The Attack of the Family

Okay so it's been a few days. Well I have something to write. Once again, we were descended upon by sis and her family for a "lovely" meal. I put lovely in quotes because today it really wasn't. Niece was her usual moody pre-teen self, BIL was being a smart ass again, and the boys were rolling around which resulted in younger nephew crying again. Also as usual, grandmama went crazy over the food preparation and shopping. Despite my numerous efforts to get her to scale back on things once more there was way too much food. Of course granny complained that there wasn't enough, please! I just finished cleaning up the debris pile. I've gotten accustomed to using a large garbage bag for their visits.

The meal itself started off okay and then digressed into something else. The children's manners are still being worked and it doesn't help that granny and BIL aren't exactly paragons of etiquette. I suppose I should cut grandmama some slack because she is over seventy but still the woman is older and should really know better. The children should understand that a visit to grandmother's house means be on your best behavior. It's funny, when their other grandparents come for a visit or they go to visit them, the kids are little angels. When they step out of line, other grandparents quickly correct while grandmama let's them do whatever they want. I think, in this respect, she's still trying get them to like her more than other grandparents, Grandmama figures that if she lets them have unfettered amounts of junk food and act like wild beasts the kids will think she's the cool granny and like her more. Anyway at least the adult conversation was reasonably acceptable.

The actual highlight of the meal was a soda tasting. BIL had picked up a four-pack of Chanuka themed soda. There was potato latke, applesauce, jelly doughnut, and chocolate coin flavored sodas. The potato latke flavor tasted worse than L.A. tap water, which is to say pretty bad. BIL tried to convince that it tasted just like sake. One look at sis's reaction convinced me otherwise. Fortunately the other were better. So know I'm tired and I just want to zone out somewhere.

More Later

Financial Aide et al

Right now I have an application into USC for their Master's of Historic Preservation program. How did I get interested in this. Well it was a combination of things. First, my thesis work at San Jose State was going precisely nowhere fast. Mainly because of the distance and the apparent lack of timely communication from my committee. That part really bothered me. I mean if you're going to work with someone, especially via long distance, good, timely communication is essential. I would submit something then not hear from anyone for weeks. I made allowances for vacations, exams, papers, and so forth but I'm not Mother Teresa, my patience does have a breaking point. It was getting ridiculous that I had to chase after my committee who would respond weeks after that fact and after I had already forgotten what I wrote not giving me any real time to revise it. Also, I don't think they really knew what to do with me. Either way I'm glad I found this program. It was a real struggle to decide whether to apply or not. After speaking with a few people I just went for it. So now I just have to sit and wait.

In the meantime I have financial aide paperwork to fill out. USC is not cheap but they are generous with financial aide. I just hate filling out the paper work for it. In fact it gave me a headache. That and also the fact that grandmama is home today and being her usual nagging self. Fortunately she hasn't been too bad. I've gotten to be such an expert at filling out financial aide forms that I pretty much do this in my sleep. Before you say anything, I know that at some point it'll all have to be paid back-yeah, yeah, yeah I've heard it all. In addition to the federal form, I'm filling out scholarship forms from Avon and UPromise. Both are on need basis and not large amounts but I'll take it just the same, I'm not greedy. In addition to requesting loans and grants, I'm also hoping to get a research fellowship that will cover half my tuition. That would be nice. Actually any sort of work would be nice. Gold digging sounds really good about now. I just keep telling myself that this is all going to pay off one of these days. The eternal optimist I'm not but it's nice to wish.

More later

I think some one is trying to tell me something

I think someone is trying to tell me something because this is the third job-related appointment I've had washed out because of the rain. This really sucks. What is going on here? Maybe some one is saying not here, not now. So if that's the case then when and where? I was supposed to go to a recruiting firm in South Pasadena and I was actually on the way, I mean literally in the car when it started raining. At first it was a drizzle then stop. Drizzle again, then stop. Then rain again nonstop. I had to pull over and call the firm to postpone the appointment to same time and day next week. Hopefully it will go on as planned. I mean I prepared and organized myself. I gave myself plenty of time to get over there but no-o-o-o. I was actually looking forward to meeting the recruiter instead I turned around and went home. I'll be honest though, I wasn't one-hundred percent sure that they would be able to find something for me but I'm keeping an open mind. Finally when I go home, I did something job search related, I posted my resume and profile on monster.com. Hopefully something will come out all of this. If there is some kind of divine plan for me I wish some one would clue me in on it. Please just a hint, a bread crumb, something, anything???

More Later

My Time is Everyone's Time

When your unemployed people often find that perfectly acceptable to make free use of your time. Often it'll start out as an innocent request, "Could you______?" (insert request here). Then it morphs into other things like letting the cable guy in, picking up dry cleaning, and so on. It can get to a point where you end up as some one's unpaid personal assistant. This in turn sucks up time that could otherwise be used for more constructive purposes. For example, the niece and nephews are on a school break right now so of course, the parents can't take off and grandmama doesn't want to take them anywhere. This leaves yours truly to chauffer the youngens around. Today it was the library and Coffee Bean. Tomorrow, fortunately I'm on entertain the kids duty because of a recruiting firm interview (I'll you know how that went). Still, this is not first time I've had my time hijacked by a family member who seem to think I'm the unpaid assistant. Grandmama is famous for doing that. Often it's more like "take me here, take me there." By the time I turn around, it's late in the afternoon and I've gotten nothing accomplished. The easy solution is to say "no" but how do you say "no" to an elderly person who happens to be your mother. You see my dilemma. I could draw some boundaries like saying I'm only available between these hours and after that not. The truth is I really hate being the one who gets all the errands and transportation duties dumped on. It's not like anyone gives me gas money or compensates me for my time. I suppose that's being selfish and petty but that's how I honestly feel. The flip side of this is when I need to ask someone to do something for me, the response is allot of hemming and hawing. This results in having to take of my things on top of everything else. When it appears to grandmama I've taken more than one minute to complete a task like the grocery shopping, I start to get desperate phone calls. Apparently breathing is unacceptable. Whatever. Anyway, enough kvetching,

More later

La Famille

Today I had the pleasure of enjoying a pleasant lunch with my family and guests. My family consists of grandmama (mine and my sister's mom), sis, her husband the BIL, niece, older nephew, and little nephew. Grandmama is a very forthright person. She will tell you her opinion whether you want to hear it or not. Grandmama loves to spoil the grandkids as most grandparents like to do much to the consternation of their parents. The parents are sis, the family star and the BIL. Sis is a doctor, mom of three, Phi Beta Kappa. The BIL is a tax attorney and like typical lawyers he thinks he knows all and has to have the last word. There are the kids: niece is your typical pre-teen girl, older nephew who's into most things that pre-teen boys are into like sports, cars, and so on. Little nephew is a very cute little boy with a thing for Coffee Bean.

From time to to we get together for a family meal. Sometimes it's at my place and sometimes it's at their house. Today it was at their house. The company was pleasant enough, the food was passable, but it was exhausting. Being sweet and charming is not something I can do for for sustained periods of time. Nonetheless, I managed. The niece and older nephew were their usual selves, meaning, they just hung around for the food and disappeared between courses. Little nephew wanted to participate in the conversation so like most little children he kept interrupting with a question that he forgot. Anyway had there not been guests, the older kids would have been more vocal. After the meal, I went for a little walk. It was actually a nice day and surprise surprise, the sun was out.

Anyway, more later.

A Ray of Sunshine

A ray of sunshine has entered my otherwise dull unemployed world. This ray comes in the form of an interview with a recruiting agency in Pasadena, California. This is good news because I can meet with them and see if they can match with employment that suits me. The appointment is on Tuesday in the afternoon. I'm cautiously optimistic about it. This cautious optimism stems from previous experiences with temp and temp-to-hire agencies that couldn't place me if they tried. Basically these agencies tried to place me in secretarial jobs for which I'm temperamently not suited for. Also I really can't type very quickly and filing bores me to tears. Yet the optimist in me is looking forward to hearing about what they can do for me. This is a Japanese firm so I really have to be on good behavior. Not that I can't be in public but this isn't American firm where it's a little more relaxed. Barring the rain, which already washed out two appointments this week, I'll be there.

In the meantime, I need to get on track with studying for the CBEST. My number one option to working in a museum setting is teaching. Specifically, teaching either AP Art HIstory or ESL. Before I can do either I have to take the CBEST. As I previously mentioned teaching ESL would open more teaching opportunities for me. On the other hand teaching AP Art History would make use of my education. All options are on the table.

Back to my original thought, this sunshine ray is nice and hopefully it'll work out. I must not be shy about asking for what I want and at the same time, be open to other things. To make this ray become the full sun I must make a good impression on them and be confident without being cocky. This is a fine line to walk but I've got a few days to figure something out. In the meantime, I need to prepare my resume for them. Basically just a quick update. Anyway,

More Tomorrow,
Lenore

So What the Unemployed Do All Day

What do the unemployed do all day? The stereotypical jobless person sleeps in until half past noon, gets up and has coffee, thumbs through the classifieds, checks emails, maybe showers, maybe gets some exercises, watches television. You get the basic idea. Everything else but something constructive like seriously look for work. In truth it can be a real drain to constantly post your resume on every search engine, get dress and go to interviews, and really try to figure out what you want to do with your life.

Me, I'm at a crossroads. My graduate research is stalled and I need to find something more meaningful to do with my time instead of run errands and chauffer grandmama (mom) and little nephew around town. Lately I've been giving serious consideration to taking the CBEST exam and becoming certified as an ESL teacher. This to me make sense because I can get work in Adult Schools teaching English to people going for their citizenship or in public K-12 schools teaching children from non-English speaking countries. This is probably the most practical of all the suggestions. At least I can have something meaningful and the hours are a bit more flexible.

Getting back to my original thought about what do the unemployed do all day. While some do loaf around and moan about their state, I live the life of a hausfrau. For the record I'm not hausfrau material. Spending the day cleaning, running errands, and so forth feels like I'm not being challenged enough. By challenged I mean intellectually. I get up early and I go all day. I do have my Avon to tend to on a daily basis-insert shameless plug for www.youravon.com/llowen. I've made it a daily habit to post on Facebook and Twitter. I do this in the morning. The afternoons are great for getting allot done. This usually requires depositing grandmama and little nephew at home. In short, lazing around the house watching "Oprah" is not something I do. So there you have it, an insight into what one unemployed person does all day.

More tomorrow,

Lenore