All this week when the email went bong! I immediately and nervously checked it (not to mention all the constant “check email now” refreshes) to see if I had received THE email from the DreamJob. With a promise of “we’ll get back to everybody this week”, time was running out on a Friday afternoon. Maybe then I thought they said “we’ll get back to everybody in the new few weeks” and it would be another couple of weeks of agony. But today it came:
“I have forwarded your information on to the hiring manager of Georgetown. We did indeed decide to invite you back for an interview but since your preference was for Georgetown, they will be talking to you from here on. They have your info and will be arranging interviews through the end of April.
Good luck!
<signature>”
Woohoo w00t booyah and all that good stuff! I’m hoping I didn’t shoot myself in the foot by requesting the Gtown store instead of one of the existing ones, but that one’s right on the D6 line which goes right in front of my apt and I could travel to work above ground and it would be nice to reprahzent DC instead of traveling to the H8ST8 or Murland.
Now I have to wait for the interview setup but at least I can relax a little knowing that I’ve secured the callback. April is the best month evra!
In addition to sending out more resumes today I was able to score both a one-time freelance assignment (with previous employer G) and a part-time gig working evenings and weekends at Evolve’s Urban Arts Project (click on the nav bar on the left for info). The freelance gig will be helping them out with one specific project but it should be at least 20 hours of work so that will bring an temporary influx of cash, at least until I have to pay taxes on it next year, but I’ll worry about that then. The part-time job for UAP will be manning their gallery during evening hours Monday, Wednesday and Friday and a small Saturday shift as well. It should total about 15 hours a week so that will help with paying bills, just to get even a little bit of steady income coming in. In case you don’t know or didn’t read below, but unemployment benefits have terminated after a year so every bit of cash right now is crucial.
Today I’m sending a resume to Apple because, you know, why not? There are three retails stores (all on the Metro lines) in the area plus a store scheduled to open in Georgetown at some point. So maybe within one of those four stores they’ll have an opening and think I’m technically savvy enough to work there. This might be part-time or full-time depending on what they need.
Another place I’m applying today is for a Print Production Buyer. There’s not much design or actual production work according to the job posting; they do all direct mail so it would be a pretty dry job. But the beauty is that the office is twelve blocks away and I could walk to it in 20–25 minutes or just ride the bike down there? On inclement weather days I could also take the D6 right down the bus line. How nice would that be?
It’s supposed to be 70 degrees outside today and, according to Facebook and Twitter feeds, people are pretty excited about it.
I could care less; I’m not going outside.
I guess if I had a job and had to be couped up inside all day then maybe I’d be excited about some warmer weather. But it brings no sunshine into my world even though I could go and sit outside all day if I wanted to. The thing is, I don’t want to.
Instead, I’m scouring job posting sites and finding wonderful gems like this one:
Title: Graphic layout
Description: Seeking a person for with graphic layout experience to assist a non profit organization. If you have worked on a magazine that would be a plus. This is a contract position and I need someone who can start immediately. Very pleasant work environment and nice people to work for.
Yes, that’s the entire ad placement. Obviously this is either a shitty job or the person posting it has no idea what they’re talking about. Maybe it’s a little bit of both. And this is about as good as I can find. And since unemployment benefits ran out over a month ago, something has to be done to get some money flowing in, even if it’s some shitty job that someone without nearly twenty years of experience can do.
Thanks for the comments in the previous post, guys. Much appreciated.
That interview last week didn’t go so well. I planned on being there about 1/2 hour early, taking an earlier bus than was scheduled to get me there on time. Of course, the bus was late, there was traffic, and so I didn’t get there until about five minutes before I need to go inside and check in. Therefore I didn’t have time to clear my head and I was still stressed out from the traffic situation. Plus my top shirt button was a little too tight, making me more uncomfortable.
I interviewed with three people and that kind of threw me as well. Not that they were attacking me 3-on-1 but I wasn’t anticipating trying to impress/hold three attention spans. Some of my answers were a little abrupt or uneasy sounding, with odd pauses at the end to say “Ok, next question!”
The interview lasted about an hour. At the end one of the interviewees also referred to me as “David” but then righted himself both times so that doesn’t sound like a good omen. They said they would be interviewing for the rest of the week and then make a decision. They have some projects coming up quickly that they want to get the person filling this position to start working on so it sounds like things on a fast track. I emailed them at the end of the week with the requisite “thank yous” and “is there anything else I can show yous” so I’m waiting to hear back from that.
I had an interview a few weeks ago with a studio in Falls Church, H8ST8. This commute would be equally hellish as the one I had with G, but at least it would have been a paying job. I could have caught up (rather, re-started) in my reading on the bus & train & train & bus 1.5 hour commute. Alas, I found out this afternoon that I didn’t get the job. Oh well. Tis a shame, because the company’s initials are C+C and I was going to call them the Music Factory. A in “I am now heading out for my daily stint at the Music Factory.” Hopefully you will be old enough to understand that inside joke.
Tomorrow I have an interview with another company, this one thankfully downtown. It’s the company where my brother works, but it’s a huge global corporate company. So I’ll have to wear a tie at least to the interview. I don’t think there will be any jeans/shorts wearing at this job, unforch. The position is in their Architectural/Design Services division being a Technical Editor/Writer Coordinator. The job description is a little odd, some writing & editing included with traditional graphic design services. They wanted to have me come in for an interview after reviewing my resume though, so there must be something in there that they think will be a good fit. Wish me luck!
Thirty eight years ago today Volkswagen Type 1 (more commonly knows as Beetle) produced it’s 15,007,034th unit. This number bested Henry Ford’s famous Model T, making the Beetle the most produced car in the world.
The 1977 Beetle I owned, affectionately dubbed “Libby”, was the last model year that the curvy VWs were imported into the US. This was also the same period where full-time production stopped in its German assembly plants, while the car continued to be produced in Peru and Brazil for another 25 years or so.
I bought Libby around 1993 or 94, after having my 2nd stint as a carless-person in Houston. She was in pristine shape: great body, tinted windows, air-conditioning (!) and only 85,837 miles. She was a great car to go “motoring in” around Houston’s flat, well-maintained roads.
Of course all of that changed when I moved to DC: potholes, salt & sand on the roads, careless parkers and stringent inspection standards all did their toll. I put Libby “out to pasture” in summer 2003, with a good conscience. Needing many, many repairs I sold her to the father of a high-school friend of mine, who tinkers and restores old VWs. So I assume that Libby is still out there somewhere, leisurely motoring along a country road.
Last Saturday during the beginning of the SNOwhatever I kept getting emails from Matt Alber and Tom Goss concerning their show that evening. It turns out the original venue had cancelled the appearance but Matt and Tom didn’t want to call the event and found an alternative venue, St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church. Since Matt’s music can get a little acoustic and atmospheric, I thought this would be a great place to see it.
When I got there it turns out the show was in their fellowship hall instead of their main sanctuary and I was a little disappointed about that, but I still got a seat in the 2nd row in the center. I was giddy!
I recognized Tom and spoke with him before the show and he thanked me for coming out. I wasn’t that familiar with Tom’s music but after seeing his performance (guitar) I’m a fan now.
Then, came the moment when Matt (!) came out to do his part of the show and it was great to be that close while Matt was performing. He was also pretty jovial with the intimate audience which is always entertaining. After the show, I had to go up and talk to Matt and simply thanked him for his songs, the perspective he wrote them from and how all us little queer boys felt that way growing up. While introducing myself I mentioned futurejunkie on Twitter and he’s like “Oh yeah, futurejunkie!” which of course made me melt right there on the spot.
Here are two clips of Matt during the show, “End of The World” and “Field Trip Buddy” (my favorite). They sang a duet of Elton John’s “Rocket Man” but at that point my iPhone battery was dying and I couldn’t record it. Dang, but it was beautiful.
DC Metrorail receipt for $4.00 purchased on 11/19/09 at 22:47:13 at 7th & S St, NW (Shaw/Howard University stop)
Wetzel’s Pretzels Frequent Buyer Card, punched six times therefore receiving a free pretzel (free spot also punched)
Handwritten banking routing numbers and account numbers, which after a quick search, point to Bank of America routing numbers.
How did these items get into my wallet you ask? I’m not really sure, as I’ve never been to Portland, don’t get receipts for Metro tickets (much less buy one for only $4.00) and don’t even know what a Wetzel’s Pretzels shop is. Another search reveals there are no shops in DC. Then I remembered the other night at the movies,making my way through the concession line when someone said I had dropped something out of the my wallet and I gathered up the pieces of paper on the floor and shoved them into my wallet. It turns out, they weren’t really mine. Maybe I had dropped a receipt of sorts and it fell upon these already lost pieces of information and I hastily scooped everything up without even looking at what it was.
Watching a certain 80s drama, with it’s men-brooches and moussed hair, has got me thinking back to my 80s drama, with its men-brooches and moussed hair.
Living back in the town where all my (early-mid) 80s drama happened is always a reminder: driving down 50 in Rosslyn—that’s where Jason lived; walking Connecticut Ave on a blustery fall Sunday—that’s where me and Michael would duck into Timberlake’s to drink and watch the Redskins.
It’s odd familiarity.
This show didn’t let go off its babyboomer roots so there’s no 80s beats playing in the background, its always gotta be some cheesy Procol Harem or some shit playing. I’m throwing some Scritti Politti into my background.
And it’s more than the fashions that are throwing me back too. It distinctly reminds me of driving these (now familiar) streets of DC, going to places I’d never been, so that Jason can pick up shit from his old boyfriend’s apartment. It reminds me of dinners and cigarettes with Michael before we laughed ourselves down the street, knowing onlookers were jealous.
Now these streets are so familiar that sometimes I don’t recognize them anymore. That’s not true—they’ve become all to familiar. Which is a good thing; there are new memories now, built upon the foundations of the old. Sometimes I will point these memories out to friends but most of the times I won’t. At times I want to keep them to my own 80s self.
Then, came the moment when Matt (!) came out to do his part of the show and it was great to be that close while Matt was performing. He was also pretty jovial with the intimate audience which is always entertaining. After the show, I had to go up and talk to Matt and simply thanked him for his songs, the perspective he wrote them from and how all us little queer boys felt that way growing up. While introducing myself I mentioned futurejunkie on Twitter and he’s like “Oh yeah, futurejunkie!” which of course made me melt right there on the spot.