Liz Gets Herself a Job Part... What are we up to now?

Not much news on the job front. I had a moment of panic this morning when I found out my job would for sure be gone on July 1st, so hopefully I have something new set up by then. I've found the job I want, and I've decided to ask the universe for that, just put it out there. We'll see. The universe, I've decided, is continually conspiring in my favor, so if I don't wind up there, I'm sure whatever experience I do have will be valuable.

And now, for the Wednesday Mind Hump:
1. Football - what's your favorite football team (any level)?
Now, see, I think of what we in America call "soccer" when I see "football". For American football, the Bengals are my home team, and I root for the Vikings but it seems a futile effort. For international football, the US Women's Team.

2. Shoes - Describe your favorite pair of shoes.
My running shoes they are Brooks running shoes which is really the only brand of shoe to ever fit my feet properly.

3. Dancing - What do you think is the best music to dance to?
What kind has a handsome young man holding me up?

I am 10 Years Old

Really, I think I'm a little older than 10 years old if I get why this is funny. Seriously. My mind will be in the gutter for some time with this.

Another Fish Alternative

I was reading the Most Popular Stories on Yahoo when I saw the headline Fish Oil Plus Exercise May Banish Body Fat and obviously stopped for a look.

Two things in the article (not about weight loss) caught my attention:
1. Taking a fish oil supplement helped people improve their cholesterol numbers, something several people in my life (including at least one who reads this blog) struggle with.
2. Fish oil supplements are another way to get the benefits of eating fish (the omega-3 fatty acids) without actually having to stomach the suckers which is hard for me sometimes.

wow is it hot

It's really hot outside. Too hot to be running. Nonetheless...

I ran the short route today, 3.6 miles, and I was hot by the time I got home. I think I was dehydrated. I probably still am. I thought about sitting out by the pool today after the run, and then I thought about jumping in the pool after the run. Neither one really sounded like the best option so I opted for cleaning for a while. I still have more to do. For some reason or other, I can never manage to get my living room clean (and it's where I spend all my time).

I'm lamenting the fact that there's not too much on TV right now. I thought about getting cable again but I cannot change my cable package right now for reasons that are too difficult to explain.

Wanna know something else? I found a bug in Firefox and reported it. At first I thought I was loosing my mind and just couldn't customize the toolbar. I feel like a detective now.

What I've Been Doing While Trying to Keep Awake

Well, a little bit, I've been transferring music from one computer to another. I still can not believe the ease with which I set up the home network. The mac is really slow for web browsing and Firefox is freaking it out, but the sound always works and I can listen to music on it no matter what.

I'm still getting confused about which mouse controls which monitor. And I'm so used to the expose feature on macs that I keep trying to make my PC work the same way. (Woops.)

Here are some of the things I've been reading today:
1. King Canute. I swear I've heard this story on an episode of the West Wing. Is that wrong?
2. If Operating Systems Ran the Airlines is an hilarious look at different operating systems. I particularly love the Apple OS airline. I would put Linux on my parents computer except I think they'd have a similar reaction...
3. How to Hypnotize a Chicken. It's safe for work but only if you don't laugh out loud or shoot cola through your nose. Seriously, one of the most hysterically funny things I've read in a long time. Thank you.

The Sunday Seven

Name seven TV character deaths that stand out as being shockers.

Good, I've had a few things I've wanted to say on this matter.

1. Mrs. Landingham on the West Wing. What in the world was Aaron Sorkin thinking and why didn't someone stop him? It did make for one of the best scenes in the entire series, not to mention opening a role for Lily Tomlin who is an hysterically funny person. Nonetheless.

2. ADA Costas from NYPD Blue (who was the wife of Andy Sipowicz played by Dennis Franz).

3. Danny Sorenson also from NYPD Blue. I don't know why I'm surprised that Ricky from Silver Spoons had to eat it but there it is.

4. Tasha Yar. I think I speak for every fan of TNG when I say, wtf?

5. Leo McGarry, also of the West Wing. I know this one was based on real life, but it was still sad.

6. I am seconding Lt. Col Henry Blake of M*A*S*H.

7. Bobby Simone. I still can't believe they did it. How sad.

Liz on No Sleep

I got no sleep last night. It just makes me not want to ever sleep in the tunnel during an overnight again. We had such a small group that I could actually fit in there, but everyone had to walk by me to get up in the middle of the night and a ridiculous number of people were up in the middle of the night including a sleep walker. Seriously.

And saying I got a bad night of sleep at the aquarium where I'm already guaranteed to have no sleep is noteworthy. That night set the bar pretty high.

When I got home this morning I knew I wanted to exercise because I didn't really do that yesterday. No, not "I didn't really do that yesterday", I just flat out didn't. A couple weeks ago while at Target with Kelly I got a bike pump so I put air in my tires and went for a ride.

I'm not sure I'm really a fan of bike rides. I don't think I am. At least not the hills. It's clear I need to go back to the gym and set the resistance on those bikes much higher than I do now.

right now I'm doing laundry. It's really too late in the day for me to take a nap. Usually if I'm going to take one I'm out by 12:00 or 1:00p. This is really too late. It just means I'll never get to sleep tonight defeating the purpose of napping to maintain my sleep cycle.

The Saturday 8

1. who's the oldest living member of your family?
My Grandma that Amanda likes. A lady never tells her age though.

2. who's the newest?
Well I have three pregnant cousins, and then there's a one-year-old and a 6 monther in there too.

3. if you could spend a two-week vacation with one family member, who would it be?
I like going down to Florida and seeing everyone down there.

4. the old saying goes, "you can pick your friends, but you cannot pick your family." if you could choose one of your friends, who would you 'elect' to become a member of your family?
I've always thought my friend Jenny should marry my cousin Mark. I'm not actively making that match, but I haven't given up the fantasy.

5. who in your family can you just NOT stand?
Hmm, we're not really that kind of family.

6. do you have a member of the family who is currently suffering an illness? (i'm going for physical illness here, but feel free to talk about the batshit-crazy ones, too)
Uh, in our family my Mom and I are the crazy ones.

7. do you have a family member that you've lost contact with? who are they, and why do you not currently have contact?
Not really. I'm not as close to my Mom's family, but we see them for holidays and stuff.

8. do you have any famous family members?
My Grandma and Grandpa love to tell me the odd way I'm related to Joey Hudepohl who was an olympic swimmer but I think it's just wishful thinking.

As seen on

This is a cool post with great pictures of weird houses from all over the world.

I know this house very well. It was designed by a professor from the University of Cincinnati. I actually remember it from when it was a normal house. It's only five or six miles the house I grew up in.
This house is not the UFO house in Northern Kentucky, but it looks like it. The one in Northern Kentucky is only visible in the winter from the revolving restaurant. In the spring there's too many leaves on the trees.

From Photo Pherrets

Our word for this week is: Brown

Oddly enough, it's the first word I use to describe this dress. Also, this picture includes the cap that my co-workers made for me. I wanted to wear it during graduation but my Mom discouraged it.

Liz Gets Herself a Job Part 6

I got a few more "we went with another candidate" emails yesterday. To cope, I watched two movies from Netflix. The Squid and the Whale got pretty good ratings. I didn't like it. Too slow. It's only 75 minutes though, so it might not be too bad to give it a try. And then I watched Conversations with God. From that movie I learned that "the universe is continually conspiring in my favor" and I will find a positive way of supporting myself.

I'm working a lot more at the Science Museum now. I sort of don't know what to do with myself. I'm only working 40 hours a week. It doesn't feel like I'm doing enough...

Liz Gets Herself a Job Part 5

This is part 5 of the series I wish would end, only because it means I'll have a job. I had another interview today. I really like both the job and the agency. And they won't even let me know if I get a second interview until the first or second week of June. I have decided this will be my new job. I loved it. I also tried a slightly different interview outfit today. I am the cute as ever. I love the outfit. Can I just say I wish the shirts at Banana Republic were cheaper because they make me look good.

Liz Gets Herself A Job: Continued

What part am I on now? I need to spend some time tonight updating my resume for the job I've decided I will ultimately get hired for. It's a life skills teacher for teens. I would be so good at that. I got a call from the place I interviewed on Thursday saying it'll be longer than they thought, but hey, at least they're keeping me informed. And I have a job interview tomorrow at an agency that provides services very similar to what the agency of my internship provided.

In other news, I got an iMac G4 from, well, let's call it a private adoption agency. It's been both good and bad. Creating a home network between the iMac and my Windows laptop was the easiest thing I've ever done on a windows machine. Seriously, it was so simple I thought I was on a Mac. On the other hand, "customize toolbar" keeps crashing firefox. I have no explanation. And then I have to decide exactly how much of my iTunes library to add to this computer.

One other exciting piece of news, Madeleine Peyroux is coming to town on June 8th. I'm trying to recruit as many concert goers as I can.

Did I mention I graduated...

I graduated yesterday. How fun is that? In the morning we went to Como Conservatory, a super pretty place to be. I got lots of pretty pictures of flowers. We tried taking a family portrait as well. We went over to the Science Museum briefly to see the teens and the Youth Science Center and then we went to Saigon, which is this little hole in the wall restaurant. Almost every time I go in there I'm the only white person. I love it.

And then we got dressed up and went to graduation. And I graduated, and my parents hooded me. How fun is that? Apparently I can't write a more coherent sentence than that right now. Three nights of not too much sleep on a couch are catching up with me rather quickly.

Unconscious Mutterings

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Coastguard :: that could've been me, the Coast Guard Academy
2. Buddies :: Amanda and Kelly and Liz and everyone else I saw at graduation yesterday
3. Nap :: mmmmm
4. Groan :: dirty mind
5. Sitcom :: All of the shows I like that have been cancelled
6. Reader :: Amanda, Kelly, Em, my Grandma, anyone on my Dad's side of the family really
7. Heroes :: that stupid TV show that I blame for my show being cancelled
8. Amazing :: Grace
9. Woman :: oh yeah
10. Don’t! :: one of my favorite words, or ...you dare...

What'd I do today?

Holy cow am I tired. This morning I ran 4.25 miles. I'm glad I can still run that far. When I got home my parents came over from the hotel and we went out to Maria's Cafe for breakfast. I highly recommend the corn pancakes with cheese. I've actually never had anything else there because it's such a specialty.

After breakfast we lounged and read the paper / looked at pictures / played on the internet for quite a while. Then we went to the Mall of America and specifically to the Aquarium to see the fishes.







After the aquarium we shopped more. I got totally cute interview clothes, which only make the interview clothes I already own cuter. I can't wait to have a job to wear them.

No trip to the Mall of America is complete with out the obligatory stop at Ikea. Dad was mildly entertained. I think Grandma was somewhere between being amazed with the store and being so tired she could pass out. In the end we got a few things, including a non-stick whisk for me.

After the shopping trip we came home. Dad napped and snored. I napped and did not snore. No one knows what Mom and Grandma did because we were not awake to see it.

That's about when I decided it was time to eat again. Once my Mom heard about Beer battered green beans, there was no stopping her so we went to the Longfellow Grill for dinner. We played around on the Lake Street bridge while we waited for a table.


After dinner we saw Lock and Damn Number 1 (near the Ford Parkway bridge) and Minnehaha Falls.






Lessons I learned while out:

• Stores like Nordstrom Rack and Marshall's are not places I can shop alone, nor were they meant for anyone to shop without a friend.


• Crying toddlers, and sometimes crying babies give me panic attacks, no one knows why.


• A single serving of milk does have enough protein to make me not hypoglycemic before shopping at Ikea.


• Bay Scallops are not that good. Order something else.

Liz Gets Herself a Job Part 3

In this installment: The Interview
That's right. I had an interview today for a position directing support groups across two states. I want to be clear, I would love this position. Except, and here's the thing, there's a public policy component to the job. I could love that part or I could really not. Side bar: Did you know Blogger Autosaves now? How wild is that? I'm not sure how the interview went. It was another interview of me being younger than everyone else in the room. That could have been really good. I really liked the people in the room. They were nice to me and even though there were four people it was the least intimidating interview I've had so far.

When I got home I had an email from another agency asking me to resend my resume. Then that person wrote me back and asked to set up an interview. So I have an interview on Tuesday as well. After that on Tuesday I'm going out to lunch with a colleague who's going back to grad school. I'm trying not to tell her any stories that will make her run screaming away. Only she's going to get a Masters and a PhD. It's going to take her at least six years. It only took me two and I'm ready to loose my mind. I think I am loosing my mind.

Wednesday Mind Hump

Your task: Post a photo of a face. It could be your face, a face of someone you know, or the face of a pet. Or you can post a link to a face on a photo sharing site. Either way, give us a good face!

Liz Gets Herself a Job Part 2

Update on the job front: I haven't heard from the one place I was expecting to hear from well, basically today. I do have another job interview scheduled for tomorrow, another first interview. This one should be interesting. I returned the call to schedule the interview and they asked me up front what I was looking for in a salary. I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. You know that feeling when the wind gets knocked out of you? That's what was going on at that moment. I went with a wide range, like several thousand dollars, of the truth. I'll let you know.

Right now I need to scrub the bathroom and kitchen and vacuum. Yes, as a matter of fact, it is 11:00. I don't know why I haven't gotten started. I just seemed like I should wait this long to clean up the house for my parents.

Liz Gets Herself a Job Part 1

A while ago (around the time I realized I hadn't done an actual post in weeks) I reread some of my posts inlcuding this one which referenced this page. One of the articles on this page suggests writing a series to "fight blogger apathy". Briefly, I'd like to attribute my "apathy" to simultaneously finishing an internship, three classes, and having to look for gainful employment.

Which brings me to the series: Liz Gets Herself a Job

Here's how things have gone so far. I've applied to like a million jobs at a million different places. I can remember most of the places I've applied because I save the cover letter I send to each potential employer. At the end of the day I can go back and count how many I've got. The problem is that some of the larger employers require applicants to fill out an online application which leaves no such paper trail. (I'm wondering how many times I've applied for some of the positions at Fairview and HealthEast).

I've sort of got this down to a science now. I have a formated resume saved as a word document. I also have a plain text resume which looks very plain but is perfect for copying and pasting into all those online forms. Because of a particularly pesky online form I now also have a plain text resume limited to 50 characters per line. I also have a saved copy of my work history with just job titles, address and phone numbers, names of supervisors and dates of employment.

There are still a few wrinkles in the system. Each time I apply for a position I write a cover letter which usually involves copying and pasting the last cover letter and changing some names and details. This is where I have the most potential to screw up. Especially when in one fateful letter I mentioned the name of the company a second time in a place I usually don't, copied the letter into a new document and forgot to take out the reference to company A in the letter I sent to company B. Woops. Even not counting that letter, I've still sent out a bunch of resumes.

Tonight I applied for a position at Fairview and one at Health East. This weekend I think I applied for about four positions (not including the woops cover letter).

I've had three interviews. Company A (not the same company A as before) I haven't heard from, but at this point I'm assuming they've hired someone else. Company B was an interesting interview. I walked into this suite in an office building and thought "I literally would not fit in this office". I need more room to move around and make noise. They also weren't paying very much. I didn't want to work there but the rejection still stung. Company C I haven't heard from but they said they will contact people during the middle of the week so that's ok.

Here's the thing I've learned about Minnesota. Jobs are required to be posted for 3 weeks (thank you EEOC) and sometimes companies extend the posting. If I apply for a position at the beginning of the cycle it could literally be a month before I hear from anyone. I'm pointing this out more to myself than anyone else. I've decided that talking about this will help me be realistic about the process, although I'm not totally convinced this won't just make things worse. Whose idea was this?

Keep checking back for part 2 of the series.

The Sunday Seven

Name seven varieties of the same kind of animal (i.e., bears, dogs, birds, etc.) that you would use to differentiate improvements of the next version of the Mac OS system.

This is wrong because Apple delayed Leopard until October so they could launch a bright shiny cellular phone that I don't want while waiting to updated the iMac and iPod that I do want.

I think we should just have different species of bats.
Big brown bats is the first (and lowest) level
Little brown bats
Red bats
Big eared bats
Northern long ear bats
Indiana bats (which are endangered so don't do anything stupid to those)
Hoary bats are the highest level

Ten on Tuesday

10 Things Most People Don't Know About You

1. I'm afraid of heights. Although how people can forget that I have no idea.
2. I used to play the saxophone.
3. I used to take Latin in high school.
4. I totally watch the Disney channel. Right now I'm watching Life with Derrek and I love "Phil of the Future". I'm ok with it.
5. Speaking of odd tastes, Blue Man Group.
6. For some reason people who don't know me well are under the impression I can sing. Oh oh, if only you knew.
7. What really happened in Africa.
8. The mental illness history of my family.
9. Where to locate Appalachia on a map.
10. The different TV shows I have been addicted to in my life. Some of the more embarassing ones: Dr. Quinn, Superman: The New Adventures of Lois and Clark, Star Trek: TNG. I'm currently addicted to Brothers and Sisters and pining the loss of Studio 60. Also, where the he!! did "Men in Trees" go?

The Friday Five

1. song/movie/book: We'll go with "The Sound of Music" because I watched it so often as a kid.
2. person: Almost anyone. You are all my teachers.
3. place: Africa.
4. event: 9/11
5. self indulgence: Chipotle.

3X Thursday

This one seemed like it really applied to me. Especially given my Dad's recent encouragement to "paint the place and sell it" if I want to.

1. How many times have you moved in the past 5 years? Why/why haven't you?
8/2002: Cincinnati to Minneapolis
2/2004: Minneapolis to Cincinnati, Cincinnati to Malawi via Philadelphia
in Malawi: College of Forestry to family to Lilongwe
5/2004: Africa to Cincinnati, Cincinnati to Florida
6/2004: Florida to Pennsylvania via Cincinnati
8/2004: Pennsylvania to Minneapolis via Cincinnati
6/2005: Powderhorn (Minneapolis) to Bancroft (Minneapolis). Given my history, you'd think ten blocks wouldn't be that big a deal, but still...

2. Are you one of those people who thinks moving is therapeutic? (You know, a time to get rid of things you don't need, etc.) Why/why not?
Moving is not therapeutic. My friends were therapeutic during the last moving process. I do keep in mind that I will have to move one day and so try as hard as possible not to collect a lot of junk.

3. Do you prefer to move yourself, or do you hire someone to do it for you? Why/why not?
I've never had the financial means to hire movers. I really don't mind doing it myself, with friends. If I didn't have friends I could count on, I'd totally hire someone.

Wednesday Mind Hump

This one was super fun. I'd like to say that I have a large number of potentially embarrassing pictures of one of my friends. If you grew up near Wilmar I may be talking about you.

1) Are you a photographer?
I love to take pictures. My friends would say "Digital Camera + Person with ADD = Trouble"
I say "Digital Camera + Person with ADD = FUN"

2) If so, tell us about your photo equipment.
I have a Canon Elph and I love it. It's almost the size of my iPod.

3) Describe (or post) one of your favorite photos, either one you've taken or one you've seen.

I love the pictures where the subjects of the picture hole out the camera and photograph themselves. A couple of examples:

4) Do you like having your picture taken?
Usually if I'm with other people I don't mind. I feel fat when it's just me.

5) If you are able, post a photo for us to see!

This was literally taken over my shoulder because I was bored. (See the equation in number 1.) I think it's a fantastic picture.