I have a secret.

After so much rejection, I eventually found it difficult to take job interviews seriously.

The end of funemployment

I got myself a newspaper job. I've got a long post to write about why I still want to be in traditional media right now and how this whole job hunt has been and what I have said every time an editor asks me "So what the heck do YOU think is going to happen to newspapers?" but I have to buy a car, find an apartment in a town of 12,000 people, and finish my last two weeks in Madison.

Then you'll find me in Baraboo, writing here on education and general assignment topics.

the riptide is raging and the lifeguard is away

I went to San Francisco to visit friends and family, see a new place, get my money's worth out of Delta Airlines (long story) and lastly take a break from sending out my resume.

On one day, we hiked from the redwoods to the sea. It was pretty much exactly like a Woody Guthrie song.


At the entrance to Muir Woods, right by the toilets. Just in case you had any protesting to take care of at the same time.

Matt made me pose.




Shelter from the wind.

Umbrella Corp. strikes again

Sometimes the best thing you can do on a cold, rainy night is sidle into the secret back room of the Jade Monkey, toss back a Grasshopper, and spend a couple hours relating the cannibalistic adventures of the Shwarma King and the mailboy's elephantitis-on-wheels in your best whiskey-and-cigarettes New York accent. Sometimes Jessie will lapse into her whiskey-and-cigarettes Wisconsin accent instead. Occasionally, Robin will turn into a unicorn or Mick will revert to a salesman from the 50s. Every now and then you all will pause, exchange a significant look, and simultaneously feign a seizure. Then ask each other scathingly, "Now what does that have to do with Irish Springs?"

Well!

Somehow I lived this long without learning that following up by phone/e-mail on job applications was common wisdom and might be a good thing to start doing if I wanted to have any kind of chance against all those fired journalists out there.

SO.

Happy Robinukah

Robin's birthday fell on Easter this year. Coincidence? Of course not. We went bowling.

this blog is experiencing a title hiring freeze.

In April, I write one poem per day and promise myself I will revise next month. May is National Revise-A-Whole-Lot-of-Crap Month. I find myself fulfilling the "sits at Apple laptop in coffee shop listening to Tom Waits and writing unrhyming verse about detectives" cliche quite a lot.

In the meantime, I break a wedding gift of my mother's while indulging in manic housecleaning. She asks me to write a poem about it. I oblige.

Thanks to the kindness of a friend with a spare bedroom, I am moving downtown before I find myself stuck with three dozen poems about broken glass.

Early morning, the arboretum.

Baby, it's cold outside.

All right, so I'm back in the USA, have unpacked my suitcases, and am now a well-adjusted cold weather girl again. To the point that 50 degrees sounds absolutely aMAZing. As I now begin the task of finding a job in a manic-depressive economy in which traditional newspapers are weeping and cutting themselves in their bedrooms, I expect to have some time on my hands for wading through photos from SA and posting more anecdotes, etc, from the trip. This blog may also turn from travel blog to general life blog, since I'm trying to keep in touch with about 3 continents right now.

Projects for (F)unemployment:
Work on Spanish
Prepare for half marathon
Submission of poetry to magazines
Finish poem-film noir project
Freelance articles
Photo portfolio
Bike rides, high fives
Camping
Wrestle in food products
Learn how to kickbox, roller skate, or tango
...