Pandemonium

The days are really flying by. Maria left yesterday morning, and the time with her went by quickly. We did a lot of stuff, but I felt like there were a million more things we could have done, too. I was really worn out. We definitely packed in a good number of activities. Now I need to get myself on track and get stuff done. I have enough favors made for the number of people I think will be coming to the wedding. We still need to figure out the situation for a bunch of people though. Tomorrow I have a job interview. Ugh. I suppose I will have Jake practice with me tonight before I go, but I really don't want to do it.

It was really hot here for a while, but it's cooled off today. It was up near 100 with the heat index, but today it's about 85 and it rained. I'm glad. I hate having all the heat and humidity.

I really just want to completely veg out. I want to sit around and read and do nothing. Blah.

I made a new project for myself to make heart shaped confetti out of the scraps of paper I haven't used for favors. Gah. It never ends. Why do I do this to myself? I found out recently that July 14th is "Pandemonium Day". Yup, I'm pretty sure it's going to be pure pandemonium. I'm ready to get it over with so that my time will be freed up to think about other things.

I haven't been applying to a lot of jobs. I feel like I have all this other poop going on.

Jake is working all this upcoming weekend so he can take a bunch of time off for the wedding. I don't know what I'm going to do this weekend yet.

We leave here in about a week and a half! It seems totally crazy to me.

Here are some random pictures from Maria's visit:

Random Blog of Stuff

I can't get myself excited to apply for any jobs.

I do have another job interview next week, but I'm really not excited for that either. It's with a company that makes applications for PDAs and stuff to help people behaviorally with weight loss, stopping smoking, sticking to a diet, etc. I'd help with behavioral research. I feel sketchy about it though, because then I'd be doing research for a company that obviously would be interested in showing that their products work. So, would I be put in a position of hypothesis-proving? Ick. Plus, the job is out in Reston. The commute would be a pain. Plus, I'd have to pay a toll driving there. Blah.

I feel like since I have this free time, and it's not an emergency that I find a job, I really should try to find work that helps me live up to my ideals. I'm not sure where to find that, though. Also, I'm not really sure what I'm passionate enough about to stick with. Maybe it's extremely difficult to have work that matches with what you think is the meaning of your life. Maybe it's even more difficult to find that in something entry level...

I think Jake and I are going to go see "Knocked Up" tonight. Yay! It's been a long while since I've actually wanted to see something in the theatre. It seems like every other movie this summer is a sequel. Do I really want to go to the theatre to see the third Pirates or Shrek movie?

I've been working on making wedding favors this week. I have just over 100 of them made. I'm not sure how many people we're actually going to have at the wedding yet, though. There are still about 70 people we haven't heard from...they have two days until the due date. It's really annoying and it's going to be a lot more work to have to start getting on the phone to figure out counts for everything.

Maria comes tomorrow! There is crap all over our apartment, so I really need to get it all cleaned up. I can't wait to have this wedding over with, because most of the mess is related to that...favors, boxes of stuff to take home, boxes of spare wedding invitations, lists and tallies of different wedding stuff...a huge box from a gift we just got (some friends of Jake's parents- who I don't even know- got us a new set of bedsheets and a comforter...yay!).

Jake and I are planning to go to Toronto for a couple of days before making our way to Wisconsin. We booked some hotel rooms last night. We're planning to drive all the way to a bit past Niagara Falls on our first day of driving and then spend two nights in Toronto. I'm not sure what all I want to do yet. I think I want to check out Kensington Market and go up the CN Tower. July 1 is Canada Day, but I haven't seen anything special that's going on in Toronto that day.

Okay, not too much else happening in the moment...

Hopefully, I'll have some good pictures and stories after Maria comes!

Well, summer has begun!

It seems now that the days are so long and the weather is warm, there has been more and more stuff going on, and all sorts of fun things planned.

Over Memorial Day weekend, I got to see a DC United game on Friday night with the Marnis. Then, Jake and I got a call from Jon and Ellen because there were a bunch of old college friends in town. It was nice to get to see some of them, because I know a couple of them aren't going to make it to the wedding. Marie has a family trip planned and Tom is in a big bike race that weekend for sure. We toured the monuments at night with them on Friday after the game. Then we went out for French food at Les Halles and drank at the Brickskeller on Saturday. On Sunday night, we came over to have lasagna with a bunch of them at Jon and Ellen's.

Here's a picture of some of us at the Brickskeller:


Last weekend, Jake and I went down to Busch Gardens with some of the people from the PTO. Then, Jake and I stayed at a hotel in Williamsburg so that we could tour Jamestown and see Williamsburg the next day.

Here's Jake at this colonial tavern we went to in Williamsburg:


I thought the whole deal of having people dressed up in colonial clothing was kind of creepy. Jake and I also got trapped on the opposite side of the street from where our car was parked and we kept getting asked to show tickets to be out on the street. I guess there's an area in Williamsburg that gets blocked off in the afternoons, and if you haven't bought a pass to be in the area, you're not allowed to walk through. It's weird.

Tomorrow, I'm going with Jake and some other people to Celebrate Fairfax to see the band Live play. Jake's friend Rob is having us over on Saturday to play Mario party on the Wii. Then, Maria comes next Friday! Yay!

Job update: I had an interview yesterday with Westat, which is an employee-owned contract research organization in Rockville. It was for a research assistant position in their Education Studies division. I had three sets of interviews with nine people total. I don't think it went too bad...I've definitely had worse. They said it might be a few weeks before they let me know about the job. The job seems pretty cool, except for the fact that it'd be in Rockville and the commute would be a pain. If I started working there, I think I might bother Jake to move again.

My Neighborhood

Okay, so I took some random pictures so that I could show a bit of the area I live in. This first picture is Alexandria's City Hall:

This is a little plaque that is on some of the buildings around the area to show that they are "historical".

This is Washington Street. The statue in the center of the intersection is of a Confederate soldier. Yup.

Here's the street I live on!

Here's the building I live in!


I hope you enjoyed this little tour.

If Life's an Illusion, We Might as Well Dine

Now that I don't have a job, the days seem to be going by very quickly. There are so many things that I enjoy doing on my own. Oh, maybe I was meant to be unemployed... when I was at work, I couldn't wait for the end of the day. Now I just keep busy during the day with things that interest me. A lot of it is just taking in information, though. I think I need to work on producing something worthwhile because I can't just keep taking everything in. I do so much reading and tooling around on the internet. I need to work on creating something to share with the world.

Not that I haven't been applying for jobs. I've been working on that. I have a couple of leads. A woman called me a couple weeks back about a research job I applied for. She asked me right away over the phone what my salary expectations are. I told her a number and she said, "Well, that's a little high for what we typically start our research assistants at, but I'll see what I can do." Then, I didn't hear from her for a long while. I thought I'd messed it up by asking for too high a salary. Yesterday she left a message on my voicemail about how I shouldn't interpret a lack of contact from her as a lack of interest in having me work for them, that they are busy in the office with proposals lately, and that she will probably contact me next week to try to set up an interview. I also applied to a school psychologist position with an organization that contracts with DC Public Schools. They contacted me and I asked if I would be able to work for them because the requirements for being licensed in DC are less stringent than in VA or MD (only 500 hours of experience are needed to get licensure, which I have...VA and MD require a 1200 hour internship). The HR person I spoke with on the phone made it sound like they'd still be interested in having me work for them. She asked me my salary expectations and I told her the same general number I told the woman for the other job. "Well, we would be able to pay much more than that, I'm sure," was her response. She told me yesterday that she was going to FedEx me some more application materials overnight, so I'll probably get that stuff soon.

Eh. I'm iffy on doing more work for schools. I think it'd be really cool to be self-employed. I don't know exactly what I'd do though. I'd need to come up with one good (self-employment) idea and stick with it. What do I wanna do?

I wanna be a punk rocker! (I could write a song a week ala Jonathan Coulton!)
I wanna be an organic farmer! (I could ask the farmer I'm getting my CSA share from for tips!)
I wanna be a screenwriter!
I wanna be a philosopher! (Piss off, Ayn Rand...I'm writing the anti-Atlas Shrugged.)
I wanna be a dog trainer!
I wanna be a photographer!
I wanna be a professional poker player! (Okay, this is just because I read this article about Annie Duke, who dropped out of a PhD program in psychology to play cards. She won $2 million in a poker tournament in 2004.)
I wanna operate a food cart! (Seriously, I want to have a cart in the middle of the patent office buildings and sell lunch to patent examiners. I imagine I need some sort of license to do that, though...and a cart...and a commercial kitchen, probably...)
I wanna write cookbooks!

Speaking of cookbooks, I have been doing more random cooking recently. I need to find ways to use all this stuff we're getting from our CSA. I made my own variations of cole slaw, potato salad, and an Asian rice noodle dish this week. Most of what I make is just a variation of or a combination of recipes I read. However, I thought it would be fun to start writing out recipes. So, here's an attempt at doing just that:

The Tofu/Broccoli/Bok Choy Noodle Dish I Made Last Night

I had to find a way to use the bok choy I got from our CSA. This is what I came up with:

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. Asian rice stick noodles
1 lb. firm tofu
2 cloves garlic
One crown of broccoli
2 heads baby bok choy
green onions
a few good handfuls of baby carrots
Szechwan Sauce
Soy Ginger Sauce

Directions:
First, drain your tofu and press it for half an hour by putting it between two plates and weighing down the top plate with a heavy book (I'm told that tofu picks up flavors better if it's pressed...). Drain off the extra water that comes out of the tofu as a result of pressing. Put the tofu in a container (I used the little plastic package mine came in...) and coat it with a few tablespoons of Szechwan sauce and allow it to marinade (I let it sit for a half hour or so...I don't even know if it really did much, but I like to think that it did...). Mince up your garlic and chop up your tofu and throw them together in a pan with some oil (this would actually probably work better with a wok, but I don't own a wok...there is one on our wedding registry, I think, though...). In the meantime, start bringing your rice stick noodles to a boil in a pot. After your tofu and garlic is browned up a bit, throw in all the veggies (chopped up, of course...). When the veggies start to get tender, put in a couple more tablespoons of Szechwan sauce and about half a bottle of soy ginger sauce. When your noodles are done, drain them off and mix them in with your veggies in the pan. Mix it all together as best you can. Put in more soy ginger sauce if you want...or feel free to randomly throw in regular soy sauce or sesame oil or whatever you want. Stir fry it up for a minute or two and it's ready to go in bowls or on plates and be served!

Okay, there. I can say that I produced something today. A poorly written, random recipe. If any of you actually make this, let me know. I'd be amused.

Also, if you have ideas about what I should do with my life, let me know that too...all ideas are welcome.

Journeyin' Onward

Well, today was my first official day of unemployment. I don't know if it was quite as glorious as I imagined it would be, but I suppose it wasn't so bad. My last day of work was pretty good. People were really good to me. I got a lot of hugs from people. One of my coworkers gave me a card. This new teacher woman made me a cake, but it wasn't that good. She doesn't eat gluten, so I'm guessing the crappy cake was gluten-free.

Jake and I tried to go hiking in Shenandoah on Saturday. We bought a season pass. Our plan was to try to do a 6.4 mile hike to see a waterfall and return to the car. We got about halfway to the waterfall when it really started thundering and I thought we'd probably get rained on, so we turned around and called it quits for the day. Neither of us was prepared to get rained on. The picture above is me out on the trail. After we left the park, we stopped at this store called the Emporium. It was great. We saw the prototypical rural Virginian family there. The husband was wearing a wife beater and they all had southern accents. The Emporium sold books on how to talk country, jars of honey, bottles of Stewarts soda, lots of random things with the confederate flag on it, pieces of wooden furniture, and Minnetonka moccasins (aren't those from Minnesota?).

On Saturday night, I went out to some bars in Adams Morgan with some of my (ex) coworkers. It was good fun. I drank this awful thing called a Portland coffee, which was just Bacardi 151 and coffee mixed together. We randomly crashed a private party, which I didn't figure out until later was a "lesbian" party. Anyway, I hope I'm able to keep in touch with some of my old coworkers. Jake is having poker night again on Friday and I've been trying to bother some of them to come...no one from work has ever come and I think Jake's had at least two or three of these things since I worked at APTS. I think Lydia might come...but she's the only one I've really heard much back from.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to go to the mall. I need to go and pick up the wedding bands that Jake and I ordered and I think I'm going to clothes shop, look for a good graduation gift for my brother, and try to find something for Jameson's birthday. Today I applied for about five jobs, cleaned the apartment, and went and worked out. What else should I do besides apply for jobs? Here are my ideas for now: knit some rags I can use for cleaning, download and listen to random podcasts, read about bioethics and economics, plan elaborate vegetarian dinners, bake cookies, sit in a coffee shop for an afternoon, look for ideas for my wedding hairstyle, and browse in bookstores.