Officially Started!

Alright!  I have officially started the "garden" in my kitchen.  So far I have basil, cilantro, chives, red bell peppers, tomatoes, and a mixture of different "gourmet" lettuce types growing in containers.  Instead of going completely crazy, as I originally intended, with the first iteration of my container garden I decided to reign it in a bit and see how it goes.  I hope to be able to expand this next year, or even later in the spring since we have such a long growing season here in Georgia.  Instead of investing in large outdoor garden containers, I used a combination of smaller pots that I had on hand with the addition of a few that I had to go pick up.  All of the containers are small enough to be moved easily.  The intention is to keep the herbs on the kitchen window sill all year long, with the lettuce, red bell peppers, and tomatoes being mobile and moving back and forth between the back porch and the house (we have huge rain storms that have literally washed tomatoes off the back porch in previous years).  I did all of the planting (seeds, not existing plants) yesterday using organic plant/veggie soil.  I still have a few herbs to add such as mint and rosemary. I am contemplating adding a few other things as well, but we will see how it goes.  I also re-potted all of our house plants including the new baby spider plants that I have been "growing" in jelly jars on the window sill.  I gently removed the baby plants from their Momma plant and placed them in water until they started to sprout little white roots.  They are now securely tucked into their own tiny pots (to be transplanted as they grow).  In a few more weeks I should be able to move some more into water.  It's much cheaper (and very easy) to replicate the plants at home.  I want to have enough per room to do a good job of cleaning the air.  I have discovered one small problem with the house: we get no direct sunlight in the main living areas.  There is a lot of direct sunlight in the kitchen, as well as one of the bedrooms, but the rest of the house is in the dark until about 4 PM.  I guess I will have a kitchen green house.  Which also led me to this thought: our garage gets SO HOT in the summer that I think I may try to use that as a green house as well (baby plants, etc).  I am not sure if this will work or not...but I think I am going to try.  

Maybe I should re-title this...

Monthly dose of sunshine? 

Honestly, it is not due to a lack of desire to post. I love to write, love to type.  But I have made a concentrated effort to keep myself from sitting at this table, at this laptop.  I was going crazy reading the news, looking for jobs, etc.  I had to get away.  And when I got away, I found out that things weren't quite as bad as I thought they were...or maybe it is just that it wasn't screaming in my face from the pages of the web.  So, I limit the amount of time that I spend sitting here.  I do other things.  I do yard work in the back yard, and the front yard.  I clean the house, I do laundry.  I do yoga.  I work out.  I read.  I applied for a part-time retail job...literally just to get out of the house and get some kind of income coming in. And I got it!  And it's fun.  And I get to dress up and go out to the retail job every once in awhile and do something productive with others.  And I have been cooking a lot.  I am doing everything I can to make this as positive a situation as I can.  We aren't spending as much money, because I am cooking nearly every meal.  And we have both been skipping some meals too.  Not because we can't afford to eat, we have plenty of food.  I think for me it's more because I am realizing that I don't need to eat as much and for him it's partially lack of time.  I also like to think that it might also be because we are eating more nutritious food to begin with...so we have less need for the junk.  

And today I finally responded to some emails from friends.  Something that I have been putting off for awhile.  I know that their intentions are good and that they are only worried and want to know how I am doing and whether I have found a job.  It was just depressing to admit it, to have to tell them what I am doing.  But when I got the "permanent" job offer yesterday (from the company that I contracted with earlier in the year) the first thing I thought was...wow, how am I going to find the time to do all of the wonderful things that I have been packing in to my day for the last month or so?  That is huge to me.  The fact that I was able to step back from a horrible situation and make certain things in my life better even while another part of my life was falling apart.  There are a lot of articles in the news right now about keeping yourself sane while dealing with a job loss/the economy, etc, and I think in my own way I found what I need.  So I think I am trading yoga, yard work, maybe even some gardening for sitting at the laptop.  

Ahem! (Farmer's Market Cashier Lady)

A discussion with a woman I've named Ahem! who works at the fake Farmer's Market that I like to shop at for our weekly vegetables and meat.  

Me:                 Do you like working here?
Ahem!:           I don't know if I should say. What do you do?
Me:                 I am laid-off. Otherwise unemployed. A loser.
Ahem!:           Oh, is it just you? 
Me:                 No.  Me, the dog, and my boyfriend.
Ahem!:           Oh, so you don't have any children.
Me:                 No.
Ahem!:           Hm. How old are you?
Me:                 How old are the red bell peppers you are trying to sell me? hm, no?  Ok, I am 32.

Ahem!:           You should have children. Before it's too late.

Me:                  I don't really want to have children. I might adopt one.

The whole time I am speaking, she gives me curious looks. Literally she is unsure of what I am.  Am I from another planet?  Why in the world does she not want to have children?  I am uncomfortable with the silence and the curious looks coming from the other side of the register.  And for some reason I feel the need to talk, a geyser of talking.  

Me:     Well, why would I want to make another one when there are SO many others out there                 that need to be loved, that need good homes, you know…all that.

Ahem!: <> you don't want to have it here?

I should mention that this is the International Farmer's Market and one of their "things" is that everyone that works there is bi or even tri-lingual. So there is an ever so slight (not really slight) language barrier here. Although I can see on Ahem!’s name tag that she does speak two other languages besides English. They are not languages that I am familiar with so I am unable to just switch over.

Ahem!: But they will take care of you. When you cannot afford things, they will help you.

I only tried to get her to talk because she looked miserable after the manager guy came over and gave her and the next cashier down a talking to about something that they are NOT supposed to do regardless of whether or not they have a customer with them.

Oye. That's what I get for actually trying to engage someone in a little friendly conversation.

Trying

to find a job

to stay away from the computer once I've done my requisite daily job hunt, email check, bill pay, news read, etc. 

But I find myself drawn back to the laptop for a few things: 1)  I can't stop watching the stock market.   I watch it like a mother hen, crossing my fingers every time it ends the day on the plus side.  2)  I refresh the websites that contain my resume to see how many hits I have had on each.  3) I feel the need to look up RANDOM stuff all day long.  

So more on 3) later on.  

As a part of my 1) I have a tendency to read pretty much every article on CNN.com.  I read an article today about successful start ups.  These are start up companies that have really come in to their own (or even been developed) as a part of this current recession (for the most part, since December of 2008).  One of these new companies has a website called path101.com.  This website allows you to take quizzes, and blog, but it's all career based.  Well, hell, I say to myself.  Self: that's GOT to be better than making buttermilk and wondering if the El Jefe is jealous because I fed a stray cat on the porch.  Well, actually, I had a whole conversation with the cat, including checking to make sure it didn't have any obvious injuries, checked for fleas and ear mites as well as making sure it had claws to defend itself in the wide, wide world of our cul de sac and where ever else it might roam.  So, self and I, we roam over to this site and take the quiz and upload the resume (the best resume I have ever written about myself, I might add).  And what does it say about me?  My top three highest scoring traits are, in this order: Neuroticism, Emotion, and Openness.  My three lowest scoring traits are, in this order: Compartmentalization, Experimentation, and Initiative.  It also told me in no uncertain terms that it isn't actually sure how I got my last job, because "I don't stay in the same place long enough".  I was promoted 2 times in under 3 years.  What the hell?  This is supposedly some great resume "genome" project (like pandora.com is for music).  I like Pandora.  I don't like this website.  I am now off to research a bit more on Neuroticism on wikipedia (who has yet to fail me) and finish making the buttermilk for my banana bread.  bah. 

 

And FINALLY we get a hit!

So, officially, it will be a month on Sunday since I have been gainfully employed.  I have submitted 50+ applications to a variety of different companies.  

I have received one email so far requesting additional information and purporting that I am one of a chosen few that this email has been sent to (with the request for additional information) based on their desire to include me as one of the people they would like to consider for this position.  

I answered the questions, 1 of them required assistance from a couple of additional people including Sol primarily because of the complicated nature of the question.  Basically, the question was: how much was your last salary/bonus and how much do you want to make now?  That is a VERY weighted question at this point in time.  The economy  is in the toilet and will probably continue to get worse.  It's harder and harder to even get noticed on a job site, let alone get a response to an application that is anything other than a computer generated answer.  What has really made this question a difficult one to answer is the fact that they are offering as the maximum salary (according to the job post) approximately half of what I made as of 1 month ago Sunday.  But there are benefits attached to this job.  When I say benefits I mean simply that I would have them again.  I would have health insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, etc.  Something that I haven't been without, October to now being the exception, since I was in elementary school.  

So I answered the question as best as we ALL could.  Sent the email.  And now I will start to wait again. 

Ode to Snow

I live in the south.  And it's snowing.  Not the small quantities that we normally get, but slow, fat snowflakes that land on the ground and stay.  They stay where ever they land!  In the south this is also known as "Apocalypse Snowish".  All bread, milk, eggs, butter (and beer if it weren't Sunday) disappear off of the shelves of local grocery stores.  It is the end of the world as we know it...actually the increase in sirens is a little nerve wracking as I am hearing a lot of them even for our neighborHOOD.  

 Half of a snow man now exists on my back deck because the snow is sticking (not just melting as soon as it touches the ground as it normally does here)!  It's thick and heavy and the PERFECT consistency for snow balls and other snow related activities.  I made two snow balls in the parking lot at the grocery store as I was cleaning my car off.  The rest of the people in the parking lot stood watching me as I brushed my car off with my bare hands.  Snow will not kill you...nor will it instantly turn you into ice.  And when I got home,I took El Jefe outside (both front and back) to play in it.  Me in my jeans and funny hat, and him in his pepper and salt fur.  I did not make a snow angel (too much mud under the snow) but I seriously considered it and El Jefe, who is nearly 78 in our years, jumped in the snow like a jack rabbit.  He also ate every snow ball I tried to round out for the snow man.  He pounced on my half completed snow man and took a huge bite out of the second snow ball... not just once but every time I was almost done.  I tried explaining the significance of snow in the ATL, also tried to explain that it wouldn't last long and that we had to work quickly.  In one furry ear and out the other furry ear.  Instead of a snow man I now have a snow child...or a snow dog depending on how you look at it.  We didn't have any mittens laying around either, so before I started working in the snow I put on large work gloves that are normally used when Sol does the yard work.  They are now all wet and have been laid out on the counter to dry...so much fun to play in the snow even if you don't have the right equipment (such as shovels and snow pants).  My jeans and sweater are soaked from our romp on the deck in the snow.  

A rather large tree branch fell on my car due to the weight of the heavy snow. I think the car is ok, but the tree the branch came from is not.  I am going to investigate the status of the tree to determine if I need to move my car for fear of additional tree limbs coming to visit it.  

It is now about 3 hours after the beginning of our snow storm.  This is not only unusual for this area but I am fairly certain that this hasn't happened in years.  All of the traffic out of the airport has been grounded, a yearly 10K (or some length) has been cancelled, and the ptb (powers that be) are determining whether or not the little ones that are outside making muddy snow men will have to be in school tomorrow morning.  

Oh, how I wish I had a job or was going to school as snow days in the south are few and far between!  I have taken pictures to commemorate the occasion and will post them here eventually.  Ah, and chocolate cupcakes will soon go into the oven!  I guess that's a good way to celebrate the snow.   

On Behalf of Tuesday

It is now Tuesday. Tuesday is one of those days that has little or no meaning during the average week. Monday...the dreaded beginning of the week. The appearance of Wednesday indicates the middle of the week and half way to the weekend. Thursday is the day before Friday (which I believe I have explained before)! Thursday indicates that Friday is almost here. Finally, Friday. Friday is self-explanatory, since it is the beginning of the weekend, as is Saturday. Sunday is a mixed bag. Still the weekend but technically the day before Monday (which is not a good place to be in the grand scheme of things). Tuesday is just there. There is no pre-Wednesday anticipation at this point, nothing inherently interesting, exciting, or different about Tuesday's to point out.

The whole reason that we get so excited about Friday is because we don't have to work on the weekends. Right? The weekend is the time to go out with friends, go shopping, sleep in, investigate new and interesting places in your city. It's a time for rest and relaxation. It is the time away from the time you spend working...working time The whole point of the weekend is really to rejuvenate you for another long week at work.

So...I guess my thought is this: Tuesday really isn't so bad. In fact, there really is no difference between a Tuesday and a Friday. Ok, so I hear what you're thinking. Tuesday is not WONDERFUL, like a Friday, but when you don't have a job there is nothing to get away from and therefore nothing to look forward to on the weekend. There is really no difference between a Monday, a Wednesday, or a Tuesday (or any of the other days in the week). I am going to find something fun to do every Tuesday until I find something better to do with my time and I start living for Friday again.

And I watched the traffic

While coming home from my solo movie tonight (which I am very proud of) I took an over pass that crossed I85. As I got to the midway point of the bridge, I glanced to my right side and watched the traffic in the distance. It's hard not to notice the HUGE number of cars moving on the freeway even later in the evening...someone in Atlanta is always moving, always rushing to go somewhere. For some reason, maybe it was the song I was listening to on the radio: Lost? by Coldplay...and it is specifically the Lost? version of the song (acoustic version) and not the Lost! version of the song (although I do like both of them). This song makes me sad and hopeful all at the same time. I wish that I could see it through the eyes of the person who wrote it. I said "see" intentionally, because I think it has a direct affect on the way that you see whatever you are looking at when you listen to the song. So what was this writer looking at when the song was written?

ANYWAY, for some reason, perhaps because of the song, I had this strange feeling that if I concentrated hard enough that I could make everything better for everyone. Make all of the bad things that are happening right now (just generally speaking) stop, save them all. This was centrally focused on the city of Atlanta, but not unlike the concept of being able to wrap an invisible bubble of protection around everything within your mind's eye (kinda like a certain scene in a certain book where the main character is standing in the middle of an opening in the forest with her family and she protects them invisibly from a not so invisible foe, one member of this aforementioned not so invisible foe may be played by Dakota Fanning in an coming movie). I really wish I had a picture of the amazing number of cars traveling on the freeway, under the bridge. I just want to know where they were going. I hope they were all going to a movie, or out for dinner, and that nothing bad compelled them to leave their houses tonight and drive north.

I have to add that I had NOT been drinking (at this point) this evening. I guess I was just meant to have super powers.


I saw Coraline in 3D tonight. I forgot how much I love 3D movies. It was a little bit scarier than I maybe thought it should have been considering how many smaller kids were in there, but honestly, with WHO directed it, etc, I think we should just assume a slight level of scary walking in to things. It was visually amazing. I am, again, amazed at the way that other people see the world.

El Jefe and I almost had to have a "very serious" discussion this evening. A discussion about bread and why it is not acceptable for him to STEAL the delicious Italian bread loaf off of the counter and keep it all for himself. 1) It will go straight to his hips and there already isn't enough space in the hallway for him to turn around gracefully 2) The bread is for dinner tonight and tomorrow (tonight: yummy Greek salad tomorrow Pasta with Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage). We did not have the discussion about the bread because I somehow interrupted his attempt to steal the bread and eat it all for himself because he only got almonds (in front of the bread spatially on the counter). I do see some very large doggy toothy marks in some of the almonds...but at least he didn't get the bread.

An Example!

It didn't even take that long.


I found an example of someone who is more interesting, creative, and entertaining than me.

Be prepared to be amazed and don't forget to click on the fashion blog, too!

And it looks like she didn't have to THINK about being more interesting, or more entertaining. It just happened for her. I believe, firmly!, that this is actually my problem. Other people are inherently more interesting, creative, and entertaining than me, or I.C.E.


The OR here...

Or, I just haven't figured out what it is that would make me I.C.E. I wonder how you figure that out?

"Oh, Magic Box, please explain this to me! In English, please."

Oh, whoa is me

I did something tricky there. Did you notice? It isn't woe as in woe but more like whoa. Yeah. I had my interview today, picked up lunch, and came home to work on pretty much whatever came to mind. I am saying "whoa" because it seems like the time is going very fast. This is the end of my 2nd week of Homemakery (or whatever the appropriate word would be for that). I really didn't expect the time to go so fast, honestly.

The Interview: After I spent quite a bit of time getting ready, as well as ironing my "interview" clothes, putting gas in the car, worrying about what I was going to say, and driving 32 miles (that's 64 miles round trip)...my interview was a total of 17 minutes (or so as I didn't wear a watch today). It was a fairly informal interview. If I am found worthy I may be asked to return next week and dance for them like the trained pony that I am. Oh, I hate the state of the economy in the U.S. for more reasons than I can even mention here! There are so many things that I would rather be doing, other than working for this company (the only company that I have had an interview with in the last two weeks). What are these things that I would rather be doing, you might be wondering right now? 1) going back to school to finish that pesky college degree that I never got around to putting the final ink on 2) working on some awesome kind of art project that could potentially be sold for a profit (small profit though it might be). 3) Doing some kind of work outside like gardening or something. 4) teaching a fun subject to small children: art, reading, something like that. I will leave at those 4 items mainly because I don't want to bore anyone (bore who? No one reads this but me. Oh, well, someone might stumble by at some point and find it interesting.).


Speaking of interesting: I have completely lost the battle with myself regarding the news. I still read several news sites every day, multiple times per day. Actually I sometimes sit and refresh those news site pages just like I do my "counts" on the job websites that show how many hits I have had on my resume (s).

I have also decided that I am the least interesting and least creative person in the world. Maybe I should go to the doctor...there is a pill or a shot for that, right?

Thursday, Thursday, Thursday

So, yes, today is Thursday. I probably didn't need to tell you that. You probably already knew that it was Thursday. Thursday is the day before Friday and on Friday I have a job interview. The first job interview that I have had in the two weeks since my last contract ended. The interview is at 1PM tomorrow afternoon....so I guess wish me luck?

Ain't No Sunshine...

It is raining today! I woke up with a headache and before I even opened my eyes, I knew it had to be raining. For some reason when the barometric pressure changes dramatically in a short period of time, I get a headache. Great! All of the lovely plans I had that involved being outside have gone down the drain. Which makes me think of something else: Every time I go the Farmer's Market, which really isn't a Farmer's Market, I pass by a place where I can buy a rain barrel and I really want one. More on that some other day.

My original plan for today involved a park, a chicken, and some pastels. El Jefe and I had selected a lovely park to go to this morning as he just came home from the vet yesterday with proof that he has been given his rabies vaccination. What better way to celebrate being "legal" again than to go play in the park? We have never been to this particular park so it was rather exciting to contemplate getting him off the couch and outside to run around. He has taken the news rather hard and is sleeping away his disappointment on the couch...if you concentrate really hard I bet you can hear him snoring. I had also planned to make chicken soup. And I might still do that especially since it is raining and looks rather yucky outside. It is mid February so we only have a few more weeks to deal with this type of weather. So that takes care of the park, and the chicken. Then we have the pastels. I had planned to be artistic today, hence the pastels. I figured while I was making the stock for the chicken soup that I could be out on the front porch working on something. Something that would make me happy. It's really about whatever strikes me at the moment. I don't really have an adequate location in the house to work with pastels, or paint as I am just too messy with the stuff.

And I should also add that I haven't received one call from any of the applications I put out on Friday of last week. I have another round of them to send out today with my newly modified resume.

Today is the first day after President Obama signed the stimulus bill. I nearly threw up two times yesterday watching stocks fall (not that I have any money in them to begin with) and I intend to start keeping track of how long it takes for the stimulus bill to have a positive effect.

And the soup is on hold...or is being reformulated into something else.

I might stop reading the news altogether because it is depressing.

There is a first time for everything.

And no, I am not referring to this blog. I've tried blogging before. I've always failed, OR the blog has turned in to a method of communication reserved for a small number of folks. This time WILL BE DIFFERENT! Or at least that is what I am telling myself right now.

There really is a first time for everything. I, for the first time in my life, have crossed the line to the other side and become...duh duh duh...a Homemaker. Well, not REALLY. I am actually unemployed but prefer to think of myself as a Homemaker, hopefully in the short term, versus contemplating the fact that I am unemployed and that the odds are stacking against me. This isn't just the normal stacking either. Being from a lower-middle class family it's socially almost impossible to climb my way to upper class. But I was shooting for solidly middle class or perhaps, dare I dream, upper-middle class. So, since I am trying to make such a huge "class" jump already the odds have always been leaning against me. The current state of the economy is helping to increase the weight of the stack. Oh, right. One small caveat to the "Homemaker" status I have chosen to bestow on myself: I have no children. I have a boyfriend who works 80+ hours a week from home. I have a dog. He is part Grumpy Old Man (think Walter Matthau) and part caffeinated preschooler.

So really I have no reason to give myself the title of Homemaker Extraordinaire (I have just bestowed this title on myself now and originally it was just supposed to be Homemaker...but I need something to keep me going), but I'm going to do it anyway because I now have time to cook, and clean, along with a variety of other items that I am currently keeping track of in a small, non-descript notebook with some wonderful, erasable pens (variety of colors). Oh, and if you would like to see the pens look here: JetPens

The point of this adventure is actually to track the "Homemaking" time in a way that will not seem so bad, and give me something to look back on at some point in the future when times are better. Hopefully, it will be interesting to others who are potentially in the same situation, and it might even be humorous to those NOT in the same position...or vice versa. We (Royal Homemaker Extraordinaire use of the word WE) might post the list of things that are being tracked in the handy moleskin notebook tomorrow. But right now my preschooler's flair needs to be adjusted (he's wearing a neckerchief because the groomer at his vet finds it entertaining to dress up even 85 pounders).