Interviews, At Last!
Since January 2011, I've had 2 interviews. I have 2 new ones this week: the first one's tomorrow afternoon, for a file clerk position at a law office, and the other one is for part-time/temp help at a charter school. I haven't done an official tally of the number of jobs I've applied for, but I have to be at at least 150. Not a great ratio. I'm nervous, but that's happening anyway. I just have to keep my guts and sweating under control.
I also wish I were closer to retirement. That would take the edge off significantly.
Saturday I had a long time out with arashikeiko and fleetingeyes. They came out to my neck of the woods, so we spent some time coast-side. After everyone got to my place, we piled into one car and went to Santa Monica for vegan food. None of us had been to The Golden Mean, but we had a pretty good meal: I had a tasty mock tuna melt, with sunflower seeds figuring heavily in the faux fish. It tasted sort of like tuna. Not enough to fool a regular eater, but if you'd been away for a while, you'd wonder about it. The cold quinoa salad on the side was lackluster, but I maintain that few have said, "Mmmm, quinoa." You might get a little above "meh." It was okay. Quinoa either sucks or is okay. Keiko had chicken udon that was okay, a little salty, but the mock chicken had a decent texture. There was some cabbage salad on the side that was pretty good, too. fleetingeyes had a middle eastern wrap with falafel inside. We were surprised by the falafel being pretty good, since it's rare to have great falafel here that's not rock-hard or weird in some other way. Spinach salad with lentils. Decent vegan food on the Westside, not horribly expensive, and the vibe was Santa Monica, but not jerky.
After eating, we went to downtown Santa Monica. It was cold and gray out, but nice. Window shopping, talking, random laughs: all good. We ended up on the pier for a little bit, but it was too windy, cold and crowded to stay very long. The sea was sort of blue-green and we could see seaweed floating in the water. Off the pier, we sat and had tea before heading to West L.A. (Little Osaka, sort of) for dinner. Before we went there, we swung back to get Keiko's camera, which had fallen out at the vegan place. We called the cafe, they had the camera, and were just closing as we pulled up. Whew! It was getting sort of late for that part of town, but we ended up having soon dubu at a Korean place that was pretty reasonable for where we were. Some dorky guys had an impromptu sword fight with inflatable toy swords inside the restaurant. Oh, nerds. The kimchi was hot, but tasty, and the other banchan were okay. If you don't want to go to Koreatown for the good stuff, this was okay. The waiter was cute, too.
More pseudoshopping. Aside from food, I only bought a couple of different types of tea! We went inside a typical all purpose Japanese store, looked at all the little packages and household items. I was mesmerized by all the pens. I have loads of pens and pencils, but still search for the perfect pen. After a while, we wandered across the street for frozen yogurt, sitting and talking. The karaoke parlor across the way was busy and loud as always, but a stretch limousine pulled up at one point. I couldn't help but wonder what the conversation on the way was: "Driver? Take me to Max Karaoke! I must sing some Elton John, and right this minute!" More laughing and talking in the chilly air, until we drove back to my place and everyone went her separate way.
It was a very good day. I'm probably leaving some stuff out, but the gist is: Friends are good. Like always. I needed some cheering up and distracting, so this came just in time.
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My dreams have been really weird lately. This morning, I dreamed I broke my left ear. It came off in my hand, all in one piece. It was pinkish, though, and I'm a brown woman. I reached up and felt the area, and it was completely smooth. No ear. I held it in the palm of my hand and looked around to a friend. She had no expression on her face. Completely neutral. I was really confused. Then I woke up.
Sunday, I got out of bed late. I couldn't wake up any earlier because my dreams were dense. I felt like I was swimming through molasses and couldn't wake myself up. All my papers had been tossed in the garbage and I was trying to get them out and organize them. While I'd been working on something else, this had happened. I don't know what to make of this, but I did start trying to put my unemployment records in one envelope this morning. I have some magazines to clear away, too. I'm trying not to hold on to stuff too often or too long, since our space is limited. I wish I had space to see what I have, though.