Bloggy

Message to all women of child-bearing age: Birth control may be turning you into an unhappy blob! I got on the pill when I was 18, and was on it nearly 10 years. I got out of a long-term relationship and decided to kick the hormone habit in April 2005 just to see what would happen. Last October, after being off the pill for just 6 months, I quickly lost more than 10 pounds by cutting sugar out of my diet. It was easy. It was those last few pounds that had crept on slowly since high school, and would not come off no matter how much I starved. I ended up weighing less than I did as captain of the swim team! Less than my driver's license which hasn't been true since I was 16. At the time I thought it was the diet, my schedule, my new willpower. And, my sex drive skyrocketed. I attributed it to being single and wanting to mingle and loving my new body, all of which probably added to it. But this April, I met a good guy and decided to get back on the pill. Within a month my appetite...

>> This guy helped me make hoops after I'd ditched mine in the middle of Mexico. ( They are terrible to fit on a bus) In the states, I have to find a hardware store that carries Polyethylene tubing 160 psi, buy a 100 ft rool, plus nipples and electrical tape. At this little hole-in-the-wall hardware store, these Mexicans cut me a hoop to size, connected it, and then even demo'd it for me! Love it! So, tonight I am going to be in a movie! It's about hula hooping. And I guess it's just some kind of training video, but still. Famous! Geez, and I lived in the greater LA area for nearly 3 years, and all I ever got was an extra part in David from 90210's stupid pilot. I was part of a bustling crowd on the street in "New York." Paid $10 an hour, plus lunch, worked for 12 hours. Forgot to put that one in my list of jobs below. So, after only 2.5 months in Portland, I'll be spinnin' in full sequined glory for the camera! Hoops may be responsible for...

Ok, so I only had my fake job listing up for 12 hours because I felt bad. Lesson: Lying is bad. I had been wondering how lame my qualifications and writing ability were when stacked up against the imagined super-established, mega wordsmith competition out there. Lesson: I learned that I'm just fine. And pretty comparable to the majority of people who responded to my post. There are people of all kinds going for jobs like the one I posted, and with the Internet, I got responses from all over the country. I received about 20 letters, resumes and links to clips from freelancers. A couple of the more published writers still had gross misspellings and errors. Many resumes had funky formatting. Many sounded like form letters calling me the abstract "sir or madam." Some people's confidence came off as arrogant and superior. I'd guess that the world of the hiring is probably 90 percent subjective. The rest, of course, is skills, school, blah blah blah. I felt like hiring ...

I am going to get bad karma for this one. Then again, it's all in the name of healthy capitalism!? I posted a fake help wanted ad today on a certain national community bulletin board website. I am sick and tired of writing super-great cover letters and sending my resume along with clips to address after address, and hearing no response. I want to see who I am up against. I know it's mean. There is probably some nice, peaceful soul sitting out there right now writing her very special cover letter to my fake address, hoping to be considered for the part of "writer" on my new website. HA! Maybe my plan is to wear everyone out.... I will keep posting these fake jobs, all over the world... and pretty soon no one will have the energy to respond when the reeeeeeal jobs come in. Then, and only then, the perfect job will be mine. I know, I am a creep. But other than this, what have I done wrong so far? Maybe my writing is terrible. I know it's not perfect, but come on, I s...

I woke up at 5:30 a.m. yesterday with a stomach ache. I figured it was my body's way of telling me to get out and do something about this unemployment-- my mind has been stalling me! After a three phone calls placed to three temp agencies, (two went to voice mail, and the third offered me a 5-hour gig next Wed.) I grabbed the Oregonian and decided to go about this the old-fashioned way: Marching into an establishment and demanding a job. I found three ads that were doable. 1. An upscale grocery store clerk 2. Mortgage loan officer, no training 3. Tutor Since the grocery store was the closest, I started there. 45 minutes later I walked out with a $10/ hour paying gig, benefits in 90 days, flexible hours, evening shift just like I wanted. I have NEVER been so excited to start working. I was glowing all day yesterday. The acknowledgement that someone actually thinks I am useful is greatly satisfing after nearly two months of rejection. I also sort of convinced myself that this is the ...

Yesterday I worked for the big-name shoe company again, Nike, bussing tables at an event for 700 regional sales managers in town for the Spring '07 sales convention. The staff was mostly college students, and a few tired, middle-aged women with little education or work experience. There were a few oddballs and creepo's too, those who probably couldn't get work anywhere else because of criminal records and whatnot. Courtney, a relatively fair-looking black man asked me to come over to his place after work and watch a movie. I thanked him and told him my boyfriend would probably not appreciate that. Ten minutes later, he offered to drive me home in his van. Later, he asked the woman standing next to me if she had a car, a boyfriend, and any plans for that night. I found out later he'd gone around to every woman working and asked the same things. Anyhoo, while working there I couldn't help but be my curious self, and I pretended to be an employed, undercover journalist...

Job hunting! It's miserable. Portland's unemployment rate is 6.8 percent. I guess that's the highest in the country. Not sure if I would have moved here knowing that. Then again, knowing me, I probably would have predicted that I would be invincible and come anyway. Turns out I am not invinceable. I am very affected by the emotional cartwheels I've been put through. Some days I am a highly esteemed intellectual, capable of taking on an entire organization and turning it around. Some days, I am not. Today, I was turned away at 11 a.m. from an event held by a certain big-name footwear company here in Portland. I had responded to work through a staffing agency a "salad tosser" for $9 an hour. I arrived 10 minutes early with my hair tightly pulled back, wearing my boys size 12 white Oxford shirt I bought for $15.99, specifically for this purpose. My "new" black shoes (Goodwill, $2.50) were comfy, and I was ready for 5 hours of tossing. "Sorry, our c...

Hooping. For some strange reason, these 5 ft. long stretches of polyethylene tubing formed into a circle and covered with electrical tape have changed my life! Hooping can make me feel like a little girl or like an exotic dancer. It brings me back to my gymnastics days when I was young and flexible. It makes me feel like a show off. Or, I can become completely lost in it, and not notice if anyone is watching. I can do it in front of crowds-- it has diminished any sense of self-conciousness whatsoever. My hooping has attracted men, and I have made countless friends who have hooping in common. Silly little piece of plastic! See www.hooping.org for more who share the hoop love!

I am really diggin' this Mike Ness! Just wrote a proposal to my friends Erin and Israel trying to get support for a documentary film project I am planning on starting very soon. Erin graduated from the Academy of Art college in SF, with a degree in film. Israel was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and is a talented photographer. This documentary idea was inspired from my recent trip to Mexico, and my childhood in the migrant farmworker-laced town of Napa, California. My elementary school graduating class of 9 had nearly as many Mexicans in it as white kids, with names like Griselda and Cesar. It became natural for me to want to learn Spanish, and I guess that led to my lifelong fascination with these perceived outsiders. So, the documentary is loosely based on a school board decision made by the Napa Valley Unified School District in 2005. I want to follow kids who are affected by the ruling, back to Mexico for winter break. That's all I'll say... but folks in Mexico who I ran ...

Candles, $2 buck chuck, my purring cat and Mike Ness. Good way for a broke-ass like me to spend a Friday night.