Our English midterm on Tuesday is based on an article that we have to read and then be prepared to write a randomly assigned essay about. What is the article on, you ask? Strangely enough, it's about a woman who delivers pizzas. HAHA. The annoying thing is that she lives in some random state like Delaware or some other countryside/suburban place, so she makes it sound like the most cheerful job on earth. "Driving open roads, listening to music, looking at the stars from my window and thinking about life..." Apparently in her world, stoplights are so infrequent that a "quick driver" can cover more than 20 deliveries and 100 miles in a night. Also, people are incredibly polite to her and tip well. I was chuckling throughout the entirety of this article. Maybe that's how things ARE in Delaware. If they are, I think I may move there just to see. My experience, however, was quite different. I almost want to write a response to that article... but I wouldn't really know where to start.
Speaking of that... place... though, I am forever rid of it! I've been waiting around for a good time to go back and pick up my last paycheck (and hand in my shirt, apron, and cool [pffff] little baseball cap) - and by "good time", I mean a time when the thought of going back didn't make me feel tiny and panicky like a rabbit in a corner. But it's been, what, 2 weeks since I quit? That "good time" was not going to come - I think I knew that, but I was in denial about it. Then today I felt so disgusted with my inability to do anything worthwhile over the last few days, that I decided to just rip the band-aid off. I called and asked if my paycheck was there, and drove over two minutes later. I signed for the thing, handed in my effects (which have been folded on top of my keyboard so that I've had to walk past them every time I go in or out of my room - a blatant attempt to guilt myself into going back and finishing the blasted matter off), and hooted and hollered all the way home. Funny how one act that shows initiative can make a worthless week suddenly feel very victorious. I never have to go back! HA!
...Annnnnd I'm unemployed. I mean I have been for awhile. But now I'm not even remotely affiliated with any company. Yesterday after teaching at Groups, I went all over the county looking for jobs at my number-1 choices. Some of them just weren't hiring, but some of them were.... and I didn't get the jobs. Any of them. (Last night was not a happy night after all of that.) I think it was just the hours - unfortunately my crazy school schedule really has left me with just a restaurant-appropriate schedule. But I'm done with restaurants. There's got to be SOMETHING else out there for me. I still have a few places to apply to before I give up. And once I get to that point, I'll find something else to aim for... no giving up allowed here.
You know, in my defense, the places that rejected me did so through their online applications. If those had been face-to-face interviews with the same questions, I'm pretty sure I'd have a job by now. Not that I'm the most amazing people-person in the world, but in an interview setting, I think I'm much better in person than on a computer screen. I think most people are. Why is everything going online? I hate it! It's not doing any of us any favors.
Backing up a little. Before I metaphorically ripped off the band-aid of Me-n-Ed's, I spent all day helping Kate take school photos for homeschoolers. Well, I didn't help her with any of the photography stuff... I was the assistant, doing all the filing and paperwork and greeting of people. And reading Ezekiel during the slow parts of the day. (Why Ezekiel? Why not? By the way, the whole Valley of the Dry Bones thing? CRAZY. Why does no one talk about that story more?!) Anyway. Kids crack me up - homeschoolers especially. Some kids are just so uncomfortable with getting their picture taken... they just don't know what to do with themselves! Also, the socially-awkward thing. Although I think that's just EVERY kid, regardless of their education experience. And then there are braces. I forget about braces sometimes, but I did have them for 4 years, so I sympathize. But somehow it still surprises me when I see someone smile and reveal a mouthful of metal. Such a weird phenomenon. Metal on your teeth. How do they come up with these things?
I really need to get over this constant tiredness. I can't get anything done when I get home from wherever I've been, because my brain just gets tired and shuts off. And then all I can do is write weird blog posts and make more mix CD's to listen to on my drives.
Speaking of driving, I went downtown tonight to a gallery where Dad had some of his pottery showing. (He was doing a demonstration on the wheel, too... good old Dad. I wish he could do these things every night - I never see him as happy as when he's showing people how to work the wheel.) Anyway. Downtown at night = SKETCH. Flashbacks of delivering pizzas on sketchy streets. I held my trusty old pepper-spray in my hand the whole time I was walking to and from my car. (Did I ever mention the time when, on a delivery once, I had to walk down a really long, dark, CREEPY street downtown, and I accidentally sprayed my pepper-spray and started choking and crying? ...Yeah. That stuff really works. Y'know, in case you had doubts.) It's funny, cause those streets are some of my favorite to drive through in the mornings or late afternoons, especially this time of year. Those streets are some of the only places in town where there are trees that actually change color in the autumn and winter. There's a gothic-style Catholic church on one of the streets, and even though it's new - I think it was built around 1900 - it's the closest thing we've got to a cathedral around here. I've always loved that building - I went there once on a field trip in second grade, but the only thing I remember about the inside is a stained glass window of Jesus standing at a door with a heart on it, knocking and looking a little anxious. This caused my seven-year-old self a bit of concern, and I remember that Mom was very pleased with that discovery. (The discovery that I was a discerning child, that is. Not the discovery that Catholics view election differently than we do.) Anyway - all that to say, I drove by the church on my way home tonight and the stained glass windows were all lit up and I've never seen the place look so beautiful. I almost pulled over and went inside. In fact one of these days I think I will, just to see. I've never been to a mass.
Oy. This week is going to be crazy... I should be doing homework. Or sleeping. Or writing something good. Unfortunately, my poor little fried brain isn't really into any of those ideas. I think I'll end up watching Pushing Daisies.
You know one more nice thing? On my way to the gallery tonight, I stopped at Jack-in-the-Box for dinner, since nobody else was home and I was too tired to cook myself soemthing. I went through the drive-thru, but then I parked in the lot facing the ocean, and got to eat my dinner while watching the sunset.
All things considered, even if today wasn't outrageously profitable, it was a nice day. Funny, the things that make a day good or bad.
Goodnight.
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