no good, no good

I've had some pretty ridiculous luck these days. Particularly with jobs. We all know how my last job ended: me getting yelled at irrationally and then doing a whole lot of crying and writing some very honest letters to people with power. No good, no good. Then I had the interview from hell where hardly anyone was wearing shoes. And someone was wearing sweatpants. That was also no good. Then the internship that I was pining over finally, after dragging me along for well over a month, finally decided to tell me that couldn't pay me, but could consider it in the fal. No good, either.

So now I have accepted a job at a boutique as a salesperson and marketer (as was mentioned in the interview). Cool, huh? Granted, its not agency experience, but I love clothes so it seemed like a decent fit. Today was my first day and the day went okay, but I came home feeling like a dark cloud was looming over me. Then I read an email my boss sent everyone, with a July schedule attached: Please welcome Olivia as a full time employee at the mall location and (insert name here) who will be part time and help with marketing and public relations. If you read that like I did, you see that she didn't associate my name with the whole marketing thing.

What is going on here? Seriously, this is insane. So now a job that I thought would maybe give me a small amount of experience is looking like any other job. Ugh. I am so exhausted by all of this run-around. I just want a nice job at a nice agency where I can work hard and learn a lot... I didn't know that would be too much to ask for.

(cute pic from here)

perspective

Here are some delightful photos I took this afternoon with my sisters. They're for a project in a photojournalism class I'm taking this summer; I'm documenting feet and shoes. A little weird, but very fun.

So this weekend I traveled to Iowa to visit a friend for her 21st birthday, and I definitely had a good time getting away and catching up with old friends. It's nice to reminisce about good times we've all shared. It put a lot of things into perspective for me:

1. Friendships are the kind of bond that is meant to be changed and stretched and molded

2. Love is irreplaceable and should never, ever be taken for granted

3. Long, lonely drives are the perfect time to do some serious thinking about life

More later... for now, bedtime.

my health obsession

So I was shopping with Jameson at the grocery store today and we ran into an adorable old man hobbling around... whilst wearing a jean vest with a slow triangle on the back! It had to b eone of the most amazing things I've seen in awhile. Gotta love an old man who's willing to make a joke.

We continued to shop, now with big smiles on our faces, and while we were in the baking aisle, I noticed some "fake" sugar. It's that low-calorie stuff that you find in diet sodas and stuff. Of course, there's aspartame, which is just terrible. If you drink diet soda, STOP NOW! That stuff will kill you or at least cause cancer. The FDA has gotten more complaints about aspartame than any other other food ingredient in it's history. That's some seriously bad stuff.

Moving on, we continued to shop. While grabbing some milk, I noticed a small bottle of Trop50 - it's orange juice with calcium and vitamin D, but also boasts have 50% less suger. Well, I'm down for that! So I grabbed it and took it home with me.

When I cracked opne the bottle and took a sip, however, I thought, "Is this diet orange juice?!" My tounge is like a diet-o-meter, though... I can taste anything made with "fake" sugar. So I read the label. No aspartame. But there was Ret A (PureVia). So I googled it.

The information I found after a bit of hunting was astounding. I can't believe how CocaCola and PepsiCo have such control over what get's okayed by the FDA. I also can't believe the biased studies and reports they make about these products. Come on, American public, don't let them fool you! We're so much smarter than all this!

During an argument awhile ago with a friend of mine about her diet soda habit, she said, "Well I'd much rather die of cancer than be fat!" Being fat and dying of cancer are not our only options, people. Drink water. If you're dying for something sweet, make some tea and lightly sweeten it with real sugar, the way Mother Earth intended! Need a soda? Try Hansen's... they have fruity beverages as well as colas and root beer. It's natural, it doesn't have high fructose corn syrup, and it doesn't have preservatives. Now that's the way it should be.

(This is my favorite flavor!)

Read more here:

http://www.healthynewage.com/blog/stevia-fda-approved/

http://nutritionwonderland.com/2009/02/science-truvia-and-purevia-rebiana/

(pictures from here and here and here)

refusing to be unappreciated

I have had enough. Enough of the unappreciation, enough of the politics, enough of the unnecessary cruelness. I quit my job.

In a matter of moments my managers are going to receive a typed letter explaining why I will not be coming in to work today. They will read exactly why I feel frustrated and unhappy. Does this letter fully express my anger? No; I needed to remain professional, and typing: SHE'S SUCH A BITCH!!! didn't seem appropriate.

Not all jobs are fun. I've washed dishes, worked in more than one food court, and been alone in a frightening and dangerous hotel full of crack heads and prostitutes. This job wasn't very fun either, but a particular manager had it out for me, and after I had politely expressed a few opinions about the morale in the food court, I knew my time was coming to a close. It was clear she wasn't going to let me make it past my probationary period, so I decided to quit rather than be fired.

It kills me to think about how close I've just come to being fired, and I feel awful about leaving a job without any notice. But I did what I had to do, and I just need to keep telling myself that this was not my fault. Certain circumstances here are completely out of my control. I am still a good employee with a great work ethic.

I've been working one day a week at the salon I used to be full-time at, and so I will be working there today. I am not hopeless; I will find a new job. Now its time to start really crossing my fingers that I get the internship downtown. And, hey, being out of a job for a little while won't be that bad... I'll be able to catch up on laundry and cleaning and things.

(picture here)

sunshine on my shoulders

It's such a beautiful day! I started my day by waking up early (or early for me at least) to take an awful midterm. I've decided I need to take summer classes if I want to graduate on time (which I desperately do) and so that means I'm currently struggling to keep up with my four-week Law of Mass Communication class. Law is hard, especially when you're moving through the material at warp speed. So what did I do when I had (barely) finished the test on time?

I went for a walk out to the lighthouse, of course!

I love living in this adorable little lakeside community.

Duckies... say, "cheese!" I'm so in love with these pretty ducks.

Heading back to shore.

Notice the ship in the background... it's almost PirateFest!

Ahh, the lighthouse. It's bliss, I tell you.

The walk was a bit breezy, but very nice.

It was refreshing to get outside and absorb some sunshine.

Add a cup o' tea and today will end up being pretty darn good.

call me a crazy cat lady...

... but I love my little kitties!

This is Jameson and Eskimo snuggling together.

Eskimo sleeping on the kitty condo my grandparents made.

He's so cute that you wouldn't think

he's as obnoxious as he really is.

This is Louie... he was Zoey when we thought he was a girl.

Yeah, not so much.

Regardless... he loves, loves, loves boxes!

Eskimo looking up adorably at the camera.

Aren't my babies just the cutest? I know I sound like a crazy cat lady when I say that, but it's true. They're like my little children, and sometimes I think they are as badly behaved as little children! These pictures were taken with my fancy new camera... It's a Nikon Coolpix L100. A very nice camera for the price. Granted, I have a lot to learn about taking good pictures, but I think having a nice new camera is really going to help. I'm taking a photojournalism class this summer and so that seemed like an appropriate excuse to buy a better camera!

pictures and cameras and gowns... oh my!

Bored? Go to befunky.com and upload a few photos of you and your friends and make them look way more fun! Granted, you don't have a ton of options, but it's pretty cool to apply different affects to your pics and see what happens.

Speaking of pictures, I got a new camera! It's a Nikon and it's fabulous. I haven't had a ton of time to mess around with it, but I did bust it out the night I got it and terrorized my poor kitties with picture-taking madness. I promise to post those adorable pictures soon.

Moving on to yet another topic, I love this dress. Lace, lace, lace. That's what I want on my dress. I also don't want to have a strapless dress. No matter how sexy they look, I just need to accept the fact that I don't have the boobs to hold it up, especially not a dress as heavy as a wedding gown! I have this massive tattoo on my back, by the way, and I think I might get it professionally covered up for the day. My family won't like it, and (I know, I know, it's my body and my wedding so I should do what I want) I think I would feel more elegant with it covered up. Also, I want a killer veil... like one thats super long and has detailing along the edge. Ohhh...

Was this last topic prompted by something? Mmm... maybe. We'll all just have to wait and see, I guess. :)

(pretty dress here)

ah, what an investment that'd be...

I think I'm going to start my day tomorrow with a run. I'm sure that when the alarm goes off tomorrow morning I am going to seriously regret this decision, but I think it's for the best. I've been feeling seriously unfit lately and it's time to make a change. So tomorrow, I'm going for a run.

I was supposed to have an interview today for an internship, but we had to reschedule for tomorrow. I tried on a bunch of different outfits in preparation, and I did find one that I liked. The pants, however, had ben packed away and apparently I don't know how to fold things very nicely because they were terribly wrinkled. I had to call my mom to bring over her iron and give me a hand. The pants look much nicer now.

My mom commented that I should invest in a suit. She's probably right, so I let her take me to Bayshore Mall to shop around. It was nice to have mommy-daughter bonding time. I don't see my mom a whole lot so it was nice to just spend a casual afternoon with her that didn't involve doing my laundry or picking up my mail.

Sadly, though, I was unable to find the perfect suit, or blazer for that matter. I'm not very busty (uh, at all) so nothing fits me quite right on top when it comes to blazers. They hang open funny since I don't really fill them up. Oh well, we tried. But I do agree with her that I should have a nice suit outfit, so the search is not over. I also seriously want to invest in a trench. I like this pink one by Ralph Lauren... now I just need to find a more affordable version!

Oh! And I almost forgot... when my mom and I were shopping, we ventured into a store we've never been in before. The sales lady asked what we were looking for and decided to show us an "investment piece" and by that she meant very expensive. It was a silken wool (from Italy) blazer for $1,200. It was Armani. I touched it. It was very nice, but wow! Talk about a big investment!

(runner pic here, find trench at www.saksfifthavenue.com)

I'm going to need a little bit of luck on my side tomorrow. I'm going to Core Creative for an internship interview, and I am nervous! I want this job very badly. Very badly. Serving hot dogs isn't for me, although I am glad that I did it for awhile. It reminded me how important it is to be kind to those who serve you. Being rude gets you nowhere. It also gave me the chance to make some new friends, and I figured out how to tolerate unfortunate circumstances. But I think this stint as a Costco employee needs to end soon; I have bigger and better things ahead of me.

This opportunity would be amazing. I'd finally have the chance to work in an environment I've dreamed of. I want to dress nicely for work, I want to be surrounded by brilliantly creative minds, and I want to get paid to write and create. That would be awesome.

When I spoke to one of the individuals at the company, she was unsure if the position would be paid or not, and I told her it would be much easier for me to fill the position if it were paid. What I really meant was, "if this isn't paid, I can't afford to do it." So lets all cross our fingers that this internship will be paid, and lets all cross our fingers that I manage to come across as witty and intelligent. I want them to see my potential and say, "This is the intern we've been waiting for."

To calm my nerves, I've been putzing around on the computer, and one of my friends recommended that I try Pandora radio. Its a website that allows you to pick a song or a band that you like, and they create a playlist of similar songs and play them as if they were reading your mind! It's spectacular, really, because it knows what you're in the mood to listen to. I love it. Try it sometime.

(photos from here and here)