mmm froyo

I made this weird pasta dish for dinner. This tomato parsley garlic thing. I don't know how I feel about it...I think I did something wrong. But Carmen and Josh ate it and didn't seem too adverse to its taste. Not my best, but not...totally awful.

They went to this shindig and I stayed home.

I applied to some more jobs. Some part time stuff. Fun things.

Went down to Irving Street with Carmen and went veggie shopping, and we got yogurt afterwards. Yay frozen yogurt! I fried myself up a couple eggs and put them on toast. That was good.

I feel less frustrated today, but still...ahhh. I don't know. I want more to happen.

Anyway, Star Trek time!

caramel by the sea

Spent a lot of the day driving. I don't like the road from Redwood City of San Jose. Too windy. The drive from San Jose to Santa Cruz & Monterey is nice though. Rolling hills, nice atmosphere, warm, not winding. It is a long journey from San Francisco to Carmel, quite the journey considering I was applying for service positions, and not art jobs. But I need interview experience, and if they are willing to talk to me because I show up, then I'm going to show up. Don't want to bumble in the (hopeful) eventuality that a studio will bring me in for a chat.

I printed out some resumes and left at 1pmish. It was a gorgeous day, and the ride was nice. It is an hour from Santa Cruz to Carmel, and an hour and a bit from San Francisco to Santa Cruz.

I applied first to this lovely resort ranch. It had deer and quail and everyone was really nice. They even gave me a preliminary interview! Chatted with Rosie and did a lot better at talking myself up and my strengths than I did with the prop rental company interview. She even introduced me to Clint, who was more in the department of the job I was sort of applying for (I wrote down server, but I'll take what they think I'd qualify most for). Pool server job. Keeping the pool area nice, tending to what people may need. Be outside and on my feet, and in a nice place (the resort is very pretty, did I mention the quail?). Not art job, but could be full time, and if it is full time then that gets me income and I'd move and start being independent. It was a long way to go for something outside of my field, but people within my field are not getting back to me. I need to be more patient, yeah, but...I'm ready to work! I'm tired of mooching, and being in transition.

I've been out of school a year now. A year!

And it is good to get familiar with the Bay Area to Santa Cruz drive. I like SC. Need to hit that place up some more.

Anyway, after that resort, I went to another one, though that was more a hotel. Applied there, but no immediate interview.

I drove to Monterey and had some pizza at a really sketchy place. The sign was really nice, but inside was really...dang. Looked like a front for some other sort of business. They didn't put any effort into maintaining it. Anyway. Wandered around Monterey a bit. Looked for bookstores and pastry shops, but they were closed. Found a watch repair store and he had a battery, so I replaced my watch battery on the spot. I almost didn't wear it today. Good thing I did! Now I have a working watch. Hurray.

From there, I headed back and made super good time back to San Francisco. Two hours is a lot of driving, but at least the roads are good and it isn't rainy and I'm in a car with good ga-oh man, it probably rolled over to 200,000 miles! I need to see if it did.

Got back at 9pm. Feel very tired. Tomorrow I'll apply for more jobs. Just have to keep...doing it. Eventually something will happen.

surely you can't be serious!

I took note of where we ate, but the notes are in my bag and I can't be bothered to fish them out. Carmen and I biked to the Richmond district and B-Star had seats, so we occupied them and waited for Josh. I ordered some appetizers, well just the fries, and we got a pitcher of this tasty ginger beer. Yum yum. Fries were good. Josh got some soup. It was interesting soup. Very complex with lots of things...I ate too much though. When my Ochazuke arrived, it was all I could do to get through the egg and salmon portion. It was all in a green tea broth, which was interesting, but I felt it overwhelmed the flavor of everything else. Still, I love me a poached egg. I was very stuffed, and Carmen and I walked down to the bookstore (Josh road on ahead). It was quite the packed used book store, though I couldn't quite spy anything to really make me extract my wallet.

We got home just at dark, and drank cocoa and watched telly. Star Trek followed by Airplane!. I noticed a few new humourous things in Airplane, though it wasn't quite as funny as I remember it being. I can now tell how really dated it is.

Spent the day looking, applying, and doing the job thing. Tomorrow I plan to go to Carmel. To actually DO IT this time.

Toasted bagel, tea, snacks. Rest of the day was pretty good. Watched some United States of Tara as well. There was more Odd Owl practicing going on, which I enjoy listening to. Good tunes and cool people.

Carmen said she could give me a haircut, and as it has been almost six months since my last time, I am well due for one.

I had a custard bun for dessert. Yay for Sheng Kee bakery!

Had a very good sleep, and still got up within my usual window of getting up.

No replies about jobs. Come ooon! Ah, well, have to be patient. From my end I am just one, from their end they probably have many. That takes time. In the afternoon, I walked down to Irving and swung by Ichiban Kan and got a business card holder (for other people's cards), a notebook, a little pen holder, a pen, and a little case for things. Nice and cheap and most of it was blue and cute. The ramen place I wanted to try didn't open for lunch till 5pm, so I sat in Golden Gate Park and sorted through my satchel, and organized things a bit. It was a very nice day, but I still needed a coat. Redwood City is just generally hot, but here it is sunny but not warm. I don't know which I prefer.

The ramen was a bit underwhelming. The noodles were not as thick as I like. Broth and meat was good enough, but I won't go about recommending it to people any time soon. I got some yams, bananas, and onions on the way back. Gotta have bananas! I'm eating a lot of them these days. And apples, but I always eat a lot of apples. Granny smith. Num nums.

In the evening, there was a litttle barbecue. Yo, Justin, and...Kyle! yes, Kyle came over. We peeled onions and I cut up yams and we made skewers from the ingredients (there were shrimp on these skewers as well). Tasty food, and it grilled up perfectly. There were salmon burgers as well, but I wasn't that hungry due to my late ramen lunch. It was a nice dinner. Lovely company. Always nice to meet new people.

After they left, we watched Star Trek, but I started to nap. Now it is bed time. Another day. The job hunt continues ever on. Wednesday already? Baaahhh.

Farmer's Market Bot 3000

Painted this robot for Josh's birthday, which was today so it doesn't ruin anything. I'll get a proper scan eventually. Anyway, spent my evening finishing that up, while they watched Star Trek (Josh hasn't seen the finished one as of this writing, he went to bed before I was done). Josh & Carmen went out for sushi, and I worked. Before that, we walked down to Irving and that was nice. Checked out Ichiban Kan, and I'm totally going to get one of those fabric pen holder things. Going to be so organizational with my art supplies! Carmen got a sweet coat for a buck at Goodwill.

While Josh was having a birthday lunch with a friend, Carmen and I rolled up our shirt sleeves for his surprise. We put a new cool shelf in his studio, and some better organizational drawers, and hung some art that Carmen had framed. It looks nice. Josh was very surprised and digs it. A much tidier space. He got home right as we were done vacuuming.

There was a birthday tart for breakfast instead of a cake with dinner. It was tasty! Only three candles needed to be blown out, as Josh is only three years old. Duuuh.

I left Nathan's place pretty early, because I knew I'd be helping with the surprise set up and didn't know when Josh would be gone, so I figured better get there early and be safe. I also put some more gas in my car. Twenty bucks puts a good amount of gas in a Prius. It is also nice to drive when traffic is very light. It was a quick trip from Redwood City to San Francisco when there are not many cars to slow everything down. I have the trip just about memorized now.

Very fun day. Tarts, treats, walks, painting. Now back to the job hunt...tomorrow.

was that needed? probably not.

Nate and I went to see a late night showing of Men in Black 3. It was okay, I guess. Not really a needed third movie, and it was pretty obvious how it was shot to exemplify 3D filming. Ahh, oh well.

Woke up early. I couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up. Had some tea, had some toast, did my Internet rounds, watched some Star Trek with Carmen. I left San Francisco at around noon. Went to Redwood City for my usual Sunday routine of Game of Thrones & Nathan. I went to Michael's and got some things for projects. I did some shopping at Trader Joe's as well. Much easier to do it outside of San Francisco than within. No worry about streets and parking and people.

Anyway, got to Nate's. We did some more food shopping, though that was Nate shopping. Got some sandwiches, and ate them in the yard while chatting with Chad, Oleg, & other people. I worked on a drawing. Nathan played a game. We watched Game of Thrones, and walked to the theater for a late showing of Men in Black. Pretty fun day, all in all. Now it is late, and sleep is needed. I'm staying in Rewood City tonight and heading back to San Francisco early tomorrow.

Creature Feature

Spent the last two hours with my blog open in another tab waiting to be written while I got distracted by other things on the Internet.

My ticket for Frankenstein is the one with Cumberbatch as the Creature. Ohhh I'm excited! I wonder if there will be a Redwood City meetup? You know, where fans coordinate at the theater and get dinner afterwards or something. Maybe I should orchestrate it? How hard could it be? Since it is a public place, I probably won't be abducted. Not like I'd be inviting them back to Nathan's place or whatever. Be good to meet some nerds. Local ones.

Oh I got distracted again. Anyway! I've been doing a really good job at getting up between 9 and 10 am. Just that earlier start on the day gets me going (also having people moving about the apartment, the presence of others motivates me more I suppose). There was an honest to goodness screen printer job listing today! In Santa Cruz! You betcha I applied for that. Damn, I hope they interview me and then decide to hire me. I'd be so good for it. It was part time to start, with the possibility of full time. Peeeerfect!

Phil and Stephen came by to record. Chatted with Phil a bit. The song is sounding nice. It is a good diddy. I did my laundry. Yay! Clean clothes are excellent to have. Finished off my leftover curry. Yum. Drank a ton of tea. Yum. Looked for more jobs, though that screen printing one is tops.

Dinner was salmon over a spinach salad. Tasty salmon. Nicely marinated. We watched some Star Trek, and then took a walk and got some waffles on the walk. I got a waffle with Nutella and banana, Josh & Carmen got theirs with Nutella and strawberry, though Josh ate most of it. Back at the house, we watched even more Star Trek original series. It just does not look all that great in high def. Daaang.

Hmmm. To orchestrate a meet up or to not?