Leaving Manch Vegas

If you MUST use an umbrella on a crowded street please remember that by its very design IT’S WIDER THAN YOU. Plan accordingly.

For those who insist on using their golf umbrella while navigating the mean city streets, guess what? There’s a special room in Hell for you where you’ll stand under a stream of dripping water while Satan’s henchmen poke you in the eye. For Eternity.

You know where it’s a good idea to use a golf umbrella? On a golf course.

Generally speaking, a temp job is not where you're going to do your hardest work what with all the internet surfing, job-hunting, re-arranging of desk items, more interneting and, um...blogging. (I struggle to remember what in the hell we did back in the early 90's before the Internets came along. Did we talk on the phone? Not work, surely. I recall a lot of time spent in the massage chair at Sharper Image, but eight hours a day? It's a mystery.)

For those who care, the Decorating Guidelines state that the trunk of a cut, decorated tree must be immersed in at least two inches of water at all times and that this Friday there will be inspections of all decorated areas. By, one assumes, PAID staff who could surely be inspecting something more pertinent to State business.

The rule begs a question, though. Do people actually put up Christmas trees at WORK? Really?

Of course, no where in the memo does it say that all decorating shall be done before or after work hours or during one's lunch break. I really need to find a way to take a picture of the Winter Fuckin' Wonderland that's currently being erected down the hall from me on the California Taxpayers' collective dime. Insanity!

Maybe my change of heart over the advantages of temping is based solely on this one gig. Fine, the money's OK, but the chance to have an "in" here, even if it was presented to me, seems a fate worse than death. Or maybe the turnaround is a cumulative effect. Maybe it's the cumulus clouds. Who knows. Either way, I'm ready to really, truly put the temping portion of my life behind me. NOW!


*Dream job? That's crap, of course. Dream job = NO job. Let's be honest here.

Open Houses are such a great way to find an apartment. I mean, how else are you going to know how the apartment in question will look during your slammin' housewarming party?

Plus, it's so fun to climb over random strangers (aka THE COMPETITION) to inspect the insides of teeny broom closets. I also find great joy in watching everyone else downplay the apartment to their friends. It's high stakes, I tell you, and no one is going to say one nice thing about the place, lest they inspire THE COMPETITION to attempt to rent it.

Although, at the Open House (Party!) Will and I attended on Tuesday, holding back the positive comments wasn't so hard to do. It was advertised as a "2 Bedroom" with a "spacious eat-in kitchen" at 20th & Guerrero, in the heart of the Mission District. The location was ideal and the apartment sounded perfect!

However, upon inspection, I felt the need to add those quotes to the description.

Bedroom # 1 was the living room and BR #2 was the living room annex. WTF? And, is it legal to call a kitchen spacious and label it as an Eat-in if there are no cabinets or counters of any kind, nor any space to put a table that wouldn't block one of the doors? I guess they don't have to run these ads past any fire safety monitors.

Pity.

My sister (Marion) complained about not having any new posts lately, so I figured I would update everybody about our status here in sunny CA. Basically it has been sunny and awesome every day we've been here. On Saturday, Chili came over and we rode our bikes from Eileen and Joe's place across the Golden Gate bridge and into the city, taking the ferry back to Belvedere. Seems like it was about 17 or 20 miles, and up some decent hills as well. It was a great ride and the views were awesome. Later we grilled up some burgers and cracked some brews. On the job front, Erin got an offer from somewhere she ended up not wanting to work and I got a lowball offer from somewhere I sort of wanted to work. I had a great interview last week with a small consulting firm in South San Francisco and am hoping to hear back this week. We have tickets for a couple of Giants games coming up, including against the Dodgers in the last home series of the season, which could be important. We are definitely looking forward to that. I guess that is about it from here. Tune in next month to find out our employment fate (hopefully).

I really wouldn't have thought such a thing. Until now.

Will and I have been welcomed to California with dream opportunities, such as staying wiith my mom and Joe through October, house/dog-sitting at a beautiful house with a pool and hot tub, ON A GOLF COURSE, for chrissakes, and to top it off, my mom is going to lend us her car while she and Joe are traveling in Europe. This morning I took Bella and Bailey (one of the dogs we're sitting) on a hike up into the beautiful hills nearby, and now I'm thinking about going for a swim. Things could not be better.

Or could they?

Getting a job in fundraising is pretty hard. Looking for a fundraising job, however, is pretty damn easy. There are only so many organizations in need of a go-getter like me, and only so many websites that list them. Here's me looking for a job:

Check email for responses on the few applications I've sent. None - but dad, thanks for the 1959 Good Housekeeping ad on being a housewife. Definitely something to think about...

Visit Opportunity Knocks website to check new postings. None of interest.

Visit idealist.org for same. Same result.

Go hiking.

Again, I KNOW this sounds reallly good. And it totallly would be if only there was an end in sight. I feel a little in the weeds. Staying with my mom and Joe is a huge help to us and so much fun, but it's hard not to feel in the way there, especially with our hyper-dog. And being at Shannon and Matt's (our dogsitting gig) is awesome, but it feels like it might be easy to turn it into a vacation and leave here on 8/27 no further along in the job hunt than when I started.

I've had two really good interviews with the Yosemite Fund, but beyond that I haven't seen many jobs out there that excite me. I've been giving some thought to visiting a couple placement firms, but I know they'll want me to temp along the way and am I ready for that? And am I ready for them to offer me an Admin Assistant position? No and no. Even though the salary might be what I'm looking for, and the work might be more interesting than just filing and making travel arrangments, I feel like I should make the best of this fundraising experience I've got and find something more fulfilling. Right?

Or do I get myself a good paying, but kind of blah 9-5 gig and then just enjoy my life OUTSIDE OF WORK? No special events on evenings and weekends, no stressing about the job at home? That definitely does have its appeal. Goddamn these are hard decisions!

Apparently I'm supposed to know about the Yosemite Fund job within the next 2 weeks. Maybe their decision is the timeline I need. If they make the mistake of missing the fabulous opportunity that is me (WTF?), then to the placement firms with me!

I think. Maybe I should go for a swim.

We made it! We're currently in Tahoe sitting on the back deck of Joe's condo, sipping a
couple very appropriate and very deserved Sierra Nevadas. We started in Wyoming today and sped through Utah then Nevada, totalling 650 miles. We'll spend tonight and tomorrow relaxing here and then we'll be in the Bay Area very soon.

Today's ride was mostly a blur. Utah was nice, if only because it was good to see some green. I did notice that the houses there are HUGE and I couldn't help wondering if that was because they have to fit all those wives in. Sterotypes rock! Honestly, I didn't make that up to be funny. It actually crossed my mind...

On UtahPR we heard a story that Marie Osmond was hospitalized for what was originally called
an attempted suicide, but now the official story is that it was an adverse reaction to medication. Isn't that the same thing with just varying levels of consequences?? Mostly I was wondering if that story was aired anywhere but Salt Lake City. Anyone?

We passed the Great Salt Lake, watched a couple salt factories racing to see who could desalinate the lake first. Then we drove and drove and drove and drove. At an Elko, NV Shell station (Thank you Ell, Marisa and Craig!!) we had a mechanic point out that one of the tires on our car carrier was getting a bit bare. We're pretty certain that he found something wrong with every single car that pulled into his station, so we decided to ignore his offer to fix it for some astronomical price and just go for it. (Note to our mothers - it's totally fine!!!)

We had to spend a lot of the day without AC because the truck does much better on the hills without it. Now I know what it feels like to spend 8 hours in a microwave.

We stopped again for gas in Winemucca, NV, and then headed straight on to Tahoe. Along the way we thought we were listening to public radio airing a particularly vehement story slamming Madonna for her somewhat controversial self-crucifiction on a mirrored cross complete with crown of thorns during her current tour, which includes a stop in Rome. That reporter was PISSED. Come to find out we were listening to WGOD. They fooled us for like 7 minutes!

I will admit right now that a few minutes after we crossed into California it hit me and I teared up a little. It is so so so good to be back here and being able to share it with Will is more than I could ever have hoped for.

We've disconnected the car from it's carrier and will be driving it around for the next couple days. It should feel really bizarre, but will certainly be a lot better than trying to lug the Penske around Tahoe City.

NOT THAT WE DON'T LOVE THE PENSKE!!! It's just less than ideal for in-town cavorting.

Sorry, no pics today because we're stealing internet from Joe's neighbors and it's kind of slow.

Still no correct answers on the second Wordy Gurdy, but Eileen did come up with the correct answer to the first one. Sioux' blues.

Here's a fresh one for you. Local Tahoe knowledge will help you...but for those not in the know, you can get it!!

Indian woman's imperfections.

Bring it.

Bella started today practicing for the day's sleeping. I don't blame her! The Holiday Inn Express has nice sheets! This has been our favorite hotel by far.

Today was a long day of driving, taking us past Sturgis, SD and the thousands of bikers who are already there in anticipation of Bike Week next week. We made a 650 mile zig zag across Wyoming. Once again we pretty well stuck to the interstates, aside from a nice shortcut we found, taking about 3 hours off our trip and allowing us to avoid Cheyenne. Last time I was there I had to get a new clutch and my brother and I watched a plane crash into a mall. I wasn't too excited about going back.

Instead we cut across a moutain pass from Casper to Rawlins taking in some awesome scenery. It would be silly to try to put it into words, so I won't. Pretty breathtaking, though.


We did stop at a fairly amusing gas station along the way. And at another gas station (we visit a lot of these in a day) we met up with some peeps who were driving a similar set up to ours - 16 ft truck, car carrier...except it was BOO-Haul. The girl noticed the sweet Penske ride we're rockin' and asked Will if we'd had any problems with our truck. He proudly answered, "No," and was sad to hear her tale of woe. The couple, with a tiny baby were moving from Seattle to Denver and they were on their 2nd truck, which they'd had to reload themselves and were having problems with the new truck! She was more than jelly of our Penske, and the encounter was a fine reminder that U-Haul sucks. Don't use them, people.

We made it way further than we'd expected, to Evanston, WY. We just got back to the Day's Inn from dinner at the weirdest, creepiest, dingiest, nastiest customer-havin' restaurant ever. We felt validated in our bewilderment of the place as other obvious travelers came through making the same faces to each other that Will and I were. It was the kind of restaurant that murderers hang out in in independent films. We may have seen a few.

So we're just three miles from the Utah border and tomorrow expect to make it to Tahoe. We'll hang there for a couple nights and then we should be in the Bay Area in time to attend a friend's birthday party in Stinson Beach on Saturday. Crazy!

No one got the WG's from yesterday, which is kind of great, because we're too tired to think of one for today. Keep trying!