So a week ago I go talk to this nice local firm who is known for competitive pay and benefits about working with them. Delicate situation as the girl I'd be replacing doesn't know she's being replaced yet. I put on the fancy schmancy suit, doll up and go sell myself what I thought was pretty well. My resume speaks for itself, my tech certs and mad typing skills are prominently displayed as well as my vast and broad experience. The HR lady and I have a nice chat, we even wind up hiring her husband to fix some of the things around Mom's house that we haven't gotten to or don't want to.
And I have now a full week of dead silence. She tells my headhunter that she loves me and can't wait for me to come back in to meet people and get this show on the road.. and now, nothing but white noise. No not even white noise.. just silence. God that's annoying since I turned down a position that payed 3k less and had no benefits package.
The house isn't doing much better. No lookers, no calls, no nothing. What the heck is goin on? Well, I guess I could always go naked bowling. http://news.mainetoday.com/updates/008889.html
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
After Canada, Before Anything Else...
Okay, so I'm constantly being told I need a blog. I don't think I NEED a blog. I usually don't feel like I have very much to say, yet I talk an awful lot. But, as I understand it, writing random thoughts helps you organize your normal ones, if you have normal thoughts. Weird or otherwise, my thoughts could always use organizing. Along with a lot of things in my life.
So I called this "After and Before" because I'm in one of those limbo hinge moments in my life. Two years ago, I moved to Canada for my job. Well, more for my sanity. I was in a marriage that wasn't working out the way I thought it would, a job that was making me dread getting up in the mornings, and was plagued with a general sense of disatisfaction that usually provokes me to make some sort of life-altering change. So, I packed up my car and my cat and moved to Toronto.
Things started out fine. The cost of living was a real shocker to me, but one that I could adjust to. Alabama's just not the kind of place where paying $2.39 for a dozen eggs ever really crosses out minds. But it's the norm in Toronto. Buying gas by the litre, thinking in metric, learning to spell funny (neighbour, theatre, programme) all became the norm for me. And learning to read French. because any Canadian will back me up on this... Why do I ALWAYS pick up things, French side up? Any American that doesn't understand that here's the explanation: Canada has two national languages, French and English. So everything is printed in both languages. So if you buy a package of say.. grape Kool-Aid in a Canadian grocery store.. one side of the package says "Grape!" and the other side says "Raisin!" My first social Faux Pas was to ask the nice man near me in the store why the hell anyone would want raisin-flavo(u)red Kool-Aid. "Raisin" is French for "grape." I felt dumb. But ever since then, whenever I would buy anything, I would constantly find myself picking things up so I saw the French label first, frowning at it, and then sighing and turning the box over so I could figure out what it was. So I now know that "flour" is "farine" and potatoes are "pommes de terre."
So, like any newly single girl in a new town, I had to have the lovely exotic new relationship to go with it. Was it a mistake? Yeah, probably. I ended up staying in Canada for another year because of it, and then it, my job, and everything sort of fell apart Thanksgiving weekend last year. (American Thanksgiving, not Canadian Thanksgiving) So back to Alabama I slunk, tail tucked between legs, lessons learned, thoroughly humbled. Top it all off, it cost me more to get out of Canada than it did to move in, so I even got to move back in with my mom. It's enough to make any sane person want to beat their head against the wall.. I would.. but I spent the past week painting that wall, so I'm not going to mess it up.
I've been painting because mom is selling her house. And with all the Naysayers out of the way, she has gleefully attacked many of the natural wood surfaces of her "Frank Lloyd Wright/Eusonian style home." As I'm here, and children are always free labo(u)r, I've been there alongside her, replacing the natural finish oak cabinetry with fresh coats of Woodrow Wilson White and Ralph Lauren Sable. And the natural cedar sunroom? Navaho White. It DOES look nicer. The wood was going through that awkward phase in its aging process where it looks tired and worn, as opposed to fresh and new or old and stately. And that awkward phase does not sell houses. But bright cheery rooms do. So on the paint goes.
I guess that's a decent enough start for this thing. I'll add links to my Stepdad's blog.. so you can see why mom is selling the house, and of course there will be pictures. I've gotten to see some neat things, and even have a few pictures of the neat things I've seen. But that's for later.
So I called this "After and Before" because I'm in one of those limbo hinge moments in my life. Two years ago, I moved to Canada for my job. Well, more for my sanity. I was in a marriage that wasn't working out the way I thought it would, a job that was making me dread getting up in the mornings, and was plagued with a general sense of disatisfaction that usually provokes me to make some sort of life-altering change. So, I packed up my car and my cat and moved to Toronto.
Things started out fine. The cost of living was a real shocker to me, but one that I could adjust to. Alabama's just not the kind of place where paying $2.39 for a dozen eggs ever really crosses out minds. But it's the norm in Toronto. Buying gas by the litre, thinking in metric, learning to spell funny (neighbour, theatre, programme) all became the norm for me. And learning to read French. because any Canadian will back me up on this... Why do I ALWAYS pick up things, French side up? Any American that doesn't understand that here's the explanation: Canada has two national languages, French and English. So everything is printed in both languages. So if you buy a package of say.. grape Kool-Aid in a Canadian grocery store.. one side of the package says "Grape!" and the other side says "Raisin!" My first social Faux Pas was to ask the nice man near me in the store why the hell anyone would want raisin-flavo(u)red Kool-Aid. "Raisin" is French for "grape." I felt dumb. But ever since then, whenever I would buy anything, I would constantly find myself picking things up so I saw the French label first, frowning at it, and then sighing and turning the box over so I could figure out what it was. So I now know that "flour" is "farine" and potatoes are "pommes de terre."
So, like any newly single girl in a new town, I had to have the lovely exotic new relationship to go with it. Was it a mistake? Yeah, probably. I ended up staying in Canada for another year because of it, and then it, my job, and everything sort of fell apart Thanksgiving weekend last year. (American Thanksgiving, not Canadian Thanksgiving) So back to Alabama I slunk, tail tucked between legs, lessons learned, thoroughly humbled. Top it all off, it cost me more to get out of Canada than it did to move in, so I even got to move back in with my mom. It's enough to make any sane person want to beat their head against the wall.. I would.. but I spent the past week painting that wall, so I'm not going to mess it up.
I've been painting because mom is selling her house. And with all the Naysayers out of the way, she has gleefully attacked many of the natural wood surfaces of her "Frank Lloyd Wright/Eusonian style home." As I'm here, and children are always free labo(u)r, I've been there alongside her, replacing the natural finish oak cabinetry with fresh coats of Woodrow Wilson White and Ralph Lauren Sable. And the natural cedar sunroom? Navaho White. It DOES look nicer. The wood was going through that awkward phase in its aging process where it looks tired and worn, as opposed to fresh and new or old and stately. And that awkward phase does not sell houses. But bright cheery rooms do. So on the paint goes.
I guess that's a decent enough start for this thing. I'll add links to my Stepdad's blog.. so you can see why mom is selling the house, and of course there will be pictures. I've gotten to see some neat things, and even have a few pictures of the neat things I've seen. But that's for later.
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