag... Of.... Say it with me now..... REALLY Loud.... And with no teeth.... BOK CHOOOOOIIIII!!!!! (ahhh, only 2 weeks until Brain Fry time) that I later stir fried in my wok. We picked up a few Chinese sauces too, and a giant Chinese chef knife that I snapped up for $10!!! I'm telling you this thing cuts through anything with a ridiculous amount of precision. They have live black sea bass still swimming in the tank, and live crabs, and an impressive selection of lobsters that are priced extremely reasonably by local standards. (Its a damn shame when I can find a lobster bargain, but can't afford to put gas in a car to go buy it.) I found a show on the science channel yesterday about the construction of the new Oakland bay bridge. And suddenly I am very very afraid of traveling on the old one. It was built in the 30's and the show made it pretty clear that if the '89 quake had lasted 10 more seconds some really bad stuff might have happened. They seemed to imply that they're racing to finish the new bridge before the next big one, since its only a matter of time. Its fair to say that the next time I go across it I'll have difficulty not holding my breath. Not that I'm entirely comfortable inside Bart's transbay tube, but at least I know its a far more recent addition to the landscape.

So now I wait

My interview yesterday was by far the most quality lead I've had in a while, So its fair to say It's going to be a long 2 weeks of waiting for a decision. I'm still feeling the urge to do something in the meantime, and I keep hoping the temp agency will bail me out on that. I'm due to call the recruiter again tomorrow, to see if I can hustle him along a little. Thursday I'll break down and go to plan C, the outlet mall in San Leandro. Its starting to get close enough to the time I go back to Florida its going to be difficult to arrange the whole thing. Today Calvin Left, so there's nobody here to keep me company all afternoon. Nobody to stare at me when I eat or watch every move I make all day. It makes me seem a lot less important. The wicked witch and rosita came in the door together today, and poor rosita was just embarrassed that the wicked witch would not even say hello. Rosita gave me a big hug and we small talked about Prasha. The wicked witch managed to acknowledge my presence when she needed to know where something was, and a half hearted goodbye, but that was it for our interaction today. 1 day down, 13 to go.

Stupid DVR!

I'm finally getting some time to blog today because W is recording 2 shows I can't stand. When you record 2 things at once, you're forced to watch one of them. Today's TV abomination I'm forced in to watching. "I married a princess". Its on Lifetime, I think that's all I need to say about it.
Well, lets get to the important stuff first. I knew today was going to be a long day when the application packet never arrived in the mail on Saturday as planned. That meant I had no Idea with whom I was meeting today, I had only been given a person's name and number to call if something went wrong. Not knowing where to go seemed like a good enough excuse to call, so I dialed it for the first time at 8:30 this morning. I got a busy signal. I dialed it at least 10 times before considering other options. A faint voice in my head told me maybe the last digit of the number was 6 and not 0, and the faint voice was right. That bought me the correct persons voicemail. She returned my call after 20 anxious minutes and instructed me how to get from where I was to the meeting place. I had to fill out a huge application that should have taken up a good portion of my weekend, but instead had to be done in the hours before my interview. Next I briefly met with my liaison who reviewed the information for clarity and accuracy, and who briefly prepped me for the interview. Thanks to my coaching session on Friday I was far more prepared for my interview today than I would have been otherwise. Some of the behavioral questions were actually quite difficult and included many details that had to be written down and addressed. It was not fun, but I think I performed admirably, considering how flustered I'd been all morning. While waiting in the lobby Fed ex called me to ask me what my address was, they'd attempted delivery on Saturday, but the only note said wrong address. There was nothing wrong with the address they had, and I'm not sure why they chose not to call on Saturday if there was a question. I am told I was the first candidate brought in, and it could take up to 2 weeks to make a decision. *Sigh*
We finally broke down and snuck out for dinner on Saturday, at our favorite sushi place, Sushi Avenue. Our sushi was delicious, and they even gave us some deep fried albacore on the house. It would have been delicious for $20, so you can imagine how sweet it tasted at that price. It was definitely time to celebrate since I'd scored an interview and a part time job in a 3 day span.
Sunday we visited Aunt Rosita to play with her new Bengal kitty Prasha, I found out I miss the rumblenator a whole lot more than I've been letting on. If you didn't know any better you'd swear this thing was a mini-leopard. It is the cutest thing you ever saw. At the store the night before we decided it would be nice if we brought him a present, so I picked out a furry octopus on an elastic string that you could hang over a door. Prasha tugged on this thing until he was plum tuckered out, took a nap while we were there, and we are told as soon as he woke up he went right back at it.
We had to run around a little bit after that, because I wanted some quick reading material to refresh my memory about some accounting things. (I learned my lesson from being dumbfounded by simple accounting questions at my Virgin interview and decided I should refresh my memory a little bit.) Of course I didn't field a single accounting question all day today. While we were out we spent a disproportionate amount of time an a Bed Bath and Beyond looking at stuff we might someday buy if I ever start earning a paycheck. We wanted to get one more meal out while we had a chance, so we went to an On the border. Neither of us had ever been to one before, but we will be back.
2 more thoughts for today in this rather long winded post. 1. Tomorrow is calvin's last day here, the wicked witch of the north is returning to pick him up. I sure will miss his company during the day. 2. My stuff arrived for the part time job today, its going to be a ton of reading and studying, here's rooting for multiple choice on the test.

I'd lose my head if it wasn't glued on tightly

Lately I've been losing track of things, a lot. It started with a wallet my first week here that managed to wander its way into the pocket of a duffel bag. Next was a set of keys that turned up 5 days later in the crack of a chair. Last night it was a file folder full of stuff I need for an interview (more on that in a minute) and this morning I suddenly can't find my camera cable. Which really ticks me off because I have some great pictures I took at last nights Giants/Brewers game. W's friend Scott had an extra ticket to the game and invited me to tag along. This killed a couple of birds with one stone, since I got to catch a game there and I learned how to transfer from Bart to Muni. The game wasn't very good, the Giants lost 6 to 1 to a brewer team coming in on a 7 game losing streak. I had a hot dog and a beer and despite being cold from the wind whipping in off the bay, I enjoyed myself a lot. After the game we met up with W's boss Audrey to sit down and discuss the interview I have on Monday with their company. The finances at "the company" are not exactly fabulous so both W and I working there would mean having all of our eggs in a less than stable basket. But its exactly the kind of job I'm looking for and I got some good hints about what to expect from Audrey. Keep your fingers crossed for me around 1:00 pacific time Monday, something great could be happening for me.
Exciting news regarding the blog today: I finally reached the top of a search engine! If you do a Yahoo! Search for "Chinese pinball machine" Link number one is my riveting post about me pretending to be iron chef Chinese Chen Kenichi.

Congratulate me, I have half a job!

Yesterday while quietly sending out more resumes the phone rang. I haven't taught W the rule about not taking phone calls from numbers we don't recognize, it could lead to a phone interview. Unfortunately this was one of those calls. This was a job I had applied for right before leaving Florida and they had emailed me while I was on the flight here. After researching the company a little I saw that it was part time and it looked like it would require me to sell the tests to fitness centers. So I decided not to pursue it further. So needless to say I was grossly unprepared for a phone interview yesterday when they called. It started with the usual interview fare, why are you interested, why should we hire you and then started to move to some stuff about why is america so fat. Things were going well until it was test time. Questions included What does ATP stand for?, what are 3 symptoms of a muscle strain?, what are the muscles of the rotator cuff? Name 5 glands of the endocrine system. Where is insulin produced? Some of the questions were pretty easy, and some of them reflect the fact that I haven't studied exercise phys in a solid 5 years. Not to mention I've poured a whole bunch of other knowledge and several beers into my brain since then. I didn't feel great about it when I got done, and I tried not to sweat it too much, but I did find it distracting that so much information had seeped through the cracks of my brain. So the phone rings early this morning while I'm getting ready to drop W off. (she carpooled in to work with a friend and left me the car) And the guy says we're ready to hire you, I'll email you a contract! There is of course a catch. I have to first pass the very exam that I intend to proctor. They're nice enough not to charge me to take the test, but I have to put up the cash for the study materials. Its written into my employment contracth that I immediately get reimbursed. Its a great plan, but I can't stop the little voice in the back of my head that says what if they make the test unpassable and just collect your money that you paid for materials? I am trying to stay positive about it.
So I'm at least kind of celebrating the fact that someone thinks I'm worthy of writing a paycheck to.

I'm still on the hunt though, Today I drove the car to the Bart station and caught a train out to Fremont. The city had a great job that I was almost qualified for, I figured it was worth the effort to drop off a resume on the odd chance they're short on applicants. I wandered around the Bayfair Mall to see who was hiring there, just in case and because I wanted to scope out the 24 hour fitness there. Calvin was glad to see me come back, and he and I went over to the dog park. Yup, just us boys out on the town.

At least the view was nice

Because of my rather unstructured existence these days climbing out of bed when I have something important to do can often be very difficult. Monday Night I didn't have to get in bed until 2:00 a.m., so 7:30 the next morning came around a little earlier than I was ready for. I managed to get up, and get myself presentable for another adventure in the city. The career fair was up on the club level out in left field of SBC park with this gorgeous view down the 3rd base line. You could even see out over the bay to McCovey cove. All I could think was: I could learn to love baseball if I could watch it from here. Maybe someday when I have that glamorous job in the city I can cut out after lunch to watch the game. The career fair itself was even more lame than I expected, I suddenly wished I hadn't built up all that bad karma talking bad about the USF career fairs. Even our little networking receptions had better offerings. So then it was off to the new restaurant in the embarcadero center. I left a resume, but my lack of fine dining experience is likely to cost me there. I'm not quite ready to settle for that anyway. I happened to walk home a slightly different way and noticed that there was a little store that sells equipment for home brewing and winemaking with a help wanted sign out front. I figured it might be a nice opportunity to get some entrepreneurial experience. I called back the temp agency today, just to stay on the front of the recruiters brain. He led me to say the words, but the message was I should lower my salary expectations a little just to get started. W has the day off, and we have many things to do around the house, while I continue to lurk the job boards and wait for the phone to ring.

Is it really a 3 day weekend if I'm not going to work tomorrow?

W has been off the last 3 days, so we've been running all over town having fun. Yesterday we spent a couple of hours at Lowe's daydreaming about the kinds of things we'd do to the the condo if someone would start writing me a paycheck. I rushed out the door before spending money I didn't have. W's friend Paula started us a little herb garden while we were in Florida, and we were so inspired we procured ourselves some little plastic pots and a few other starter herbs. So now the entire staircase is lined up with our little herb garden. I'll see if I can get a picture tomorrow.
Tomorrow looks to be a busy day, there's a career fair at SBC park (where the Giants play) It is of course a whole mile away from the nearest Bart station, but at this point a walk that short doesn't seem too bad. There's a big new restaurant opening in the Embarcadero Center that I was thinking about dropping a resume by too. If I got a job there, I could at least tell people that I have an MBA and work in SF's financial district.
2 days this weekend we took Calvin to the local dog park, to get him and us some exercise. It always makes me nervous that the dog park is obviously a converted Landfill, but it is bay front property and very green, so you just kind of have to forget where you are. We even got out and played a little tennis yesterday. I won't tell you which of us I think is the better tennis player, but we had fun and the weather is gorgeous during the day here. I had forgotten that a world exists where you don't start sweating the second you walk out your door. Sometime last week it came to my attention that W doesn't have AC, a lifestyle I planned on never having to endure again in life. She assures me I will survive the very few summer-like nights that will come along.
Todd Y. started blogging this week, he's even more of a technophile than I am, so I expect to see really good things over there once he gets the hang of it.

Allez Cuisine!

Today I spent way too much time wandering around Ikea. They were having a we pay the taxes sale, so not spending lots of money there would have been like throwing money away. We actually did pretty well, only managing to squander $40 and getting some cool kitchen gadgets in exchange. My favorite new toys: a wok we scored for $10.00 and a heat resistant plastic wok ladle. This means I'll be spending even more time playing iron chef now pretending to be iron chef Chinese Chen Kenichi. I got to make some waffles for breakfast today, and now that my hand/stand mixer lives here with me it may officially be time to retire the Man's Mixer. The world just wasn't ready for such a great concept.

My timing stinks

Yesterday I decided to take another Bart adventure, which unfortunately meant I had to walk out the door with W at 6:00 a.m. Commuter traffic at that hour is pretty light, and we got to use the carpool lane so we had time to stop at McDonald's for a little breakfast. I grabbed a train from the airport to the civic center station in San Francisco. I was finally dropping off the application for the job with the city, so I had to find my way to either city hall or human resources, I wasn't sure which. I tried human resources first, which required about a half mile stroll down market street, only to find out that wasn't right. A nice lady pointed me towards city hall, which of course was a stonesthrow away from the station I arrived at. After determining which of the massive downtown buildings was city hall I walked inside its palatial halls. I found my destination fairly easily and the person to whom I handed my application seemed genuinely impressed that I managed to properly assemble all of the application parts. I rushed back down to the train and it was off to Oakland. I'd set myself a 10:00 appointment with Appleone, a staffing firm that I'd accidentally bumped into in pleasanton 2 days before. The Oakland office was almost right on top of the Bart station, so I chose to go to it instead of wandering around pleasanton again. I arrived there about a half hour early which was good, since I had forgotten to write down the address and started walking the wrong direction. Unfortunately they suddenly had more applicants than jobs at the moment, but the recruiter I talked to says they cycle back and forth regularly. We went through the standard interview process, and they gave me 4 tests: advanced excel, basic access, word and powerpoint. If I only learned 4 things in grad school it was how to use those 4 pieces of software. So I at least came off looking pretty smart, if not a little bit hireable for something. American Express financial just called offering me a sales job, I'm one more week away from taking one, just to earn some cash.
Laugh for the day: Blogger spellcheck doesn't like the word "hireable" its recommended replacement: horrible

Taking a long painful walk

I was fed up with the faceless sending of resumes and filling out of online job applications, So I decided I would go look the city of San Francisco right in its mug. I wanted to drop off an application for a job with the city, visit Kelly financial downtown, and then head out to Pleasanton to hit the regular kelly. Things went awry around 7:00 a.m. when I couldn't pull myself out of bed early enough to finish the city application, but fortunately that one is faxable. I rode to work with W so she saved the $3 bridge toll and got to use the carpool lane. We arrived a little bit before her shift started, so we grabbed a cup of coffee and some breakfast for me. When she went to work, I caught the Bart to the city where I jumped out and tried my best not to stare open mouthed up at the sky scrapers. Once I actually got my bearings and figured out how to get to the kelly financial, I discovered it was actually a kelly legal services. So I had to march back to the BART and head for Pleasanton. On the way there it occured to me that I wouldn't make it before 1:00. So I called Kelly and all they really wanted me to do was send a resume anyway, they could care less if I dropped by. I at least found a couple of businesses I should research and an interesting job magazine that told me about some other temp agencies. Then I had the monster walk from the Bart station in San Leandro to the house. Lets just say I won't try that again in dress shoes. So, miles walked: 7 things accomplished: 0 definitely a day to be proud of.

Lets find out how good this blog really is

W's dad referred me to a job with the city of Oakland that paid well, but required no experience. Sounded like my kind of gig. But they decided to make my life difficult and not allow email or fax submissions. So, while W was at work her "aunt" Rosita was nice enough to drive me to downtown Oakland to drop it off. I was up until very late the night before filling out the second page of the application I somehow hadn't seen before. It had 4 essay questions and wanted a 3 page writing sample. So I decided to pick out 5 of my favorite blog posts arrange them in chronological order and attach them to my application. When W got home, we actually walked to dinner and then walked for a while afterwards. So the fitness campaign is going well, and so (I hope) is the job search.

Just when you thought things were fabulous

The great job phone call I thought I got yesterday was actually from a week ago. Whomever made the call has apparently decided that I kept her waiting too long and has not yet returned my call. Tomorrow I guess I'll call and say I'm sorry I was out of town, but would love to be considered for anything else you have. I have 2 other jobs that I"ve applied for with them and would prefer they not forget about me. I tried to unpack myself some too. The contents of 4 giant suitcases are now slowly and osmotically spreading themselves throughout the condo. W and I sat around last week deciding that we are getting far too fat, so we started exercising today. We took a nice 2 mile walk around the bay that seemed like we were walking against the blustery bay wind in both directions. The next time we walk I'll be sure to bring the camera the views of planes landing in oakland, and the city are fabulous.

An encouraging day

Today was encouraging, but also very very long. A 7:15 a.m alarm led to rushing out the door to catch a cab at 8:30. A $30 cab fare and much traffic dodging later we arrived at the airport with 4 huge bags and 4 carry on bags. We managed to get 3 of the 4 bags to weigh less than 50 pounds. the 4th weighed in at 70 pounds. That of course costs and extra $25 but I'm pretty sure I don't want to know what same day delivery of a 70 pound package costs from fedex. The plane we were supposed to get on in Tampa arrived 15 minutes after we were supposed to take off, and then they announced because there were storms in the midwest we would have to take a longer northern approach to denver. So we thought for sure we would miss our connection in denver. After a little hustling through the terminal and an impatient ride on the train we arrived just as they were calling our names at the gate, and jumped right on the plane in the last two middle seats available. Because we rushed so much we never managed lunch and arrived in San Francisco starving. That seemed like a good enough excuse to go to Favorite India restaurant in Hayward, where we could get a whole bunch of Indian comfort food for cheap. After a marathon trip to Costco for some groceries, we finally arrived "home". Yeah, that still feels a little weird. But I was welcomed by a message about a job interview at Blue Cross of California, and an email about another job. So, i'm encouraged at least that my efforts on the job boards has not gone to waste. I'll update about the job ASAP.

Yeah, I'm forgetting something

A cab is coming in exactly 6 hours to pick me up, but do you think I can sleep? There are lots of people who deserved a phone call to say I'm getting out of here, but they didn't get called. I told lots of people I'd grab a drink with them before I left, didn't do that either. So now the moment has finally arrived where I can't possibly accomplish anything else before I leave, and I'm sweating the small stuff a little bit. I know I'm coming back in a month, so its not that scary, but I sure wish there was a way to get it right the first time. Sure I could have planned better and prepared more ahead of time, but what fun is that. So here's to everyone for their love and support, I'll be back before you know it.

Tick Tick Tick

The final moments of my stay in Florida started counting down more quickly this weekend, but I crammed a ton of stuff into it. Friday we went down to Sarasota to have dinner with W's parents. Tom fired up some delicious bacon wrapped filets on the grill, and Felicity served up excellent sides and salad. We watched the movie 2 weeks notice and then snuck in a chilly late night swim. We got up fairly early saturday to wander around the farmers market. It was a beautiful, sunny and breezy spring morning and we enjoyed picking up some fresh veggies. Next I got to visit the new Whole Foods market. The foods were a little pricey, but the seafood looked excellent, and they had an impressive variety of beers. Next it was off to Cest la vie on Main St. for breakfast. My crepe was delicious and so was wendy's omlette. We went back, rounded up W's sisters and took off to Cypress Gardens. The drive from Sarasota was perhaps a little longer than we would have liked, but the rides were reasonably fun, despite being undersized. W and I were too wide at the hips to fit in the same car, so we had to split up, and I had to sit at an angle so the safetey bar would go all the way down on the wooden roller coaster. We werent there for rides anyway, we went specifically to see Switchfoot, one of W's favorite bands. We decided to get dinner right before the concert and waited in an insane line, but that meant we missed a few of the opening bands songs, which turned out to be a good thing. He was a Creed sound-a-like whose songs couldn't be differentiated from one another. After waiting 45 minutes, Switchfoot finally came on and played a great show. I'm not sure which was louder the music from the band or the screams of the throng of teenage girls behind us. After getting kind of lost on the way home and then missing the detour at the I4/I75 junction we eventually made it back to Sarasota. Sunday Felicity made us a delicious breakfast of waffles eggs and bacon, and then it was off to hang out with my mom and grandmother. After a while we took off on a dinner adventure visiting 4 closed sushi restaurants before settling in at Jo To's. Our sushi was amazing. After a follow up visit to the goodells, we made it home extremely late, since a stop at The Ale house was necessary for a zinger melt.

Where is the love?

It has been a busy couple of days, let me catch you up. Wednesday I really put my head down and packed like crazy, and then picked up W at the Orlando airport. We had dinner and a couple of drinks with her friend Mark and tried like crazy to catch up with Luerne but she had an audition that ran late and couldn't make it. Traffic on I4 still stinks both ways, but I managed to make the trip in under 2 hours each way. Thursday we were somewhat lazy, but managed to get out for sushi at my former number 2 sushi restaurant, but we received such lousy service that it is unlikely we'll be going back soon. Which is too bad, because the sushi was delicious once it actually arrived. As anticipated the party thrown by Muldoon and Cowboy Karl was bad, but it was bad in a more spectacular fashion than I could possibly imagine. No one showed up but W and I. She of course is beginning to believe that everyone at FPC is a flake, or a jerk who tells you that they're going to do something and then doesn't deliver. Unfortunately I've had trouble providing significant evidence to the contrary. So we snuck of to see Guess Who which for the most part we really enjoyed. It moved a little slowly in the beginning, but finished strong. So, its time to begin the whirlwind final weekend where I expect to have somewhat limited internet access, but I'll try my best to tell you about it.

One more treasure from my collection

The great urban philosopher Rakim once said "It aint where you're from its you're at." But today, I'm happy to know where I come from. I happened across the program from the Jeffers Ford Sills Reed family reunion held in Gary, Indiana August 1980. I of course did not attend, since I was 4. The program is dedicated to my Great Great Great Great Great Grandmother:

In memory of Sarah Jeffers, who was sold and bought on the slave block in St. Louis Missouri. Sarah weighing 300 pounds and carrying twin boys under her arms, was taken to Holly Springs, Mississippi, where she died in 1893.

I remember reading this as a child and trying to picture this woman. I've seen roots enough times that I can fill in some more of the details if I close my eyes and imagine her now. Since this week I'm thinking a lot about things I'll miss, and people I need to make proud, I'll add Sarah Jeffers to my list.

Crying is for wusses!

Sure I think that, but it didn't really stop me from doing it today. I walked into my porch storage closet and noticed what looked like some water damage on the floor and on the corner of some boxes. It seems that all those hurricanes this summer taking out my porch awning allowed some water to go wherever it felt like. There was some mild mildew damage to a few of my nostalgic things, but overall my stuff didn't fare too badly. I looked through some things to determine if they were worth keeping. I came across this letter from my sister. Grab a tissue!

8/30/1991
Dearest Jason,
Como estas? Creo Que bien! I do miss you a great deal--especially working out with my favorite brotherly-type figure. How did it feel to not have 20 different females running around the house, from a "male's" point of view. I still owe you a fishing trip that will hold up my end of the deal for later, if you will still go with me. Did you know that you are so special that these awful things called tears fell when I had to say good bye. How is school? Mom was saying that you came home with a great deal of homework every night. I hope that you're not miserable + that you still have an extra-curricular life outside of SHS! I hope that the sorta girlfriend is going well and mom didn't/doesn't give you too hard of a time. You're a good kid, but I want you to do well in your classes; just do your best A's or not! Lastly Always remember I love you.
Love ya
Cathryn
P.S. LOOK A LETTER!

For the record, many of the things I have done in the last 5 years have been made possible by the life and legacy of Cathryn Yvonne Herron. I'm reminded as I am about to take a giant life step, I have an obligation to make her proud.

Take care of him, he's my special boy

Today I spent some quality time with my barbeque grill(and also my family). Its too big and too heavy to try to bring out west, so I have to leave it in Sarasota. I am told it will be well taken care of, but it and I have been through a lot, and I'll have to adust to not having it around. Here I'm cooking a nice big leg of lamb according to this recipe. It was the most tender and flavorful lamb I have ever eaten. I added grilled asparagus to the list of things I can cook well, so you should consider inviting me to your next barbeque. I also spent a good couple of hours hanging out at church today breaking the news that I'm busting out of this town. Most folks are sad but supportive, especially since I've promised to return in May for family camp and the requisite games of brain fry. Muldoon and Cowboy Karl intend to throw me a going away party on Thursday night, we shall see if they can deliver a quality turnout.

Turning back the clock

Today rather than pack for my impending cross country move, I spent the day making sure there would be lots more things I'd miss when I leave. I packed up clothes for 2 days and ran down to Sarasota, where I got to spend a few hours at the Sarasota county fair. I did something that would have mortified me in my younger years, I went and hung out with my mom. She of course was willing to take pity on my incredible shrinking budget and pay for my fair adventure, so how could I refuse. (and just so it doesn't sound like I only went because she paid, I had fun anyway, and I knew that I would) It turns out a random stranger had season passes to the fair and just decided if we were willing to play along, she would let us in on her passes. Instant savings=$14.00. Today the weather seemed to jump directly from spring to summer, meaning that it was blazing hot. I had a delicious Gyro (mmmmm fair food. auggghhh) and an elephant ear, and one of those fresh squeezed lemonades. Since I know the exact value of every penny I spend these days I managed to avoid most of the carnies who would goad me into trying to win a prize to prove my manhood. But one guy let me practice throwing a ball into a bucket enough times I could no longer not hand him over $3 of moms money. As you can imagine, I should have just wadded up the $3 and thrown it in the bucket, at least it wouldn't have bounced out with an embarrassing thud. Seeking relief from the heat we even wandered in to see stinky farm animals and the show stopping craft exhibits. Mom, Grandma and I snuck in a last visit (for a while) to the oyster bar, the official restaurant of our family. Don't ask me how many Friday nights we went there for dinner in my uncool days, but I just couldn't resist one more plate of grouper fingers. Of all the nostalgic memories I had to day, funniest one: My best friend in high school made up some little awards at the end of our senior year. Mine you ask? Most likely to end up as the smart ass in the dunk tank who intentionally ticks people off. (back then he was known as bobo the clown) The worst part about that is , I'd actually have a job right now and it would even include lots of travel. Perhaps I've missed my calling.

Beauty and the Beast?

Here's a pic of myself and my honorary niece GK. I'm wearing my unemployed MBA costume, and she's wearing a princess costume. I'll let you decide which is more convincing.

Reason I'm going to miss Florida number...

I've reached the phase of going away where I'm starting to divide up my remaining hours in town with people I'm going to miss the most when I leave. Today I got in a 3 for the price of 1 with Todd, Kelly and Georgia Kate. Todd and Kelly both happened to have the day off, so we had lots of time to catch up, reminisce and think happy thoughts about the future. They have bay area residence experience since Todd is a Cal grad. Funniest line of the day? " If your relationship can survive a paint project, it can survive anything". We have shared a few million laughs in the last 6 years, and I know that there are a few billion left out there for us to enjoy. I will definitely miss getting to watch GK grow up if I don't make it back soon. As you can see from the pic, the kid gets cuter every day like some sort of cuteness asymptote.(Woo Hoo! I've always wanted to use that word in a sentence.)
I got to see one of my favorite former youth today, Robert. He dropped by just because my car was in the driveway, which made me feel pretty darn good about myself. I made him promise me he wouldn't get a tattoo until he was 18, which he actually delivered on, but has gone out and gotten 4 since his 18th birthday. Some mentor I am.
I even got to catch up on a couple of movies today, I'm probably the last person to have seen Spiderman 2, and The Incredibles, both of which I absolutely loved. Now its off to pack some more, I've got so much more crap to sort through and the clock is ticking.

Experiencing some withdrawl symptoms

I'm a chronic Cokeaholic. That's right, I'm addicted to Cokeahol. No, that's not right, but you could say, (and Wendy often does) that I drink way to much sweet refreshing coca cola. I haven't had a coke since lunchtime sunday, and am really starting to feel sluggish. When I was growing up we never had sodas in the house. I lived on Kool aide as a kid, We made it in a bright yellow plastic jug with water straight from the tap. It was carefully stirred with a wooden spoon and generally served over ice in plastic cups that once held margarine. A roach was once spotted in one of the cups, and no one ever wanted to get stuck with that one. Fortunately those cups got retired when McDonalds gave out those giant dream team cups. (I still hated to drink out of the alien-headed Reggie Miller cup) Well, to bring myself back around to the point of how much I want a sweet cool refreshing Coca Cola. I had no intention of going cold turkey this week, but I was out and just decided that since my waist is expanding at approximately the same rate as my budget is contracting, perhaps I could live without it. If I'm out I'll certainly have one, but no more at home for me, at least not until I'm earning a paycheck. I will also accept coke donations, especially if I start to look a little strung out. To make matters worse Claudia has a post this week about touring the coke museum in atlanta. I hope she posts a lot this week so that I stop reading about all the free samples she got.

Interesting stuff? Where is it?

I haven't posted much this week, because quite frankly my life has been less than fascinating the last couple of days. I am still slowly looking through all of my things trying to determine what I'll need in California, what's worth saving and has to go. Its kind of funny how things that seemed so important at some point in time come down to a simple go/no go decision. If it can't be fit into a box, or doesn't weigh less than 50 lbs, then it has to make alternate arrangements for itself. Time has been tough enough on some items so making the decision is easy. Other things, particularly those that remind me of my sister are far more difficult to part with.
I finally reached my saturation point for Gran Turismo 4, Which means that a significant number of resumes got out today, and important business actually got done. I was going to make myself a little money doing my grandmother's taxes, until I got the result, which said she owed the government a whole lot of money. At least I know when I'm in over my head, so we're getting her a second opinion.
I've officially given up on the Jerkasses at Virgin mobile. I guess returning my email was too much to ask. I've got 2 weeks to find a real job or I settle on something as soon as I arrive out west, and keep working on something better. I have definitely gone way too long without a paycheck.

I've managed to pull away from the Playstation long enough to actually accomplish a post. There's plenty to tell you about since real early Thursday morning when I last had something to say. W and her mom finally reached a compromise and have already signed the papers. Which means that the road is finally clear for me to wander off that direction. Saturday I managed to drag myself out of bed and drive to Orlando to hang out with my favorite MBA'er Luerne. She pushed her roommate Debbie and I all over town enjoying her own little local version of celebreality that would make VH1 proud. We started with some lunch at Chipotle. I arrived starving after spending 2 hours and 15 min on I4 stuck in traffic for no particular reason. We "took the scenic route" around Winter Park for a while before eventually arriving at the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival. Some of L's Friends were singing in the attached Jazz music show. Mosaic is 6 guys who do the most interesting arrangements of songs, all a capella. The next stop was the White Wolf Cafe, a really cool restaurant that we took over a back room of and were noisy and boisterous. We figured out Sinan was in town, so he and his little cousin the genius joined us. He knew almost as much finance as sinan and I, and could recite the entire Gettysburg address. Next it was off to L's show, She was extremely good, everything else was... well just there. It was really funny, but the lead actress was really really sick. Then it was back to the house for margaritas and Scrabble (which I won handily) and Trivial Pursuit which I lost on"mitigating circumstances" the opposing team got way too many yes or no questions. Games lasted until 3:00 am then it was off to brunch with several more friends. I finally got to eat at a Houlihans, I've wondered about it since they bought the naming rights to the New sombrero. It was decent, I won't say I loved it but I'd go back if necessary. I know I'm going to miss L even more when I'm gone, I definitely wouldn't have survived year one of Grad school without her. Despite not hanging out for months it was just like old times. We ate, We laughed like crazy and we talked smack about games and anyone else we could think of.
So its back to the grind this week. More waiting and applying.

You'll have to excuse me if I'm absent

I had been saving $55 in Best Buy Gift certificates for the magical day that Gran turismo 4 was released, and it finally happened. So today I went to pick it up and have already immersed myself in it. If I don't post too much, don't take it personally, I just am unable to put down the controller. It turns out W's family is not the only force weighing in on our relationship. I just found out that my Uncle, the new convert to Christianity has decided that he's unhappy because I'm sinning by staying at W's house while not married. I have officially challenged him to a debate of such matters, not because I think I'm not guilty, but becuase I'm certain it's none of his business and he has absolutely no biblical place to stand in judgement of me. I have asked him to call me so that we may discuss the matter, we shall see if he accepts my invitation.

News brief from the front line of my local race war

Coming down to the finish line of Wendy refinincing and buying her mother out of the condo, the old lady has decided to dig in her heels and make a stand on the issue of race one final time.
Her latest nuggets of xenophobic wit: "What have I done wrong as a mother to deserve you cavorting around with a black man? Who you date reflects poorly on me." and my personal fave. "Your decisions are splitting up the family". The third one being the most interesting, since its SG's decision not to accept me that is splitting the family. Now on the scale of threatening black people ranging from well lets say Wayne Brady to hmm... Ray Lewis. I'm definitely way down there with Wayne and the Gumble of your choice. Not to mention the fact that SG really liked me when I was just wendy's random boyfriend #231(not actual number) The fact that I had an MBA and was looking for a big job in finance made me awfully attractive. But alas, she has chosen the one thing not to like about me that as far as I'm concerned makes me the most interesting. I could give you lots of reasons not to like me: I'm a little messy, I procrastinate, I spend too much time on the internet. But, we're not here to bash me we're here to say hey! get to know me and then find something you don't like.
So the bottom line is this, SG feels that she should be compensated in cash because she does not approve of me, completely re-writing the deal she and Wendy originally made on the condo.
Seems pretty fair doesn't it?

Alert the chamber of commerce, we were not the sunshine state today

Sitting on the couch waiting for the perfect job seems gray and cloudy, but at least mother nature was feeling sympathetic today.

I'm a convert

I have had some ridiculously hard times with Microsoft's Internet Explorer lately. It stopped allowing me to print web pages, it wouldn't allow me to view the sources of web pages, and froze up whenever it felt like. So I finally cut the cord and changed to Mozilla's Firefox. I'll absolutely never go back. Tabbed browsing is the only way to use the internet. I'm most sorry that I spent 3 hours with tech support last week when the solution to my browsing was right under my nose. Ok, enough of the infomercial, I obviously have a little too much time on my hands. We're now a nice round 7 days from my interview and still no word one way or the other. Yes, I'm starting to sweat.

In case I ever think of letting Snoop Dogg make a guest post

gizoogle
If you're offended by harsh language or gratuitous dropping of the N-bomb you will want to stay away from this.

You gotta love someone who throws great parties

My friend Tammy throws the best parties ever. I thought she wouldn't be able to surpass New years eve '03, but her murder mystery party topped it with class rather than intoxicated craziness. Tammy and Justin went crazy buying Chinese food, including some delicious General Tso's chicken, egg rolls, those little sugar coated dumplings, and at least 3 other dishes that I can't remember. Not to mention I've seen Chinese restaurants with less plum wine, kirin ichiban and sake in stock. (even more special since they don't drink) Each Table setting had a fan, and they had a few of those paper lamps hanging around. Food was even served on square paper plates. I was very impressed.
The Game itself wasn't quite as cool as I expected, the pseudo Chinese names that were English pun homophones made keeping track of who was who and what actually happened very difficult. Some important information was conveyed on a tape done in an exaggerated Asian accent and was tough to decipher. I liked the concept, It had potential, but its obviously not designed for the MTV generation. In the third hour trying to get 12 people to focus on task proved to be real difficult. (it was a lot like every MBA class group project) Not speaking English as a first language was also difficult for one cast member as some words and nuances were actually pretty difficult to understand. This made for lots of repitition and explanation.
You gotta give us credit, we tried, and we had fun anyway. I won't call out names of people who didn't dress up in costume, but lets just say they outnumbered those of us who did. But those in costume were definitely much cooler.

Stepping out of a horribly innacurate time machine near you

Here is the official costume, complete with authentic eighth century chinese bling. It turns out I was a terribly corrupt magistrate who was embezzeling money from the empire to fund my personal accounts. I was a thief, not a killer.

Stop me if you've heard this one before...

This post is going to sound awfully familiar, but i spent the day sitting in a lump on my couch. I did do some stuff packing around my house, but I just wasn't really feeling it yet. I found out that If I'm going to bust my lease i have to give 60 days notice plus one months rent to get out of my lease, or if I'm rushing 30 days and 2 months rent. Ouch!!!
I forgot yesterday to give a shout out to Vicky N. who bailed me out of a $30 cab fare by picking me up at the airport. We grabbed a little food at Tijuana Flats which in my opinion is still pretty good, but I was already missing the authentic Mexican from El Amigo in San Leandro. My old Friends Annie and Subadra are rolling in to town tomorrow. The occasion: a murder mystery dinner hosted by fellow MBA classmate Tammy. Tammy just posted my part on the evite:

HAO DEE-DOO (aka-Jason)The magistrate of Chi-Ka-Go, Hao is a cousin of Hoo
Li-gan and , as the head of the district governmental system and the tribunal of
Chi-Ka-Go, he is the emperor's representative in Chi-Ka. So young to have
attained such an exalted position, Hao is reputed to be a man of impeccable
moral character and scrupulously fair in his administration of local government.
He is apparently favored by the emperor and therefore expected to go far in his
political career. Hao has a passionate interest in collecting precious
antiques.Costume Suggestion: Lont-sleeved robe (preferably blue) worn over pants
or gown, waist-high apron, black stocking cap worn high upon the head, black
boots, jade pendant.

Not sure exactly how I'm going to pull off the costume in the next 48 hours but I'll be working on doing it as economically as possible. If you've got a jade pendant you want to loan me for Saturday please feel free to "speak on it". You can of course look forward to hilarious pictures on monday.
Sunday another former classmate Stefanie is having a barbeque, which will provide some quality volleyball opportunities. So I guess I'll have to work hard tomorrow to give myself the rest of the weekend off.
Its been four days since the big interview. I'm starting to get just a little nervous. The job location is so perfect that having to find something else would make things much more difficult. Keep those fingers crossed for me!
Final thought today. Since I'm so busy dropping names today, I'll tell you about what I read in airports last month. John Grisham's Bleachers and Dan Brown's Digital Fortress. I liked the Grisham book, but having only read one other of his titles I was suprised by how different it was from The Last Juror. As for the Brown book, I liked it a lot, had a hard time putting it down and consequently didn't sleep on the plane. As far as I'm concerned if uncle sam wants to read my boring emails he can all he wants. If he knew what my intentions in life were maybe the TSA wouldn't hassle me so much.

The TSA's beef with me

I arrived at "home" safely today after only some minor difficulty. Let me begin by saying this is not a rant against the people working for the TSA (Transportation Safety Administration) or the organization itself, its more a rant about my bad luck, particularly when flying out of Oakland. 3 times I have flown out of Oakland, 3 times I've been selected for extra special pat down. To their credit I'm a single male under 30 of ambiguous ethnicicity flying one way coast to coast. So perhaps I deserve a little extra scrutiny, but today I made some people really really really nervous. Since I'm transporting a lot of stuff west, I didn't bring much home with me. I packed the few items I had in my small suitcase and nested it inside its larger sibling. I brought back shorts and flipflops and tshirts only and enough clothes to dress up one time if necessary. The mistake I made was bringing back several tools (cordless drill, pliers, wire cutters, channel locks, vise grips) well, I found out tools make tsa agents nervous. To make things worse buried deep inside the inner suitcase, wrapped in a sweater, inside my green MBA bag was my playstaion 2. Of course the airline wendy works for (which I will not mention out loud, lest she end up like this) offers no protection at all for any electronic devices you put in your checked bag. So if I'm going to check my precious sweet baby PS2, you better believe its going to be well protected.
Both of my flights (oak-den, den-tpa) were uneventful, I didn't even have to sweat getting a seat for a change. They did give me middle seats on both flights. No one is less popular that the last person on the plane who takes away that middle seat you were planning on making your own personal space. So now i'm home and I'm faced with the daunting task of deciding what I want and what I don't and what's worth carrying all the way across the country. Its not going to be a fun couple of weeks.

Well, Now she does have a reason not to like me

Ok, lets get the important stuff out of the way first. My job interview today went... O.K. The first guy I met started to ask me some accounting questions that I kinda fumbled my way through. I'm certain he was not impressed. He did send me on to someone else, who after settling down and having a coke I managed to regain my composure and give a good interview. She was a little more involved in the every day finance anyway, so maybe I picked the right person to impress. I hope...
Sunday we hung out with Wendy's cousin Nina. We went to a little tiny fair, managed to come home with less cash than we started with and a couple of stuffed animals. Then we had some coffee and nachos at a starbucks (the nachos were from a nearby freshmex). Later I took my first ride on Bart so I would know what my transfer would look like to get to my interview today. We were still out avoiding SG so we went to see Hitch. Its your standard issue romantic comedy, but at least it was funny. We finally arrived at home to be "greeted" by one grumpy individual who did not know I was still in town. She played the stay locked in the room game until morning. When she couldn't find a hair dryer in the morning she called Wendy's home phone from her cell rather than knock on the door. I decided I would stay at the house tonight and cook some of my famous manicotti. While my water was just getting ready to boil, our other favorite simmerer walked back in the door. We exchanged Hi's and she began to rush around the house cleaning up her things. As she struggled to get through the door with the first load I offered a hand, she declined. As she cleaned up some things in the kitchen I wandered in to say I know you emailed wendy about some rent from me, if you'll write me up an invoice. (I of course intendended to counter with an invoice for my repair services which would have more than accounted for 3 weeks rent.) she declined that too saying wendy would have to handle it, as if my tainted money were no good to her. At that point I no longer felt like playing nice and said If you have any more questions about my parents marriage I would really prefer that you address them directly to me. Her reply: I'm not interested in that. I said well that's fabulous and walked away. She said bye as she scurried out the door. I lied and said it was nice to see her. So we'll see what her next move is. Let the record show the appraiser was here today, and he LOVED the kitchen, saying it added "personality" and value. I asked if he'd send that in a letter to MS. cranky pants.

Old School...Breakfast?

Sunday morning I spent time perfecting use of wendy's stove top belgian waffle maker. Belgian waffle recipes generally ask you to separate the eggs and beat the whites, which is why the man's mixer got invented to begin with. The first time I made these I kinda forgot to introduce the waffle iron to my friend pam, and the first waffle stuck so much that the iron took me hours to clean. Result: Really fluffy pancakes.

The Man's Mixer

Wendy's kitchen isn't perfect, she still doesn't have a hand mixer. So occasionally I have to improvise a little. There could just be a market for this product. I'm accepting bids for manufacture as you read this.

I don't know if I should post about this or not

Posting about job prospects ahead of time hasn't worked out for me in the past(IPA), but not posting about a job prospect hasn't worked out for me either(Moffitt, Brandymarine, PFM, Steak&Shake... and countless others). So I'm going to go ahead and talk about the prospect like I'm not worried about it. I got a call mid-afternoon today to say I have an interview in Walnut Creek on Monday at 1:00p.m. So, rather than fly back to Tampa for the weekend and sneaking to Sarasota to play Walleyball, I am staying here and sweating all weekend about my interview. I have to figure out what to wear to the interview, I got some cross eyed/impressed looks at Modis the other day when I showed up in a suit and tie. I'm told under no circumstances am I to dress in that manner on monday. The company has a far too "young and hip" image for me to dress up. So, we'll see how I do.
Today I found another nice little reminder of home, Wendy's favorite authentic Mexican place EL Amigo Taqueria makes tortas. I had a chorizo torta that was absolutely delicioous. Also notable is their fresh salsa that is loaded with cilantro.
I'm eating well, so maybe my weekend of sweating about the job won't be quite so painful.

giving the people what they want

By popular demand, here is a link to the pictures from all our home improvements. I've always got something to fall back on if this finance deal doesn't work out.

Title edited for adult content

I desperately wanted to title today's post with three words from the chorus of a Madonna song, the last of which is the same as the First word of the company I interviewed for today. Ok, so I didn't actually Interview for "Sir Branson's" company today, but I did interview with some nice, but very busy people at Modis in San Ramon. If you clicked on the link you might be wondering what I was doing at an IT staffing firm, but they do so much work for the company, they figured they could staff it just as well. The drive to san ramon is beautiful, except for the fact that I was nervous about my interview and was driving wendy's Jeep Cherokee for the first time. No biggie except for the fact that its a stick, and I have very few opportunities to drive uphill. The Interview went extremely well, and they say I may have a follow up with the CTO at the "inexperienced" company as early as Friday. Unfortunatley this news comes one day after finding out my favorite senior high youth group is playing walleyball on Sunday. So at this point it looks very unlikely that I will make it. A sidebar here, it also means I won't be able to help Ann E. move her couch on Saturday. Although, that does serve her right, she called me at 8:50 a.m. eastern time on monday which would be early if I were still sitting on my couch in Tampa without a job. But considering I was jobless laying in bed at 5:50 a.m. pacific it was reaaaaaaally early. Needless to say neither Wendy or I were pleased. So here I stay for a few more days, my tampa apartment may have exploded by now, and I'd never know. All I have to do is figure out how to get myself some wheels and everything will be fine.