Timelines out of sync

Even as I type this, Momma Weedy is angrily insisting that it is bedtime so I will try to be brief and minimize the wrath of the Weedy Cat.

I hate to write about job hunting here yet again but had an interview today that I won't go into a lot of detail about but will say that I hate that there is no urgency on THEIR part when there is a tremendous amount of urgency on my part and that while I would probably really like the job I interviewed for today, I am wondering if I will still be sitting around waiting when they get to their second round of interviews and then all the pre-employment screening/background checking, etc. I understand that they can afford to pick and choose and do whatever they want right now. But that doesn't help me feel any less panic or impatience with the process.

The novel is coming along. I am on track with word count and all but am struggling with making it be what I desire for it to be.

Tomorrow the job search continues. It is eating up alot of time. It is frustrating. Frustrating to have an agency call you, go in and do their ream of paperwork, have what seems to be a good interview and then have them not return calls or emails. If there is something turning up in my background check, it's news to me and I'd really like to know. Avoiding/not returning my phone calls and emails is just serving to make me angry/paranoid.

Speaking of angry, Momma Weedy wants you all to know I am being very naughty and am up past my bed time and need to go to bed NOW (MAO!!)

Ok, Week Four was a while ago but... Natalie Dee is awesome!

Talent Envy

I really envy people who have talent. To be more specific, I envy people with artistic talents. People who can draw well or paint or are musical or who have really nice voices and can sing. I envy people who create beautiful jewelry or all the cool stuff you see on Etsy. I also think that people who knit, crochet & sew are extremely talented. I can crochet to some extent but have never created anything recognizable or worth keeping. I tried to learn to knit but really need someone with tons of patience to sit with me and help me.

My drawing talent seems to have "arrested" at about the 1st grade level. I was hoping that PhotoShop might help me out but it takes a lot of time to learn how to use it and it's slow going when you're trying to learn on your own. I attempted pottery back in high school but never got past clunky coffeecups whose handles fell off the first time they were used. My adventures in trying to work with stained glass in high school were equally fruitless. You'll laugh, but I have a poster that I got back when I was around 14 years old. It's the kind you colour with markers. I STILL have it and it STILL isn't finished yet.

I keep blogging hoping that the practice writing will help me as a novelist. There are many days when I question whether there is any value at all to blogging beyond the fact than it's cheaper than going to a therapist. Things happen and I think about what a profound and/or witty blog post it will make and then when I actually get here and write it out, I find it was one of those "geez, I guess you really sortve needed to be there for this to seem profound/witty" things.

Speaking of the novel, I suppose I should get back to working on it. Keeping up a decent pace so far and on target to finish just fine.

My question for tonight... Blogospherians... what are your talents?

Non-Coffeehouse Sunday Post

It's Sunday and I am not at the coffeehouse. I am home and I am blogging because I don't want to do the chores that are waiting to be done. Because chores are no fun. I really do need to drag the vacuum out, though. The thing is, I simply don't feel like it.

I'm not sure what triggered the blues today. I don't feel like doing anything. Feel like everything I've been doing is wrong. Feeling like I just keep screwing everything up all the time. And I honestly don't know what triggered all of this or how to make it better. I was all happy yesterday about the good news I'd gotten and now even that has me feeling anxious. Did you ever have a day where you suddenly became hyper-aware of all the little things that are just not right in your world or is it just me? It's probably just me.

In the past couple of days I've also caught myself thinking about weird things. Like the fact that there seem to be some young females in the immediate neighborhood (ie, hanging around on the sidewalk outside my building) who periodically scream bloody murder for no apparent reason but it makes me wonder if they really WERE in peril, how would anyone know? I'd hate to be one of those people who does nothing when someone is in danger, but when these kids are screaming ALL THE TIME, how do you know when the danger is real?

So, anyhow.... that's what is up with me on this Sunday afternoon. Hope y'all are ok.

Excitement!

Last night Momma Weedy herded me to bed. I slept fitfully and had bizarre dreams. And even though I woke up pretty late this morning I was groggy and not at all convinced that being up was a good idea.

I opened up my email and something caught my eye. I had to read the email twice once I'd opened it. It was good news. No, it's not a job. And it's not something I can say outright here because I don't have permission BUT... an announcement will be forthcoming.

Now... I know that most folks don't read newspapers anymore but you can still get your comics fix online, as I do. I make it a habit to read a few comics religiously. One of them is "Something Positive" and I'm more excited than I can tell you that I am probably going to get to meet its creator in person and go all squeeing fangirl on him and he will probably end up wishing there was a restraining order. I also want to make a point of meeting the creators of "Two Lumps"at some point. I have also become a big fan of "Working Daze", mainly because Dana the Office Manager has superpowers I've dreamed of having... Working Daze also has a blog, which is a fun look behind the scenes. I'm also a big fan of "Do You Work Here"... and, well... there is a pretty long list of others, but those are the one's I'll mention tonight.

It was a pretty mundane day of doing the necessary errands and general "Saturday Stuff" otherwise. Tomorrow I'll probably record some stuff to be used in my Sunday night Second Life DJ set and pick music for that and then in the late afternoon I'll enjoy a nice packet soup moo prepared by Mr. POSSLQ and there may be cookies involved. Not sure yet. But I DO have all the ingredients for cupcakes now. Just need to track down the cupcake pan. Somehow I think Mr. POSSLQ probably knows where it is as he suggested the making of cupcakes.

Ok, y'all... Better scoot before Momma Weedy comes in and gives me the what-for because I'm not in bed yet.

Chaos: 1,000,0005 ~ MsDarkstar : 1,000,006

So, Mr. POSSLQ took the laundry to wash it today which meant that I had to be productive whilst he was gone. (Those are the rules) And this evening, there's one small task left to do and then the chaos will be beaten into submission. It's not GONE, but it's to the point where people wouldn't come into the place and think "WTF?? Do WOLVES live here? No... Wolves have better housekeeping skills! Dang!"

I still need another chair. Blasé had said in my comments the other day that he has a chair I could have but I'm guessing I'd have to go and pick it up and that's a bit more of a drive than I can make right now, but it would be pretty cool to meet him n' SweetBaby so maybe I'll make the journey at some point in the future.

My alarm clock got revenge on me this morning. I thought I'd remembered to turn it off after I woke up yesterday, but Hello Kitty had other ideas and jarred me awake at the crack of insanity this morning. I hate it when the small electronics get uppity.

I got to thinking today (right after I read Crissy's blog...) that I really need to make some cupcakes soon. Especially since there is now a Kitchenaid mixer in the kitchen and I bet you I can whip up some kick ass buttercream frosting with that bad boy. And no more having the beating the frosting making my arm hurt (dang! That sounds almost pornographic!)

I was going to work on the novel after finishing my post here, but Momma Weedy has made it known that I need to get my happy ass to bed. So, I'm off!

Oh yeah, I remember alarm clocks...

I had my appt. with the agency this morning. Which meant that I had to be somewhere at a designated time for the first time in a long time. Which meant that I had to set an alarm. I remember now that I am not a big fan of that.

The agency experience wasn't as bad as I had feared and at least the interviewer was nice and didn't seem to have the attitude that I am used to with agencies. Which was nice. I also have a friend whose mom is regional manager at a company that's very close to my house and I've sent her my resume but I'm not sure that they have any openings. Still, networking is a good thing and I need to order some new business cards so I can do some more of it.

I had some stuff I mailed out the other day that will hopefully meet with the approval of the person that I sent it to. I need to take stock of what I have on hand and see whether my finances will allow me to do some restocking. I really need another chair, too, but am in the Catch-22 of needing money to do work to make money. I also need to force myself to do the filing that's piled up on my desk and finish taming the chaos to the point that I don't think about it anymore.

The weather is absolutely gorgeous right now and I'm so thankful when I step out and am not freezing my ass off and/or slipping on ice.

A few weeks ago, my cousin was out and about and came across a winery called Dark Star Cellars and, of course, had to stop in and check it out. It is a small, family-owned and operated winery. The owner, his wife and two kids are the entire staff. So, if you're ever in the Pasa Robles area of California, check them out. I bring it up because today I came back from my appointment and there was a "you have a package" notice by my door and I couldn't fathom who I had a package from and lo and behold, it was a box from my cousin which contained two Dark Star Cellars wine glasses , a couple of corks and some very cool stickers (look to be what would be put on wine bottles). I would LOVE to order and taste some of their wine, but until I'm employed and fiscally solvent (read: the fifth of NEVER), I doubt I'll have the opportunity. In any event, I have two glasses that have "Dark Star Cellars" etched onto them and I'm thrilled.

So, tomorrow and the weekend will hold more chaos taming, the usual weekend chores and NaNoWriMo-ing. Oh! And Two Lumps did a neato comic relevant to NaNoWriMo, too. That's all I've got for tonight.

It's Time-Warner's Fault...

I had every intention of making a blog post last night and then my internetz decided to go down (and not in a way that was at all pleasurable). And so I just worked on my novel and then Momma Weedy came in and told me that it was time for bed, so I headed off to bed.

I finally got it together today and got the dining room whipped into shape. I am hoping at some point we can afford a table and chairs. But it's nice to have the space cleared out even if we haven't got a dining set to put there. And maybe we never will. Honestly, that would probably be ok, since we don't ever have company but I'd like to think that at some point we WILL have some friends who MIGHT come and visit and would PERHAPS not want to balance a plate on their laps as they sit on the floor (unless we come up with some cushions or something and can pass it off as a cultural experience). So now the livingroom looms as the last bastion of chaos.

The highlight of my day (and honestly, my week) was calling in to a California radio show and talking to Stephan Pastis who is the cartoonist who does "Pearls Before Swine". I was actually on the radio, which was uber cool and Stephan was really nice and I even had an intelligent question and some (honest) flattery to throw his way. I wasn't one of the people they selected to win the SWAG (either an autographed calendar or an autographed book) but I really think it was a cool experience anyhow and I am glad I got over my normal terror of humiliation and went ahead and called.

Tomorrow I go and do something I'd been hoping to avoid doing. I'm going in to register with the one agency that has actually taken notice of my applications. There are certain jobs listed that I KNOW are agency listings but they list as "Confidential" so that you can't call them. (That way they don't have to spend their valuable time talking to people who are not at all qualified, they can scan resumes for keywords). Even though I've gotten some good placements with agencies, they've always been with places that contacted ME rather than the other way around. Sometimes you can get good, not listed other places jobs by working with an agency. The thing is that if they are contract jobs, the employer is paying the agency $30 an hour and you MIGHT get $15 of that but you won't get any benefits or paid time off until you've worked 1000 or 2000 hours (so, basically 6 mo. to a year) and there are penalties if the place you work hires you on as a regular staff member (penalties to the company that hires you, not the employee).

And so, I think I'm going to wander off now and go soak in the tub for a while and then get to bed early so I can get up early in the morning and try to look ok. I'm very nervous.