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

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ... It looks like M and I might be getting back together.  Recently, we've had amazing times together.  And, he seems to be open to us going to counseling.  I am hoping both individual and couple.  BUT, I haven't had the inclination to look into it because.  well.  I am stressed out about the whole stupid Government Shutdown. I AM GETTING SHUTDOWN ZITS!  WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!?! As for the other guy I was casually dating (remember: the hot bad kisser?), I let him down easy. WHICH, brings me to the title of my new book idea: How to Let Him Down Easy by Not Returning His Phone Calls. I KID!  I did return his phone calls.  well, his text messages.  And I was all "this just isn't working for me."  Because it wasn't.  I don't get it.  He was super-hot. Smart.  Good job.  Nice guy. BUT, I wasn't all that into him.  *sigh*  I should have been.  Oh, well. I hav...

Hello, Dear Kittens! As you may have heard, the Federal Government has been shutdown since October 1st.  What you may not know is that this affects VUBOQ most negatively.  I have been out of work since that time.  My company was able to carry me on overhead last week; however, starting on Monday, I will either have to use up my leave time (which is not very much) or go unpaid. I would like to take a few moments to clear up a few common misconceptions.  Congress is working very hard (LOL!) to make sure that furloughed Federal employees will receive backpay.  However,  furloughed government contractors are not the same as furloughed Federal employees.  We will not receive backpay.  Additionally, Maryland and Virginia have made it Very Easy for furloughed Federal employees to apply for unemployment benefits.  Furloughed government contractors have to wade through the usual bureaucratic unemployment redtape. I will be calling my company's...

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*

I read the above line in one of Carolyn Hax's chats on the Washington Post website. And, it's so true. Being unhappy means blobbing on the sofa all day, drinking copious amounts of gin (and vodka. and rum. and a little tequila too), knitting, and watching DVDs. What it does not mean is slogging through all the job ads (both of them), sending out resumes and writing cover letters. Being unhappy means eating chips and salsa for dinner (and lunch. and breakfast). What it does not mean is pulling oneself off the sofa to walk to the Whole Foods (in the pouring rain) to buy interesting vegetables to combine in fun and unique ways to make a delicious dinner (or lunch). Being unhappy certainly is easier, but it's not much fun. Have a great day, kittens. *smooches*

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! So, last night, I met GayProf ! YAY! And had a fabulous dinner with the cuzin and cuzin-in-law. It was so totally awesome I forgot to take pictures. Oops. Fortunately, the GayProf and I are hanging out today so there should be lots of fun photo opportunities. Now, I have to get to work on writing a fantastic cover letter for a totally fabulous job opportunity which has fallen into my lap. Fingers Crossed! *smooches* ps. As always, I will be twittering and facebooking throughout the day!

Good Morning, Kittens! I hope you all had as much fun this weekend as I did. On Friday, I headed over to CNTBD's house for lunch. He made a fabulous salad. And, somehow, we managed to drink a bottle of wine. Hm. Dessert was ice cream with mini eclairs. Delish! Around 2:30, I staggered to the metro station to head into the DeeCee. I ended up at the Barnes and Noble (they now have free wifi), had some coffee (to sober up), and then shopped for a book. Recently, while cleaning, I found a B&N gift card. I called the toll-free number on the back and learned that it still had $7.99 on it. Score! In the bargain bin, I found a book by Amy Tan, Saving Fish from Drowning , which I have been wanting to read. And it was only $6.98. Yay. Book purchased, I took a meandering photo walk to the metro station and headed to Nellie's. Tomokito and Mike (Who Makes Cakes) met me there later. We had many cheap drinks and lots of fun. Tomokito left to get home to teh baby. Mike and ...

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! Yesterday was actually quite productive. I did two loads of laundry. And, applied to two jobs. And, discovered that some job application websites are evil. The two jobs I applied for yesterday both used a web-based HR System, which *required* resumes/cover letters in MS Word. I use Open Office, because I am cheap and can't afford MS Word (and also I like how easy it is to export a document to pdf from Open Office). After saving my beautiful Open Office resume as a Word document, I noticed that, when I attempted to open it in MS Word, the formatting was all forked up. Joy. I didn't bother to fix it and submitted it as is. I almost included a note in my cover letter saying that my formatting would be screwy and, srsly, who the fuck wants resumes in MS Word and not PDF? Crazy. Totally. Pottery class was a lesson in disaster management. The two vases and bowl that I had to trim were very, very dry. I had to be very careful while trimming them. And,...

Good Morning, Kittens. How the heck did it get to be Wednesday already? Time flies when you blob on the sofa and do nothing for days. Srsly. For most of the day yesterday, I scoured the intarwebz for job openings. I found a few which look interesting. Today, I'll be updating and modifying my resume and cover letter templates to make them more job specific. That way the Job Openings will each feel special in their own little way. Isn't that cute? Then, I walked up to the Whole Foods for hummus, cheese, and tortilla chips. Somehow that ended up costing over $25 and completely filling my shopping bag. Weird. I also made some more tea-infused vodka. This time I used Sainsbury's Kenya Loose Leaf tea. I think I used too much because that shit is strong (and delicious!). The blueberry gin I took up to BOSSY's was so good I am considering making a little more for Home Use. And, CNTBD liked it, so I should make him some too. Later in the evening, I attended our co-op...

Good Morning, Kittens! I'm off to get my hair did this morning. OMG. I love me some Quality Time with the Colornatrix. I have a bottle of tea-infused vodka for her. Hope she likes it. So, yesterday, there was Capital D Drama, which if you follow my facebooktwitterplurkstatusupdates you might have heard about... I had a date. With a guy. At 5:30. At Adega (mmm. Eggplant Fries). I'm at Adega at 5:30, perusing the wine selection when I get a text message: "I'm running late." To which I reply, "How late?" 10 minutes and a Happy Hour Glass of Cabernet later, I get the following reply: "I'll be leaving work in 5 minutes and it'll take me 4o more minutes to get there." To which I reply, "I don't feel like sitting here for another 45 minutes, so don't bother." I have given him a Third Chance though. We've rescheduled for Thursday. Same time. Same place. He says he'll be early. I'm not holding my breath....

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. Hope all is well in your world on this gloomy Wednesday. Hard to believe that we're two weeks into June and (a) I'm still unemployed and (b) it's in the 70s. Not that I'm complaining about either (especially the cool temperatures). The Board meeting last night was not entirely awful. Other than, the Crazy Neighbor was crazy. And, two of the Board Members hate each other and are on opposite sides of an issue we are having. Joy. Fortunately, the Crazy Neighbor is moving at the end of the month. Although there will still be a major disagreement about the issue, at least the discussions won't be as uncomfortable. On the bright side, we should be getting a new fence in the next few months. Hurrah. The old one is collapsing in places. Meanwhile, Operation Get a Job in New City is in high gear! If you define "high gear" to mean "I haven't really done anything yet." I did stumble across two rather interesting positi...

Good Afternoon, Kittens! Busy day at Casa de VUBOQ ... OK, not really. I'm just being uber lazy. Lessee. Monday was full of fun and excitement. Somehow, my Crazy Neighbor has convinced me to host her Going Away Party in a couple of weeks. Which means she keeps coming by with plans and wanting me to do things and on and on and on ... She is providing all food, drinks, and utensils. So, really, all I have to do is Grin, Bear It, and Clean My Apartment. Anyway, yesterday she brought over a box full of cheap wine to serve. Today, she stopped by because she wants me to come pick up some things from her apartment. I told her to leave them in the hall and I'd get them at some point. Oh, and last night, SCGB and I went to Adega for dinner. Grilled Tofu Wrap. Eggplant Fries. Wine. Major YUMMITUDE. Here's a photo of SCGB at the restaurant: Super Cute, No? Once home, we went up to K-Factor's apartment for a couple of glasses of wine and conversation. Today, I've ...

(1) VUBOQ was not all that impressed with Glee . and (2) VUBOQ thought WALL-E was ok, but didn't get all orgasmic over it ... like everyone else did. Srsly. It was cute and all, but the whole No Dialogue Thing prevented VUBOQ from multi-tasking. And, well, replace the Cute Little Robots with Cute Little Princes/Princesses and it's like practically every other animated flick out there ... And there you have it. Undeniable proof that Long-term Unemployment = Cynicaller VUBOQ. How many more movies/tv shows is this going to ruin for me? *sigh* Martini Time?

Good Morning, Kittens! It seems like summer may have arrived. Yesterday, around 6:30AM, I awoke to the crash and flash of a line of thunderstorms rolling through, creating havoc and setting off car alarms. I thought about the poor saps who had to go to work in that mess and fell back asleep. Ha! The rest of the day was not productive. Can I blame the heat? I think I will. Then, just after Martini Time, another line of thunderstorms passed by. Take a look at the Fabulous Ms. Bluestocking's photos of the storms here . The storms passed, and in the rain, SCGB and I headed over to our friends' house for dinner. We had a yummy mixed greens salad with strawberries, portabello mushrooms caps, and quinoa with black beans. Tasty tasty. After dinner, we played darts in the basement. Good times! SCGB and I got home a little before 11, and I decided to watch Gypsy (with Rosalind Russell and Natalie Wood) on DVD. It was slightly different from what I remembered. It's possibl...

Good Morning, Kittens! I can't remember where I saw the original link to this article , but, like, wow, hello my life ... just without the 'fun' part. Yesterday, I didn't do much of anything until a friend called and wanted to meet in DC for dinner. I demurred, as I have been spending too much money recently. But, then, the friend said those three magic words: I will pay. Woo hoo! It's amazing his call came through because I think my nearest cell phone tower is totally forked up. I can barely get a signal. And calls are being dropped. It's v. frustrating. Anyway, I invited SCGB to join us for dinner. We went to Alero in Dupont Circle. I had the Alero Salad and SCGB and I split a pitcher of margs. Mmmm. I love Margs and Mexican Food. After dinner, SCGB thought about checking out another bar or two, but places were pretty dead on this Monday evening. We ended up taking a casual stroll around the Gayborhood and, then, heading back home. Tonight, we are ...

Good Morning, Kittens. Who am I kidding? I can't keep a secret to save my life ... but, for right now, let's just say I have things (well one thing in particular) that I want to tell everyone in Vutopia, but I can't. And, it's not the "not telling" that is causing me stress ... it's the Actuality of the Event that is causing me stress. And, it's not the Not Having a Job Thing either ... although, that is causing an entirely different type of stress... Immediate Stress vs. Impending Absolute Poverty Stress. Neither of which is fun at one time. Combined? You wonder why I drink so much. Sometimes (like now), I'm amazed that my body doesn't collapse upon itself (like the house in Teh Amityville Horror or was it Poltergeist ? ). And, because it doesn't, I am reminded that I can go on. And I do. Go on. BTW, have I mentioned that my hair is looking fan-forking-tastic? Oh, wait. I was talking about how stressed I am. Which I am. But even ...

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...