Donating

Here's a list of the weird stuff I have been pulling out of my closets the last couple days in an attempt to get rid of exactly this kind of randomness.

-590 piece, 3-D puzzle of the Tower Bridge of London

-Crayola clothes decorating kit: when I pulled it out, Kelly said I must have had a lot of fun with it back in the day, but given the fact that the bag of rhinestone "jewels" is unopened, and the fact that I don't recall ever having a collection of puffy painted clothes, apparently I never participated in the joys of t-shirt making, Crayola-style.

-Untouched "Artist Touch" Oil Paint by Numbers kit: the scene is a covered bridge over what I assume must be a bubbling stream, replete with paddling mallards. Ah, what pastoral loveliness I missed out on.

-Whole reams of wide-rule notebook paper.

-Chip/dip combo plastic tupperware container: why was this in my dirty laundry basket? Why?

-Large light-up globe: dating from the 1980s sometime; the northern part of Eurasia is labeled "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" and Germany is still divided. I kid you not.

Ah, the memories. Memories that I will now DESTROY FOREVER as I drop off this overabundance of randomness at the Wayzata Community Church Rummage Sale. Unless anyone wants to take this stuff off my hands... the light-up globe? Pretty sure that's a high quality collector's item.

Happy Birthday, Amanda!

P.S.

Sweet Yoses, Amanda, I'm sorry I keep having so many reasons to call you and get you all worked up thinking that I have a job. From now on, all communication between us will be conducted by carrier pigeon, and then I won't have to hear that disappointed sigh in your voice when I have to tell you for the eightieth time that, no, I do not have a job, nor will I ever.

Craziness subsiding

Wow, it was quite the weekend here in the Land of the Humidity that Will Never End, enough with the humidity already!

My dear friend Melissa, one of the seven Lonely Ladies, is now married! It's a little strange to think about, even though one of our number has been married for two years already. There were wedding things galore on Friday and Saturday, and as I was a bridesmaid, along with Chelsea and Katy, I took part in most of them.

The actual wedding day was possibly one of the longest days of my life - I was up at 6:30 a.m. and didn't get to bed til 1:30 a.m. But it was a fun day. Melissa was beautiful, the ceremony was beautiful, the flowers were beautiful. There was dinner and... DANCING! Anne is right, those Catholics sure do know how to party. Everybody shook their groove thangs for hours - grandparents, parents, kids, etc.

Unfortunately, Sunday morning I was violently ill and while a tremendous hangover would have been the obvious explanation after attending a wedding, I drank only one glass of champagne the night before... so I think it might have been a case of food poisoning. Felt a lot better by the later part of the afternoon, which was kind of irritating because I didn't go to Anne's lake house because of the ickiness. But it turned out okay, because I got to see Aurora when she was on her way out of town! She called me from McDonald's right down the street, and I met up with her and Kelly there.

And last night I went to the Twins' game... for free! With Kelly and Frank Li, who I graduated from high school with but haven't seen or talked to since, well, high school, practically. After the Twins beat the Royals, Frank, Kelly and I went to the Homan's, where we made Pina Coladas and chatted with Chelsea's parents. Good times.

Perfect Duluth Day

Chelsea and I made a trip to Duluth yesterday, pretty much for the express purpose of disconnecting my Charter internet service. Why would I have to go all the way to Duluth to do that?*

I haven't been missing Duluth much since I moved back home. In fact, I was pretty excited to get away from it. I miss the people there, but not the city itself. A trip to Duluth solely to cancel internet service was not appealing. However, it's been freakishly hot here in the Cities that are Twin, at least, freakishly hot for the month of June. It's been up in the mid-80s, sometimes low 90s, which is like August weather here. I hate it. That's right. Hate it.

So, when we arrived in Duluth, and I stepped out of the car onto Superior Street, it was so magically wonderful, I almost started crying. It was probably in the low 80s, but down by the lake, there was none of that oppressively sodden humidity nonsense. It was dry. And cool. And there was a delightful breeze that tickled my senses! Magical.

Chelsea and I also had lunch with Brian, and then shopped a bit, and then met with Corey and his girlfriend Amanda for ice cream at the Portland Malt Shoppe. Though Amanda ranted a bit about how she hates people (watch for her on the news, I fear she may take out the Duluth P.D.), it didn't spoil what turned out to be a nearly perfect Duluth day.

I'm a bridesmaid in my friend Melissa's wedding tomorrow, so today it's off to set up for the reception, then to the rehearsal at the church, then to the dinner, and then possibly to hang out with Amanda and Angie! Oh, weddingness. And... Happy Birthday, Katy!

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*Because Charter is dumb, okay? Apparently I could not disconnect over their customer service line, though I found that out after seven minutes on two separate customer service help lines, both of which had automated menus with an option of: "For Disconnection/Cancellation Services, Press 5." Turns out, the only way to disconnect was to go to their office in Duluth! For a process that took all of two minutes!

"I. Am. Job."

I had my first-ever telephone interview today for an Internal Communications Intern at Amanda's sister Angie's place of employment. It was relatively painless, except for the part when I had verbal diarrhea FOR THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW. So it was probably on par with a happy trip to the dentist. It lasted 10 minutes, roughly, and I was asked four questions. Is that a normal length for a phone interview? Was that too few questions? They hate me, don't they. Maybe it was because I was drunk. I'll do better next time.

Actually, it was pretty much the first interview I've had all summer, not counting the "Facility Tour" I was scheduled to go on at UPS in Maple Grove. My mom, for whatever reason, thought I would make a good part-time package handler, so I applied. However, UPS requires handling of packages up to 70 LBS. on a regular basis. While package handling could have been fun and I think I could have proved myself a decent handler of packages of lesser size, I just don't think I'm capable of handling such enormous packages.

This is the longest period of unemployment for me since I graduated from high school. (Not counting when I went to Venezuela, I suppose, and that really doesn't count because A.) legally, I couldn't have a job there and B.) and this point is fully hitting me over the head only now - I was a millionaire there! Why didn't I roll around naked in a big pile of Bolivares?)

This time should be relaxing and nice and lovely and I should relish this not having of the jobs and the work to do, but it's kind of stressing me out. Looking for a job is practically a full-time job in itself, and on weekdays I feel like I can't go out and do the sort of relaxing summery things that my very soul is yearning for. Instead, I have to hide myself away inside from 9-5, writing cover letters and sending resumes and searching for jobs. If I'm going to slack off, I have to do it at my house, just in case a job falls out of the sky and I have to be there with my arms open, ready to wrestle it to the ground so it doesn't get away. And it kills me that I've been looking and applying and calling and writing. And... nothing.

Won't someone give me a job?

*Extra credit if anyone can tell me what movie the title of this post is from.