Thursday is within a "few days" after all

Well, I've got a job. It's for that college bar, and just for one night for a week, for now. They're starting a new 18+ club kind of night, so they need an extra hand. I go in to train on Tuesday. Not sure if the ad was incorrect with needing someone for 3 nights or what, but I'm not gonna complain about an opportunity to make some extra money. It definitely won't be enough to pay the bills, but it's a start! Plus, I was pretty good at picking up shifts at the restaurant I worked at in NH, so I figure I'll just try to do that here until something else happens. 

But yay! Job. Money. Hopefully this is the start of a wave of good news.  

Give me a job!

Well, I've gone on two interviews this week. Still waiting to hear back from them. I didn't post about it on Facebook; only my roommate and boyfriend know. I've kind of decided I don't really want to talk to the world about the whole job application process as it's going on. Makes it a little bit more depressing. I would rather just come out with a "I got a job in Seattle!" post then comment on the tediousness of job applying, the waiting, the not hearing anything. This way I wouldn't also get people's hopes up with possibilities. Having my own hopes up and then get taken down is bad enough. I don't need to know that I'll also be disappointing other people. (aka my family)

But, I'll put some updates occasionally on here. When I feel the need to "talk it out" with someone besides Katie, who's going through the same thing. Plus, one of my purposes with this project is to share what it's like living in Seattle in the position I'm in. 

Anyways. So two interviews this week. For part time jobs. One at a bar in the University District. What they need works well for me, because it's just three weekday nights, and it's a night shift so I can keep job searching/work a full time job during the day (when/if that happens). Downside is that when I say nights, I mean niiiiights. The shifts are 10pm-2am. We'll see. I went for that interview on Monday, and they said I would hear back either way in a few days. Thursday is within a few days right? I'm keeping my fingers crossed. There were only 4 or 5 other applications in the pile it looked like, so my odds aren't bad. I originally didn't want to be a server again, but with this particular position it could be good. I wouldn't have to work on the weekends, unless I offered to pick up somebody's shift; a full-time job is totally manageable with this, especially since I run on practically no sleep anyways so the nights I would only get about 4 hours of sleep wouldn't be a problem; the money is immediate (although who knows how well drunk Seattle college kids tip); and I would still get paid minimum wage hourly, so I would actually have a paycheck, unlike in NH.  

The other job is also part-time. It's for a nanny/household helper position for a 2-month-old infant. The mother is on maternity leave and her husband travels for work a lot, so they are looking for someone to come in the afternoons/evenings to help with the house cleaning, watching the baby, walking the dog, etc. They're flexible on the schedule, so I can make it work for me, especially if I get the waitress job as well. And, it's somewhat temporary because it's just while she's on maternity leave, with then the occasional night a week or so after that. Which is good, because if/when I have a full-time job, I wouldn't feel bad about having to work less. That interview happened yesterday and she said there were a few more candidates she was meeting with, so again I am waiting. I haven't worked with an infant for long periods of time for many years, so it'll be interesting. But I'm good with babies, I can clean houses, I can walk dogs. I got this. 

I have my application in for a few different full-time jobs, mostly at the YMCAs around Seattle. One of my goals today is to find out how to check in on the status for those applications. Two of them the job application time already closed, so I would expect to hear from them, right? Especially since one of them the Director reached out to me and suggested I apply for the job. One of them the application process is still open for another week and a half. This is my first time applying for full-time jobs, so I'm still learning how to do it. The follow up and the proper communication, and all of those things. Luckily, Katie just recently graduated from her Masters program, which includes the whole career development learning process that I went through 5 years ago.

I'll figure it out. Hopefully things will start coming together in the next week or so. I'm going to keep applying for part-time jobs that I could get while also having a full-time job, and keep searching for full-time jobs in the fields I want. I decided I was going to give myself until about the second week of October to find a full-time job more in the field I want to go in, and if nothing bites I'll look for a nanny job again. Getting close to that time, but spirits are still high!

Rain, rain...

A gray day in Seattle.

"Why would you want to move to Seattle, it rains allll the time." 

"You know it never stops raining, right?" 

"Are you looking to drown out there?" 

-- All general responses I received when I told people I wanted to move to Washington.  

Sure, it rains a lot here. Or at least it's starting to. It was pretty rainy when I first arrived at camp, until about the start of July. But not miserably rainy. In fact, what everyone was calling rain, I would have called a sprinkle. An all day consistent sprinkle, but a sprinkle nonetheless. I could handle some days of sprinkling. Even though all of my things felt damp, as if they would never be dry again. 

Then summer hit, and things turned dry and dusty. The opposite of what I expected. I started to miss the occasional rain. Especially summer thunderstorms like the ones back in New England. Occasionally, the sky would release an occasional rumble of thunder, but never followed it up with lightning or a storm or even a drop of rain. What a tease. 

Now that it's fall, it's starting to get damp again. We had some days of rain since I left camp. They always, of course, seemed to coincide with the days I had to spend an entire morning in a kayak and afternoon in a canoe. Grass that had turned brown during the summer was green again, walking through camp didn't kick up a pound of dust at every step. I didn't mind it.

Now that it's practically October, it's starting to get wet. I was at camp on Saturday and it rained all day. A real rain. Not the sprinkle rain that happened in June. I looked at the forecast for the week, and it was supposed to rain until at least Wednesday. Apparently, this is the time of year when the sun says "Bye bye, see you next June!" The staff I was working with warned me that, coming from the East Coast, I'm about to get depressed really quickly. I could see this becoming a definite possibility, but I'm not going to let the rain bring me down. I spent that whole Saturday in the downpour, and while yes I was wet and cold and slightly miserable, I wasn't depressed. But one day in the rain isn't going to be the problem. It's been raining mostly since then. I still walked to the grocery store last night in a sprinkle, and walked to the coffee shop this morning under dark clouds. Without a raincoat. Taking big risks here!

I've sat in the same seat for the last hour and a half now, and had three different older gentlemen sit at the window seats beside me. All of them have commented on the weather. From the window directly in front of me, the sky has had puffy white clouds and some blue skies. The window to my left though tells a different story. Dark clouds fill the sky, and they look ready to burst at any moment. I'm not sure what happens behind the column between the two windows, but I could be in two entirely different places depending on which way I look. I enjoy looking forward more. Blue, cloudy skies. Optimism. A promise that it won't rain forever. This is the mood I'm going to try to keep up as the rainy days keep coming. Even when it's raining, it is still beautiful here. I know how great the sunny days are, I can withstand some months of rain for those moments. I hope.

Let's talk about hats

A hat with a hood is a double bonus.

Apparently, I wear hats now. I don't know when it became a thing. I've always wanted to wear hats. I like them, I've thought I looked decent in them. At craft fairs, I always kind of hung around the hat stalls a little longer than necessary, especially since I never bought one. I like the way they keep my hair contained when I'm having a bad hair day. I like the way the lid provides a kind of tunnel to help me focus on things. (I'm wearing a hat now as I type.) I like the way winter hats keep my head warm and cozy. I like that I have a variety of hats, depending on my mood.   

Back in New Hampshire, I occasionally wore hats. Winter hats occasionaly since it's often cold and snowy there. I wore them more often at camp, for chilly mornings. I only wore baseball caps when it rained, to help keep my glasses rain drop free. But, I always secretly wanted to wear them more. I was afraid to break out of my mold though. It wasn't something I did. I had a messy bun; I didn't wear hats. People would think it weird if I did. Not that people thinking something about me usually stopped me from doing what I wanted, but still. They were hats. I didn't wear hats. 

Now, I do. It rains a lot more in Washington. So, I started wearing them more often. Gotta keep that visibility high. Sometimes, I would flip the hat back around, like when the rain stopped. But, being the lazy person I am, I wouldn't take my pony tail down and my hat would just rest on top of my head. Apparently, this was amusing. To the point where during the campfire when staff impersonated those of us on the leadership team, Tink wore a baseball cap backwards resting on her head. I don't think I have a picture to show what I mean. Just visualize Justin Bieber's giant hat that he wore to that basketball game one day. My hat kind of looked like that, but backwards, and only not as tall and stupid looking. 

Anyways, I started wearing hats even when it wasn't raining. Usually backwards, because I don't actually like the limited visibility the hat lid gives me. But, then I look like a punk so I will flip it around. I wear hats often now. Not just when it rains. And not just when it's cold. I'm a hat wearer. I like it. I want more hats.  

Note: Because I'm slightly addicted to BuzzFeed, here's an article that I agree with. Except that I wouldn't wear some of those hats. But I would wear a lot of them!

14 Reasons You Should Definitely Wear More Hats

Life with a roommate

Roommate shots on the first night we both lived together. 

It's been a while since I was friends with one of my roommates. (Boyfriend and parents don't count.) Katie and I moved into a temporary place after camp ended and are living together at least until the end of October. And it's been fun. I forgot how it can be fun living with someone. (Again, boyfriend and parents don't count. Just assume that fact from here on out in this post. Kay, thanks.) 

Back in college, I lived with some of my closest friends for three years. Sometimes, those closest friends would change, and sometimes I wouldn't be friends with everyone I lived with, but I always had some good friends who I shared a living space with. It was a lot of fun. We watched ridiculous TV or movies, had art time, talked about random things, talked about serious things, enjoyed some beverages, and probably/definitely annoyed our roommates who we weren't good friends with. It was so nice after a stressful class or a long day student teaching to come home and actually feel like I was coming home. "How was your day?" "Should we order wings for dinner again?" "Can we please talk about what happened at the party last night!" "I've been waiting all day for you to watch Hot Rod  (for the fifth time this week.)" 

I guess I can't complain about having bad living experiences since then. Besides my parents and boyfriend (who, as I said, don't count) I've only lived with one other group of people since college. I found them on Craigslist, and it was an... okay time. I lived with three other girls, and three dogs. Besides the passive aggressive notes made from magnets on the fridge; late night parties when I had to work early the next morning; dog crap on the carpet or the stairs and therefore inevitably on my shoe, sock, or (blech) bare foot; inability to leave my door open even if I was going downstairs just to check the mail because a dog would eat out the crotch of any clothes I might have left on the floor (including my pajamas); dishes that piled up in the sink that were never mine since I rarely ate in the apartment; and sex from next door that would wake me up at random hours of the night (don't get me wrong, good for her for getting some but when your bed frame is right against my wall and you're so drunk you can't even fathom the definition of the word decency, it's a little much), living there wasn't so bad. Sometimes we would go to the bars together, or watch an episode of Grey's Anatomy. Occasionally we might even have an actual conversation. When the lease ended in May though, I was quick to move out. No hanging around for some long drawn out false goodbyes and good lucks on future life for me. 

I had a good time living with my parents after college. It was nice being an adult sharing a space with them. Able to have more conversations, and fewer rules. I feel like I was pretty responsible and generally considerate living there, although I did wake up my dog and therefore my dad on more than one occasion when I was dropped off in the wee hours of the morning after a night out (sorry dad!). So things worked out, but when I moved out I'm pretty sure we were all ready for me to go. 

Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast

Before moving out west, I lived with my boyfriend for about 8 months. It was also a pretty good time. I got to live with my best friend, so what could be wrong with that? Unfortunately, our apartment was small, our working hours were often opposite hours, I was constantly stressed about finances or the future, and our apartment was small. Yes, I did mean to write that twice. I'm the type of person who really needs her personal space. Living with a significant other greatly decreases that personal space, especially in a small apartment. When I needed some time to myself, there was nowhere to go. Which, as you should be able to tell, caused a few problems. Overall though, it was great. We had shows we watched together, cooked dinner, played cards, went to the beach to experience being in a winter storm, and so on and so forth. But, before we live together again, we need to make sure the place is big enough for him, me, and my personal space. And a dog. 

So now I live in Seattle with a roommate. And it is a blast. We worked together this summer, but never too closely so I'll admit I was a liiiiiiiittle nervous about sharing a space with someone who I hadn't lived with together before. Nervous me is gone though. Things are great. We're both at similar places right now, trying to find full time jobs and apartments in a city that is brand new to us that we really enjoy being in and don't want to return to our home states where there's the promise of places to live and jobs to do. So that works out well. We recently added a coffee table to our living room so it's now a common space we actually enjoy being in. One night we got takeout and watched Arrested Development; another we sat and talked about both random and serious topics while enjoying some beverages; last Thursday was spent drinking large bottles of alcohol (cider for her, IPAs for me) and playing the Sims 3 (on our respective computers). While we both encourage each other when it comes to the job search or thesis writing (for her), she's not my mother and I'm not hers. If I want to spend a Wednesday morning bed watching Orange is the New Black instead of going to the coffee shop and writing another cover letter like I said I would the night before, then I do it. And we can laugh about it, because chances are, she's doing the same thing. It's okay though, because later that Wednesday afternoon, we'll both be off doing productive things, just a few hours later than originally planned. We go to trivia nights, find happy hour specials, talk about actually cooking dinner instead of heating up food from the freezer, and often have similar thoughts at the same time. Plus, I'm not sick of her yet. Bonus: we both have air mattresses so if she did bring someone home from a late night out, there would be no metal bed frame banging against my wall. 

In conclusion, living with a roommate is fun again. I can't wait until I can one day afford my little studio apartment in the city with just me and my dog (clearly this isn't happening anytime soon), but until then I declare this roommate arrangement a

SuccZest!

(For all of you who did not go to camp with me this summer, sorry I'm not sorry for the lame joke.)