Yeah. So I thought I was going to be able to write a positive post with words like “new job” and “negotiated salary” in it; but I’m not. Instead, thoughts like “pulling teeth” and “stolen stereo” seem more apropos.
wah-waaah
Things may still work out, of course; it’s just amazing how different things can literally look in the light of day.
Negotiating a job in a foregin land, while away from home, meeting with ADG’s family for Thanksgiving, away from my computer and other “necessary” comforting resources, and dealing with the time pressure of a deadline in the form of another candidate is stressful. Very very stressful.
Not to mention how this is really a lifestyle decision as opposed to a financial one, as the Canadian dollar is so weak.
On the bright side, Austin is a fun town, and ADG’s family is awesome. Also, turkey.
Off again
Well, I’m off to Austin for an extended stay… at which the likelihood of finding a computer is relatively minimal, so I shall be MIA for a bit. Should anything overly exciting like the promise of a job-offer happen, I’ll make a special effort to try and let you know. Meanwhile, Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, I’ll see you on the flip side.
Have you ever, EVER bought anything as a result of a pop-up ad?
Yeah, me neither.
Placard on the Burger King cash-register at Seattle/Tacoma International Airport:
We do not accept gratuities. Thank you for your cooperation.
…and I slowly, hesitantly, put the extra $2 in my pocket. And it was good.
I’m back. You missed me, I know it. I’ll be gone again soon.
I’m off to Victoria, B.C. I don’t expect to have time to find an internet cafe, what with all that work with the Mounties I’m doing. Have fun in my absence, and, wish me luck on the interview I didn’t tell you about.
I figured out what it is about this time of year that makes me yearn for summer. It’s not the cold, as some might think, or even the ever-threatening rainy season. It, in fact, has very little to do with the weather.
It just doesn’t look right.
In much the same way that you pause, cock your head to one side, and look wide-eyed around your room if someone has disturbed the delicate balance in which you left it, the days don’t look like they’re supposed to anymore. It’s as if, while my back was turned, some deity had switched all the trees and moved the sidewalks just 2 inches to the left. Not drastic, just wrong.
It wasn’t until recently that I finally realized what it was about The Now that has always left me so unsettled: I was driving on the highway behind a particularly slow-moving minivan that I was unable to see through or around. I’m fairly patient when it comes to things like traffic, but the not-seeing drives me crazy far more than the lack of speed. Therefore, I drifted over into the left-most portion of my lane and attempted to discern whether there was a myopic grandma at the wheel in front of me, or a myopic grandma at the wheel in front of the wheel in front of me. Not able actually see around Man’s Worst Invention™ I looked for the shadows of cars, and spying one realized that things were fairly backed-up in general, so that I had might as well surrender myself to my fate. Fine.
A few seconds later, while processing my observation, the word “shadows” drifted through the back of my mind looking for somewhere to land. Nothing. I kept focusing on the maroon back of the minivan, and thinking about what I was going to have for lunch. Then “lunch” flipped around in my head and ran into “shadow”… they made a small spark, but not enough to catch anything on fire. I glanced at my clock: 12:00 noon.
Finally “shadows” “lunch” and “noon” all crashed into each other and I realized something: there were really long shadows during lunchtime at noon! There aren’t supposed to be shadows at high-noon. I’m supposed to have my eyes well-shaded by my 10-gallon Stetson while I stare through the heat-waves at Black Bart, waiting for the strike of 12 to pull my six-gun lightening fast and cut him down. The sun shouldn’t be in my eyes, that would just throw my aim off!
And therein lies the problem.
At 10:00AM, it looks like 2:30PM. At noon it looks like 3:00. At 4:30 it looks like 7:30. At 6:00 it looks, well dark… and that’s just wrong. As near as I can tell, in fact, during this time of year the sun never seems to be overhead, instead traveling in a shallow arc off to the side a bit, never actually greeting me full force. This I don’t like, and I, for one, blame The Government. Stupid Daylight Savings Time.
In more things that tell you what you should do based on the opinions of others thereby somehow increasing the validity of the claim and making you feel worthless if you don’t pursue their goals so that you try with all your might to reach the unachievable based on the opinions of strangers with no real worth to you in the first place, *breath* I present a list not unlike the top 100 books of all time list (of which I’ve read 23) that was coincidentaly also made by a bunch of brits for our amusement and self-judgement *breath*:
The Top 50 Places to Visit Before You Die
The mere 11 that I’ve been to are:
.: Edinburgh, Scotland
.: Grand Canyon, Arizona
.: Hawaii
.: Las Vegas, Nevada
.: London, England
.: Mexico
.: Paris, France
.: Rome, Italy
.: San Francisco, California
.: Venice, Italy
.: Yosemite National Park, California
Should I get a job in Canada, I’m sure I will quickly add two more to that list (the Canadian Rockies and Alaska). Here’s hoping.
(link via tempest in a teapot)
