Once upon a time, I went to a career fair trying to find a job. Before I knew it, my best friend and
I were on a plane heading to Shanghai, China. Here you will find the stories of our year and three day
stint there - the ups, the downs, the strange and bizarre, and of course the unexplained. You'll also
find the stories of our lives once we returned to the wonderful U.S of A. I don't think there as interesting,
but I'll let you be the judge. Enjoy!
This is part of the Laser Light Show at Stone Mountain that was put on over the 4th of July weekend in 2008. I particularly like the song they picked out. I wish that you could see the display a little better, but I guess I was sitting a bit too far away.
It’s a beautiful day outside. Blue skies. About 65 degrees. Couldn’t ask for much more on a late December day. I guess tonight, I am going to go over to Phil’s and watch the ball drop. He can’t come to my house because he’s allergic to my kitty, Morgan Rose Ireland Yvette DeWitter. He loves her, but she just makes him sneeze like mad. I’ve thought about buying stock in Kleenex - he goes through about a box a day. Poor, poor, Philby.
We haven’t bought any fireworks. Or any hard liquor. Not even streamers, poppers or hats. It’ll just be the two of us eating left over lamb as we watch the ball take its yearly plunge. We won’t have much of a party, I guess. Perhaps, we’re just getting too old for that stuff. Ha. Ha. Ha. Just as long as the cable works until midnight, everything will be okay.
Oh, and I have my interview for the Human Services position out in Eastover on the 3rd. Wish me luck. If I don’t get a job in the next few days, I’m going to have to sell my soul to the devil or something and I’d rather not.
Yippy Skippy as Ms. Piggy would say. My brother, Nathaniel, always hated when she said that for some reason. As much as I am happy, I am a little sad. The place that I will be interviewed and most likely work, if I even get the job, is 30 miles away from where I live. My interview is at the Department of Social Services and the position title is Human Services Specialist II. It’s located over in Eastover somewhere. I’ve heard of Eastover, but I’ve never been there. It’s one of those places you know exists, but if someone asked you how to get there, you’d wouldn’t know which direction to send them. Since I don’t know the area at all, I looked up the address they gave me so I would have some idea of how to get there come January 3rd. Well, I typed it into to Google, and hit the map button, and Google told me it didn’t exist. If it doesn’t exist on Google, where does it? Phil somehow was able to find the longitude and latitude and plugged that in, and finally was able to bring it up on Yahoo Maps. But goodness, it shouldn’t be that hard to find a flipping street. Anyway, wish me luck because I really, really, need a job.
In other news, I think I found out one of the reasons why it has been difficult finding a job - read on.
SC unemployment rate rises for the 3rd straight month
COLUMBIA, SC (AP) - South Carolina’s unemployment rate increased for the third straight month, up slightly to 5.9 percent in November.
State Employment Security Commission officials said Friday that the number of unemployed in the state increased by 1,500 last month to nearly 127,000 overall.
The national unemployment rate was unchanged in November at 4.7 percent.
The state unemployment rate increased from 5.8 percent in October. The rate was 5.7 percent in September.
State Employment Security Commission officials say South Carolina’s economy has improved during the past year, and the holiday shopping season appears to be good.
But officials say the nationwide housing slump and high gas prices could impede job growth over the next few months.
I am still working on the post about my trip to the Shenyang hospital. Most of it is done, but I want it to be as perfect as I can get it. I’m a stupid perfectionist, what can I say?
Lately, life has been, well, life. I had $255.00 of work done on my car, so now I am really hurting for money. It took away a month that I could wait on a good job. So, to make sure that I don’t spend another unnecessary penny, I sleep all day. If I am asleep, I can’t drive and waste gas and I definitely can’t eat. Eating cost money unless there is food stashed in the cupboards( I never knew that word was spelled like that). My day, on most days, consists of me getting up and applying for any and all jobs that I can find online and then waiting for one of the 120 jobs I’ve applied to already to call me back for a freaking interview.
As you may have read, Phil was offered a fairly nice job at the State. He was happy. I was happy. Blue Cross Blue Shields(an insurance company) however, was not. They begged and pleaded him to come in for an interview, knowing full well that he already had a job. He decided to go and appease them. I mean, what would it hurt to see what they had to offer? On the day of his interview, they kept him for 3 hours and gave him an offer that the majority of the people on the planet couldn’t turn down. I can’t quote the number they offered because that would be rude, and I don’t think Phil would appreciate it, but I can say that it was a heck of a lot more than the State cared to put on the table. Also, it is probably more than I will ever make annually. So, if I had a Sugar Daddy before, I must have Sugar Daddy Executive now. Heh.
Also in the news of Gabe, my mother has told me that I am allowed to turn my backyard into berry farm.
GabbyGirl1981: I found a raspberry plant that grows in the south dianacarol47: GREAT GabbyGirl1981: Now I just need a plot of land so I can start growing blackberries, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. GabbyGirl1981: Can I just use the back yard? GabbyGirl1981: like, all of it? dianacarol47: SURE dianacarol47: YEAH
I was so happy that I started walking my backyard to figure out just how many plants I could stuff back there. If you have ever seen my backyard, it’s not very big, but it could probably hold around 60 plants or so comfortably. Maybe more. I am going to have to get out there and measure and what not before I order anything. First, I need cash, which means I need a job. Hopefully, that will happen before too long. Once I get one, I can order from a nursery in Georgia that carries southern varieties of raspberries and blueberries. For 20 blackberry, 20 raspberry, 10 blueberries, and 10 strawberry bushes, it will only cost $234.00, including shipping. Not that bad really. My only other cost would be any soil I would have to buy, as well as any other garden needs. I might be able to borrow a tiller, but if I can’t, I might be able to rent one. And then, in a year, at max two, I’d have a wonderful crop of berries to sell to my fellow Columbians. I never said how big I wanted my berry farm to be when I told you all about my dreams. My backyard would be a start, and starts are all dreams need.
1. I am still jobless. 2. I am working on a very long post about a trip I had to a Chinese hospital. 3. During my spare time, which happens to be a lot, I’ve been taking out all of my frustration by killing people playing a game called Battlefield 2142. I’m actually not that bad. 4. I’m about to leave the house and go Dork for a few hours. For those of you who don’t know, Dork is my code word for playing DnD. And for those of you who don’t know what DnD means - well, you may be better off. My Mom tells me it has something to do with worshiping Satan or something like that. 5. I was actually offered a part time, $20 an hour job, but the contract they wanted me to sign was so wickety wack that I had to politely turn them down. They of course weren’t very happy. They said a lot of mean things to me in their nicest tone, and it was then that I realized I made a very good decision. 6. My kitty, Morgan Rose Ireland Yvette DeWitter, is giving me that look, so I better go feed her before she attempts to eat my soul or something again. Last time, I barely survived.
During my year and three day stint in China, there were a lot of things that happened that I never got around to blogging about. So, I want to take this time to go a little retro and return to those memories before they leave me forever. Some may be long and drawn out affairs, while others may just be a few lines. I don’t know how many memories I will be able to muster up, so this project may only last a week or so. Hopefully, once I start writing, more and more memories will return to me. They may be more meaningful to me, but perhaps you’ll be able to enjoy them, too. Well, without further adieu, let’s jump head first into a random memory. This one is a bit funny, crazy and perhaps a bit sad, depending on how you look at it.
On no particular day in Fuyang, Phil and I started down our 118 stairs, 20 of which were between our bedroom and the front door, to venture out for the day. We were down about one and half stories, when a little Chinese boy ,about the age of five, ran into us on his way up. He stopped dead in his tracks, took one look at us, and turned back the way he’d come at about four or five times the speed. Before we could blink, he was gone. Phil and I looked at each other to make sure we weren’t wearing scary Halloween masks, and then continued our descent. We were laughing. Neither one of us had ever had such an encounter before.
A few stories down, we ran into a young Chinese woman with a rather confused look on her face. It turned out that she could speak English, a little at least, and was on her way to our apartment to visit our roommate, Michael. She said that her son had just ran past her. She called to him a few times, but there was no reply. We said goodbye and down the stairs we went.
When we got to the base of the staircase we didn’t see the boy. It was as though he had just disappeared. After a moment or so of looking around, Phil took a look to the right of the stairs and spotted him. The boy was white, tears were streaming down his face and he was clutching a dirty, rusty pipe as though someone had just opened a hatch into outer space and if he let go, he’d be sucked out.
“Oh, it’s okay,” I said. “I’m sorry.” We both took a step closer to him. We were only trying to comfort and show him that there was nothing to be afraid of, but apparently, it didn’t work. The boy started wailing and more tears poured from his eyes. We got down in a crouch, thinking that if we were down at his level it may help. It didn’t. He wailed and cried some more, clutching even tighter to the pipe. A few moments later his mother appeared and tried to get him to come with her. He wouldn’t budge. Finally, we figured that we weren’t helping and decided to back off. Still in view of us, he refused to let go of his pipe. His mother continued to try and coax him back up the stairs, but he just wouldn’t move. We apologized and decided to get going. We felt very bad, but a part of our souls just couldn’t stop laughing as we turned the corner and went on with our day.
I of course didn’t have a camera at the time, but the boy looked something like this.
“Get away from me, White Devils!”
