Would Somebody Please Hire Me?!?

Hello, everyone. Long time, no write. Or read, for that matter. I’ve been neglecting everyone, but at least I’m neglecting you all equally, right?

So we’re into week five since I applied for my two almost-ideal jobs, and I still haven’t heard from either of them. They have one more week before I write them off completely (ooh! A threat!) Meanwhile, I have an interview tomorrow (yay!) for a slightly-less-than-ideal job, which is certainly not too shabby. It’s the only interview I’ve had all summer, and beggars can’t be choosers, right?

I’ve been highly disturbed to notice lately that it only took one and a half months in Seattle for my tan to fade into oblivion. Toulouse starts to get hot and sunny in March, and by July, I had worked up the darkest tan of my life. Basically, I went from glaring, translucent white to a nice, human shade of peach. Traveling around France for three weeks (which I realize I still haven’t written about) especially helped my tan along, so that I thought I would nice and sort of golden until at least October. But no. Seattle is just so pathetically sunlit that less than two months here has erased all memory of a tan. And it’s not that it’s been cloudy here. There have been a fair number of sunny days, some of them as hot as 90 degrees F (32 C). I have got to get out of this town. I need more sun! Doesn’t make much sense, though, that my number one choice of city to go to is London. Whatevs!

I did what I could to remedy my tint condition by going to Wild Waves with Becky and John the other day. I think we were the only people over 20 years old without children. It’s good to be unique, though, right? It was sunny and pretty warm, and I managed to get only very slightly sunburned. Now I’m kinda tan again, so it’s all good.

Okay, enough inane babble for today. Wish me luck in the job search!

The Rambling Gene

My grandmother gave me some interesting news while we were visiting on Sunday. We were on the topic of geneology, and apparently, I'm 1/8 Norwegian! Isn't that exciting? I had no idea I was that big a fraction anything. I could totally go to Norway and act like I own the place! And also, some of my ancestors somewhere on my dad's side were some of the first settlers of America back in the 1600's. I have at least three ancestors who fought in the American Revolution, so I'm a true-blue American after all! I thought I was just a western European mutt with no roots or heritage, but no! I have roots! Yay me!

I was also reminded of one of the traits I've inherited from my grandfather. My grandfather loves to hear himself talk, and he usually tells stories about his past (or rants about "society these days"). When he talks, he does a few characterisitic things:

1. He rambles on forever without prompting
2. He goes on tangents and completely forgets his original point
3. He gives WAY too much background information

For example, Grandma mentioned "The Phantom Tollbooth" and Gramps took off talking about some quote from the book. He started in on the background information to set up delivery of the quote, then went off on a tangent inspired by the background info, rambled on for a while about why corporal punishment should be allowed in schools and how society's current problems all stem from the point in history at which corporal punishment was abolished in America's public schools. He never got back to the quote from the book, but no one really noticed anyway.

Anyway, I realized that I totally inherited this from my grandpa. Rambling on forever? Check. Tangents? Check (this is more a problem when I speak, and I don't really do it too much in my weblogging.) WAY too much background information? Check. I'm particularly bad at that one. I had to give a ten-minute presentation for work once, and my practice run was 20 minutes long because I was trying to give too much background info.

I guess I've been kind of self-conscious about this trait, but now that I realize both my dad and grandfather have it, too, I feel less self-conscious about it. I can't help it! It's in my genes!

Wouldn't it be cool to be the one to isolate the gene(s) responsible for rambling?

What I Do When I Should Be Doing Something Else

Lazy, lazy, lazy. Yesterday, I slept until 1:30 in the afternoon. Eek! Today, I set my alarm for 8, hit snooze when it went off, slept until 9, then went back to sleep again until 10. I have issues.

I've been going through everything I own, trying to weed out the unnecessary, and I ended up with two and a half boxes of books I didn't want. I took them to Half Price Books to sell, and they gave me a measly 40 bucks! For two and a half boxes! Okay, okay, I know that's pretty reasonable. I don't know how much I was expecting to get; just, more, I guess. At any rate, I now have 40 dollars cash. Sweet! I've been walking around for the last three weeks with exactly one dollar, so that's definitely an improvement. One of these days, I'm gonna go through all my clothes and hawk them somewhere. My room here at my dad's is a total mess, almost the entire floor covered with my junk, and I'm sitting here doing what? Blogging. Like I said, lazy, lazy, lazy.

At least this weekend I'll be busy, busy, busy. Nickel Creek concert tonight, my dad's showing me around Renton tomorrow morning, a birthday party in the afternoon, something (can't remember what) in the evening, then we're driving down to Vancouver on Sunday to visit my grandparents (me gran's a wee bit ill). I haven't applied for any other laboratory jobs (I want to wait until I know that I definately did not get either of the two I really want), but I've been applying for waitressing jobs. Ick. What am I thinking? I hated waitressing! Oh, right, I'm thinking of the money. Money, money, money.

Le Sigh

Um, okay. So, I haven’t blogged in quite a while. Shall we recap?

The weekend of the 29th, my former step-dad (is a step-dad always a step-dad?) got married. To someone other than my mom. In order to ignore that fact and try to forget about it, my mom decided to go to an out-of-town resort for the weekend, and she took Jody and me with her (Becky and Amy went to the wedding, securing spots for themselves in my mother’s doghouse.) I had no desire to go to the wedding, but I was anxious about spending the whole weekend with my mom. Our lives have been rife with drama lately, and we haven’t been getting along well.

We went to Sun Mountain Resort, near Winthrop, WA, and it was really nice. Jody and I went horseback riding, and we all went for a chuck-wagon breakfast. It was beautiful, but I was on edge for much of the weekend.

The following Wednesday, Ross (my former step-dad), invited my sisters and me over for pizza. His new wife was there, and it was extremely awkward for me to be seeing Ross for the first time since November, and to have this strange new woman. It was odd seeing our old house and our old stuff being used by the two of them. It felt good to see Ross again, but I couldn’t really talk to him or catch up with him in that setting.

Anyway, he gave me some of my mom’s mail that had been sent to his house, and I waited until Saturday to give it to her. I was scared to tell her that I’d been to his house, because I knew she’d be upset (even though she told me she would be fine if I hung out with him). I’m not really going to get into the details, because it’s too hard to explain the nature of our relationship with our mom, but after a two-hour discussion, she asked me to move out. I’ve wanted to move out for a while, so I was mostly okay with this, but it probably could have come at a better time. Like, when I wasn’t broke as a joke and unemployed. It’s not that big a deal, though, because the rest of my family is being totally supportive and my dad and his wife welcomed me into their home with open arms.

It’s just hard to have my mom upset with me when I don’t feel like I did anything wrong. My heart, conscience, brain, whatever is telling me I didn’t do anything and that I’m a good person, but my mom is trying her darnedest to convince me otherwise.

Anyway, that’s where I’m at. My laptop isn’t yet set up for internet here, so I’m not sure how often I’ll be blogging or reading blogs, but I hope everyone is doing okay out there in blogland. Bisous!

And so it begins...

Oh jeez. I’m a total klutz! I found this awesome job listing for a position that would be pretty doggone close to perfect for me, and I started getting together everything I would need to apply for it. I polished up my résumé and wrote a cover letter explaining why I’m well qualified for the job, then I filled out the company’s application. I even started to draft the email I was going to send them. The thing is, I wasn’t going to apply just yet because I was going to wait for my mom to proof-read my résumé and cover letter. So I got the email all ready to go, with everything attached, and I went to press “Save Now,” and accidentally pressed “Send.” OF COURSE. I almost started hyper-ventilating. I immediately pressed “Cancel” and “Discard” and everything I could think of, but it was already flying through the system of tubes that apparently make up the Internet.

There’s not really any reason to panic, yet. I think it should all be fine, but I wanted to make sure my résumé was perfect before sending it. Oh well. I need to chill and trust the Big Guy that they will love me and my résumé and beg me to come work for them.

*sigh* Now I just have to wait four to six weeks, which I find completely unnerving. Their website said that I would only hear from them if they were interested in interviewing me, and that would be between four and six weeks from now. If they don’t want to interview me, I won’t ever hear anything from them. So I’ll have to wait TWO MONTHS to know if I got through the first trial, or if my résumé was indeed less than perfect. ARGH. Furthermore, they don’t list a phone number on the website to call them and check on application status. Come on, people! Throw me a freakin’ bone, here!

Anyway, this makes my first job application this summer! Yippee! It is kind of a relief to have that behind me, despite the stress of not having meant to do it yet. Now I can say that I am actively searching for a job. I will celebrate this productive day by visiting blogs (I know it's been a while). Later!

Oh, hey, what's up?

I feel like I no longer have anything to blog about. I have nothing to say now that I’m home. Were I to blog of my daily goings-on, I’m not sure it would be all that interesting. My blog is no longer French-flavored. I don’t know if you all find it boring, now, but I certainly do. Haha!

Honestly, though, I have been busy lately. So busy that I haven’t even started looking for a job. Bad, Kusems, bad! There’s so much I need and want to do, but I’ve been spending every day with my sisters. Alright, I need to be more fair to myself. Let’s see, how did my week go?

Monday, I went to the mall with all my sisters and John, and I bought gifts for my French host family, so that’s good. Tuesday, I spent the day in the U-district. I stopped by my old lab and said “hi” to all my old coworkers (yay!), I ate lunch downtown with my Pops (yay!), and I did some library research for HIV research labs in Seattle. In the evening, I hung out with my sisters and John again, mostly just sitting and talking with Amy. Her young ‘un boyfriend (not yet 17!!) broke up with her on Monday night, and she was a teensy bit sad. Wednesday, I hung out again with Amy, Becky, and John, and their friend. We went walking in Discovery Park, through the woods. I don’t know why, but woods always make me think of fairy tales. Anyhoo, we had dinner at an Indian restaurant in Ballard (yum yum), then went to Marymoor Park to watch “Office Space” in the open air. I totally pigged out on kettle corn, which brings me to Thursday, when the apparently lethal combination of Indian food and way too much kettle corn gave me indigestion and, um, let's just say "discomfort" that lasted the whole day. I tried to look for jobs online, but was too sick to concentrate, so I watched TV instead. In the evening, I hung out with my wonderful, adorable, awesome friend, Jacque. We saw “The Devil Wears Prada” at the Lincoln Square cinemas in Bellevue. I found the movie a bit disappointing. I haven’t read the book, so I didn’t really know what to expect, but for some reason, I was expecting a kind of original story. It wasn’t original at all. That story has been done to death. Every pre-teen television show that has ever existed has used this plot line at least once. I mean, if you’re gonna use it, at least spice it up a bit, so as to make a distinction between your movie/show and every other movie/show that has already run this plot line into the ground. That said, I did mostly enjoy the movie. And I definitely enjoyed seeing Jacque again.

Friday, I hung out with another friend, then hung out with Becky. Today, I was supposed to go bike-riding with my mother, who has not touched a bike in…over 15 years, I think. It was her suggestion, and while I was shocked that she would voluntarily wear a bike helmet, I was excited to get a little “wheel time,” as my slightly nerdy dad calls it. Well, this morning I kind of rushed my mom and got all snotty when she wanted me to set all the bikes up for her, so she decided she didn’t want to do it after all. Personally, I suspect that the lack of sunshine had something to do with her giving up on the bike-riding plan. She said she wasn’t upset, but she must be at least slightly pissed at me because she took my car who knows where and didn’t invite me along, so I’m stuck at the house. Alone. With nothing to do, which explains why I’m finally blogging.

Tonight should be better, though. Becky and I and my friend, Sara, are going to go see Michael Showalter of “Stella” fame. Swoon! I’m really excited. He’s so adorable! I have a sort of crush on him, but I think he’s at least a decade older than me. Not that that’s a bad thing, Jacque!

I guess I should look for jobs. *whine*

Les Animaux

I live in a small suburb on the eastside of Seattle named Redmond. Despite being a center of technology as home to Microsoft and Nintendo of America, Redmond is a small city and still has a small town feel to it. Our house is a couple miles out of town, out in farmland, so we sometimes see wildlife around us. This morning, as I was walking down our long driveway to the mailbox, I frightened two male deer that were hanging out on our lot. And that is why, despite the rain and the gray, this is such an awesome place to live. I love it and I hate it at the same time. Darn it, why can’t I make up my mind?!?

While I was in France, Jody decided she wanted a dog. We already have one dog, an old shih tzu named Charlie Brown with eye, ear, and skin problems. He’s getting really old these days. Apparently, the oven/stove frightens him. Anyway, Jody decided she wanted a new dog, so she and my mom adopted a Rhodesian Ridgeback (sounds like a dragon from Harry Potter). Since I got home, I’ve been trying to get used to this dog. It feels odd to me that the dog has been adopted into the home, and has routines and habits, and its stuff is all over the house, without me. I realize that sentence is really poorly worded, but can you understand what I’m trying to say? It would be like if you went off to college, and during the school year, your parents adopted an eleven-year-old girl from China, you know? And the girl’s stuff was in your bathroom, her shampoo where your shampoo used to be. It would be weird. Trust me.

We went to a dog park today, and this guy was asking about our dog’s breed, because she’s a ridgeback, but she’s actually a mix. And I guess he could tell. But anyway, Jody was all, “Yeah, she has Norwegian Ridgeback in her.” Hahaha! Norwegian Ridgeback! Haha! (I’m not the only one laughing, am I?)

So I know I should write about my trip, but I find the task daunting. I don’t really know what to say about it. I have about a million photos that I’m trying to sort through. The trip was really cool, but a bit of a whirlwind. The first week or so was fine because we stayed a few days in the same places, but the middle bit was insane because we were spending each night in a different town. Since we were traveling by train, this didn’t leave us much time for sightseeing. If you’re ever planning to travel around France, and you want to see smaller towns, don’t go by train! Rent a car!

Anyhoo, lessons learned and all that. We had fun. And it was nice to spend quality time with my sis, even though there were a couple times where I felt like strangling her. I hope this trip has taught me patience. At any rate, it’s really good to be home.

So, I’ll write more about the trip when it’s a little less daunting. I mean, how do you summarize three weeks of travel? It ain’t easy. I’ll work on it, though. Meanwhile, I also have tons of catching up to do on my favorite blogs. I think I’ll work on that now. Laters!

My First Ever Blog on American Soil

Yes, that's right, folks. I'm home. In America, in Seattle, in the rain (it really is raining!), in the gray and the green, in Redmond, in my cute little house, with my wonderful family (or at least within 15 miles of all of them), in my big, huge, giant room, on my bed with the pillow-top mattress that is, quite frankly, to die for. Not that I mind sleeping on flat-as-a-board Ikea mattresses, cuz I really don't. I could sleep on anything, at any time, under any conditions. But the pillow-top mattress is like icing on the cake that is sleep, wonderful, beautiful sleep.

Okay, I might be a little jet-lagged and tired. I might be really tired. I might have wanted to go to bed two hours ago, but forced myself to wait until at least 8 o'clock at night to give in to the waves of fatigue. Jody asked me if I wanted to watch a movie (Donnie Darko, in case you were wondering) and I really didn't think I could make it out awake. But the computer, that's another story. It doesn't matter how tired I am, the computer makes me forget all my fatigue. I could stay on for hours...but I shouldn't. I really do need sleep.

Anyway, um, I guess I'll write a bit about my travels later. If I feel like it. Eh. Can't be arsed to care at the moment. I'm sure good manners will kick in after a nice long slumber.

But before I go off to bed (still six minutes to go), I thought I'd talk a little bit about my future husband. His name is Sean Biggerstaff (heehee!) and he played Oliver Wood (heehee!) in the first two Harry Potter movies. Jody downloaded a short film that he did called "Cashback," and she showed it to me earlier, and now I am all the more in love with him. He's so adorable! The movie's good, too. The only thing I didn't like about it was the fact that he speaks with a British accent, and not his totally hot Scottish accent. Le sigh.

Okay, enough. I'm not the boy-crazy type, really, but I felt like gushing just a wee bit.

My Last French Blog

Oi vay. So much to say. First off, this is (likely) the last blog you will be getting from me for three weeks. I’d better make it good…

Becky was supposed to be here already. She was supposed to arrive three hours ago, but one of her flights was delayed and she missed the connecting flight. Before I knew this, I was very nervous waiting for her at the airport, I don’t know why. Anyway, that nervousness quickly became worry and confusion when her flight arrived, and she wasn’t on it. Oh well. It’s all good. She managed to send me an email, though it wasn’t too helpful. She said, and I quote, “I’m flying in to Toulouse at 2:40pm,” from Amsterdam. Well. I asked Its Majesty the Almighty Internet (ain’t I savvy?) and it told me there was a flight from Amsterdam to Toulouse that leaves Amsterdam at 2:40pm. There is no flight from Ams to Tls at 2:40. Anyhoo, I’m not going to the airport again until 4:35. So there. It’s sad, because I was gonna show her Toulouse, and now we don’t have much time. Oh well, Toulouse isn’t much to see, anyway. If you’re ever planning a trip to France, don’t go out of your way to come here. Though they do have some nice gardens…le sigh. Hélas.

This last weekend was my very last weekend in Toulouse, but my host parents were out of town, so I had to babysit the kiddies. Meaning I couldn’t go out for a “last weekend” bash. Not that I would have, anyway, but I didn’t have a choice! So Jascha and I decided we would go out Monday night (last night) to make up for it. I had a really good time. We rode bikes (!) all the way into town. The street we took is almost completely flat and mostly straight. It was a really relaxing ride. In town, we met up with Jascha’s friend, Sarah (not to be confused with my British friend named Sarah), and we bought some beers and headed down to the river. I, of course, had to ask (just to be sure) if we could walk around the streets with beers, and Sarah (who is French, btw) laughed and said that was a typically American question. Chez nous, you can’t drink booze except in a private setting, or in an establishment that has a liquor license (I think). Pedestrian imbibing is strictly forbidden.

Anyway, we sat by the river and talked for a bit, all the while noticing occasional flashes of light in the distance. Then the flashes got closer and more frequent, and then it started raining. The rain started fairly light, but the raindrops were big and fat, so we headed to Sarah’s house. Before we got there, it started pouring. Bear in mind that Jascha and I were going to be riding home on bikes. Fun times! So we hung out at Sarah’s for an hour, waiting out the storm, which worked out, and it ended up staying dry for our whole ride home. Thank the Lord! Not that I mind a little rain. I mean, c’mon, I’m from Seattle.

Alright, so I’m gonna wrap this up. My sister and I leave Toulouse tomorrow morning, and embark on a whirlwind, 3-week tour of one quarter of France by train. Wish us luck! Provence, Côte d’Azur, Loire Valley, Brittany, Normandy, and Paris. And then we fly home to SEATTLE!! So, unless I manage to blog sometime during the trip, the next time you’ll hear from me, I’ll no longer be in France. Sad…But then the real adventure begins, because I get to start the job hunt! Yippee!! (That was a sarcastic “yippee,” by the way.)

À bientôt, mes chers amis! Prenez soin de vous.

Sometimes We Amaze Ourselves

So, I don't know how many people in the US follow the World Cup (I know I never have), but the USA remarkably did not lose against Italy yesterday. It was funny watching the reactions of the teams/coaches/fans, considering the fact that it was a tie game (1 to 1). The Italians were all frowns and dejection, but the Americans were nearly ecstatic. Our boys played some really intense defense. I only caught the last third of the game, but the Italians effectively kept the ball on the American side of the field almost the whole time. And though the American offense was almost non-existent, the defense was amazing (at least to my un-trained eye). I was glad to see that we didn't lose, especially because Hercules and Aphrodite were avidly rooting against the Americans (what else is new?)


I took Narcissus into town yesterday to hang out with Sarah and her charge (I forget what nickname I gave him; maybe Joe?). When I first told Narcissus we were going, he threw a fit and refused to go. I had the foresight to tell him about it an hour in advance. I figured I'd let it sink in and hope he'd be willing to go when the time came to leave. Luckily, he was! We put on his roller blades and I pulled him to the train station. I let him wear the roller blades on the train and the metro, and he loved it! He and Joe had a bunch of fun together. In Sarah's words, they were "thick as thieves." I also got to meet Sarah's parents, which was cool. They're from Yorkshire, and I loved her dad's accent. He was so fun to listen to, even if he wasn't saying anything particularly entertaining. He made a delicious Spanish omelette thing. I'm not sure if there's a proper name for it other than "Spanish omelette."


Sarah and I took the boys to the grocery store after lunch, which involved pulling them along behind us. The boys are both extremely competitive, so they were racing the whole time, except that it was Sarah and I who were pulling them, so they kept yelling at us to pass each other. In the grocery store, a Frenchman approached us speaking English with a London accent.

The weather had been indecisive in the morning, so I left the house wearing jeans (which were tight), but then it became downright sweltering. Oh man, I was uncomfortable. When we left for home, it started pouring down rain, which was kinda nice and refreshing. This morning, my arms and shoulders are sore from pulling Narcissus all over the place.

From top: Narcissus on the train;
Narcissus and Joe with creepy, possessed, dancing robot;
Sarah's backyard (Narcissus loved the tractor)