Love this song

I heard this song on the way home from Tacos and Trash night (weekly viewing of the Bachelor. I call it the classiest trash tv out there. What? Stop judging me =]) I couldn't find a good video to embed, so you're going to have to look it up on youtube yourself. Dave Matthews "You & Me." I do love me some good Dave Matthews songs, though there are a lot of them I don't like too.

And since I know you've been dying to know, my hand is healing well. Slowly, but it's coming along. Today was the first day that it stayed closed all day. No blood or ooze! I consider it a triumph. The swelling has also gone down considerably in the last day or so too. I can almost touch my thumb to my pinkie again! Hurray! One ginormous leap forward for Emily, one completely insignificant, unnoticed step for mankind. But my thumb is still mostly numb; like Colt McCoy's arm, I just can't feel it. It's a strange sensation. My friend Anna, who is a nurse [don't freak out] is going to take the stitches out for me on Wednesday at bible study. That will be exciting, I'm already feeling squeamish!

Pray for me also. I'm waiting to hear back about a job. They could possibly let me know tomorrow, but it will most likely be Wednesday I think. I keep reminding myself that God is sovereign. His plans are on the eternal scale. He has a job saved for me already - no "Oh shoot! I forgot to watch out for a job for Emily!" moments. That would negate His sovereignty, yes? Sometimes it's just hard to rest in that knowledge when I can only sense the urgency for a job through my bank account. After rent and bills for February, I have $50 for groceries and any emergencies that may come up. [I just silently screamed in terror at that]. But it will be fine. I do believe that. If I have to move back to Houston, so be it. It's not ideal, but I like my family and I can live with them while I search for jobs in Houston and/or Austin. I have got to buy the new Windows 7 or something. My trial has finally run out and my computer shuts down every hour. Not so much fun if I'm paying attention. It does make me laugh because a message pops up saying "Aww, snap!" and that's all I can read before everything closes down and the screen goes black. Makes the annoyance a little less frustrating and a little more humorous.

Also you should listen to "Baby Blue" by DMB. It's a good one too.

Well that was certainly embarrassing

Last night there was an issue with the city’s water pipe out front. It’s more complicated to explain than its worth to the story, so just know that I ended up next door at my neighbor to the north’s house seeking out the cell phone number of our duplex mate. Our Neighbor to the North (NttN), hosts a wine tasting party once or twice a month where she educates people on the finer points of wines. And NttN knows the finer points about wine.

This was one of those nights. I knew that. I saw the cars and I knew it was one of her events. But, you see, the city was sending out a crew to work on it last night and our duplex mate’s truck was parked on the street right next to where the leak was sprung. Our NttN has never experienced a small happening – everything is a big deal. So despite my pleas to wait outside on her doorstep while she fetched the much-needed number, she ushered me inside where eight or ten faces turned to stare me down. C’est un beau moment…

Introductions were made, explanations were given; I waved, smiled and apologized for interrupting as politely as possible, though the nervous twitch I get in my cheek when I’m unprepared to be the center of attention was threatening to start. I was prepared to write the number down and scramble back out the way I’d come, but nothing is as simple as you think it will be. NttN dialed his number before I knew what was happening and I just kind of stood there in her office while she handed me the phone and walked back to her guests in the dining room.

[Insert: Most awkward voicemail message every left in the entire history of voicemail messages.]

I really couldn’t believe that five minutes could be more awkward, but have I mentioned that I’m pretty good at awkward? So in what feels like the longest 4 seconds possible I make it to the front door where I’m about to leave and be home-free, NttN wants to know what I’m doing these days. I, being clueless, tell her that I just graduated and have been searching for jobs.

She: “Oh, well congratulations! What kind of jobs?”

Me: “Administrative assistant type positions, receptionist jobs, and the like. I’m waiting to hear back on an editing internship.”

She: “Oh, well come on.”

And back to the dining room we go.

She: “Everyone! My darling here has just graduated and is looking for a job.”

[Insert odd looks and snickers from peanut gallery.]

I mean, really? Really? Then I have to answer their questions. “Is it a masters in English?” Me: “No, an undergrad.” Loud guffaws, then “Well, good luck with that!” Har. de. har. har. And the questions continued. This comment was a particular favorite: “My son was an English major, but he’s gainfully employed and has his doctorate. Surely you can find something.” Oh, there’s nothing like a snob to make you feel good about yourself. [smirk]

In all seriousness, I think our NttN was trying to be helpful. While I appreciate it, I also can’t forget how embarrassed I was. And while that’s not her fault, I really hate being embarrassed. C’est la vie…

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In other news, I tried to move away from blogger and joined wordpress. I’ve had some issues with blogger lately and wordpress allowed me to transfer all of my old entries. I was psyched, but now I can't decide if I like wordpress. I still need to figure out a few details with wordpress [formatting, uploading images/video, etc]. Also, Google Chrome is pretty fantastic.

Bangs + Beef Stew + Bachelor

There is some thing in me that makes me act rather irrationally. Or maybe it's not irrational at all. I have a tendency to think about something for a little while and then as soon as I make up my mind, I'm ready have it RIGHT THAT VERY SECOND. Or if I'm deciding on doing something, then I want to be already on my way to doing it. Once I'm decided it's final, and I rarely go back on it.

Case in point: Last summer before going to Colorado (in the middle of a semester of school. Hi Mom!) I decided that I wanted to buy a camera. I probably spent at least an hour and a half looking online at Target, Wal-Mart and Amazon. I had a general idea of the features I wanted and once I found a camera I liked, I was ready to buy it. Why wait? There were many possible ways to buy this camera, i.e. different sites had different prices and packaging options (w/ or w/o battery, carrying case, etc). I could not wait for it to come in the mail. So before I knew what was happening, I was already standing in the electronics department at Target looking at the dang thing trying to decide if I could wait. Of course I didn't, and I ended up spending the evening learning the ins and outs of my new camera. I don't regret this. And I got some pretty fantastic pictures in Colorado!

Another instance: I often decide that I am in need of a haircut. Usually I convince myself that it can wait and maybe I want to grow my hair out fairly long. Occasionally I buy myself some time before going to the salon by coloring my hair. It's reversible, no big deal. Cutting my hair on the other hand, not so reversible and it takes ages to grow it back. My reluctance to go to the salon has stemmed from some very unfortunate do's (read: I've walked out of at least 3 salons just barely holding the tears back until I get to my car where I start looking at it in the mirror and pulling it to make it grow back faster. Horrible hair cuts are the pits!). I am loathe to visit any new stylists and would much rather drive alll the way back to Cypress to visit Amanda or the other girl whose name I always forget. At any rate, this morning I saw a new tagged picture on facebook. I decided right away that I needed a hair cut. Rather than book an appointment, I cut them myself. That is why I am now sporting bangs again. Sigh. Next time you see me tell you love them and it looks wonderful. It was one of those "What was I thinking?" "What the heck am I doing?" "Didn't I learn about cutting my own bangs in elementary school when I chopped them off to an uneven 1/2 inch long regrettable instant?" "Maybe I should work on talking things out before I just do them..."

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In other new, the Bachelor is back! My quilty pleasure of trash tv. So this afternoon I bought stuff to make beef stew. "Bachelor & beef stew" - I was going for the B's. Next week we're watching at a friend's house. It's going to be called "Crepes and Crap." Pictures and recipe for beef stew to follow when my internet decides to co-operate.

Craving: Satisfied

Indian food might be my new favorite food.

I can't get enough. It's just so wonderful and delicious and I think I could eat it twice a week without getting sick of it. That's just the way it is.

That's all.

Oh, also, I realllly dislike being sick.

And again...

My go-to thing when I'm bored is photoshop and blog design. I have updated my blog design, again. This time I created the background myself as well, not just the header. I think it will serve for the time being, or at least until I'm bored again!

I found this in my purse earlier today:



He is actually in my purse. I don't know if he thought it looked warm or extra comfy, but it was dang cute.

The job search is still on. Last week was actually nice, looking back on it. In the middle of it all though I was so discouraged. So, so discouraged. I am going to start thinking of this period as one of character building. It's really not fun having to continually put myself out there knowing that I could be rejected by these people simply because they don't like me on paper. I think applied to 9 jobs last week. I heard back from one immediately saying that they had already found someone and the job posting was old. I didn't have my heart set on that one anyway. On top of that my sourdough experiment failed and that was really hard for me. I can't actually think of anything I've failed at in the kitchen before. I may try sour dough again. But first I might try to find a different bread recipe - one I can actually make!

We're interviewing new roommate candidates this afternoon. And really that's only 2 people. The first one has already come and gone - she gets my vote. The second girl is stopping by later. We shall see which one we select, if either. It's nice to have the power in this situation - we are going to be ridiculously picky about the type of person we choose as a roommate.

I'm also being picky and saying that I'm eating lunch at Masala Wok tomorrow. I am craving Indian food. That's all I can actually think about eating right now. That's all I can think about period. Indian food, Indian food, Indian food. Mmmm!

Lewis & Clark and Job Hunting

I have a new pet. His name is Clark. Clark lives in a plastic container, gets fed once a day and turned over at least twice a day. One day soon, this little guy is going to grow up to be something spectacular.

So what? I named my sourdough starter. Stop judging me. =) Lewis was the first starter I attempted. It failed miserably. MIS-RUH-BLEE. But I have high hopes for Clark, this time around my starter is looking exactly like it's supposed to and I'm taking that as a very good sign that I may indeed have a loaf of sourdough ready to cook on Wednesday and starter enough left over to have bread whenever we want. I'm excited!

In other news, job searching in itself is a full-time job, (read, I spent 9:30-4:45 job searching, revising cv and cover letter). Today I applied to about three different places and spent the rest of the time scouring job listings. The good news is, I found an old colleague from my days at CenterPoint Energy that is willing and excited to be one of my professional references. So that's something.

I also screwed up the first two cover letters I submitted because I neglected to omit two little words, "editing internship," when I was applying for something totally different. After much cursing and moaning in despair over things I couldn't change, I got smart. I created a cover letter template with high lighted fields that need to be changed and suggestions for information to include depending on the job. Hopefully tomorrow will be more productive.

Tracking down old managers and colleagues has not been fun. At two of the five jobs I listed, the managers and staff no longer work there. I emailed the owner of the clinic I worked at in London to ask if she would mind being one of my references, but she's out of the office until the 14th. So! I've got some more people to track down. Thankfully I bookmarked a few jobs to look at again tomorrow that I will consider submitting my resume to. I would really like to stay in Austin, but I'm not omitting Houston from my job search as a back-up plan.