Monday, May 26, 2008

dispatches from the unemployed

Number of job interviews today: 1
Number of jobs applied for today: 5

I'm just going to keep telling myself that something will come along eventually. Someone has to offer to hire me at some point, right? Right.

Reading Breakfast After Noon this morning probably didn't bolster my confidence that much, but it's sort of my own fault.

Guys! I am being a bright-eyed optimist! (But never a bright-eyed optometrist)

Thursday, May 22, 2008

there's no riot...

My, my, what a day it's been. I woke up obscenely late and hauled myself up the stairs to eat some cornflakes and talk shit with my wonderful Southern Belle roommate, Jen, for a solid hour. Note: Jen may or may not actually have a Southern accent. I've been told I have a very vivid imagination when it comes to how people's voices sound (which is code for "I completely fucking make it up").

Following this, I patched a shirt and gave myself a haircut. I was sort of trying to hold out with my hair, but it was already pretty drastically layered from March and it would've grown out strange anyhow. This whole cutting-hair-business is kind of Bad News Bears because summer is coming and my hair tends to look reeeeally bad in the summer, especially if it's short. But uh...you know. I didn't even do that much; it's just shorter on one side now.

Thrilling, I'm aware.

What other wondrous things have I spent my time doing? Uploading CDs onto my new laptop. It's tedious, but weirdly satisfying. I'm mostly just killing an hour before I make delicious delicious vegetable stirfry.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

all good things


Photo credit: Jess Lewis

Well, team...my laptop didn't make it. It seems that the Great Coffee Disaster affected more than just his feeble keyboard. My roommates, my dear friend Cat who was visiting this weekend and I had a quiet service for him in the backyard on Friday evening. Cody was an excellent partner in crime and I'll always have fond memories of him.

Besides this tragic event, the long weekend was awesome. AND: I have two job interviews in the next week. Holla!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

bonefish

Sweet merciful zeus.

Today's dramatic episode: I spilled coffee on my laptop keyboard. At first, it appeared that the only casualties were the navigation arrows in the bottom right corner, but it soon became apparent that none of the keys were working. Now, for someone who does nothing all day, use of a keyboard is pretty fucking essential. I *am* reading three books right now, and I did spend this morning drawing, but I have an intense attachment to my computer. It's where I do about 80% of my writing, plus I fritter and waste away like 10000% of my life blogging and instant messaging my roommates who are approximately ten feet away from me on it, too. So: problem.

I called some computer repair dudes, who clucked their tongues softly and said,

"Well, there's not a lot we can do."
"What do you mean?!"
"Well, we can come over for consulting...if only the keyboard was hit, we can order a new one and install it...for the consulting, hardware, and labour, it'd be about $300. Or we could just set you up with a USB keyboard and it'd be more like $130."

Anything with three digits preceded by a dollar sign turns the stomach of a jobless weirdo.

"Uh...I need to consult my, er, financial advisers."
"Do you mean your parents?"

I called my father, who proceeded to lecture me on how coffee + work areas = always a disaster, which was well-deserved. As I began my feeble defense, Felizia, my roommate, came into the kitchen carrying a still-in-the-box USB keyboard and slammed it on the table triumphantly.

"Dad? Can I call you back?"

It turns out only the keyboard was boned by the Coffee Nightmare of '08, and Felizia is graciously allowing me to use this USB-wonder until I'm totally employed and replace this piece-of-junk-of-an-ancient-Toshiba-laptop.

If I've learned anything from this incident, it's that being unemployed would suck more without proper computer access. Oh yeah, and don't drink coffee near the keyboard. But in all honestly, I probably won't abide by that rule. Will be super careful about that one.

Wow! My life sure is one drama of a rollercoaster.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Scrabbled down the hallways yelling "Yahtzee!".



Ohmygosh. I've applied for a ridiculous number of jobs (I'm too embarrassed to list the number here), and someone called me today. Maybe I'll be working for a temp agency. I can't believe I'm excited about this.

That's my bicycle, by the way. His name is Orde-Lees, after this fellow:


(thanks, wikipedia.)

...who was a surly German fellow aboard Endurance with Shackleford back in the day. He used to ride his bicycle on the icy surface of Antarctica, much to everyone's chagrin, and once got lost (they sent out a crew and found him, though).

Are you guys proud of me? I'm almost making progress. Today's been kind of a downer and I feel like melodramatic grumpy gus, but uh...I'm all about being irrationally cheerful in order to convince myself it's going to be peachy.

Oh, and I updated my flickr. Visit me.

Oh, and also...I've been thinking about Jan Von Holleben a lot lately. Visit him, too.

Monday, May 12, 2008

the beat of the gestetner

Oh boy! Oh boy! Here are some things I like about my new city:

-TTC tokens, because they look like magic money for a sweet videogame world
-Getting parcels from my parents (they pity me and sent me tea and drawing pens to cheer me up)
-Museum Station
-And the Museum, ok
-People not being assholes to cyclists (...yet)
-Legitimately missing home (the Weakerthans haven't sounded this good since I was sixteen!)

There's more, but y'know. I don't want to get too repetitive or predictable.

This week's the week I get a job. I, uh, just know it.

Friday, May 9, 2008



I feel like a total deadbeat. Filling out job applications actually just makes me want to fork out my eyes at this point.

On the bright side, being unemployed has really freed up my time for watching movies.

The only reason I'm still at home is because I'm waiting for my only pair of pants to dry.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

"Great," I said, as I heated up some day-old coffee. "Now my coffee is going to taste like microwave popcorn."
Andrew stared at me for a moment before stating confidently, "Wow. Unemployment suits you."

I've almost been here for two weeks, and I'm still trying to find a job. However, I'm now a card-carrying member of an employment agency...and I applied for EI. This is pretty much cripplingly demoralizing, but also kind of hilarious.

It's hit me that I actually moved here and that I'm probably not going back any time soon. This feeling is possibly the result of spending $153 that I don't actually have on cheap Swedish furniture, but hey: my room is one fine looking room.

Most of my time has been spent madly searching for a job, but I've also been working on my zine (slowly and infrequently). It should have been done months ago, but I'm a lazy bastard, I guess. Also, I have a stack of books that I've irrationally promised myself I'll read by the end of the summer.

Once I procure an inexpensive camera, expect self-indulgent picture-posts showcasing my awesome secondhand yellow bicycle and the other things that are making Torontonian life worth it.

Until then, paix, mes amis.