orientation, chores

Another huge gap in my posts! Yikes.

Since my last post, I have been able to (FINALLY) find a part time job at a local retail place. The last 'cloud' over me though, is that the position is seasonal and I will be up for evaluation at the end of the year. I hope that they decide to keep me. I'd rather not have to do this search AGAIN in a month's time...One month of pay...yay. I went out today to buy the necessary khaki pants for the job, since I do not own any.

The internship has been great. I enjoy going there on my 2 days a week. I wish I could work there more, but right now, the *paid* part-time work needs to dominate my week.

Tomorrow I wake up early to go to the motor vehicle building to hopefully get my Maryland license! I've been waiting forever to obtain it, since I needed the last of 2 proofs of residency here. I finally got it, so off I go again. And also to hopefully get MD tags for the car as well, on the same day. Personally, I'd rather stay in bed tomorrow morning with the hub.

Hub and I have been slowly searching for a bed and bed-frame for the guest-room, mostly to be used by my parents when they visit in January. We decided to check out the local Mattress Discounters Warehouse, since neither of us had ever set foot in one. We just wanted to peak at what they had and for what price. What we had to deal with was a bunch of old, fat, rude salesmen. I've dealt with the usual salesperson who prods and pokes you, and drops hints to buy something. I get that. But these guys were borderline MEAN. The first guy talked our ears off for what seemed like 20 minutes, showing us one mattress after another without giving us a word in. After telling him that we were just LOOKING and not planning to buy anything TODAY - he pretty much ignores what we say and pulls over his bloated associate to show us more mattresses in the back. We finally were able to get out of the conversation and were walking off to the door, when they start, LOUDLY, talking to themselves about us, "What happened?" "They didn't want to see them, I dunno." "What???"

Y'know what? Screw you fat blowhards. I'll never buy anything from anyone who acts like that.

So that soured our morning just a tad, that day. But we had a good weekend over all. Takeshi's birthday is coming up soon! :) About 2 weeks away, on December 2nd. He'll be 25! I've already bought a couple presents online. I always like to make his birthday card, so I gotta make time for that.

I end with recent photos! :)



We recently went back to Old Town and ate at Pizzeria Paradiso

While in Old Town, we could not skip visiting Restaurant Eve (hub's previous work), so we sat at the bar for a little while and he caught up with people. Yummy things I had - 2 drinkies and we shared some smoked deviled eggs and fresh pork rinds. We left happy. :)

View from the MVA parking lot. Not used to seeing mountains everywhere!

My FAVORITE guilty pleasure. 'Bath bombs' from Lush. I got me' a Satsumo Santa recently. Can't wait to try it out!

So, Mr. Chef accidentally placed a hot sauce pan ONTO the kitchen rug the other day. Now we have a circular spot of half-melted rug there.

The inlaws sent us a box the other day! Totally unexpected. Good stuff - shirts and socks mostly. Also, I need someone to tell me HOW to wear the leg-warmer things?? I've never owned a pair. O_O Help.

We had homemade gyoza the other night for dinner! It went pretty fast with the two of us.

one down, one to go

So, since the last time I posted, I ended up getting the internship at Frederick Magazine!! :) やかった〜！

I started this past Wednesday. I'll be going in on Wednesdays and Thursdays from about 10:00am till 3:00pm. The art director is a really nice guy and it turns out that he went to the same art school as me in Lancaster, PA! What a small world huh?

An even weirder coincidence - a long way back (when we were still in VA) I had traveled to Annapolis, MD (close to where I'm originally from) and had interviewed at a magazine firm, which I ended up not getting. Come to find out now, from talking to the people at FredMag, that before me they had another intern who interned there for about 6 months. She ended up leaving because she had gotten hired!.....Guess where? At the same place I went to in Annapolis. Damn. She's there now. I lost that job to her, and NOW I'm where she was!

This just makes me feel even more motivated. If she interned at this place, gained experience, and ended up having a full-time job because of it (and a glowing recommendation from the art director here), then that's what I want. I've always wanted it, but hearing about her good fortune, makes me yearn for it even more.

So my plan is to intern here for at least half a year (that'll make it at least until next May), puff up my resume and get some good pieces to add to my portfolio. Right now, they have me working on ads, and working my way up to articles. I work with two graphic designers Matt and Joe, who are very nice and patient with me (but in my opinion, I've caught on just fine so far). I'm the only girl there in the design department, so that makes me the prettiest by default. ;) But I can run with the boys, no problem.

Now that I've thankfully found the design portion of it, my only concern is finding a part-time job still. Fortunately, I've been offered a part-time position at a local retail store. I also interviewed at another retail store the day after that, but I won't hear a decision from place #2 until the middle of next week. This worries me a little, since I don't know how long place #1 will extend their offer to me, while I wait for place #2's answer. I plan to call place #1 tomorrow, to let them know the situation. If they cannot wait until the middle of next week, I'll just take their offer instead.

If place #2's answer is 'yes' then I can always turn around and take their offer instead. So I'll see how the game plays out!

I end with some recent random photos. Have a good weekend everyone!



downtown Frederick at night, totally empty and still

TK and I walking through downtown

my work space at FredMag :)

first snow of the year! In October?? wow.

I caught this before it melted! interesting, 'wrinkled' snow