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.