This morning I brewed my first pot of coffee of the year. Why did I wait so long, you ask. Last December I caught a hell of a stomach virus and lost my taste for Java and took up drinking tea. This morning I just wanted some coffee and so I made some.
And so hours later it is as if I am on speed. I have gotten so much accomplished today and it's not even noon! I am going to calm down and take a deep breath and use this incredible surge of energy to write about my job search.
I am moving to Memphis...maybe. Maybe not. But it's about 90% certain it will be Memphis. The other 10% leans towards Canton Ohio. Land of the North again. Canton would not be that bad. I have been following the job market via Indeed and there seems to be opportunity everywhere for both jobs and advancing a career. At this point in my marketability, despite a stellar resume and a college degree, I have all that against me. Times are tough and for someone over 50, albeit they barely look over 50 (lol), it's even tougher.
Despite all the barriers, I have had one job interview in Memphis already. I am to contact them as soon as I am moved and settled in and we will go from there. That one is a retail job.
I have been playing phone tag and e-mailing back and forth about a second job in Memphis for a die for position of Fund Raiser for a small school. For some reason, I am bound and determined to land a career in Fund Raising.
This guy e-mailed me for a telephone chat on Sunday. By the time I read the e-mail I had consumer several beers and was super jacked up from watching the re-run of the UK-Tennessee game (UK won) and I did not dare call no matter how much I thought I was OK.
Being the strategist that I am, I sent him an e-mail the next morning explaining the situation and I would call him today at his convenience. He wrote back, "Did I talk to you Friday? I have received so many resumes I can not keep track..."
So I wrote him back resending my resume and cover letter (which I tweaked a little) and told him a little bit about myself and how I had a VISION that I should pursue a career in fundraising.
I thought that would make me stand out from the crowd.
When I got home he had left me a voice mail and since I was totally sober I called him right away but he had already left for the day.
Sweet Jesus. Did I mention that this fund raising is for a school who does not believe Jesus was the son of God?
So it goes.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
Another Meet Me On Monday!
1. What is your favorite way to eat potatoes?
I like them pan fried with onions. I guess that is my favorite. I ate mashed potatoes every single day of my entire young childhood except on Fridays, because back in the old days you could not eat meat on Fridays (Catholic thing) so it was spaghetti and fish sticks. lol. I also love hash browns and cheesy hash browns (like at the Bucket). I really like ruffle potato chips too. I even like a good baked potato with sour cream and butter (!!!)
2. What was the last package that was delivered to your house?
God Almighty how my husband would love this question because I have been on a buying binge from E-bay and shopgoodwill for about three months now. But actually, the last package I received in the mail was Friday, my birthday. I was shocked and blown away by a box of flowers (yellow tulips) from one of my BFF's and another gift sent from Florida of three little journals! Those gals really know how to make someone feel loved!
3. What is your favorite scent that you love to smell?
I love vanilla. And I love patchouli scented soap and I love the smell of roses. But the best and my favorite has to be Honeysuckle. Ah, springtime!
4. Do you smoke?
I have been nicotine free since around May 2003. I smoked off and on since I have been about 12. Since age 22, it has been more off. But I have set them down for good for now. (lol)
5. Are your parents married or divorced?
My Mom and Dad were married for 55 years. He died two months short of their 56th anniversary.
I like them pan fried with onions. I guess that is my favorite. I ate mashed potatoes every single day of my entire young childhood except on Fridays, because back in the old days you could not eat meat on Fridays (Catholic thing) so it was spaghetti and fish sticks. lol. I also love hash browns and cheesy hash browns (like at the Bucket). I really like ruffle potato chips too. I even like a good baked potato with sour cream and butter (!!!)
2. What was the last package that was delivered to your house?
God Almighty how my husband would love this question because I have been on a buying binge from E-bay and shopgoodwill for about three months now. But actually, the last package I received in the mail was Friday, my birthday. I was shocked and blown away by a box of flowers (yellow tulips) from one of my BFF's and another gift sent from Florida of three little journals! Those gals really know how to make someone feel loved!
3. What is your favorite scent that you love to smell?
I love vanilla. And I love patchouli scented soap and I love the smell of roses. But the best and my favorite has to be Honeysuckle. Ah, springtime!
4. Do you smoke?
I have been nicotine free since around May 2003. I smoked off and on since I have been about 12. Since age 22, it has been more off. But I have set them down for good for now. (lol)
5. Are your parents married or divorced?
My Mom and Dad were married for 55 years. He died two months short of their 56th anniversary.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Meet Me on Monday
I thoroughly enjoy this new web site I have stumbled across for Women over 40! This is one of the many vehicles they offer to get to know each other. Go visit and sign up, that is if you are over 40.
1. What are you wearing right now
Every work morning I open my eyes and think "What the hell am I going to wear?". My closet is at an all time low of acceptable apparel for these cold late winter days. What I decided on was my new black Bucket sweater. If my pants are not too tight it makes m e look relatively not-fat. I could not find my gray "good" pants. So I opted with the black pants with pink stripes. I like them mainly because they fit. For jewelry I wore my new green necklace that I somewhat like and somewhat don't like. I may take it apart and swap out the metallic green beads for some marble green baubles. From my ears I'm wearing one of my all time favorite pieces from Ali!! I love them. I felt like a million dollars in this outfit today.
2. Do you have any freckles?
They are everywhere!! I'm Irish!
3. What is your favorite Lifesaver flavor?
Cherry Red - natch.
4. What is the last movie you saw in the theater?
Secretariat. Pretty good. My hubs and I went because being from the Central Bluegrass area we needed to see this movie. After I saw it I called my Mom to discuss the movie and some of the startling discrepancies I noted. "It was not a documentary" she assured me. I almost went solo to see True Grit yesterday but fell asleep during the overtime between Louisville and Pitt - can you believe it.
5. Would you rather live without tv or without music?
Without TV. That was easy.
1. What are you wearing right now
Every work morning I open my eyes and think "What the hell am I going to wear?". My closet is at an all time low of acceptable apparel for these cold late winter days. What I decided on was my new black Bucket sweater. If my pants are not too tight it makes m e look relatively not-fat. I could not find my gray "good" pants. So I opted with the black pants with pink stripes. I like them mainly because they fit. For jewelry I wore my new green necklace that I somewhat like and somewhat don't like. I may take it apart and swap out the metallic green beads for some marble green baubles. From my ears I'm wearing one of my all time favorite pieces from Ali!! I love them. I felt like a million dollars in this outfit today.
2. Do you have any freckles?
They are everywhere!! I'm Irish!
3. What is your favorite Lifesaver flavor?
Cherry Red - natch.
4. What is the last movie you saw in the theater?
Secretariat. Pretty good. My hubs and I went because being from the Central Bluegrass area we needed to see this movie. After I saw it I called my Mom to discuss the movie and some of the startling discrepancies I noted. "It was not a documentary" she assured me. I almost went solo to see True Grit yesterday but fell asleep during the overtime between Louisville and Pitt - can you believe it.
5. Would you rather live without tv or without music?
Without TV. That was easy.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Ben and Jerry Flavor of the Month
I have been thinking why as of late I have so little to write about. I think that my life has perhaps become boring and nothing out of the ordinary every happens anymore! I think that I work way too much and that the small amount of time that I have left over is spoken for, prearranged and well thought out. I think about all the books I do not read anymore because I have no time and anyway, I have become obsessed with magazines.
And if I am not reading Time magazine and scaring myself silly about the condition of the world and where we are headed I am watching amusing TV shows and laughing, chuckling and snorting over Jimmy Fallon. And if I am not sleeping I am loosing myself in yet another fantasy of some way I am going to get rich quick in the near future - this time by opening up some type of Vintage jewelry business. I see myself with my tiny booth covered by some smart and fancy yet stylish tent selling my wares on the longest yard sale, be it the Route 66 or the 127 or most recently discovered, Lincoln Highway, which incidentally I once lived off of!
And so it goes, my mind jumping from one thought to another all the while worried about not taking care of my skin, thinking about saving money for Christmas next year and praying for my Mom, missing my Dad and missing my brother-in-law. Missing the jaunts to the "farm",not a working farm, but a farm all the same.
Missing a lot of things and looking forward to a new adventure, a new shake up, a new direction. One never knows from day to day what unexpected happiness or tragedy will greet us if we are lucky enough to step out our front door.
I think the announcement can finally be made. I have informed all the people who will be impacted by the news and I believe that Joe has done that same - and on that note let it be known that we are Back To Memphis. Joe is to begin running things on April 1st and I am excited and concerned all at the same time. Mixed together like some weird Ben and Jerry concoction, Memphis Beat Blue-berry.
I know that in time, maybe not too soon, but in time I will miss the landmarks of this military town and the friends that I have made here and the characters that have endeared themselves to me. And all the people I meet daily and make a brief connection and learn a little bit about them and it stays with me. It becomes a tiny little bit of my being. Today it was an 88 year old lady who told me about her quilting club. Twice a week, depending on the weather (Missouri) they get together and quilt. The leader, a woman of 92 years, get the ideas. "I can only sew little stitches" she demonstrated to me in the air. And when they finish their creation they give it to the church to sell or auction off. They produce about three a year. I inquired at how much they sell for. "We are happy if they get $100." I was shocked. I wish I lived in that Missouri town, I would give $200 for it! I would make their year! I would have them talking for a long time about how much money they made from that one quilt on that crazy Kentucky woman.
I'm going to miss all those people just passing thru. And I am going to miss all those people who I see over and over through out the several years (can you believe I have been here almost two years??). Who talk to me for awhile as they wait for their name to be called to eat dinner or breakfast at the Bucket. The mortician who lives in a house with his ex-wife (his third) because he does not have the heart to throw her out because she has no where to go and is pretty disabled. She will not cook or do anything for the privilege of staying - so he buys dinner to take home with him on a very regular basis. And I will miss the Mayor, who did not run for reelection but moved on to much greener pastures much to the public outcry - hardy har har - he comes in I always say "Howdy Mayor!" and he always gives me that two handed hand grasp thing that gifted politicians do. And the other Mayor from a little old town in KY who stops in for breakfast on their way to Nashville when he is escaping his own town. And the "Fair to Middling" guy who came in every night, I mean every night since his wife died. He has to sit at the same table every evening and if is occupied he waits. He orders the same thing every evening, clear soup. Then he heads home, which is another little town in KY about seven miles over the TN border. Until one night he did not make it home, but pulled off the road and died of a massive heart attack. I was stunned, I had just spoken to him asked how he was doing and he said, as he always says, "Fair to Middling". And the little short guy who was trying on the Alan Jackson cowboy hat and I told him how handsome he looked in it and he confided in me that he had a cowboy hat at home, a good one a Stetson and then several days later he wore it in, all dressed in black and wearing that hat, fitting him like he was born in it. Smiling at me and then he tipped his hat.
I'm going to miss all that.
What is waiting ahead for me, that is what I am looking forward to.
And if I am not reading Time magazine and scaring myself silly about the condition of the world and where we are headed I am watching amusing TV shows and laughing, chuckling and snorting over Jimmy Fallon. And if I am not sleeping I am loosing myself in yet another fantasy of some way I am going to get rich quick in the near future - this time by opening up some type of Vintage jewelry business. I see myself with my tiny booth covered by some smart and fancy yet stylish tent selling my wares on the longest yard sale, be it the Route 66 or the 127 or most recently discovered, Lincoln Highway, which incidentally I once lived off of!
And so it goes, my mind jumping from one thought to another all the while worried about not taking care of my skin, thinking about saving money for Christmas next year and praying for my Mom, missing my Dad and missing my brother-in-law. Missing the jaunts to the "farm",not a working farm, but a farm all the same.
Missing a lot of things and looking forward to a new adventure, a new shake up, a new direction. One never knows from day to day what unexpected happiness or tragedy will greet us if we are lucky enough to step out our front door.
I think the announcement can finally be made. I have informed all the people who will be impacted by the news and I believe that Joe has done that same - and on that note let it be known that we are Back To Memphis. Joe is to begin running things on April 1st and I am excited and concerned all at the same time. Mixed together like some weird Ben and Jerry concoction, Memphis Beat Blue-berry.
I know that in time, maybe not too soon, but in time I will miss the landmarks of this military town and the friends that I have made here and the characters that have endeared themselves to me. And all the people I meet daily and make a brief connection and learn a little bit about them and it stays with me. It becomes a tiny little bit of my being. Today it was an 88 year old lady who told me about her quilting club. Twice a week, depending on the weather (Missouri) they get together and quilt. The leader, a woman of 92 years, get the ideas. "I can only sew little stitches" she demonstrated to me in the air. And when they finish their creation they give it to the church to sell or auction off. They produce about three a year. I inquired at how much they sell for. "We are happy if they get $100." I was shocked. I wish I lived in that Missouri town, I would give $200 for it! I would make their year! I would have them talking for a long time about how much money they made from that one quilt on that crazy Kentucky woman.
I'm going to miss all those people just passing thru. And I am going to miss all those people who I see over and over through out the several years (can you believe I have been here almost two years??). Who talk to me for awhile as they wait for their name to be called to eat dinner or breakfast at the Bucket. The mortician who lives in a house with his ex-wife (his third) because he does not have the heart to throw her out because she has no where to go and is pretty disabled. She will not cook or do anything for the privilege of staying - so he buys dinner to take home with him on a very regular basis. And I will miss the Mayor, who did not run for reelection but moved on to much greener pastures much to the public outcry - hardy har har - he comes in I always say "Howdy Mayor!" and he always gives me that two handed hand grasp thing that gifted politicians do. And the other Mayor from a little old town in KY who stops in for breakfast on their way to Nashville when he is escaping his own town. And the "Fair to Middling" guy who came in every night, I mean every night since his wife died. He has to sit at the same table every evening and if is occupied he waits. He orders the same thing every evening, clear soup. Then he heads home, which is another little town in KY about seven miles over the TN border. Until one night he did not make it home, but pulled off the road and died of a massive heart attack. I was stunned, I had just spoken to him asked how he was doing and he said, as he always says, "Fair to Middling". And the little short guy who was trying on the Alan Jackson cowboy hat and I told him how handsome he looked in it and he confided in me that he had a cowboy hat at home, a good one a Stetson and then several days later he wore it in, all dressed in black and wearing that hat, fitting him like he was born in it. Smiling at me and then he tipped his hat.
I'm going to miss all that.
What is waiting ahead for me, that is what I am looking forward to.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
I'm All Jacked Up on Mt. Dew
Thurday 13
Thirteen things I did Yesterday
1) Got my sorry sick butt out of bed and dragged myself to work even though I felt like I was going to lay down and cry once I got there. With this sinus thing I am so sick for about two to three hours each morning before I feel normal. Note to self "CALL IN TOMORROW!!" for heavens sake.
2) Kicked myself in the butt for the one millionth time for not taking that flu shot. Next year I will be first in line.
3) Went into Border Books and found a lovely jewelry book that I read for about 15 minutes and decided that I must have it! Need Border coupon (33% off) and break open my penny jar. Then tell myself to go to library and check similar book out. The fit passed.
4) Better to go into candy store and buy two Slo Pokes for .99 cents and thank God my taste buds have not affected by this very horrendous cold.
5) Sat at desk and bid on E-Bay for a lot of 53 pairs of "vintage" earrings ( 70's and 80's) for 99 cents. Won!!
6) Sent out job applications for eminent move (more about this later when final destination is determined, could be Memphis could be Canton - not certain yet).
7) Wrote (yet another) killer cover letter but understand the futility of my endeavors because it is apparent that desirable jobs are a game of who knows who.
Luck is everything.
8) Talk on phone to five family members! Keep thinking about radiation on my brain from battery in cell phone!
9) Send out belated Birthday card to my cousin and a Love you thinking of you get well soon card to my Sis, who had a hysterectomy yesterday (why so much time on cell phone with family members).
10) Go to the Bucket for my part time job and realize how absolutely crazy I am and the extremes I will go to avoid housework.
11) Come home remembered I had recorded my favorite reality TV show - my guilty pleasure, Survivor and get all hyped up. Too much to fall asleep no matter how tired and ill I am. Its like I'm all Jacked up on Mt. Dew!!
12) Watch Jimmy Fallon, my new boyfriend and King of late night. I simply live for his "Tweets" segment weekly called Hashtags. I love his games, and I love when he pulled people out of the audience and had them agree to perm their hair. I just love him. He is so funny. I simply adore his "Thank You Notes" segment. I may steal it for a Thursday 13.
13) Finally realize sleep is coming over me and decide to call in sick tomorrow! And I did. Another Thursday 13 possibility, 13 things I did when I was suppose to be home sick....
Thirteen things I did Yesterday
1) Got my sorry sick butt out of bed and dragged myself to work even though I felt like I was going to lay down and cry once I got there. With this sinus thing I am so sick for about two to three hours each morning before I feel normal. Note to self "CALL IN TOMORROW!!" for heavens sake.
2) Kicked myself in the butt for the one millionth time for not taking that flu shot. Next year I will be first in line.
3) Went into Border Books and found a lovely jewelry book that I read for about 15 minutes and decided that I must have it! Need Border coupon (33% off) and break open my penny jar. Then tell myself to go to library and check similar book out. The fit passed.
4) Better to go into candy store and buy two Slo Pokes for .99 cents and thank God my taste buds have not affected by this very horrendous cold.
5) Sat at desk and bid on E-Bay for a lot of 53 pairs of "vintage" earrings ( 70's and 80's) for 99 cents. Won!!
6) Sent out job applications for eminent move (more about this later when final destination is determined, could be Memphis could be Canton - not certain yet).
7) Wrote (yet another) killer cover letter but understand the futility of my endeavors because it is apparent that desirable jobs are a game of who knows who.
Luck is everything.
8) Talk on phone to five family members! Keep thinking about radiation on my brain from battery in cell phone!
9) Send out belated Birthday card to my cousin and a Love you thinking of you get well soon card to my Sis, who had a hysterectomy yesterday (why so much time on cell phone with family members).
10) Go to the Bucket for my part time job and realize how absolutely crazy I am and the extremes I will go to avoid housework.
11) Come home remembered I had recorded my favorite reality TV show - my guilty pleasure, Survivor and get all hyped up. Too much to fall asleep no matter how tired and ill I am. Its like I'm all Jacked up on Mt. Dew!!
12) Watch Jimmy Fallon, my new boyfriend and King of late night. I simply live for his "Tweets" segment weekly called Hashtags. I love his games, and I love when he pulled people out of the audience and had them agree to perm their hair. I just love him. He is so funny. I simply adore his "Thank You Notes" segment. I may steal it for a Thursday 13.
13) Finally realize sleep is coming over me and decide to call in sick tomorrow! And I did. Another Thursday 13 possibility, 13 things I did when I was suppose to be home sick....
Friday, February 18, 2011
Another Tardy Thursday Thirteen
For the life of me I can not complete a Thursday 13! I have two of them in my "save now" file uncompleted. But they are interesting, just lengthy. How do people make such short 13's?
So, here is a list of Thursday 13's I would like to finish and post.....
1) 13 Rap artists I like!
2) 13 reasons why Lady Gaga is not Madonna and should stop trying.
3) 13 of the best jobs I ever had!
4) 13 of my favorite movies
5) 13 places I would like to visit
6) 13 things I would like to do before I kick the bucket. A bucket list.
7) 13 of the best trips I've ever taken!
8) 13 of the best times I've ever had.
9) 13 places/houses/homes/apartments I have lived
10) 13 people I have had crushes on.
11) 13 of my favorite places
12) 13 places I love to eat lunch
13) 13 reasons why the theory of Singularity scares the beejesus out of me!
So, here is a list of Thursday 13's I would like to finish and post.....
1) 13 Rap artists I like!
2) 13 reasons why Lady Gaga is not Madonna and should stop trying.
3) 13 of the best jobs I ever had!
4) 13 of my favorite movies
5) 13 places I would like to visit
6) 13 things I would like to do before I kick the bucket. A bucket list.
7) 13 of the best trips I've ever taken!
8) 13 of the best times I've ever had.
9) 13 places/houses/homes/apartments I have lived
10) 13 people I have had crushes on.
11) 13 of my favorite places
12) 13 places I love to eat lunch
13) 13 reasons why the theory of Singularity scares the beejesus out of me!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
A Thousand Years
Sunday Scribbling post for this week is A thousand years. And it took a thousand years to write something so here goes.
Time is a funny thing, isn't it? When I have one hour and fifteen minutes to get out the door in the morning those minutes go by so fast that I can't believe it. Yet, when I am working some over stimulating shift at the Bucket where I feel all out of sorts with the hoards of hungry travelers who want only to get into the restaurant and not look at all our "stuff". One hour and fifteen minutes goes by like molasses in January. I can hear every second tick by. Tick Tock Tick Tock.
Time has a habit of catching up with you. As I write this I am thinking about my parents generation passing on into the great beyond and My generation therefore becoming the Older Generation. It's just not possible!
Remember how you endured all those stories about how rough your Grandparents had it? Having to walk to school in bare feet to save their shoes? How they would have to sleep three and four in a bed to keep warm at night because the pot belly stove would be banked and put to bed for the night? Or how they had to go out and milk the cows, feed the chickens and chop wood every morning before having to walk to school,in the snow, with bare feet?
It's quickly becoming our turn! I was laughing with (maybe at) my husband at how we must sound to our children and grand children. "Why I rode to my bike to school! If I missed the school bus there was no chauffeur to take me to school!" Or this, "No one every gave me a car! No sir! No sir! I had to work for my first car and it was a $500 junker that the floor was worn through! I could see the road! And it had no heat!" And this classic, "I was out of the house at 17! 17!! Never asked my parents for a dime! They would have laughed at me! I was on my own and maybe I did cry but it made me a MAN!"
Never in a thousand years would I have thought that the Coolest Generation on Earth (that would be the Baby Boomers) would so quickly be turning into the Older Generation! But it's happening. And it's happening fast.
Time is a funny thing, isn't it? When I have one hour and fifteen minutes to get out the door in the morning those minutes go by so fast that I can't believe it. Yet, when I am working some over stimulating shift at the Bucket where I feel all out of sorts with the hoards of hungry travelers who want only to get into the restaurant and not look at all our "stuff". One hour and fifteen minutes goes by like molasses in January. I can hear every second tick by. Tick Tock Tick Tock.
Time has a habit of catching up with you. As I write this I am thinking about my parents generation passing on into the great beyond and My generation therefore becoming the Older Generation. It's just not possible!
Remember how you endured all those stories about how rough your Grandparents had it? Having to walk to school in bare feet to save their shoes? How they would have to sleep three and four in a bed to keep warm at night because the pot belly stove would be banked and put to bed for the night? Or how they had to go out and milk the cows, feed the chickens and chop wood every morning before having to walk to school,in the snow, with bare feet?
It's quickly becoming our turn! I was laughing with (maybe at) my husband at how we must sound to our children and grand children. "Why I rode to my bike to school! If I missed the school bus there was no chauffeur to take me to school!" Or this, "No one every gave me a car! No sir! No sir! I had to work for my first car and it was a $500 junker that the floor was worn through! I could see the road! And it had no heat!" And this classic, "I was out of the house at 17! 17!! Never asked my parents for a dime! They would have laughed at me! I was on my own and maybe I did cry but it made me a MAN!"
Never in a thousand years would I have thought that the Coolest Generation on Earth (that would be the Baby Boomers) would so quickly be turning into the Older Generation! But it's happening. And it's happening fast.
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