GenXPosterChild

The one thing I HAVE learned from this little writing experiment is that time flies a hell of a lot faster than you imagine it to. The lofty goals, the brilliant musings, all of the things I thought the world should know…takes a lot more discipline than I thought. I’d like to say that’s all going to change, but I’m not going to bet the farm…just yet.

In the short while (SWEET!!!  I thought it was going to be 8 or 9 months since my last entry, but it’s only been 2!) since my last post, all of my writing has been dedicated to the delightful task of trying to find a JOB.  I told my still brand new husband that if we got off the rock (meaning Hawaii), his business would grow exponentially.  And you know what?  I WAS RIGHT!!!  However, for me, one who lacks the specific skills, patience, and ambition to stay up all night writing code for web sites, it’s not been as easy.

First…I got swindled.  For goodness sake, this was even on Craigslist AS A WARNING.  It was for an ‘office assistant’ position, which is what I really want to do, learn from a mentor of sorts.  I applied, wrote a brilliant cover letter, sent my resume that I just spent 5 hours re-perfecting the bullet points, and about a week later…I got an email saying I was hired.  The lovely man named Edward Crisp said I would be doing typical administrative things for him from home for $550 a week.  I should have known something was up when I asked if that included withholding or an I9 and he never answered.  He said he was at a summit in London, and he does a lot of philanthropic work, and he was going to sent me a check, I was supposed to buy some stuff for this ‘orphanage,’ send it, and keep $550 for myself.  Orphanage?  Not an uncommon term overall, but in the US, one doesn’t hear it as much here (warning #2).  Then he sent me an email with a delivery confirmation and sent a note about it, why hadn’t I gotten the stuff for the orphanage.  I looked at the confirmation, and it was to a New Hampshire address (warning #3).  Finally, however, a letter DID come, there WAS a check in there, and it was a BANK check!  I told him I’d send him the money as soon as the check cleared.  He told me to wire it NOW because a boy who needs a heart transplant  depends on it (warning #4).  Eh?  what would $2,300 do that was so important.  Finally, I called the bank, and it WAS a real bank, believe it or not, and the first question the person asked was if it had a certain name typed on the lower left line.  Yup, there it was.  Elizabeth Ortiz.  Oddly,  that same day, I got an email from someone else saying I won the same job, but at $400/month.  I told him that he and his lackeys should get their info coordinated if they’re going to scam people.

And then to Mr. Crisp-I was really starting to consider him my future employer.  I sent him an email every day the check DIDN’T come.  I sent him an email that lightly touched on karma, and SHAME ON YOU for trying to rip off nice people who are trying HARD to just get a job.  OK, learned my lesson.

The next day when I went on Craigslist, I looked under the SCAMS area.  Mine was the FIRST ONE they showed.  Now I just felt like a fool for all the time I wasted.

Well, if there is anything to be learned from this is that I learned this the hard way (no, I never lost any money, just time), is that I’ll REALLY know what to look for when perusing the Craigslist classifieds.

Until next time, wish me luck on getting a job!!! sarahanne

DAMN!
I don’t even know what the last thing was that I wrote here. I don’t even know why they held a place for me. And above all, I have nowhere idea where to start.

So, the last time I stopped here, wrote something, and actually posted it was 5 months ago.  In work time, that’s about a decade, as time seems to come to standstills frequently here.  In bridal time, it was a minute.  Everything of your life getting taken over for this 4-5 hour zenith that you are really TRYING to enjoy every moment from, but goodness Lord, there are 175 people and I only knew 30 of them, I don’t like the way I look in the pictures.  The best part-my dad in his rented suit walking me down the aisle.  There’s this picture of us at the beginning and we both have our heads looking down-like father, like daughter.  The pictures of the ceremony that look like I’m about to cry-I’m not.  My brother was in the back, and I was about to crack up the whole time.  When I put the ring on Dale and got more than a few tears out of my normally stoic pops, being quite proud of his offspring for her tone and diction-enunciating at the perfect times, not too loud-honestly, I was pretty dang proud of myself in that moment too.  I know my voice can be heard from space and I was damned if it was going to boom out then.  My brother got his tears out of me with his moving speech.

The WEDDING was perfect.  The RECEPTION I’d prefer not to comment.  I felt gyped, and that’s pretty much it.  And with that, the 60 seconds quickly came to its end as reality kicked back in.

Since then, the primary objective was FIND A PLACE TO LIVE IN PORTLAND.  I am signed up with many different agencies who look for apartments, some looking on other agency’s sites to see if there is anything.  I came across something I liked; it was perfect, end of search.  Then hubby decides that we need to put a $900 cap on rent, and the place I had was around $1,200.  I said I’m sorry, I’ve been restricted, alas.  So the pursuit of a 2BR apt. began in full pursuit.  The one almost constant variable involves carpet.  If a place is carpeted (and I know it is SO MUCH COOLER to have hardwood floors or stone floors or whatever, but I’m SICK OF ROCKS and want carpet, damnit!), the color will be grey.  Most likely a bedroom will be shown, and you will see the PERFECT marks of a freshly steam-cleaned carpet.  EVERY time, that triangular pattern.

I am NOT going to slack and put this in Drafts, but it has approached 5pm, which is when I say goodnight to everyone here.  So post I go.  Will be back soon

I’m BACK!!!

Actually, to be truthful, I never left.  My absence was a simple case of my site needing to be upgraded, and me being unable to do so from my work computer.  However, with the problem fixed, we can return to our regularly scheduled programming…

I look on my Google home page at the countdown to the big day  which will end Dale’s and my betrothal (10/24) as we .  With exactly 100 days until ‘the BIG day’, I am not sure if I’m on top of everything or if I’m falling horribly behind.  I learned a certain form of ‘pidgin Chinese’ while working with my dressmaker.  After finally reaching the conclusion that yes, my thyroid has konked out, yes, I’m going to need to be on yet another medication for the duration of my life, and no, I will probably never be that willowy thin gal I used to be, I guess my measurements are going to be the numbers that they are right now. 

The beauty and the bane of slacker jobs is that little is expected of you.  It’s a gift from the gods when you have other things you need to do; it’s a glimpse of hell, watching the second hand of your clock turn slower and slower to the point where you are SURE that time has STOPPED.  If I were to be doing that certain something I have yet to find, that trade/job/occupation/career that I absolutely LOVE, where I jump out of bed every morning and can’t wait to face the day, you would not find me here.  However, given that is not the case,  I feel like if I am to participate in the grown up world of legitimate work, if I can’t do what I love (as I don’t even know what that may be), I might as well take on one with few pressures.  I can at least attend to the other parts of my world that are of more importance, and perhaps through all that, I’ll stumble on that ultra-super fantastic vocation I was created to perform.

Until then, I’ll answer the phone, pick out some bridesmaid’s dresses, and see what’s going on in Facebook.  THAT, unto itself, is an entire topic upon which I will have to elucidate further when the words about it ring clear in my head. 

I’m happy to be back.  Even though my entries have not been as prolific as I hoped they would be, I like it here.  It’s MY little spot in this infinite otherworld.  Until next time…sarahanne

My lack of presence here can be explained in the title.  Facebook. 

In the beginning, you join, and that’s lovely, but you just don’t know what you’re in for.  All of the sudden, people start coming out of the woodwork, and you’re connecting with people you haven’t seen since elementary school, or from your college years, or from your twenties, all those people who were so important to you at that time but somehow faded into the woodwork.  When you become someone’s friend, you can see all of their friends (and vice versa), and then suddenly there are ALL of these people from the days of yore, and your friend list explodes like a field of dandelions.  Then friends of friends are wanting to be in your world (why?), and for me, I suddenly had 300 ‘friends.’  I honestly do not even KNOW 300 people.  However, Facebook IS  an interesting application, and since it involves me sitting here staring at my computer, I look like I’m working.  On something important.  In the beginning, it is EXTREMELY addictive.  And I would know.

On Facebook, there are all sorts of applications-ones where you can send good karma to your friends, help save the rainforest by sending virtual plants to one another, another where you can help our oceans by…yup, sending virtual fish.  Yet, there are also games on it that are a bit more…involved…shall we say.

And you know what I’ve got addicted to?  Virtual FARMING!  No joke.  They start you off with 5 plots of land planted with tomatoes, $1000, and a cow, I think.  Your goal is to grow crops, make money so you can clear land and grow more crops (clearing & plowing are 20 bucks a shot).  That’s all.  It almost takes on this Zenlike quality because there’s no competition, no worrying, no nothing.

In the beginning, I plowed and grew sooooo many tomatoes (because you can harvest them in one day and they have a high ROI) that it took a big chunk of my day. After you harvest, you have to re-plow and re-plant (no, there is no crop rotation or things of that nature on it-yet).  If you had friends who were also farming, you could send them trees and animals.  Receiving gifts of trees was great  because they ripened every 3 days, and you made money harvesting them.

Now, I am wrought with so many trees that I don’t know what to do!  I only farm a crop on the perimeter of the plot now, more for aesthetics than anything.  I have so many different trees and animals that I’ve piled everything off to the side in hopest that the blank space will inspire me to design something that looks really absolutely ultra fantastic.

In the beginning, one could send 30 trees/animals to friends.  Then it went up to 40.  Then there was about a week where there was a glitch in the system, and you could send as many as you wanted.  You see, if you RECEIVE a gift from someone, it’s free.  All of the items are also for sale, but they are incredibly expensive. 

When I’m hanging out on my ‘ether-farm’ these days, I am amazed.  I have SO many animals and trees, and they were ALL presents.  People talk about Facebook negatively, saying it is shallow and you don’t REALLY rekindle your friendships, you just have them in your friend list and send them silly things.  That’s probably the truth for most.  But that’s probably good enough for most too.  However, one thing I CAN say is that through this little game I’ve been playing, and in the sending plants and fish and karma, I have re-connected with some people  I never thought I would see again in a million years.  True, there’s not much personal communication with most of them-you see that they’ve sent you something, you send something back if you’re so inclined, you write an occasional comment on their wall, but that’s about it.

This would serve as proof that Facebook is a shallow thing.  But one day, a girl with whom I went to boarding school came across my farm.  We fast became ‘farm buddies, and soon, we were writing more in depth messages, not merely leaving comments on one another’s boards, but really emailing one another and discussing the paths our lives have taken (which were VERY similar, even though we had little in common in boarding school), where we are now, where we hope to be.  I would say that ‘back in the day,’ we were barely more than acquaintances, and now, I feel I can consider her a real friend.  In the ethers.  

If it WEREN’T for Facebook, we probably never would have crossed paths or seen/heard/or particularly cared if we did.  In spite of all of the superficiality found on that site, it IS possible to reconnect with people there, if you choose to, and maybe that’s what was meant to be.  If it was any time earlier, we would have been in very different worlds living very different lives, but NOW was the right time for us to meet again.  I guess some things are just supposed to happen that way.  Thanks, Facebook.