Thanksgiving: How We Roll

Well folks, the house has almost returned to its normal occupancy, the leftovers are almost gone, and with a stomach full of more tasty food and wine, I give you the rundown on Thanksgiving 2005.

11 maximum number of people staying in the house at one time. This included: the three usuals, my mom and dad, P, younger sister A, and brother-in-law P's father, sister and two brothers.

10 meals that included P's mom's crescent roles. This included breakfast, lunch, and dinner from the time P arrived Tuesday night until the rolls ran out Friday night at dinner.

8 bottles of wine drank over the course of the week. Pinot Noir....yummy!

4 places I slept over the course of the week. This included the neighbor's house where I was dog/house sitting, my own bed (for only one night which I shared with A), the floor of the living room, and the futon in the living room

4 sporting events watched. Red Wings won. Lions lost. Broncos won. Huskers won.

2 times P was cheered for wearing his Red Wings jersey in public, in Colorado, on the day of the Red Wings vs. Avalanche game. He was, however, booed countless times within the house. That's what you get for being the lone Red Wings fan in a house full of Avs fans.

1 victories in Trivial Pursuit 90's Edition. I owe this victory to P, who can remember the 90's with much greater detail than I can.

4 morning trips to Starbucks to feed P's caffeine addiction. I can't complain, I got peppermint hot chocolate out of the deal.

4 or 5 games of Apples to Apples played over the weekend. I didn't win any, but to all you out there, find this game and buy it, it's a good time.

1 meals I cooked almost entirely by myself. Thanks again to P's mom for the recipe, and for the cooking tips over the phone. Thai chicken with peanut sauce will now be a included in the meal rotation at our house. Also thanks to my mom, not only for her assistance, but for the reassurance that the meal really would turn out okay.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Excuse me while I go pass out in another food-induced coma...I love the holiday season.

Harry Potter and the IMAX

Along with the millions of other people around the world, I will confess, I am a big Harry Potter fan. I've read all of the books at least twice (with the exception of The Half-Blood Prince, I've only gotten through it once). So naturally, I get excited when the newest movie comes out. Our family usually makes it a tradition to go see them when we go home for Thanksgiving. Since Thanksgiving is being celebrated here this year, and movies are ridiculously expensive, the tradition was broken. J, brother-in-law P, and I went to Goblet of Fire at the IMAX theater.

For most of my life, I assumed only documentaries were shown at the IMAX. My first IMAX experience was at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. My family went on vacation during spring break when I was in first grade. I think we also ended up in Kansas that year too. We always did the long car-trip thing for vacations, but that's subject matter for another time and place. Anyway, so we went to the zoo and museum and saw a movie about the science of speed (not the drug). I remember my Dad telling me the screen was as tall as our house, and being a first grader I was truly impressed by the sight of a movie screen that really was as tall as our house. So because the only times I ever went to the IMAX was at the DMNS, consequently, it didn't occur to me that "normal" movies were shown on such screens.

My landlords and I braved the traffic, construction and parking lot at the theater to see the latest Harry Potter installment. As we walked into the theater, even though I knew how big the screen was, I forgot who big it was. Wow. There was a shot of the World Cup Quidditch stadium early on in the film and as the camera panned up from the stadium, my usually iron-clad stomach did a little lurch. IMAX theaters kind of rock.

Another note about the IMAX. Because it was more expensive than an already ridiculously priced normal movie ticket, it really cut down on the annoying people we normally get stuck next to at movie theaters. Like the guy who answered his cell phone at The Ring 2, or the family with 5 small fussy children at The Last Samurai, or the guy who kept "predicting" lines at Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Yes, Captain Obvious, when Senator Palpatine is talking to Anakin and says "you shall be called [insert dramatic pause here]....Darth Vader. The dramatic pause was not put there so you could announce "Darth Vader" to the rest of the theater. We had that one figured out, thanks.

Whoa, sorry about the tirade...where was I? Oh yes, the audience, having to pay ungodly amounts of money to see the movie, was the best audience, ever. Thank you IMAX.

So that was my excitement this weekend. Now it's almost Thanksgiving...where did 2005 go? My parents will be arriving soon, followed by P, followed by my younger sister A, followed by brother-in-law P's sister, then his Dad and two little brothers. It's going to be a full house, and a great holiday. I love Thanksgiving. But I'll leave that for another post.

Things Are Looking Up

I won't say too much, because I'm afraid I might jinx myself, but I have to mention it at least.

I have a job interview!

Maybe I won't have to learn how to talk to the cat. Cross your fingers, folks, I just may make it as an adult afterall.

Oh, and next Friday... is Hawaiian shirt day... so, you know, if you want to you can go ahead and wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans.

I am dedicating this post to my sister J, who has found herself a new job at the Highlands Ranch Metro District! This is very exciting news!

I got a temp job at MH because J worked there. I started in the Communications department and eventually ended up in the Resource Development. I really did like working there, but recent events have made it much less enjoyable to work there, which is why I am so happy J no longer has to put up with it. In addition, something else has also come to my attention. This may be the case for most office jobs, but since I started working at MH, some striking similarities to the movie Office Space have come to my attention.

For those of you who have not been fortunate enough to watch Office Space, I'll give you a very brief summary. The movie is about this guy Peter, who hates his job at a technology company called Inatech. His boss treats him like a tool; the only salvation he has is his two friends who work there. Peter undergoes hypnosis to help with the hatred he feels towards his job. However, in the middle of the session the therapist dies and Peter is left in a permanent state of relaxation. He could care less about his job, or anything in his life for that matter. So the company ends up going through this down-sizing process where consultants are brought in and Peter's two friends are fired and he is given a promotion. Disgusted with what's happening a the company, Peter and his two friends insert a virus into Inatech's computer system to try and steal money from the company. The plan backfires, but in the end...well I won't ruin the ending, for those of you who want to see it and haven't yet, but needless to say, it all works out. Great movie, very quotable, and frighteningly realistic.

When I first started working for Resource Development, I was told by S, my supervisor, that MH really was like Office Space. The funny thing is, she told me this after I spent the morning staring at the color printer thinking "Why does it say paper jam when there is no paper jam!?!" over and over again in a slight Indian accent.

We do have casual Fridays, but thankfully never Hawaiian shirt day (although I did go with an exbf to visit his mom at work once to find the place decorated like a luau. Of course I made a crack about it, only to find out they really did have Hawaiian shirt Friday, oops). The scariest thing though is that there really are consultants out there who are brought in to (in my opinion not very accurately) evaluate people's jobs to determine if they are still valuable to the company. They aren't Bob and Bob who love Michael Bolton, but rather they have names like Helen and Leslie, who have disorganized cubicles and think it's fun or good for moral to keep wind up toys at their cube for passing employees to stop and play with. Not even wind up toys will help moral when there are people in the office deciding whether or not you should be fired.

I speak in present tense, because technically I'm still working there, one day a week, to keep my sanity while I look for another job. However, now that J has found a new position, I might end up doing her job on a temporary basis. And thank goodness it's temporary because with Helen and Leslie calling the shots, in the end, a lot of hard working, great people at MH might be looking for new jobs alongside me.

Congratulations again J, we're all very happy you're out of there! Don't forget your stapler when you leave.

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"...I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire..."

P

My life may be a little topsy-turvy right now; I may not know what I want to do with my life, and I’m not sure what (or when) my next job will be, but I do have one, certain, solid thing in my life right now, and that is P.

In my first post, I wrote the ending of relationships and the beginnings of others were two rather large steps forward in my life in recent months. The beginning I mentioned, is one I am lucky enough to have started with P. We met and became friends a little over a year ago when we worked together at school. I always looked at couples who were friends before they dated (my sister and brother-in-law have known each other since the 6^th grade) with a great amount of admiration. I emerged from the end of one relationship to realize, with part amazement and part delight that the beginning of my next relationship had already started. I am now thrilled to say I am dating one of my best friends, and I couldn’t be happier.

Even though we’ve known each other for over a year, we’ve only been officially dating for a little over two months. And in these two months, we’ve never actually ventured out on a real date. Perhaps I should clarify a little bit...we’ve been places together, we’ve done things as a couple, but we haven’t done the stereotypical date. So, Friday night we got dressed up (I even wore makeup), went out to dinner at a great Cajun restaurant and then to a Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer concert. Great food, wine and conversation followed by a phenomenal display of not just banjo and bass playing, but just amazing talent overall; it was by far the best date I’ve ever been on.

The next afternoon, after a day of just relaxing and hanging out at P’s place, we decided to go to the last home football game of the year. It started at 4:00pm, an hour or so before the sun starts to go down. In November. Needless to say it was cold, and despite all that we did to stay warm, we only stayed a quarter, just long enough for our feet to start to go numb. We watched our team get stomped from the comfort of a (heated) pub down the street from P’s place.

The fact of the mater is, whether I’m sitting at a fancy restaurant, having put more thought into my appearance than I have in months (because I wanted to, not because I had to), or if I’m bundled in three layers of clothing just to stay warm, I feel the same way; my life may be a little crazy right now, but one thing is for certain. To quote one of my favorite bands...”Turns out not where, but who you’re with that really matters.”

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Unemployment: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Perhaps unemployment isn’t the best word to describe my current position in life. I was not fired or laid off from a previous job, I am just in between employment opportunities. Nonetheless, this is my current state of being: at this point in time, I do not have a job. This is the first time since high school that I have not been working in one form or another. I worked during my senior year of high school, was employed by the university once in college, and held various jobs during my summers at home. When I first moved to Denver, I did have a temp position at a non-profit for the good part of 5 months. During my time there, I was looking for more permanent employment, but upon my last day at MH, I did not have another job lined up. Since then, my full attention has been turned towards finding a job. Like most situations in life, there are varying aspects to this. So, folks, I now present to you, the good, the bad and the ugly of being “in between employment opportunities.”

The Good

I get to read, a lot. I spent a good deal of my college career with my nose buried in one book or another. However, even if I read about tuberculosis in the Russian prison system, structuralism versus functionalism in anthropological theory and Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, I still managed to not read many of the classic “must read” books. I created a massive reading list, and with a library card that doesn’t expire until 2032, I’m slowly making progress. Currently I’m reading The Rule of Four (not a classic, but it’s still interesting) and next up: Fahrenheit 451.

I’m going to the gym on a fairly normal basis. I’ve always been athletically challenged, and I’ve always associated exercise/fitness with athleticism. It’s taken me awhile to get that correlation out of my head, and slowly but surely I’ve realized I can go to the gym and not look like a complete buffoon.

I have 7 day weekends. The rest of the world, of course, does not, but when I apply my life to the real world, this at least translates to 3 day weekends, 3 ½ if I’m lucky. This is especially handy because it allows me to go visit my boyfriend, P, for longer amounts of time than if I was employed. More on him, (and more of the good), in a minute.

The Bad

While I’m working to correct this issue, I have become re-addicted to daytime television. Of course daytime television encompasses a wide variety of unsophisticated, shallow television viewing opportunities: talk shows, court tv, and, my own personal vice, soap operas. I guess if I can’t find a job, I could always become a soap opera writer. I mean how hard could it be? At all times, the storylines of the various characters must include: amnesia, an evil twin/sibling, love affair and subsequent unexpected pregnancy, some sort of disaster, be it natural (hurricane, flooding etc) or man-made (train, car, plane wreck), and death means nothing, characters can be reinserted back into the storyline no matter what their ultimate demise was. Well at least I have a Plan B now.

I’m finding it increasingly harder to fill my free time. A good chunk of my day is spent working on resumes, and looking for positions in which to submit these resumes. However, this cannot take up a complete day, every day of the week. Luckily I’ve found various ways to consume large chunks of time:

-As mentioned before, I read a lot of books. However, if I read for long enough, I tend to fall asleep, which will ultimately screw up my sleeping patterns. I love naps, I just can’t take them when I’m already getting enough sleep.

-I’m working on reorganizing my music library on my computer—all 2300 songs—so that every song has a title, artist, and album.

-I am typing up recipes, so in the event when I get to move out of my current basement dwelling and into my own place, I will have things to cook.

-I write really long blog entries about being unemployed.

These projects should take a while, but when they are completed, I will have to resort to more desperate means of time-consuming tasks like drying and straightening my hair (I have a lot of unruly hair, and this really does take a long time). When this happens, the last phase of “being in between employment opportunities” comes into play.

The Ugly

The whole job searching process does not do great things to one’s self-esteem. Okay, if the job search is unsuccessful, it does not do great things to one’s self-esteem. There’s always a certain amount of elation when you get an interview or a call back, but if rejection follows those, well let’s just say it becomes a very humbling experience, a good old-fashioned blow to the ego.

Of course, I am not the first, nor will I be the last fresh college graduate to be going through this. My experience is nothing new. When I do find a job, this period in my life will not seem as dramatic, but living in the this moment, right now, is a whole other issue. Something will work out, of course, and I am still optimistic and confident that I will once again become a member of the working world. That doesn’t stop moments of self doubt and hopelessness for creeping up and sinking in on occasions. They come less frequently, but still I have to wonder, how many days can I spend in a house, with just a cat for company, before I start talking to the walls or thinking I can actually communicate with the cat. Meow? Meow, meow. Meow!

Alright then, you’ve managed to get through this, congratulations! My posts will not always be novellas, but that was kind of fun. Maybe I’ll get the hang of this after all. If anything “being in between employment opportunities” will allow me to hone my blogging skills.

A Little More Color

A big thanks to MA for helping me slug through html format so I could eliminate some of the many shades of gray that were plauging this blog before. This may not seem like a huge change, but for someone who has no clue about html language, not only am I a little proud of myself, I'm just glad someone could give me very detailed instructions on how to do it.

You Don't Know How Lucky You Are, Boys

Even though very few people are currently reading and/or are aware of this blog, I have to add another entry before I get this blog to look how I want it. Of course getting the blog exactly the way I want it will also entail letting people know I have a blog. So for those of you who don't get the notice that I have a blog until after I write this, you'll just have to backtrack a bit. Don't worry, it will be worth it.

I have been a Beatles fan since I was probably 12 or 13, mayber earlier, I'm not entirely sure. My older sister, J, her best friend and I listened to Beatles music, read books about the Beatles, watched and taped the Anthology when it aired on TV and laughed hysterically at A Hard Day's Night and Help!. As a middle schooler I was mocked, during high school, the mocking subsided but the obssession remained. By the time I reached college, the fanatical relationship I had with the band waned, but without hesitation I can still claim they are my favorite music group, hands down, no questions asked.

Seven months ago, admist the choas that was my last semester at school, my older sister, future landlord and aforementioned fellow Beatles fan, found out Paul McCartney would be in Denver in November. Not being able to pass up the opportunity to see Paul in concert, I forked over the sizeable chunk of money for a ticket and before I knew it I was going to a Paul-freaking-McCartney concert!

Fast-forward to last night. And really to sum up my experience, all I can say is, I got to sing along to Beatles songs with Paul McCartney! J, who never, and I mean NEVER sings out loud, belted her little heart out. We got to naaaa na na nanananaaa in Hey Jude for like 5 minutes straight. The pyro-technics were so big and badass during Live and Let Die that from practically the back of the Pepsi Center, we could feel the heat from the flames. Almost all of my favorite Paul songs were covered; old, new, electric, acoustic, piano. I've Got a Feeling and Back in the USSR were just awesome to belt out at the top of my lungs. There were even some Wings songs that I could (sort of) sing along with.

I could seriously go on and on and on about this concert, but for the sake of everyone's interest, I will leave it at that. The concert was the pinnacle of my own little Beatlemania, worth every penny.

Yes, Sir Paul, I certainly did enjoy the show.