Potential Road Trip!

I preface with "potential" because I may end up taking a train, but I think for my sanity I will just try to enjoy this time that I've been given and use it for good things like a massive PA road trip to Burgettstown, PA. Why you ask would I drive 8 hours away and through the most boring highway system ever, well the answer is NIN of course and if you didn't know that, shame on you. You should know that even casual NIN fans are willing to travel half way across the globe for a NIN show and to also meet up with their fellow NINnies for some NINtastic bar and club gatherings.

Also, I'm being called over by some awesome people that I haven't seen in almost a year and they're going to put me up for the night, so what the hell. It's NIN time and NIN time spent with NIN friends, YAY! (And how many times can I use NIN as an adjective? Hmm...)

So to break up the 8 hours I think I'll have a stop over in the capital of Harrisburg and soak up some of the local goodies that are there. I really love checking out antique stores, so I must hit up this place I found on Google Maps, Atomic Warehouse. It looks like a good spread of retro toys and clothing as well as some funky things in general. Perhaps I can expand on my cigar box collection, muahahahaa! I'm not above haggling with my local smoke shoppe for their left over empty cigar boxes and leaving with a whole bag full, so this should be no problem at all. :-)

Also, I found a really funky coffee shop called Cafe di Luna that I must check out as well and maybe have a bite to eat before I leave for Burgettstown. I mean it has the number one quality for a funky coffee shop, a cheesily designed website with a cute musak song in the background. It may as well be a beacon in the distance for me.

So yeah, once I decide and actually commit to the road trip, you guys will definitely get a telling of the whole experience. I have my Blogger linked with my Twitter and everyone plays nice now, so let the road trip blogging commence! This comes out of my disappointment at not keeping travel logs when I went to the UK a couple years back. I had such tremendous experiences and just no time to actually blog about it, let alone a computer connection to let that blogging happen, so some of the memories have been dulled over time. However, now with the acquisition of my Crackberry and all the blogging sites under creation at my disposal, it is on like Donkey Kong, as they say.

Meh...

The place in Queens turned out to be a complete crap hole and had an equally disappointing guy in charge who said I would make a good wife and that I shouldn't bother taking the PE exam because women don't do too well on the exam. So hence, I am not working there. And yeah, he actually said all of that.

I guess I've been very sheltered from all that misogyny. I went to college from '00-'04 and had about a decent 60-40 ratio in my classes, the later representing the females. I had mostly guy friends and there was no "well I have a penis so I'm better than you at math," in fact everything was so not an issue that when other girls would come up to me and say I was "doing something groundbreaking" I got angry at them because I didn't understand what they meant. Even out of college, in the scary professional world filled with cavemen and ex-football players, really wasn't that much of a problem.

My first boss, even though by the end I think his lyme disease was slowly making him crazy, he was still OK. I did get some sporadic female hits at my latest place, but nothing in that realm of "you can't possibly know how to do this since you're a woman." They were mostly flirting hits or from the caveman ex-marketing guy who was later fired and that doesn't count. He was kind of like a big fly on it's last legs buzzing around the office annoying everyone, finally my boss did the right thing and cornered him in the back office and splatted him with his newspaper.

So, I'm never really prepared when it comes to situations like this. I grin and bare it, and if anything make the person feel dumb by saying, "well of course I'm going to take my PE exam since you only have your PE Civil and don't have your PE Structural." That's code for "you wimped out and took the easier civil exam you waste of space, so go f*ck yourself." But then later on I feel icky about even stepping into an office like that and need to shower. Then I question my outfit, maybe I shouldn't have worn heels, maybe I should have worn my hair up, but then ultimately, nothing I could have done would make some guy like that take me more seriously. Hence why I'm not going to work for him.

So the plugging away with my resume continues, finding new leads from Google Maps and friends of mine. I have been getting some hits to my supersecret professional blog, so that makes me happy, since anything I've been sending out recently includes that address so it must be one of those people. The search continues...

Interview #2! w00t!

I encountered a problem today with my penthouse that's going up in Chelsea. One of the columns was far too weak to handle the wind coming in from a certain direction and thankfully the mistake (and typo apparently) was caught by someone. And who do you think it was caught by? Not the 4 engineers that had the opportunity to check over the drawings, not the steel detailer; it was one of the glass installation dudes (highly technical term by the way "dude," use it wisely) attaching a scaffolding to the column. Thank you! If I'm ever out there again I can kiss one of you guys! Well, only on the cheek and no hug...maybe...

So while on a conference call with, I believe the final total was 6 people, my phone rings with some 718 area code. At first I thought it was the other people giving me a call back, but that's Chelsea. So since I'm having a silent panic attack already on the phone, I figure I'll let that go to voicemail. They don't leave a message.

After the phone call and the following call with the engineer I answer too, who was tremendously awesome about the mistake and blamed himself too (everything's cool, it was an oversight of everyone involved, everyone's to blame, blah blah blah), I figure I'll call back this phantom number from one of the other boroughs since god-help-me it may be someone lost in the conference call we had. I call and get this receptionist from an engineering firm. (YOWZA!) Apparently the PE was calling back applicants for job offers. (YOWZA again!) So she says he's on the phone and he'll call you back.

So he does (yay) and we talk and dish and discuss and all that other stuff that happens on the pre-interview-interview. It's a small firm out of Queens, but they've been in business for 15 years and are about to leap into the 21st century with a website and a new engineer. I set up a time to go there and he gives me directions, yay again.

So I look through all the places I've applied too since I printed out all the ads or blind posts from Craig's List and guess how long ago I sent them my resume? 3 months ago...*sigh*

You know, even though I'm on the receiving end of this crap stick of the economy, I feel bad for these poor bastards that have to review ALL of these resumes. Can you imagine how many resumes these people are receiving if it took them 3 months to get back to me??!! Good god man...

Daily Mitchism

It's been a while, so here's a couple good ones:

"I hope the next time I move I get a real easy phone number, something that's real easy to remember. Something like two two two two two two two two. I would say 'Sweet.' And then people would say, 'Mitch, how do I get a hold of you?' I'd say, 'Just press two for a while. And when I answer, you will know you have pressed two enough.'"

"I was walking down the street with my friend and he said, 'I hear music', as if there is any other way you can take it in. You're not special, that's how I receive it too. I tried to taste it but it did not work."

And my favorite:

"This shirt is 'dry-clean only'...which means it's dirty."