Rolling along

Yes, it's still dark and rainy. It seems like we haven't seen the sun for EVER!

I found 4 more jobs to apply for on line today. Done.

That's 6 applications I've put in so far this week.
I started getting busy when I decided to give up on my head hunter.
If she can't even respond to emails or faxes from me, how can I expect her to be looking for interviews for me to go on??

You would THINK she would want the commission she would earn in placing someone of my level of experience and expertise.

It seems odd that her company solicited ME, and said they wanted to service ME. I suppose they can't help it if the individual rep I was placed with is lazy.

At this point, that rep isn't even worth the time of a phone call.

SO...I am sending my resume off to a new staffing company in tomorrow's mail. Perhaps they will have someone there who actually wants the income my placement will generate.

Rainy Tuesday

Spent about 4 hours on line job searching today. Posted my resume with a state run website, and put in a few applications.

Yawn.

It's been raining and gray here for what seems like an eternity. At least today, it was around 60 degrees, so my walk over to get the mail wasn't too uncomfortable.

Grackles from outer space

So, back where I come from, there are common grackles.

They're sort of noisy, and they flock in the spring and fall.

I used to live in a house with a huge pine tree in the back yard where they nested.

We'd have dozens of them in our yard on a given day. It was no big deal. I sort of liked having them around, and listening to their interesting language.

Here, however, where the wind comes sweeping down the plain, they have "great tailed grackles."

These things are the spawn of some alien race, I swear to god.

They flock year round, apparently, mostly in parking lots. I, for one, am very grateful that they don't swarm in our apartment complex parking lots.

I mean flock.

They look just like the grackles back home, but are approximately twice the size.

During my first visit here, I had visions of Tippi Hedren's eyes being plucked out in an Hitchcockian moment of horror.

There were so many of them on the wires, atop the signs, and stalking around on the ground in the grocery store parking lot, that it really was quite surreal.

And it was DARK outside. These birds do not go to roost at night. They appear to be up and about for 24 hours a day.

They don't. Ever. Sleep.

"Oh my dear God," I thought, "there are a million of them, and the parking lot at this store is completely encased in poo."

But then, one of them made a sound.

I turned to my then-boyfriend, and said "What the f%#k was that? It sounded like a car alarm, but it was coming from up in that tree over there."

"Oh, that? That's just a grackle."

"Just" a grackle?

These big, black birds make the weirdest assortment of incredibly loud noises I have ever heard. They whistle, and buzz, and literally sound like car alarms part of the time.

Their calls are so loud, that they are easily audible INSIDE of a car, at top speed, with the windows up.

So, now that I live here, I have come to realize that these birds are out to get me.

Everywhere I go, there are great tailed grackles, making strange, LOUD, mechanical sounds.

It's actually become a source of great amusement. My now husband finds it infinitely funny when I find myself in situations in which the grackles loom.

If, at any time, I seem to have disappeared, please alert the authorities....it was probably the grackles what done it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jxaw97UJDo

for a small sampling on You Tube....

In this sample, you can SORT of hear the car alarm sound, and some of the whistles. Just turn up the volume to 11 for the full effect!

Dance connection

So, when I went to Dance Camp North the last time, I asked Cassandra for a recommendation for a teacher in Oklahoma City.

She thought about it for a very brief moment, and told me to look for a woman known as Soraya.

I went home from camp, and searched the web for the name, and came up virtually empty. I assumed that Soraya had retired.

Over a year passed, and I FINALLY moved to OKC.

While emailing with my cousin, who lives in a nearby town, about things we might do together for fun, we got on the subject of dance.
This was because she was telling me about a restaurant that is a favorite of hers and her husband's, where they have belly dancers on Saturday nights.

In a round about way, she told me that the dancers at the restaurant all come from a studio on the west side of town (where D and I live), and that the owner of the studio goes by Soraya!

She gave me the phone number, but, rather than calling out of the blue, I went on line again.

Again, searching for the name, I found nothing convincing.

I did find the name, but it did not look like the kind of studio my cousin had told me about....and I didn't get the feeling that it was connected to this master teacher I'd heard tell about!

But then, I realized that my cousin had provided a phone number, and I had just picked up a new local phone book.

SO! Yesterday, I took that phone book, and opened the yellow pages to DANCE, and the first listing matched the phone number!

AALIM dance studio on Meridian, which is the main drag in front of our apartment complex!

I went on line and searched for a website with the name of the dance studio from the phone book, and viola!!

There it was...located just a few miles up the road, right by the grocery store we use....AND there was a bio of the teacher whom I had hoped would be MY Soraya!!

I clicked on the CONTACT US link, and sent a note.

The response came back from Soraya Al Musri herself, and we have since exchanged a number of messages.

She is, indeed, the master teacher recommended to me all of those months ago, and she has personally invited me to join her advanced class (taught by her personally, not her staff, and bypassing the lower level classes, which is unusual in her school), based upon what I have told her of my dance history, and who my teachers have been.

Unfortunately, I don't have a job yet to pay for classes....but, at least now I have a dance contact here who was very welcoming and open to my joining into the community!

What day is this?

Nothing much to report.

When I was there on Monday, the head hunter said she had the perfect place for me, and that she would get right on it, and get me an interview.

She hasn't called me at all since I left her office Monday morning. I've sent her a fax and an email, and have gotten no response what so ever.
VERY professional of her!

She said the job opening was in a holistic practice office, with an MD and Chiropractor both on staff.
I could have gotten in there, gotten a job, and then had two of my "vacancies" filled for my own support system!!

Oh well.

Been watching a lot of daytime tv, and hanging out on the internet.

I am bored out of my mind.

I didn't even really have a clear idea of what day it was yesterday.

Monday notes

Well, the unpacking is pretty much finished. We had to take my looms, weaving supplies, and beading supplies over to D's mom's garage, because there's no space to store them safely here.

3 car loads of donations have also been taken to area thrift stores, 95% of it my stuff.

It's a shame, but this apartment is substantially smaller than my condo was, AND has a lot less storage space.
I moved a lot of stuff that COULD have been parted with BEFORE it was carried almost 900 miles!

The cool thing is that I've been forced to unpack boxes that have not been opened since I moved INTO my house in 1996!!
I found my "Maria" vase, and my late grandma's journal of her family's trip across country, from Missouri to California, for the 1915 World's Fair!

The hardest part has been letting go of things that belonged to deceased family members, or things with no value other than sentiment, and things that I spent a good deal of money on that are no longer needed in this climate!

No responses to the 4 job applications I put in last week, but I met with an employment agency this morning. Maybe something will come of it.

It's been gray and rainy for a couple of days.

With the office pretty much all cleaned out, there's less for me to do while D is at work.

Today marks the beginning of my 4th week off work. I don't know what to DO with myself! I guess I don't know how to relax....like the line in that song...."it's been so long, I thought that I'd forgotten how."

Being a house wife for the moment is OK, because I actually have a husband to take care of now...but I couldn't do this full time, long term!

p.s. we didn't make it to see "Metropolis" on the big screen over the weekend. Couldn't afford it!!

Spending $40.00 was beyond our means at the moment. Another reason I can't be a full time house wife!!

Update

The interview process went well. I met with two separate people, actually, the second being the HR director for the company.

I don't know, but I don't suspect that people normally get to meet with him out of the box.
He said that it's highly unusual for someone of my caliber to just show up on their doorstep looking for work.

But, thanks to my ex boss's suggestion that I email the CEO, mention his name, and see what happened....that's exactly what I did.

The company is HUGE. 600 people. I came from a MUCH smaller operation. The cool thing was that everyone I saw who was working there was wearing casual clothes, except the guys who interviewed me.

Anyway, the HR director said that they'd love to find a way to fit me in, but that they're not hiring anyone at my skill level at the moment. They normally promote from within to the positions for which I qualify (which he mentioned may include having an actual OFFICE, not just a cube!).

So, he said not to give up hope, but that it could be a few weeks before they are able to find a spot for me to fit into.

In the meantime, I have applied at 4 other places, and have accepted an invitation to go meet with a head hunter who found my resume on Monster.