Vibrant.(Still) Unrepentant. Badass. Old. Queer

Good Morning, Kittens. So this is what 5:30AM looks like. I no like. Today, I am off to corporate HQ to do all sorts of paperwork and HR thingies. I have to be there between 7-9AM. It takes about 1.5 hours by metro. Fortunately, I will not be based there. My regular commute will take about half that time. I don't want to say too much about the job here ... y'know, being Dooce'd would suck ... especially since I'm just starting. I will be working for a government contractor, creating (then, managing) an energy efficiency/conservation program for a quasi-federal agency. It should be fun, frustrating, challenging, and educational. And, now, I must start getting ready. Mornings totally suck. Have a great day! *smooches*

Good Morning, Kittens. Behold the (much belated) photo of my Seattle souvenir from K-Factor. I wonder, does one have to be from the Washington Metro Area to find it funny? Yesterday, I went for a run. I managed about 2 miles before collapsing into a heap by the side of the road, hoping that one of the Cute Jogger Boys would take pity on me. No such luck. Some of the neighbors are trying to convince me to run the Turkey Chase on Thanksgiving morning. It's a 10k ... which according to this handy online metric conversion tool is ... (insert dramatic pause) ... 0.00 Light Years! OMG! Why am I running if I don't even have to move? I think I'm going to start measuring all distance in Light Years. My house is 0.00 Light Years from my parents' home: "I *did* come home for Thanksgiving last year. I traveled all 0.00 Light Years to see you. I am such a good son." Meanwhile, there is some (mildly optimistic) news on the job front. So, keep sending good vibes ...

Good afternoon, Kittens. Yesterday was bad. Got an email that I was -yet again- Qualified But Not Selected for a government job *and* the law firm job went to someone else, too. Bah. I is unhireablez. And I woke up this morning feeling like total poo. yay. *smooches*

Good Morning, Kittens. Pretend this is yesterday's afternoon/evening updated post. Sooooo ... I was busy yesterday morning, because I had an interview scheduled in the afternoon. However, it turned out to be more of a "paperwork filling out" session, rather than an actual interview. It's through a recruiter for an environmental specialist position in a law firm. The recruiter said that my resume is the best qualified that he's seen, but it really depends on how particular the firm is going to be about the qualifications they requested (I don't have some of the skills required ... in fact, I would think that Very Few People have *all* of the skill sets/experience that this firm wants). After the interview, I met Carolyn for coffee. She works about a block away from where the intervew was. Then, I came home, made a martini, and knat. All evening. Later, Tomokito came down for cocktails (Gayprof's Tequila Gimlets!) and we watched some of Project Runway ...

Good Morning, Kittens. You are looking at yesterday's Big Project: Turning a Heel. It was quite an Knitting Adventure, fer sure. I never want to have to go through that again! (except I will either have to or amputate one of my feet ... hmm). The Y Frustration of the Day involved our differing concepts of Time. I have a realistic one. His is entirely forked up. Around 11, Y asked if I needed anything from Whole Foods. I took a quick inventory and gave him a list. As he was leaving, he asked, "Do you need this for lunch?" No. Of course, I assumed that meant he would be returning with the groceries in time for dinner. And, he did! If you eat dinner at 10:30PM. Fortunately, I had some stuff lying around that I could fix for dinner. I picked some basil and whipped up a quick pesto. I suppose it was all right, but it tasted like disappointment. After my pesto + pasta dinner, I watched the first two episodes of Season 1 True Blood . It was OK. I don't qui...

Good Morning, Kittens! Do you know what I need? A Job! Well, yes, but besides that. More Bourbon! Um, yes, besides that, too. A Winning Lottery Ticket! Um ... Oh! Oh! A fabulous hair cut! YES! That's it! And, that's where I'm heading this morning. VUBOQ needs a little time with the Colornatrix. Hurrah! I can't wait to tell her that her cut was the Talk of Detroit. Yesterday was an Exercise in Ineffectiveness*. I pretty much spent the day either (a) on the sofa or (b) napping. I did find several jobs to which I would like to apply. Perhaps, I will do that later today. I am getting a little frustrated with the whole unemployment thing, especially the unresponsiveness of certain parties. I have emailed. Should I call? Am I being too pushy? Too impatient? Is it a plus to seem that way? Or a minus? GAH. MegaMillions is at $250 Million. Have a great day! *smooches* *Although not entirely, I did manage to make the Roommate stomp from the living room because I d...

Good afternoon, Kittens! Thanks so much for the good vibes sent my way yesterday. I had an interview at EPA. I'm not sure how it went. It wasn't spectacular, but it also wasn't awful. I don't think they quite understood my sense of humor. This seemed to be a screening interview, in which the two interviewers alternated asking questions from a prepared list. They said that there will be probably be one more round of interviews next week (or so). At the end of the interview, they asked if I felt like there were any questions that they should have asked but didn't. Of course, I mentioned that I was surprised they didn't ask about my year of unemployment. Y thinks that was a mistake. I believed it would have eventually come up anyway. And I spun it into a good thing: looking for work, participating in charitable activities, Co-op Board service, and personal development (reading/pottery class). What do you think? Should I have mentioned it? Or have I sea...

Good morning, Kittens. This is it. One year ago today was my last day of work. Had I realized at the time that I would still be unemployed one year later, I certainly would have approached things differently. For example, I would have taken up Montgomery County on their Unemployment Compensation Option to spend 6 months developing my own business in lieu of (the obviously pointless) applying for jobs. Perhaps, Pottery Bar/Infusions would be a Silver Spring reality right about now ... Anyway, I have applied to over 100 jobs this year and have had only six(!) interviews. From this, I can only draw one conclusion: I am unqualified for the jobs I want to do. (Either that or the Powers That Be in HR think I am unqualified ... and in the end, that's about the same thing). It sucks being unemployable. Srsly. I'm sure you are wondering how I will be spending my First Unemploymentiversary (and, since you didn't ask the Traditional Gift is GIN; the Modern Gift is CASH). First, ...

Good Morning, Kittens. Pottery class last night was fun (and productive). I threw two vases. One of which I will keep for my knitting needles ... if they turn out nice. I forgot to take pictures of them though. Bah. When I got home from pottery, I had a positive email waiting for me. One of my government applications has cleared the HR Bureaucracy and has been sent to the Selecting Official, who will decide who to interview (or not to interview or not to even have any interviews). Since being laid off, I think this is the first -of many- government applications to clear the HR Hurdle. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone in that government office to contact to put in a good word to the Selecting Official for me. Oh, well. My stellar resume will have to speak for itself. Although my day today will be filled the the drudgery of house-keeping and job-hunting. Tonight, I'm meeting a friend for margaritas and, then, we are going bowling. Fun times. Have a great day! *sm...

Good Morning, Kittens! Happy Friday! A critter is eating my flower garden, chomping on cosmos seedlings like there is no tomorrow. I think it might be a bunneh. Or an elephant. Not sure which. As long as it stays away from the bush basil I transplanted yesterday, I will be happy. I have plenty of cosmos seeds, but only one bush basil. I have been unmotivated this week. I think the job hunt is getting me down. Dooby dooby down. Wah wah wah waaaaaah. It would be nice to hear *something* from at least one of the 6 (or was it 7) government jobs I've applied for this past Spring. Gah. It would also be nice to apply to some jobs this week, which I seem to be unable to do ... even though I've come across several interesting ads. Last night, I dreamed I was stranded in the Philadelphia airport (with my brother!) because a hurricane had closed all the airports in DC. And I was wondering what to do because I didn't know anyone in Philly. But, then, I realized I did! Thr...

Good Morning, Kittens. It's cold and damp. And gray. Coffee refill? Yes, please! Pottery class was a mixture of the good and the bad. First, the bad ... perhaps, you remember this bowl ? Well, apparently, someone in another class decided to pick it up and take a look ... and when the put it back, they broke it. Very sad. I was hoping to give the big bowl to the friend who gave me all his extra clay. Alas, I shall have to figure out something else to give him. On the good side, I am *very* pleased with how the items I glazed last time came out (see handleless pitcher pictured). No photos yet of the other items, because they are surprise presents. As for the handleless pitcher, I am thinking of using rope ... or wire ... or something to construct a fun, funky handle. We shall see ... I may go back to the studio today (or tomorrow) to do some hand-building to use up the last remaining bits of my clay. Fun times. Then, next class, I will do my final glazing. In other excit...

Good Afternoon, Kittens. How're those jobs going? Hate your boss? Too hot in your suit? I feel your pain. Really. I do. I'm going to be sending out a couple of resumes later today ... and working on more fun-filled federal government KSAs. Woo. Hoo. And, get this, I applied for a federal job in Colorado several weeks ago. And, then, the job myseriously closed 2 weeks early. I didn't finish the KSAs for that job, because it is possible to update KSA answers online until midnight of the day the job closes. Last night, I get an email that read: "You were not rated high enough for consideration for this position based upon your responses to the job specific questionnaire. No further determination as to your qualifications or eligibility was made." I seriously considered replying to that email with "maybe if you hadn't fucking closed the fucking job two fucking weeks early I could have finished my answers to the fucking job specific questionnaire." Y talk...

Alcohol Units Consumed (yesterday): 8 (maybe one or two more) Tequila Shots Taken (yesterday): 1 Alcohol Units Consumed This Morning: 0 (so far) Hangovers: 0 (*w00t*) Resumes Sent: 0 Interviews: 0 Job Offers: 0 Stay tuned ... I need to clean. Then, I'm heading to the pottery studio this afternoon. *smooches*

Good morning, kittens! It's my last "Good morning, kittens!" from this computer, cubicle, office, building, street ... Doesn't that make you a little misty? *sniff* It's OK, kittens. Let it out. Meanwhile, I'm whooping and whollering on the inside. So far this morning, I have updated my resumes (changing everything to past tense ), printed several copies, signed my final timesheet, and had not quite enough coffee. It's free! Enjoy it while it lasts! Even though it is the crappiest coffee known to man (well except for a certain person I follow on twitter, who sometimes tweets about the nastiness that is Blueberry Coffee ). *shudder* My plans for the day include cleaning out the remainder of crap in my desk, meeting SCGB for lunch at Adega, surfing the internet, and then going to our final happy hour! With Tequila Shots for All! YAYZ! Last night, I didn't do much of anything except watch Project Runway (liked the judges' decision) and Shear G...

Good morning, kittens. As some of you may know, one of the major stumbling blocks in my relationship with Y is our stance on children. Basically, Y wants and I am not so sure (although last night I had a startling revelation, which needs a bit more introspection before I blog about it). In the past few months, I have made the acquaintance of several fabulous FBWCs*, and, in reading their blogs, I learned that baby sitters make a lot of cash . Yes, cash. Tax Free. Non-reportable. Under the Table Income. So, let's do a little math: 1. VUBOQ needs a job, but is not overly excited about the children. 2. VUBOQ's BF loves the children. 3. VUBOQ has been meeting the fabulous FBWCs. Put it together and what have you got**? VUBOQ pimps out his BF as a baby-sitter, taking 20% off the top (because scheduling is hard work. Srsly). Suh-weet. Back in the real world, pottery class was good last night. I glazed two things. I trimmed Canister #3, a vase, and a mug. And, I picked up two finished...

And, you may worship me ... from a respectful distance. Or you could just give me lots of money and/or gin. ANYWAY, thus far today, I have: 1. Completed the horrible essay question for the government job AND faxed my transcript to HR.* 2. Called the investment company which manages my 401(k) to find out how to roll my funds over to a personal 401(k) once the impending unemployment occurs. 3. Decided what I'm making for dinner tonight: Vegetarian Fried Tofu with Garlic and Black Pepper and Spicy Sesame Noodles with Chopped Peanuts and Thai Basil . 4. Made a sandwich and an iced coffee. OMG. I'm exhausted. I should take the rest of the day off! BUT, before I do, here is another hint about the rapidly approaching New VUBOQ Contest: The first hint is here . Allrightythen, guess that's it. *smooches* *The chances of me actually getting this job (even though I am highly qualified) are relatively nil. The position was announced on 7/22 and closes on 7/25. Such a short announceme...

I was planning to spend my afternoon randomly applying for federal government jobs on USAJOBS. When I logged in the little screen instructed me to change my password to something between 8-20 characters with at least one character being capitalized, one being a number, and one being a symbol, like ! or ~ or ^. So I did. I felt like I was typing in some sort of weird l33t sp3ak!*&! I can haz txtmsgs? I hit enter and * pow * * bang * * fizzle * myUSAJOBS sort of went all blank and sh!t. Thus, rather than search for jobs or do actual work (yes, I have about a gabillzillion email to proofread), I read blogs. Oooh. Fun. I stopped by Why I Hate DC , And, guess what? There seems to be a new Hater in charge. I used to be a regular WIHDC reader before Rusty took over a few years ago and filled the blog with too much baseball, guitar hero, and Late Night Shots. That, coupled with infrequent posts, pretty much killed my interest. The new girl has a quirky writing style which could ...

I noticed around 11:30 this morning that our call volume had decreased significantly. As it turns out, the EPA decided to switch the hotline to the new contractor ... even though the new contractor isn't supposed to take over until August 1st. Plus, they haven't completed training and have no idea how to answer the questions. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA. *sigh* In more hopeful news, I have submitted 4 job applications in the past three days (2 federal government, 1 DC government, and one with a nonprofit association). Maybe something good will turn up soon :-) *smooches*

And I have a big bag of potato chips on my desk. At 9 in the morning. IS THAT SO WRONG?!?!?!? Guess what? I found a federal government job which had NO essay questions! I applied this morning! EXCITEMENT! Of course, it's in Colorado ... which might present a small problem, but (this needs to be said again) there were NO ESSAY QUESTIONS! I had to apply. Also, I'm mailing my application for the DC government job this afternoon. AND, I only have one final essay question to answer for the DHHS job (which closes on Friday, so I'm a little pressed for time ... but not much). Lessee ... pottery class was relatively good last night (except for the very end ... which I'll get to in a moment). First, I glazed lots of things: two mugs, two vases, and a flower pot. Then, I trimmed a serving bowl. My plate and first cannister have not been fired yet. Boo. Then, I threw cannister #3. The really cool thing is that I had run out of clay, but the front desk girl had already lef...

Ok. Do panic. Here is a short list of things which cause mild panic attacks (what? our hearts aren't *supposed* to beat at 150 times/minute?) if I think about them too much: Impending Unemployment Not having a new job lined up Running out of money John McCain An apartment which looks like its insides exploded Having an apartment which looks like its insides exploded, but still inviting about 10 friends over for margaritas (and a very special viewing of Xanadu ) on Saturday. Having an apartment which looks like its insides exploded, but still inviting about 10 friends over for margaritas (and a very special viewing of Xanadu ) on Saturday even though there is the impending unemployment and serious concerns about running out of money. Thank Gawd for deep breaths, cheesy poofs, booze, and a squeezable kitty.