Sunday, September 26, 2010

Virginia

Yesterday, my brother and sister-in-law had a BEAUTIFUL baby girl! Her name is Virginia Eleanor Drumm. I'm so very excited to be an auntie! Note my excitement:



Needless to say it's been a little crazy the last day or so, but it's been really wonderful. Just straightened the place up for when they get back tomorrow morning...the calm before the storm :) The other day before everything started Kat and I were hanging out in the living room and she emphatically tells me "I CAN STREAM NETFLIX ON MY PHONE!" And yes, it's an iphone, because Droid wouldn't come out with it right away.....hopefully it wont take too long! Also, there's this ice cream shop a block away and it's really dangerous. It's closing for renovations in a few weeks, so I can justify going in every couple of days, right?...right?!?!...Right. Thank you.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Treasure Hunting

Yesterday was my first day of interviews (at temp agencies). The first one was great, the recruiter was easy going and pretty funny, though we had a little red sox/yankees rivalry. It seems that in a few days I should be receiving a call from them, hopefully. After that I ran into the city for a walk-in interview because this company said they took walk-ins from 9 am- 12 pm. Well I hustled and got there within 10 min, huzzah! Until I went inside....The office was kind of grungy and this lady ushered me over to her desk. She asked me what I wanted to do as she poured over my resume and I told her I wanted office experience. She looks at me and asks "do you have any?" I say no and she immediately says, "well, you'll have to completely rewrite your resume to show the office experience you have." I plainly said to her "I don't have any," what does she want me to do, make it up? So I left, gladly.

The next three hours were spent on an adventure trying to find a good briefcase. You would think in New York City you could find anything you wanted...not so. It's not that easy, either. Every place I went i'd ask someone where they knew of a store that sold them and each person would give me a place, like a little treasure hunt. After walking over 20 blocks in the heat with pointy shoes I decided to call it a day and somehow managed to drag my butt a few blocks to the PATH station. (the end result? Many blisters and I bought the bag on amazon.com that night)

While I remember this now, when I was getting lunch I asked the woman at the register to give me a copy of the receipt. She said to me "you don't need a receipt." I said EXCUSE ME?!?! and then she fished it out of the machine. Thanks lady for telling me what I do and do not need in my life.

My brother arrived home yesterday, and we were all glad to see him. Now that he's back Kat is ok to go into labor :)

Today will be a quieter day, I'll be working on my excel skills and applying to more jobs. Thus it continues.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Day 1

So today was the first day I called/emailed temp agencies, while also applying for other jobs. Luckily I was contacted by one temp agency and have an interview set up for tomorrow. I then thought it would be smart to walk to target 12 blocks away and then back with everything i bought...not the smartest if ideas, but the only choice I had. Plus, a woman HAS to have a full length mirror in her room. I'm itching to go into the city, but I'm not sure what to do, maybe tomorrow i'll venture in and see where it takes me.

Monday, September 20, 2010

NY!...well, actually, NJ

Hi Everyone. Right now i'm starting a new chapter in my life. The one right after college where you don't know what to do with yourself....yeah, that one. I am now living in New Jersey with my brother and sister, while I search for a job and get my bearings around New York City. To bring you all up to speed i'll recount the last couple of crazy days.

I started in Evansville, IN where I led Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur services for Temple Adath B'nai Israel. I started my journey after the Break Fast of Yom Kippur where I drove 3 hours to my friend's house, Fred Onovwerosuoke (check out his website, he's fantastic!) in St. Louis. Now, as I was driving i noticed this huge lightning storm ahead of me. It looked cool from afar with all the shapes it was making, but I was getting slightly nervous. Well, when I arrived in St. Louis the storm was right above me. the lightning looked just like this:
LUMINGLAS-9










That wouldn't be so bad except for the torrential downpour that immediately followed, where I couldnt even see the edge of my own lane, let alone the edge of the highway. Somehow with an almost dead phone in this crazy storm i made it.

There wasn't much down time since a few hours later I got up to make my flight at 7:30 am. I was afraid we weren't going to make it out of the airport but thankfully we were cleared. On the way up the captain got on the loudspeaker to tell us that we would be experiencing moderate to severe turbulence. It was kind of like a REALLY bumpy roller coaster ride, and definitely with the stomach drop. But all was well and I made it to Philly...Philly?? yeah, I'd rather go by train than fly to Newark after that.

So I picked up my two pieces of luggage, mind you they are both over 50 lbs, and my two carry ons and headed for the train. Well, you have to take a train to 30th st. station where you can then take amtrak. The problem with all of these trains are that they are not meant for a woman with 2 huge pieces of luggage...it's one at a time, also with a big gap between the platform and the train. So I enlisted the help of a few nice men who pushed my other piece. I felt bad for the guy who was really having a hard time rolling it through the amtrak train as I was cursing under my breath for stopping every 2 seconds because my bag kept getting caught on the chairs.

Finally, I made it to Newark and my sister, Kat, picked me up and brought me home. So, here I am. Tomorrow I will brave the wild looking for a job in the City, and I hope I come out alive...also with a job.