Ahh, work. What a strange creature you are, so polite and unassuming and vanilla. And yet, you provide me with enough money to pay the electric bill (with a $50 "account activation fee") and eat Indian food when I want. Still, you make me peel off price tags labels until my thumbs are bleeding because I refuse to grow long nails, which freak me out because they cripple you more the longer they are, and you make me remove a thousand packing peanuts from a box only to put them back in. And you make me smell the sweet sweet scent of French pastries all day but never give me any.
Plus you terrify me because it has somehow become the norm -- nay, the societal pressure -- for people to stay in a job they can't stand and "climb a ladder" to nowhere all while neglecting the fact that often times, they're helping someone else to realize their often far more lucrative and fulfilling dream.
I'm not trying to say I hate work, no. I like it. It gives me something to do and I can pay rent. But I'm almost 99 percent sure now that I will end up working for myself...or at least die struggling to do something that actually feels fulfilling to me.
Tonight, Patrick and I walked around a grassland park at sunset after it had rained for a while. It was beautiful and dewy. The clouds were a champagne mango color and the grass was so green that my eyes had to adjust to it. I even played with two pitbulls named Marmaduke and Leroy. And the birds here are preparing to mate and have taken to squawking up a storm every time someone steps a foot near the park's long grass.
We're all right in the Down Under country. It's almost spring.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Life with a job
Two days ago I got my first post-college job -- Woohoo! I'm now the casual administrative goober for a Chocolate and Patisserie School, which means I'm surrounded by the smell of chocolate all day, get free DELICIOUS lunch and get to play around with that journalism degree I earned. Basically, I write up flyers, labels, event invitations, press releases, etc to the tune of about $100 a half-day and I don't even have to wear business clothes! Sounds great to me.
It was definitely a challenge even getting that job with a 4-month visa, since most places here are looking for long-term employees and few are willing to train you for your particular line of work. But if you get here and get a bartending license right away, you're good to go as far as I can tell. In any case, I got a job so now I'm good to go on the whole "I'm living here" thing.
In my off time, I hang out with Patrick, walk around the beautiful park areas of our great city and write my novel, of which I now have 121 pages, and screenplay, of which I have 40 pages.
We've been here a month already, I can't believe it. Patrick has settled into his classes and is working on an OCRemix.com score, which means the apartment is always filled with music. And we've recently discovered that he will get 2 weeks off at the end of September for Spring Break, which means we will have to find an exciting trip to take -- either to the tropical northeastern coast, the hot red desert center or even to New Zealand. Maybe I can take him volcano luging, volcano hiking and to see the hot springs there, all of which I've visited before and which are GORGEOUS. It's pretty impressive for such a small country. Also, I never had a chance to see the Lord of the Rings Hobbiton when I visited last time so we might have to go.
In the mean time, we're planning little minitrips out of the city -- to Sydney and Ballarat (a gold-mining town near Melbourne) at least.
Will write again soon!
It was definitely a challenge even getting that job with a 4-month visa, since most places here are looking for long-term employees and few are willing to train you for your particular line of work. But if you get here and get a bartending license right away, you're good to go as far as I can tell. In any case, I got a job so now I'm good to go on the whole "I'm living here" thing.
In my off time, I hang out with Patrick, walk around the beautiful park areas of our great city and write my novel, of which I now have 121 pages, and screenplay, of which I have 40 pages.
We've been here a month already, I can't believe it. Patrick has settled into his classes and is working on an OCRemix.com score, which means the apartment is always filled with music. And we've recently discovered that he will get 2 weeks off at the end of September for Spring Break, which means we will have to find an exciting trip to take -- either to the tropical northeastern coast, the hot red desert center or even to New Zealand. Maybe I can take him volcano luging, volcano hiking and to see the hot springs there, all of which I've visited before and which are GORGEOUS. It's pretty impressive for such a small country. Also, I never had a chance to see the Lord of the Rings Hobbiton when I visited last time so we might have to go.
In the mean time, we're planning little minitrips out of the city -- to Sydney and Ballarat (a gold-mining town near Melbourne) at least.
Will write again soon!
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