Happy News

[Saturn]

Forgive my geographical ignorance everyone, but where exactly is Spokane?

[Malia]

Here's a map of Washington State. Washington State lies along the pacific coast and is sandwiched between British columbia (north) and Oregon (south).

I've highlighted in purple the area where I now live: Pasco, Kennewick & Richland--known collectively as the Tri-Cities. I've highlighted in Red where Spokane is. It is in NE Washington State along the boarder with Idaho.

[Saturn]

My knoweledge of the US is appalingly bad.

Your country is so huge and multi-faceted.

Thanks Malia.

[dks]

I love it. Miss Malia's gigantic map of the Pacific Northwest...too cute.

[Malia]

Saturn, you might not know much about U.S. geography, but I don't know much about N. Ireland's, so I guess we're even! And frankly, I think only .01% of the American population knows where Spokane is.
When I went to school in England, I had the hardest time explaining to people where Washington State was. A lot of folks thought Washington State was *inside* Washington D.C.--or vice versa. (The distance from Seattle to Washington D.C. is about 2470 miles.)
A little bit of trivia: Washington State and England (not the whole of Britain, just England) are about the same size.

As dks lives in Texas, I'd bet 3 Englands can fit into *her* state!

[Credo Buffa]

I've learned one thing from this most recent job search: It's not only who you know, but it's who you know who plays *golf* that gets you the job. My current manager made good conversation about me on the golf course with the guy who offered me the job! My friend Angie and I decided that we must learn golf, as that's where real decisions are made .

Ugh, it's an unfortunate truth, isn't it? Another one of those Catch 22s, it would seem: you need to know people who know people who know people to get a decent job these days, but how do you meet these people without having employment with them?

And Amen to the golf thing! Would you believe it that Minnesota has the highest number of golfers per capita in the US, despite our having one of the shortest playing seasons? My dad is trying to get me to play. He's a very avid golfer (although "avid" is hardly a strong enough word to describe it), and a very good one at that. My working in St. Andrews, the golf capital of the universe, was probably one of the most brilliant things I ever could have done for him.

But somehow, golf just doesn't really appeal to me. I think part of it is because it's such an expensive sport to take part in, but mostly because, other than tennis, I tend to prefer team sports like baseball. I suppose there is a virtue in being able to go play your sport without needing other people to either complete your team or compete against you, though.

Well, I have some half good news on my own job search front. My current job ends a week from today, and I leave for Ireland mid September, so you see my dilemma: who the heck is going to hire me for two months? I'm obviously not looking for a real job like I was before, but I'm also not wanting to get stuck at McDonald's (which is what my mom is suggesting, believe it or not--but I'm standing my ground as I refuse to work there on principle, just like I won't work at Wal-Mart). Unfortunately, it's also summer vacation, so most of these kinds of jobs are taken by students on their break.

However, I did find a certain chain restaurant that is apparently doing enough hiring to put an ad in the local paper. I went in tonight and handed in my app, spoke to the manager, and I have an appointment for next Saturday to go in and do their little employment test to see if I'm the kind of person they're looking for. Hopefully I'll pass and walk out with a job!

So yeah, it's not completely good news, since I'm still jobless (other than a few shifts here and there at the movie theatre) as of next Friday at 4:00, but it's better than having no leads at all like I was this afternoon! Plus it might help get my parents off my back about it.

[Malia]

Credo,
ENJOY your time away from work! You'll be working long and hard enough when you get back to school

[Credo Buffa]

Saturn, you might not know much about U.S. geography, but I don't know much about N. Ireland's, so I guess we're even! And frankly, I think only .01% of the American population knows where Spokane is.
When I went to school in England, I had the hardest time explaining to people where Washington State was. A lot of folks thought Washington State was *inside* Washington D.C.--or vice versa.
A little bit of trivia: Washington State and England (not the whole of Britain, just England) are about the same size.

As dks lives in Texas, I'd bet 3 Englands can fit into *her* state!

Ha ha, so true! Hardly anyone in Europe in general knows where Minnesota or Wisconsin are, unless by some off chance they've actually been here. And no, they're not anywhere near New York or California.

But the other thing I noticed was that most people in Europe don't really have a grasp on just how big the US really is. I would say that the whole of the UK is just only a little bit bigger than my state alone--and we have 50!--and the thought of it would be almost incomprehensible. I say the same thing to people who complain about how such a small percentage of the US population has a passport; if they knew how big just our country was, and how almost every climatological and geographical condition you can think of occurs somewhere in one or more of the 50 states, and how the population is so varied that you can easily end up in a community where you feel like a foreigner in your own country, and how we border on only two other countries, both of which also happen to be pretty massive, and how it costs insane amounts of money to travel to any countries other than those two (and even insane amounts within those two, depending on where you're coming from), maybe they'd understand why it is that so few Americans have passports!

From an American standpoint, by the same token, you really don't begin to understand the sheer size of your own country until you travel to places like Europe. It's easy to be envious of living in a small country with so many other nations so easily at your disposal!

[Credo Buffa]

Credo,
ENJOY your time away from work! You'll be working long and hard enough when you get back to school

See, that's what most people are telling me. However, 1) my parents won't hear of it, since money is obviously the main concern in this whole endeavor, not the experience, and 2) I really would personally feel more secure knowing that I have a little more money backing me up. After paying for my deposits and plane tickets and whatever other supplies I need, I'll be lucky to have $3000 in my bank account, which has to last me for a year of living. If I can add another thousand to that between now and September, I'll feel much better about life in general.

Besides, having two months with nothing to do and no friends in the area with whom to do anything, I'd probably bore myself silly. I like having work, if for no other reason than the fact that it keeps my occupied!

[Saturn]

America is so huge I can't get my head around it.

My own country Ireland is probaly the same size as a COUNTY in one of your states...its too big for me to even comprehend

I could not name all 50 states or know even which part of the continent they were in.

I remember that was a quiz question at work one day.
I think we got about forty-six in the end between about ten people

In many ways America is a world in itself, of itself, separated from the rest of the globe.

Culturally and corporately of course, your empire is everywhere however.
If the dead can feel envy the ancient Romans would be envious.

And good luck on the job Credo

[dks]

Well, I don't know my Ireland geography, so...

Yes, Malia--Texas is huge...it is a country in and of itself...Texas pride is, uh, well...BIG.

It takes 10 hours to drive from central Texas to the western end in El Paso--and that's just from the middle of Texas--from east to west end it's probably almost a two day drive. From the southernmost tip to the Panhandle it's undoubtedly more. That's amazing to me when I know in less than 4 hours you can drive all the way through New England from New York. The southern states just get bigger on down the line...

It's ok, though, Saturn. I doubt you're worse for wear not knowing American geography well...

[Credo Buffa]

I got a job today! It's not the one I was talking about before, but they haven't gotten back to me yet. In the meantime, though, I interviewed and was offered a job somewhere else, and seeing as time is of the essence here, I took it. It's only $7/hr, but between this and my job at the movie theatre, I should be able to make the extra money I'm hoping to by the time I leave for Ireland!

Oh, and it's raining today! We've been bordering on a drought here, so this is very, very, very good.

[greymouse]

Congratulations Credo Buffa! You will be working hard, so you can afford to play hard. Awesome, hope it goes well.

[Malia]

I got a job today! It's not the one I was talking about before, but they haven't gotten back to me yet. In the meantime, though, I interviewed and was offered a job somewhere else, and seeing as time is of the essence here, I took it. It's only $7/hr, but between this and my job at the movie theatre, I should be able to make the extra money I'm hoping to by the time I leave for Ireland!

Oh, and it's raining today! We've been bordering on a drought here, so this is very, very, very good.

Yea Credo! Awesome. It's funny how things work out all in good time, ya know? And I envy your rain. We're in the middle of a spell of hot and sunny weather--it is pretty typical never to see rain in July in these parts. I dreamed of cloudy skies last night. . .I suppose I shouldn't wish too much for them as I expect in Spokane (Where winter usually lasts from October to April or May), I'll have plenty of cloudy days to look forward to.

[Saturn]

Believe it or not we're having a mini heat-wave over here in the British Isles - 31 degrees celcius today - the highest temperature in nearly a century.

Global warming is REALLY happening

It hasn't rained in about a week and a half - it's scary

Oh and congratulations Credo on your job