...if only to remember...

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Job Searching, Life, and Why I Never Finished Blogging Europe

So...I'm doing this job search thing right now. It's a crazy world. I've graduated into a world where the economy is so completely done for, but every few months we start hearing about how banks are bouncing back and hopefully things are on the rebound. I almost bought a copy of the Economist this month to read their article on it, but then I realized...spending the money is a terrible idea, I also skipped out on a few other things due to my rational mind kicking in and saying a decidedly loud "NO." *sigh, boring, oh well.

Leaving College:

Learning the importance of budgeting is a difficult thing, post graduation. In college, no matter how "on your own" you think you are, there's still a safety net making things easier. My safety net officially ends August 31st, with the expiration of my student PennCard and the change over to an alumni card. It's a terrible thing, but I'm sad to see my status change. I lucked out in that I get to keep my student e-mail. Making the change to WindowsLive was a smart move, so I can get the alumni filter and have it send to a real, legit sas.upenn.edu e-mail address, which shall survive October by living happily on Microsoft and Hotmail's servers rather than the uni's more limited ones (limited because they serve a community that's probably 100k large, and keeping us "old-timers" on would probably put it into the millions).

With the bestowing of college degrees, something we all wish for eagerly, comes the loss of this card that has run my life for so long. A card to get into buildings, pay for food and books (and computer nic-nacs & ipods as well), access to the gym, and the care of a whole student health center that keeps you from having to look around and find just the right doctor. I'll be missing all this.

Life Right Now:

So far, I've graduated to working at a salad/sandwich/coffee shop. I learned to make espresso drinks (which I do often and frequently, with great pride at each compliment). Knowing that I can make the perfect espresso and have not yet disappointed the regular customers (some of whom I see up to 5 times a day) is a fact that I have embraced with no small amount of pride. However, the acquisition of the chance to play with knives all day (chopping salads) or try my hand at drink blending (mint green tea vanilla soy mocha) comes with the absence of a 9 to 5 full time salaried job. A fact which is stressful, and disappointing, and at the moment leaves me wondering where the hell I'm going to live next month.

I am obviously stress and worried, but for the first time in my life, I am completely terrified about what the future is going to bring. I started this summer full of excitement, completely convinced everything was going to work out perfectly. It hasn't. Perfect was never a good description of me anyways. I'd be bored to tears if it were. So instead of following the plan - go to europe, have a job by mid to late July, and apartment early to mid (or god-forbid, late) august - I have made new friends, and worked on creating real friendships with some that were merely out of association rather than actually knowing each other.

Everyone I know probably knows I'm a giant ball of stress...to be honest, I'm probably more stressed from talking about it with everyone, because that's a guaranteed opening. From now on, I pledge to say how each day went looking beyond the stress.

For instance: Today, I was kind of tired, but that was my own fault, I stayed up watching Saturday Night Live's collection of commercial parodies on Netflix (SO WORTH IT, search out Old Glory Insurance). Work was an odd balance, some problems that have been popping up through the summer were worked out and I got to enjoy the camaraderie that I've been building up with my co-workers and the ability to bounce around between all stations of the store without needing any guidance...a couple customers even noticed that I was a lot more comfortable at the register and that I wasn't asking for advice on drinks anymore and complimented me on that (yesterday my double espresso received an "I might be imagining it, but the coffee tastes better today") . When work at Gia ended, I ran over to Taglio, had a bite to eat, then helped Kevin close up. Aside from not always knowing where things are, I think I've gotten those tasks down pretty quick as well. Back to Gia to convince Curtis, the sugar-drink king, to mix me up something good (diabetic coma raspberry tea, sooo yummy). Home, dinner, enjoyable movie (Confessions of a Shopaholic), and wow, I finally figured out how to set up a shared file network between my netbook and my big laptop....the final test to see if this works is just about to start. I'll say yay or nay at the end of this post.

Why I Didn't Finish Posting Europe:

I was having too much fun. :)

After my last post, I enjoyed a day in Rome on my own (a bottle of wine and a plate of vodka penne seated outdoors at a nice little place with a good book and then a couple hours reading in my favorite little garden). Two days in Madrid, the first spent with JimJames from home and his friend Sean (grabbing N. to join us for drinks and tapas wandering dinner) was a fantastic time, and the second a day of shopping with and without N followed by drinks and tapas and a night in the airport before our v. early morning flight.

Then to Lisbon (Lisboa), my favorite city of the whole trip. I loved it for it's sense of community, the lower dredges mixed in with the nicer. It appealed to me in the way that Philly does I think. It is a city in and of itself. There are some spaces for tourists, but they're small in comparison to the city that is there to live and thrive. I could see myself living there. Someday I would like to spend a good deal of time based in Lisboa. We arrived during their month long Lisboa Fest, and only the day before Marches Populaires, which was this huge carnivale style parade that went all night through the main section of town and a huge drinking and sardine party taking place in the streets of the Alfalma neighborhood.

From Lisbon back to London for a couple more days of hanging out, exploring, and pub crawling. The hostel we stayed at wasn't so fantastic, but the 10 bed dorm supplied us a room full of people to hang out with...literally, all but maybe one person went on the pub crawl one night, and it made for a wonderful time.

Money got tight at the end, but everything about the trip was totally worth it. Someday I hope to do something similar, see some new places and some I've already seen...hopefully with a little more money in the pocket though. :)

Home Network:

Yay!! Now I have a far simpler way than dealing with external drives to move updated copies of my screenplay or work on coverletters from my netbook to my not-so-mobile laptop and back again. :)

I may not be a technological genius, but I can find my way around pretty well even when I'm not quite sure what I'm doing, if I do say so myself. (Obviously I'm very proud of some talents, and it is quite a bit easier to shed the layers of my personal modesty in informal text than I've found in any other media.)