Thursday, October 23, 2003

Overdue Update

Rick had his 29th birthday this past Saturday. Friday night he went over to our friends' Debria & Josh's house, played some drinking game into the wee hours of the morning, broke his glasses, and walked from the South Side to Squirrel Hill (about a 2 hour walk for the unfamiliar). Blind. At 5 a.m. When he stumbled into the coffee shop he said to his astonished and somewhat panic stricken wife: "Well, I had to get home somehow."

After a quick trip to Lens Crafters, we went out to Buffalo Blues for his birthday dinner. (What's weirdest about that linked review is that Manny Theiner, Pittsburgh's self-appointed indy rock promoter god, wrote it.) Had some goooood ribs and good company. Had a very small party afterwards. Many of the people slated to come, I believe, were still recuping from Debria's. Still, the seven of us managed to finish over a case of beer (GLBC Burning River) and a bottle of tequila. Yee-haw!

Music Man
Rick's working on finishing "The End of the Beginning". It's amazing how creative he can get when he has some spare time (*cough*). Right now I'm listening to him edit the same 30 seconds of the same song over and over. (He's a perfectionist, that Rick.) It has a sample from Labyrith in it. And one from Dr. Strangelove.

My Cat Likes Canned Corn
Eno begged for canned corn at the dinner table tonight. So Rick gave her some. And she ate it all. I find this peculiar, mostly because my old cat Cirus used to like canned peas.

Employment Situation

Shitty.

To expand, things are actually looking up for Rick. Valhalla's has been closed for about a month now, but his old boss Michael recently took the GM position at Lidia's Pittsburgh. There's a strong possibility that he'll bring him in as the front of house manager in about a month or so. If that doesn't pan out right away, he'll definitely be able to take a server position in the short term, and Lidia's servers make good money. He's a little antsy right now, mostly because he's used to running around like a maniac for 10-12 hours a day (hence the burst of creative energy), and he's so far been unable to collect unemployment. He was ineligible in PA, since we've only been back in the state for 3 months, and OH has been pokey in their response. He's been "flagged" because he left his position voluntarily at Great Lakes.

But don't worry about us. We are eating most days and managing to keep ourselves clothed and disease-free. We are unfortunately missing our friends' Dave and Tina's wedding this weekend in Atlanta. That's the second wedding invitation we've had to decline this year due to poor fundage. You guys are just going to all have to get remarried later when the cash is flowing.

I'm STILL at the coffee shop. And it's getting discouraging. Not only because my employment prospects thus far have been bleak, but also because the work environment there is becoming increasingly uncomfortable. I'm starting to think that I want to find a different "part-time" (37.5 hrs a wk) job to hold me over till I find that "real job" (more than $6/hr). I've had a few temp jobs over the past couple of weeks, but nothing long-term enough that I would feel comfortable quitting the Coffee Tree for.

My job search can be summarized within these three scenarios:

1. "Your resume is fantastic, if we had any jobs we would hire you now!"
2. "We want you for XYZ job starting ____, assuming funding/requisition comes through." (Yeah, it doesn't come through.)
3. "I am a bitter human resources representative who cannot stand working for this company and do not understand why you want to apply here." (OK, that one wasn't a direct quote, but definitely implied in several conversations.)

Hope everyone wants coffee and coffee related products for the holidays!

NAS News
Some of you may be interested in knowing that my previous employer just closed four offices and laid off close to 25 people. So my sense of impending doom was correct, which makes me feel somewhat vindicated.

OK, Rick's Regressing
He's now trying to play the keyboard part to "Jump." Time for me to sign off. Hopefully I'll have more good news next time.





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