Erincita

Cascadia
Tuesday, March 30, 2004

I am at Cascadia ready to buy software. Dana has been kind enough to offer me access to her humble abode so that I can use her computer. I need her to install some software so that I can use the Office 2002 that goes with the course I'm taking. This course may be a little more difficult than I thought but I'm perhaps even more excited to see how much I have to benefit from. I will officially call myself "computer savvy" if I master these courses.

2:37 PM |

School Starts
Saturday, March 27, 2004

School starts on Monday. Oh, and most you probably have no idea that I enrolled. I was only planning to take what I thought was a free-for-all computer class for people on unemployment. I went to an orientation at Cascadia Community College expecting an introductory computer class. By the time I left, I discovered that I am so poor that I qualify for financial aid and can attend a full spring quarter of "worker retraining" computer courses. I signed up for advanced Word, beginning Excel and beginning Access. Hopefully I can make myself more marketable to employers. The best thing to do after I finish would be to tackle some temp agencies again, take their tests and hope that by then they'll feel I'm good enough to hire out to their clients. But that will be at least 11 weeks from now. If I can't find something in the next two weeks I'll go to the mall and apply at Mervyn's. Yay Mervyn's! Everything fits me there.

Anyway, I started this post with the intention of telling you what I am doing on this, the last Saturday of complete, unemployed freedom. I am making empanadas! "The empanada is to Chile what a hamburger is to the United States." (Ruth Van Waerebeek-Gonzalez) That's a quote from my cookbook. I'm a big fan of empanadas and haven't had the chance to make them until now. I'm scared they'll turn out horribly. Wish me luck!

11:49 AM |

Church Functions
Friday, March 26, 2004

The last time I spent this many evenings at some kind of church function I was just out of college. At least then I was working part-time for the university. I was an office assistant for the Department of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. The last hour of my shift I took over as receptionist while the regular girl, Katja, went to lunch. I got a number of amusing calls from people who had stumbled upon "interesting fish". To whom do I direct these calls? I took messages and told the staff, who usually dismissed them. I broke the hearts of many-a-interesting-fish-finder. Let me tell you about an interesting fish. For one week, a giant pink squid was on display a few buildings away (the smell, of course, was repulsive). The head was at least six feet long, the tentacles at least 10. Pretty scary. Dead, of course, because it was ripped in half, refusing to let go of a tuna that fishermen had caught. What a sight that must have been. I'm not really expecting the same experience, I just want to work in an office again. Why am I so ashamed of that? People ask me what I want to do, and with all honesty I say I'd like to work up to being an Office Manager. I want to do something that makes me an asset, a valuable employee. I feel like I get these looks of pity because I don't want to be a doctor, a computer programmer, an engineer, a lawyer, a teacher, a mortgage banker, a friggin' rocket scientist. What's wrong with actually wanting a desk job? And why is it so friggin' hard to GET one? There was a long period of life when I imagined my dream job being in an embassy or consulate in Latin America, drinking in the warmth of the culture day after day and falling in love with a cinnamon-skinned, dark-haired angel and living happily ever after. When did it get so hard to daydream, and do my new desires simply qualify as lowered aspirations? I want to build a family here, I'm happy here . . . at least I think I am. Some days I'm frightening positive I am. Chances are I'd even refuse a job offer in Laguna Niguel, working as an Immigration Adjudicator. Mom is appalled at the idea that I'd give up the opportunity to live and work so close to "family". I tend to wonder if I've unconsciously chosen the path of least resisitance. I used to think it was weak to stay where you grew up, to become attached to childhood friends and comfortable familiarity. But what person in their right mind would give up the Puget Sound? The rain has never bothered me much. It's more of an excuse to cuddle up in big sweaters that make you feel "cute", even when cuteness is nearly impossible once you surpass 5'4". And don't get me wrong, I'm proud of my height. Everyone else is just too short, according to me.

We'll end the rambling here. I am taking much comfort in re-connecting with church folk again. I'm not a Bible-beater, I just like to be reminded that God will not put me beyond what I can bear. There's something out there for me, and hopefully a someone as well. Until then, I am to "drink from the cup I'm given" and try to glean whatever lesson (perhaps patience?) He's trying to teach me.

4:45 PM |

Applying for Jobs
Saturday, March 06, 2004

Okay, so far Erincita has applied to Costco, 5 or 6 Administrative Coordinator jobs at the UW, a training class at Holland America, and a temp agency that will remained unnamed due to my extreme displeasure with them as of late. Still nothing. I know for a fact that a new class is opening at Holland America so I expect a call from them soon and will make follow-up calls to the UW and Costco on Monday to make sure my apps are being processed. I am hoping for something at the UW, but HA would be fine too because I just want to embody my beloved "city gal" dream life. To my surprise, I feel like I belong to Seattle. I like the way they say "I belong here" in Spanish, "Pertenezco aqui", implying the permanent attachment I feel to the greatest city on God's green earth--or at least to those who refer to the United States as "God's country". It's nice to be happy in one's geographical habitat.

I've seen two great movies, polar opposites at each other. Dad and I were left speechless after "The Passion of Christ", everyone's heard enough criticism that I'll settle with my endorsement that it's definitely worth seeing. Dana needed to unwind from a hard day at work yesterday and, after cheering her at least a little with a box of Samoas I bought from the girl scouts outside Bank of America, we ate dinner and went to Redmond Town Center to see "Starsky & Hutch". I looooooooved it, but Dana refuses to take "Old School" down from its pedestal. She may as well bronze her copy and set in on a makeshift mantel over an imaginary fireplace in her apt. Not that I don't love her place. I already low-balled her on renting a closet to keep my stuff in until I moved, and now I want her to give me her unused shelves that Mom and Dad gave her as a birthday gift. What can I say? I'm always looking for a bargain (I mean, who can blame when you look at my mother the Garage Sale Extraordinare?). This apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

4:24 PM |