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2013-06-08 | I'm back...

"It can't slow down that much" says the liar... well since I'm clearly still alive, you might have guessed: I did indeed get the job! Not changing my about I'll change it later. I got the DVD job, not the florist job like I wanted, but ehh it's fine it all worked out. A little peeved that the interviewer made it sound so much like I got the job at the florist, but it isn't the end of the world. The DVD rental is fine and I've only been asked for movie suggestions a handful of times, and when I'm asked I just suggest whatever is popular and that's worked out for me so far.

I haven't had as much time to read lately obviously, which has been a bit of a let down. I've also had to reduce my library visits to only on my day off. I get to read on the clock sometimes when our supervisor is out and the store is empty. It isn't exactly big business these days so that's not entirely uncommon. There's five of us who work there - me, two high school kids that do evenings and weekends, our supervisor, and a woman who is somehow both doing her masters and working full time. I'm sure she's beyond overwhelmed with work at all times, but she's so nice. She had been working there for a year already and she helped me get settled in. I always had a job through college, but it was never full time. I found it difficult enough to fit assignments between work and class back then, so I can't imagine how difficult it is for her. She takes most of her classes at night I guess, and one or two of them are online, but still.

After my first week my coworkers suggested we all go out for dinner to celebrate and we went to a local Arby's. Cheap, but it's not like any of us are getting paid enough to be splurging. Did you know that Arby's declared bankruptcy all the way back in 1971? You wouldn't know it from going into one of their locations. The one we went to was really nice inside. Our local location is actually one of the original buildings, it still has the giant sign and everything.

I'm probably going to continue to be pretty flaky when it comes to updating this blog. I'm working on a post about the Red Robin restaurants which has been really interesting to look into. They're kind of weird places? I've never been to one, we don't have one here. Maybe if I ever get the chance I'll be able to check one out and give it a try.

2013-03-02 | Employed at last?

I think I might possibly finally be on track to getting a job. I heard back from both the DVD rental and the florist and had interviews with both. They seemed to both go really well, and I'm pretty sure the interviewer at the florist was even suggesting I'm all but guaranteed the job. It wouldn't be anything too interesting, I don't get to make the bouquets, I'd just be helping around. The owner is kind of old and wants someone to clean and move heavy boxes for him. It also sounded like I might get to deal with customers? If I get the job I guess we'll see if that's better or worse than normal customer service.

Definitely hope I get the florist job over the DVD rental. Even if the place didn't close in a few years, I watch so few movies, if anyone ever asked me what they should rent I'd have nothing to say. I swear the only movies I watch these days are book adaptations and I always seem to prefer the book to the movie. I should definitely try to watch more movies I'll actually like... if you have suggestions feel free to send them my way.

I'm not changing my about section yet. I do not want to jinx myself because I definitely would. I've been dying to get out of the house more so I really hope I get this. I go to the library three times a week right now just to read and sometimes edit photos, but I do kind of miss having a fixed schedule. If I do get the job I probably won't update here quite as much, but it's not like I'm that frequent in my blog posts anyways, so it can't slow down that much.

2013-02-12 | Minor Characters

Sorry to say I don't think I'll be finishing this one, at least for now. The book itself is quite interesting but something about it just isn't jiving with me. Maybe it's the weather. Maybe it's all the talk of college and passion and success and failure while I'm still waiting to hear back about a job. I'll try again in a few months maybe.

I can still talk about my initial thoughts though. This book is very intimate, even when Johnson is describing situations she has no way of knowing the most personal details of, you still feel like she was there. It almost reads like fiction because of that element. Every person explored in this memoir feels whole in a way you can only really imagine someone being able to provide when describing themselves and their own experiences or those of a fictional character. It is impossible to imagine knowing someone as completely as Johnson seems to know the people and experiences she describes in her writing. While I, of course, will never have the means to judge the true accuracy of her writing, she certainly does a fantastic job convincing the reader that her depictions of these people are authentic.

I had friends in college, but I spent most of my time studying or working on essays. I didn't really go out much so my experience was very different from what you'll typically see in the movies. The movies however, do not paint nearly as clear a picture as this book does. I could never relate to a movie like that, I've never been to a house party like the ones you see on TV, I'm still not entirely sure I believe they exist, but Minor Characters makes you understand. It doesn’t matter how far removed from your own life the events of this book are, Johnson’s narration provides a deeply personal view into their experiences, making you relate to and understand the characters regardless of how foreign or unimaginable they may be to you.

Despite how big and bright the lives of the people in this book are made out to be, it has a distinctly lonely feeling to it, which feels unbelievable when these people were seemingly known so well. While reading I got the impression Johnson herself, despite her deep knowledge of the people she was writing about, had not felt known or seen in turn. Her writing does a great job portraying that sort of experience. If I had to preemptively rate this book I would say it is quite good, and worth a read if the subject matter is of interest. All that being said, it is frankly, a bit of a bummer, which is why I’m putting it to the side for now.

If you have books you think I should read or opinions on a book I have read, please shoot me an email, I’ve got all the free time in the world to talk books right now.

2013-02-01 | Adventures in Job Hunting

If you read my about (until I inevitably change it) you know I'm currently out of a job. Not the greatest thing to be of course, but it could always be worse. I'm lucky enough to be holding out alright until I find something. The one bright side is it means I have lots of free time - granted, every second I spend on something other than job applications is spent thinking about how I should be applying to more jobs - I've been working my way through Minor Characters by Joyce Johnson, alongside another five or so books I started and never finished. When I was in college a handful of the departments would put on used book sales every once in a while and you could get a big stack of books for five bucks; but now I mostly borrow rather than buy. It's not like I have enough room to keep a big collection of books anyways.

But the job hunt itself - that's the semi-interesting part. I have a pretty wide range of experience, especially in entry-level jobs, so I've been applying to all sorts of stuff. I haven't really been on the hunt for a job in a few years and it's interesting to see how big the whole online application thing has gotten. I've still been going out to shopping centers and handing in my resume, but it's great how many I can submit in such a short period of time online.

I've only gotten to the interview stage a few times, but out of the few interviews I've had, even fewer of the recruiters even got back to me to let me know they had selected a different applicant. I wish they told you why you weren't selected for the job after so you could improve. As is, it feels like one big guessing game.

I applied for a job at the local DVD rental, but TBH that feels pretty counter intuitive. Even if I get the job I'm surely going to be out the door in a year or two. We used to have three of them around here, but now there's only the one left. It'll be my luck that out of all the jobs I applied to the one that'll almost definitely be gone in a few years will be the one that calls me back. I also applied to a local florist and a landscaping company (among many, many others) and I'd love to work for either of them.

I think the thing that gets me about all of this is that I kept my job all through the recession. I worked through college just fine and any time I needed to switch jobs for any reason I was able to find one without too much trouble. I'm sure I'll find something eventually, I'll just have to keep looking and putting myself out there. In the meantime I'm going to focus on my hobbies, so if anyone has book suggestions or requests for hotels or restaurants for me to talk about feel free to shoot me an email!

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