Probably going on hiatus.

If anyone out there has even ever read this blog, I wanted to let you know that I haven't posted anything in a while just because there has been little to post other than the ongoing struggle for money. My studies leave me no time just to relax, let alone time for a job. I'm still putting in my semi-monthly shift at the racetrack but that's all. If I happen to find an entertaining way to earn money, I'll report it here. For now, feel free to follow me over to LiveJournal, where you can find me at Surf Arizona. I've maintained my LiveJournal in various incarnations since about 2001 or 2002. I might change the name, I don't know; I just feel lately like I'm stuck on Rosacoke Street more than enjoying living in the desert. The URL is http://beth60.livejournal.com. However, please do continue to spend your money at the links you see on the right side of your screen. They're still valid and I still maintain them! Thanks!

Finally, I'm a real starving college student!

So at last I've been to my first day of classes at the U and I also filed my final unemployment claim, the one in which I answered "yes" to the question at the end about whether or not I need to continue filing because I've found full-time work. Now I'm just busy worrying about stretching out my loan money for the next few months and getting scholarship applications submitted on time. The tone of this blog can finally be a positive one, or least one that's not endlessly depressing and hopeless. The cost of books and supplies is kicking my butt, of course, and I already dropped over $289 for just the first round of books before getting the last math book, my biology book, or my chemistry book. Thankfully, my bio teacher, "Dr. Ted", is very laid back and feels that "textbooks basically suck", so he advised the class to seek out the text for as cheaply as possible on the internet and not worry about having the latest version, the second edition is fine. So I just bought mine at Amazon for less than $30, including expedited shipping. Now to just meet my doom at the bookstore tomorrow for the other books. I also will need to very soon start cooking suppers ahead of time or bringing healthful convenience food (such as my favorite vegan minestrone soups and such) so that I don't repeat what I did today and cough up nine and a half bucks for a salad and a water at the health-food cafe in the student union. Anyway, I hope that this blog doesn't fall to the wayside, since college is a lean time for most people. I'll try to check in again before long.

Trying to learn to weather rejection like a telemarketer.

I've had two interviews in a week and was rejected from both jobs. I can't help but take it personally. I did apply for another school job with the University's Herbarium but the opening doesn't close until September 1, so should I watch and wait or just apply to the sudden seemingly plentiful part-time jobs around town? Well, that was probably a foolish question, of course I should apply for the other jobs, I just hate to accept a food service job only to have the Herbarium offer me a position. At the rate that I'm going, it would seem that I could expect a prompt rejection, but you never know, and I can't see what could possibly disqualify me from that one anyway, especially after the cover letter that I wrote, which should explain anything on my resume that could be problematic. I suppose I should file some applications and then go to the campus job fair on the 26th. I also really need to step up the scholarship applications. It seems that scholarships have even steeper odds, but if no employer will have me because I'm overqualified in the wrong areas or I'm too old, or whatever the f*** they have a problem with, it would be nice to think that I still have a chance to plead my case for free money awarded solely because I'm broke, in debt, and a college student.

Anyway, it's looking more and more difficult to change my undesirable class schedule, but if I still don't have a friggin' job after school starts, I'll try harder to change it and if anyone wants to hire me after that, so be it. I am so tired of this economy.

Almost over the hump, I think and I hope.

I've been feeling better since I received a call this week from Native Seeds/SEARCH asking me to come in for an interview for their part-time retail storefront job. I had the interview yesterday and spent a long time preparing for it, but I think I prepared in the wrong way. When I actually went in, I was faced with a panel, and I've had bigger panels interview me in the past, but it's been a while and I was a tad nervous. Not in any really physical or paralyzing way, but I think it caused me to talk way too much. I wasn't really prepared to answer their scripted questions either, though I think I successfully ad-libbed it. I was also perhaps too honest about my shortcomings (lack of certain experience, plus one example of a negative customer interaction I once had). I also had been hoping for time to discuss how well I'd fit into their mission of the conservation of both natural and cultural resources, but this may have only been afforded by a one-on-one interview. Oh, well, it would be such a great job to have but either way it's re-lit the fire under my arse. I did finally call my parents and for the most part, they behaved, and it was in the course of that conversation that I had a eureka moment. As much as I've claimed to not want to have to work with people in my next career, our conversation made me realize how much I enjoy educating people about land and natural resources, so I think I'll try to run with that and orient my curriculum towards interpretation, education, and basically learning to be a park ranger or something similar. This also provides a handy-dandy justification for joining 4H and taking AgEd classes. To top it off, there's a new course being offered by the Ecology department that is all about ecology education, and if I don't get the job, I'll see if I can petition to enroll in the class, as long as I can shift my schedule around to accommodate it.

Meanwhile, I still need work, badly. I haven't worked at my contract office job at all this week and the funding is drying up for it, so I'll be gone from there very soon anyway. The only August race at the racetrack is on the 22nd, so I'm really lacking in gigs. A local coffeeshop chain and Bruegger's Bagels are hiring, so tomorrow I'll pick up applications from them. Lastly, if nothing earth-shattering and life-altering makes itself available, in terms of jobs, then I'll proceed with school and go to the student job fair taking place on the third day of school. There's been no word from the Girl Scouts, to whom I turned in my resume rather late, and I have my doubts about this nifty desk assistant job at the University's Think Tank, which is a tutoring facility of sorts. There are great volunteer opportunities out there to gain experience for paid work in the field I want to get into, but I feel that I have to ignore it in favor of the much more immediate need for paid work. At any rate, though, I do feel better than I have been feeling, and by feeling reinvigorated about school and my career direction, I think I can once again see the Arizona Dream in the distance.

Plugging away.

I haven't posted in a couple of weeks because I've been so depressed, but I don't want to drift too far away from blogging, so here I am. Today I actually woke up feeling more hopeful about things, though I couldn't help but think of the song "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" and its line: "Now how many days in a year, she woke up with hope but she only found tears?" Still, things are progressing. Unless a miracle comes along before Friday evening, Carl and I are moving in with his parents, a typical unemployment/recession story. Their house is paid off and they're so old that they'd prefer to have us close by so we can run their errands and manage the household, so living with the "in-laws" really shouldn't be so bad. At worst, they might be annoying with their octo- and nonogenerian quirks that really only stem from the need to survive each day. We'd help fix up the house bit by bit and have more space to work with, plus the freedoms that come with home ownership: freedom to plant a garden, put a shed in the yard, etc. Lastly, I'd save hundreds of dollars each month that could be put towards rebuilding my savings, paying off my credit card, or pre-paying my student loans. I really can't see any serious disadvantages to it. Even though it bothers me to consider moving to a neighborhood that's neither aesthetically pleasing nor convenient to school, it's a roof over my head that would only cost me my share of utility and grocery bills.

Other developments include a phone call with the 4-H contact at the U, which enabled me to get on an email list for updates on the up-and-coming Collegiate 4-H chapter at the school. This is important because if I found out that there was no University chapter, I was going to start one, never mind the fact that I've never been an aggie before. But it looks like I won't have to take that role, so I'm pleased. I chatted online with my good friend Jessi, who has done the aggie thing and has also helped with another organization of which we're both alumnae: the Girl Scouts. I've also been intensely interested in revisiting them in some way as well, so after our conversation, I checked in with the local council's website and actually found a job opening there. It would be a great fit, pay well, and provide benefits, and of course it's with an organization that I hold dear, so as much as I hate to mess up school plans, I'm going to apply and hopefully they won't remember the time they tried so hard to recruit me and I turned them down because the schedule wouldn't allow me to get a second job.

What else ...I haven't talked with my parents in almost a month because of how upset they made me when I visited them, so I think unless they call me, I'll wait to call them until next week at the earliest because by then I'll know for sure whether or not I'm moving into Carl's parents' house. They'll have a fit about that, but I'd rather drop the bomb from a position of strength (plans set in stone). The outrageous things that they accused him of with regard to my unemployment and constant state of poverty effectively traumatized me and there's no telling what they might try to do to our relationship (already tried to break us up a couple of times). At that time, they were on this cult kick and staged something of an intervention on the last day of my visit, accusing Carl of being a cult leader with a Messiah complex who's just manipulating me, when in fact they are the ones doing the manipulating by saying that they wish they could send me some money to help me out--if only I wasn't with Carl. For the record, I have not asked them for any financial assistance at all throughout this ordeal and I have been just fine with that because at almost thirty years old, I understand and appreciate that it's high time for me to find ways to stand on my own. Carl and I were badly weakened for a couple of days there, but now we're strong again and are determined to make things work as a team. If that means operating out of a shed in his parents' backyard, so be it. I'm not leaving the West and see little point in endlessly deferring my chance to redo my education to emerge as a scientist (Girl Scout job notwithstanding).

Well, it's been a lengthy post and I should get back to my scholarship search, so I'll be back sometime over the weekend or afterwards to report whether or not we are definitely moving "home", as well as the result of my application to the Girl Scouts. Here's hoping that the depression is finally lifting.

The Despair of Poverty

Almost six months into my unemployment, I am feeling increasingly weighed down by depression and despair. I almost constantly have the urge to howl loudly and primally because the feeling is too dull to want to shed tears but too heavy to ignore it any longer. Last week I finally had to pick up my first box of food from a neighborhood food pantry. It feels so wrong when other people there were being handed towels and soap to use the shower inside the church, but I need all of the little bits of assistance I can get, and since I make too much money ($240 a week!) from unemployment, I can't qualify for food stamps. I've been in a terrible slump for the last week since I was turned down for that copywriting job at the University. It turned out to be a much niftier job than I'd originally thought and as many as thirty hours were available. I could do the job from home and I'd be working for the Park Service, the US Geological Survey, and the U of A. It would have been almost perfect. After that I couldn't find any other jobs worth applying for and now have a big blank spot in my job search log. Some other things have finally come along this week, though, so I hope to make up for it before I leave town for a few days starting tomorrow. Of course, a major development that came along a couple of days ago is a team position that Carl and I applied for at the beginning of the month. We've applied for self-storage onsite management jobs before, so we did so again when another opportunity came along. Then two days ago, we got a call from the person doing the hiring and yesterday, we found ourselves driving up to Casa Grande to meet him for a lunch appointment. The appointment was almost a bust because of a major communication breakdown in which I guess he expected us to show up at the restaurant and just know exactly who he was out of the entire dining room. We were quite angry when we thought we'd been stood up and as we were about to leave town, he called my phone and finally decided to check on us. We ended up having our interview over an hour after we'd originally scheduled it, but I'd like to think it went well in spite of things. I have no idea, really. Our being out of town is a problem for their hiring needs, so I don't feel good about them wanting to hire us. If they did, though, we would be starting a huge life change. The facility is in Apache Junction, in the furthest eastern reaches of the Valley, so far out there it's not even in Maricopa County even though it's part of the Phoenix blob. We'd be given a house, free utilities, a salary/stipend, and commission. It would be like running our own business without actually being the owners and we'd still answer to a general manager and the owners. The benefits, both financial and in terms of strengthening our relationship, would be so great. It would really fit into our plans for various things we want to accomplish as a couple. The drawbacks, though, would be living in a smallish desert town of a lot of retirees (and all of the ways in which it would not be Tucson) and I would have to again defer my full-time education. All would not be lost on the educational front, though, because Central Arizona College, the junior college for Pinal County, has a campus in Apache Junction where I'd probably be able to at least complete the basic math, chemistry, and biology courses needed for a BS in Rangeland Management. The courses would translate directly to those that I'd pay hundreds of dollars more for at the U. I don't know what else I could do from there, though, as any natural resource and agriculture courses available at CAC are held in classrooms at their science/ag campus in Coolidge, which is impossibly far away. Anyway, the storage people want to talk to us today (can't remember who's calling whom) to decide one way or the other, so Carl and I have agreed that we'll take the plunge and say that we are very interested and just hope that they are flexible enough to let us finish out our trip to Utah and then hit the ground running. We'll see. Meanwhile my UI had better show up in my bank account or I'm screwed to no end.

The rains have come: another change of seasons and I am still unemployed.

Truly scary. While I was on vacation, the seasons changed on me and I came home to lower temperatures and higher humidity, loud cicadas and rain squalls. Over five months later I am still unemployed and I don't know if my benefits are going to be able to be stretched any longer. It's almost terrifying. I have an appointment with a staffer at the School of Natural Resources on Tuesday to discuss a job opening entailing writing website copy and uploading .xml files, and that's only ten to fifteen hours a week and probably minimally-paying, but it would be something and it would work around classes. It would also be a resume builder. Carl and I experienced a jarring conflict that made us realize that if we are truly committed to each other, then our very relationship depends upon his contributions to the job search. So we're enacting a plan to run our household like a business office, which is actually something we've tacitly wanted to do for a while but never thought to mention it out loud to each other. We have a new filing system for important papers, we're instituting some kind of a job board (for now, a job clothesline), complete with job tickets for tasks to be completed, and we're going to get up early and really compartmentalize our day. At the same time, we'll make more effort towards getting all that we can out of our one income source, paid petitioning for a nonprofit, and I'll see how long I can extend my UI. We also applied jointly to another storage facility onsite management team position. On August 1, we'll evaluate our plan and see if it's increasing productivity and progress, and we'll accordingly amend it or scrap it. If we scrap it, we may have to move into separate living spaces and hope that our relationship survives it. Kind of makes me lose some faith in that song I love so much, "Love Will Keep Us Alive". Money is essential to survival too. Sigh.

Groan.

So this morning, unbelievably, and against all of the odds, I was offered an internship with the BLM down in the Sierra Vista area. It had kind of dropped out of the running but when I got a call for an interview, I went ahead with it. The interview was very humbling and I thought surely that would be the end of the matter and I'd continue looking forward to school in August. I realize I must sound very foolish to say that I don't want to accept it, but it's just not as practical to me as school seems. I'd put off school for a year, not make any real money, give up my house and life in Tucson, spend a year traipsing around the woods of the San Pedro River watershed, and then what? If it was six months or less, I'd go for it, but a year seems like too long to put things off yet again. But, I'm not saying no just yet, I'll do some thinking first. Ugh, timing!

Dribs and drabs, and dare I say free time?

This week I've put in a couple of mini-shifts at the former client of my former employer, so that's cool, and honestly, I'm tickled to have the chance to help them out. While I was employed, I was always curious as to how it would be to work for them. I also got to say hi to the girl there my age who I find so intriguing, so it's been a good connection all-around. Yesterday afternoon I applied for an even gig that I didn't get, plus another conservation nonprofit job. I'm feeling creative today and have wasted all afternoon just goofing off and not producing anything or doing any homework. I hope this mood carries over to tomorrow so that I can think of a way to either make something to sell for money or to procure funding for Carl's project. I didn't get the Park Service internship, unsurprisingly, and there's no way I'll get the BLM one, but I'll keep looking around anyway.

Sorry for slacking.

I haven't had much to report lately. I'm still waiting for the results of applications and interviews to find out if there are any job prospects, and school is still up in the air. Tomorrow I might go apply to a new frozen yogurt place in the neighborhood just as a part-time gig. I'm a bit ambivalent about it because their classified ad described them as a "self-serve frozen yogurt concept", and when I looked up that phrase, I turned up results for places like Pinkberry. Pinkberry is intriguing but I always associate it with my snobby former coworkers who go shopping in places like Scottsdale and San Diego, which I believe are places where they tried Pinkberry and decided that it was the cool new place to go for fro-yo. Thus I'm wondering if I have to wear makeup and preppy clothes to apply for the job. I think I will and size up the interviewers in person to determine if it would be a worthy place to work.

In other news, if I didn't mention it already, I have an interview with the BLM on Thursday for an internship. There's been no word yet from the former client who wants me to work a few hours as an office assistant, and tomorrow is the deadline for the nonprofit job I applied to. The job landscape at the moment basically consists of either nothing good or a lot of waiting for rejection letters or interviews. Meanwhile, in the course of my job search, I've yet again encountered an ad that looks like it's for my former employer. This would be the third time or so that I've seen it posted on TucsonHelpWanted.com. They actually have the nerve to claim that they are a "stable" company! I hope they keep having to post that ad and never find someone who put up with them as long as I did.

Mmm, fro-yo ...I'm trying to convince myself not to go get some, but I'm on my way out to run errands and I think I may end up at least detouring for a smoothie if I have to have something. Maybe I'll have more to report by the end of the week.

Bullet dodged for now.

I had time to go to the nearest unemployment office today after my workshop, so I did so that I could clarify what the heck is going on with my claim. It was discovered that I cleared adjudication and I'm back on the payroll, thank the Universe. I still need to find employment, but at least it's not fully critical now.

Two pinpoints of light in the darkness.

First of all, I'm still in big trouble. I called the unemployment hotline at 7:58 this morning, two minutes before the thing is supposed to be open, and it was already hopelessly clogged. I tried every two minutes for about a half an hour and got nowhere.

The two minor positives mentioned in my title, however, are 1) my UA financial aid award is actually kinda sorta enough to live on for a school year without there being an absolutely critical need to work part-time or full-time. I misunderstood how much tuition is each year and it's less than I was thinking, so I should be covered. 2) Behold this random stroke of luck:


Click on the image to enlarge it and see what I'm talking about. Too bad the Amazon markup drove up the cost so much; I'll see if I can lower it through the publisher or something. Then you all (all one of you?) can buy it and enjoy lots of Arizona sunsets right on your own coffee table!

Insult to injury.

So I haven't received unemployment payments in a month, and it's taking its toll. Today, just to make me crazier over survival, DES sent me an email claiming that they hadn't yet received my unemployment claim for last week. I called the automated hotline and it said that they did receive it, and I confirmed this online too. Time to get up ass-early tomorrow and hope that maybe I can get through to someone who can help me in a useful way. This is terrible.

On top of it, my internet isn't working and multiple calls to all of Cox's customer service numbers have gone absolutely nowhere. I mean, I literally can't get through because all of their circuits are busy. So now I'm down at the U, working for a little while from their field of computer dreams (thank goodness for this place) and seeing if there are any jobs I can apply to this afternoon so that this day hasn't been a complete waste.

Oh, and one more thing related to computers and internet: My best friend called me to tell me that someone had hacked into my AIM account and sent him obscene messages. I quickly figured out exactly how this had happened and rushed downtown to the computer that it probably occurred on, fixed all of the AIM settings and changed my password to prevent it, and now I'm figuring out how to get the message out to the right people there that while I don't know who the culprit is, I know when they did it and where, and they need to know that they've been caught and I'm insulted. Carl suggested a likely perp who doesn't seem completely plausible, but the odds are good enough that I can't help but suspect him too.

So nothing is really going my way and I still have no income, and my savings is getting used up all the while. Yesterday I applied for a part-time telecommuting job, or at least I think it's workable from home, with the prominent alternative newspaper here, and I can't expect to hear anything for at least a week but of course I'm hoping. The, uh, "interesting" thing about getting that gig would be that I'd be back in contact with my former employer. That would be a great way to irritate them, though with them as a reference, I may well not get the job even regardless of my writing ability, which is a qualification they're looking for. Then it's still another two weeks until I hear about the non-profit job and almost three weeks until I hear about the internship. Something really has to give or I'm going to lose my house and have to move to Scottsdale.

Continuing desperation, contingency plans, unsolicited applications.

I'm down to filling out applications for store jobs whether they say they're hiring or not. I also saw an ad for newspaper carriers in certain Foothills and East Side ZIP codes and I called the hotline anyway. The woman on the other end took my information down but emphasized that a manager would rather hire me for my own ZIP code. Do they realize how small 85716 is?! I don't mind driving around those others! I've emailed myself tons of job ops and haven't had time to apply yet or follow up on other positions. Tomorrow is going to be busy to that end. I have the materials for a petition signature drive for which I can get paid up to $2 per signature with email address, but I'm doubting that I'll be able to overcome my shyness enough to make much money at that. Lastly, yesterday I actually had an interview at Saguaro National Park, which was exciting but revealed that I'm unlikely to land that internship. At least I got to get in front a staff member there, though. If by some miracle I were to be chosen, I'd have to defer school somewhat but even if I couldn't take any other classes for the semester, I could still register for internship credit, and that would be cool. Something needs to happen NOW, one way or the other.

Desperation, for real this time.

My edible bouquet assembly job only lasted three days and then that money, plus the little bit I made at the raceway, evaporated when I paid a couple of bills. I feel like there's not a decent job to be had anywhere in this Godforsaken town, talk about a desert. I'm dyin' here. I applied for a great internship at Saguaro National Park and will follow up by phone in a couple of days. My former supervisor at my last job vouched for me and in fact, my contacting her resulted in our having a nice supper and catching up on life. I also found a posting for a job at a local conservation organization, one that's very low-paying but in the right area of interest and something I can definitely handle. Plus it's thirty hours a week, so I could still squeeze in a class or two. I also applied to Pizza Hut to be a delivery driver, something that a friend of mine highly recommends, as she did it in a time of need and was able to make some decent money from it. Tomorrow, Carl and I are going to bring our resumes down to a call center that's hiring part-time, seasonal representatives. I'm so worried that any place I apply to will have a problem with my vacations this summer, but someone out there has to hire me. I also applied for a minimally-paying part-time internship with the Center for Biological Diversity, which could be a good resume builder. Thursday, there's a training session for wannabe petitioners for the Marijuna Policy Project. The MPP is paying people a dollar per signature and two dollars if we get a signer's email address. Lastly, I'm hoping to Hell that the upcoming gun show will need some temporary labor and I think I'll call the show's presenters about this. I need a miracle. My horoscope didn't even come true today: it said that a door was going to open and I needed to follow my instinct and cross the threshold into a whole new world and way of life. I really need to have about a million dollars fall out of the sky about now.

Four and a half months into unemployment, I'm down to day labor.

Not that that's such a bad thing; daily cash income sounds like the best type of income to me, as long as it's a livable wage. My latest goofy gig has me getting up at 4:30 in the morning tomorrow, less than eight hours from now (and I'm still doing my homework). I'll be providing day labor for my local Edible Arrangements shop, who apparently needs some quick manpower to crank out a few orders. For just a few hours that don't interfere with my appointments and lengthy to-do list, I can definitely sacrifice and get up in the middle of the night for a few cash bucks. Honestly, I've been watching Edible Arrangements all this time anyway in case there's a way to work there because it's one of those creative (and tasty) jobs that has a person working with their hands. Maybe I can find out what it takes to get a job like that too.

Dogged optimism and the Arizona Dream.

In a little while I'll be leaving to go work at Tucson Raceway Park, so yes, I did score a gig there. The townie connection just might have worked. Carl has actually expressed an interest in working with me on gigs like this, so I think I'll ask them how flexible their dress code is, as he mustn't cut his hair or shave because I'll be disgruntled :P Things are still totally up in the air in terms of survival and financial aid for school, but I just had one of my moments that I thought I'd never have again: I'm having problems but I'm having them out west, in Arizona! Where I can see four mountain ranges from Speedway Boulevard! And I'm going to school to study the West in depth, and I have cowboy boots, a denim jacket, and a tooled leather purse. I have a hat too but need a straw hat because my black felt hat doesn't do me any good in the hot weather. So I'm partway there, I made it as far as Arizona, and ever since getting here, throughout my many moments in which my survival has been seriously questioned, I've still felt ultimately hopeful and, knock on wood, financially invincible. The West has problems and I become more aware of them all of the time, but it's still a place where, if I absolutely had to, I could pick up, drive across the desert, start fresh, and somehow regroup. The original Arizona Dream is further off than ever, but it's still there, just off of Old Spanish Trail somewhere on the far East Side. Plus, I just applied to two SCA internships over at Saguaro NP (though I don't remember if they're in the east or west district), so that's a step in the right direction too. If I can just survive first the summer, then school, then the search for a job in range management, I'll be closer than ever. As Doc Brown said in, I think, Back to the Future II, "We--must--succeed!"

Filth!

In spite of my status as an unemployed fool transitioning to starving college student, I badly needed someone to come clean my house, despite how small it is and how I should be ashamed of how nasty it's gotten. Not having a regular work or school schedule has proven very problematic for my organization and motivation for getting things done, so maintenance has suffered considerably, among other things. I finally stopped thinking about it and went ahead and hired a cleaning service to come in and exorcise the filth, or at least reduce it to a manageable level. I have the air conditioning, fan, and kitchen fan going with all of the windows open and it still reeks of deadly fumes. I can hear the custodian gasping in the bathroom and I can't imagine how bad it must be right in the middle of it. My toothbrush must be getting poisoned in the process. I hope she doesn't pass out and I'm worried that this could be one of her toughest jobs; I really hate to be "that" person. I guess this is a lesson in homemaking and not losing one's head just because one has lost one's job.

As far as the new student status, it's in progress and I need to finish some paperwork, and then I'll be official. I can't wait to get on with my life!

I also have an interview for a concessions job at Tucson Raceway Park tomorrow. It turns out that the man in charge of it all is from just down 495, so he's a countryman. I wonder if that's what made him call me. Working there would be even cooler than working at the dragway and I hope I can get a small job.

I've been meaning to post for at least three days.

I don't know why I've put it off like it's such a chore. Anyway, I've been putting in a few hours here and there at the county fair for Dippin' Dots and rather enjoying myself. The work is easy but still good for my growing "small projects" resume that so far contains just retail and food service gigs. Over a week into the fair, I still haven't taken a proper schmai around and haven't gotten anywhere near any of the agricultural shows and exhibits, but it's been fun regardless. It's also been ass-expensive, as I've been taking advantage of the opportunity to sample fair foods ranging from funnel cake to Fazackerley's Fudge. I've been good about not eating too much of that kind of food, but combined with a lack of exercise, I think it's rapidly collecting around my middle. I also extracted ten bucks from the bottom of the unemployment barrel to buy a cheap-looking but just adorable tooled/stamped leather western saddle purse that's just big enough to hold a wallet and keys. That actually wasn't too bad a deal, considering how much merchandise and food costs. By working for a vendor, though, I've learned some of the reasons behind the high prices. Paying $7.50 for a gyro is painful, but I need food and the Greek food folks need to cover their expenses somehow. It's a filling sandwich, at least, sticking to my ribs for a few hours at a time.

I've been alternating shifts between the Dippin' Dots kiosk inside one of the exhibit halls and the trailer outside in front of the pig races. Thus I get some time close to other vendors, as well as practice making smoothies and milkshakes out at the trailer. Having done the traveling vendor thing before, I'm really interested in someday launching one of these businesses myself and Carl and I hope to make it a unique Exist Kind fundraiser. I'll be a little let down once this is over and everyone moves on to the next fair while I stay put. I'll get one last small gig on Saturday night when I pinch-hit as a jewelry seller for another vendor who needs some help. That will be a chance to go to the fair a couple of hours early and actually have a good look around just as a visitor. I'm out of cash and don't want to withdraw another twenty bucks from the bank, so I may have to get a special five bucks in cash back somewhere so I can have one last funnel cake. I can't wait for the state fair in November.

New developments!

I finally received an acceptance letter from the U of A yesterday! I can finally move in a direction! That is, assuming I can obtain enough financial aid. Even though here and there I have cold feet, I'm basically on track to go back to school full-time and just get my career started over again. I can't wait to work on enrolling.

In other news, today I got a call in the middle of the afternoon from the ice cream lady. She didn't call two days ago, when she said that she would, so I'd given up. But she wanted me to go in and work tomorrow and one day next week, with the possibility of more hours, so I went down to the fairgrounds today for a quick training session and to pick up my official t-shirt, hat, and badge. I'll be inside one of the buildings, working in a kiosk shaped like a giant container of ice cream. She also hired someone with the same name as a man I worked with at the dragway, so I'm hoping it's him so I can chat with him and see how he's doing (he was having a hard time of unemployment when we last spoke).

I'm thinking of assembling a scrapbook of all of the odd jobs I've had the privilege of working because some of them are so off-the-wall. If I have the time in between classes and any work-study or part-time job I might take, I think I'll keep seeking out these odd food-service and retail jobs because like I said, they provide good experience to fall back on in down times.