Walk blah jobs blah beer blah.

October 21, 2003

As the comment on my last entry clearly states, I’m not the only one in this job market who’s struggling to stay sane. No offense to those of you out there who are unemployed like me (Paul, Kristine, and I’m fairly certain you too, Michiko!), but I’m glad you are. If everyone I know gets a job before me, I’m going to feel pretty crappy. It’s impossible to compare one person to another, but when Dan got a job pretty quickly I felt kind of bad, but I have to keep reminding myself that Dan has a lot of skills that I don’t, and the job that he’s doing right now I definitely couldn’t do. Now, if he’d gotten a job doing something that I COULD do, then yeah, I might feel a little down. Well, more down that I am already about being 24, unemployed, unattached, and living at home. I don’t understand what the stigma is about living at home in this country, but other people think it means something that it doesn’t. I’m living at home because I’m unemployed and there’s room for me here. If there were no room for me here, I might be living with my sister or my Dad–though I’m not sure where all my stuff would go. When I get employed and start making enough money, I’ll move out. No offense, Mom–I love you, but having lived essentially on my own for the better part of four years (although three were with a roommate, so I know I could do that, too) going back to living at home with my mother isn’t exactly a step forward for me. The beginning of the rest of my life sure looks a lot like the last three summers and 20 years before that.

The weather here has been amazing the last two days, and I don’t know what the heck is going on. It got up into the 60’s this weekend after the prior week being in the low- to mid-40’s (remember how I was sitting in front of the fire trying to get warm as I watched the National League baseball playoffs), and the last two days it’s been in the high 70’s. I went downtown last night with jeans and a T-shirt on, and I was OK since it was so late in the afternoon when I took off, but today when I went to run some errands around noon, I was too warm in essentially the same outfit. I came home, changed into shorts, and took a 5 mile walk which got the ol’ heart pumping, but around 4 miles my knee started complaining. Guess I know my cutoff point for the time being. I walked 3 miles late last week and my knee ached a bit since that was the first real exercise I’d given in the last two weeks, but afterwards it was quiet and didn’t give me any trouble. Yesterday I worked out and my knee hurt a bit when I woke up this morning, but not nearly as much as it used to. I’m still taking Tylenol fairly regularly, too.

At one point today I had to jog across a road to get to the path on the other side, and I could practically hear my left knee saying “WHOA! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Of course, that was also past the four mile mark, so my knee was already getting tired. I’ll just have to take shorter walks for a bit. Five miles is a good distance and I can cover it in a little over an hour, but with my knee I just have to take it easy. Aargh. Good thing I’m still eating well and doing situps and other exercises.

My Mom is playing hostess to my aunt Barbara on Friday, and there’s been a request for my pizza, though she’ll be around for lunch. That’ll a close one, since the sauce needs a few hours to steep in hot water, the dough requires an hour of rising time, and the roasted garlic takes an hour, too. I can obviously multitask, but I’ll have to start in the morning if I want to get it done. I don’t have a pizza paddle for my pizza stone that my Dad gave me for my birthday yet, either, so I have to use my pan again, which is perfectly fine. The be perfectly honest, I have no idea where I’d even put a pizza paddle right now. Sure, it’s flat and can go just about anywhere, but the hall closet is already filling up with cooking stuff of mine that I use fairly frequently, and the rest is in the garage. Man, I haven’t even used my deep fryer or my rotisserie yet, and my microwave has no use at all right now. I’m going to use the $100 gift card my Dad gave me for Kitchen Kaboodle to get the pizza paddle, but that leaves a good chunk of change leftover. Hmmm…I shouldn’t get “thingies” I need like fancy shmancy can openers, cookware, knives, or spatulas since I don’t even have my own kitchen yet and there’s really no room in the one I’m using now, so maybe another piece of kitchen equipment? Part of a breadmaker, perhaps? Yeah, that’s what I need.

Tonight I’m cashing in the cans and bottles for deposit money and spending my bounty at the Bridgeport Brewery. Tonight all pints of the hand cast beer are $1 off, so I should have a good time. Sorry Dad, I want to go later today than you like to after work since you’re limited by what bus you can take, so we’ll go another day. McMenamin’s has a tasty Scarecrow ESB (extra special bitter) as their seasonal beer, but I’ve had a lot of that in the last couple of weeks between my own trips to McMenamin’s for lunch with my sister and nights out with Mike. Speaking of whom, normally tonight I’d meet Mike for another pitcher or three, but he can’t go tonight (another reason why I’m headed downtown to Bridgeport) so we’re going to try and make it up on Thursday, another night his girlfriend works at the brewpub. Maybe I should get some McMenamin’s beer to go for my Mom and my aunt to enjoy with my pizza on Friday….

And speaking of beer, here’s a little tidbit of information that some of you may be interested in: I have the least amount of beer in my personal possession than I’ve had in probably two years. I have exactly six 12 oz. bottles of beer (two Red Seal Ales that I don’t enjoy too much but are leftover from a party in May, one bottle Leinenkugel’s Honey Weiss that I don’t like as much as Leine’s original, two bottle of Amstel Light, and one last Newcastle Brown Ale) and three bottles of “special” brews: Arrogant Bastard Ale, Dead Guy Ale, and a Samual Smith’s Nut Brown Ale. Sounds like a lot, right? Well, it’s not even the equivalent of a 12-pack of beer, and in college I always had about two 12-packs sitting around of various kinds of beer. Granted, I was drinking more beer then than I am now, but I just thought it was worth mentioning. I have maybe one beer at home a week, a few when I go out which is maybe once or twice a week.

Oh heh, another interesting thing. Last night when I was downtown I ran into the man I interviewed with two weeks ago, and he sort of caught me off guard and it took me a moment to place his face. I was lost in my own thoughts and when I heard someone say “Andrew?” in a place I wasn’t expecting to run into anyone I knew, it just took me by surprise. We talked for a bit, and he said that he was serious in his email that if anything else opened up, I was at the top of the list. I guess I’m next in line, which is nice to know. I emailed someone about job #3 I’m applying for this week, but naturally I don’t expect to hear back from them–not because I don’t trust them to get back to me, but given past experience. It wasn’t even an application, either, just asking some questions about the job since they didn’t specify whether I should email a resume, but since it was for a place that has multiple locations around Portland I also can’t call or go in with my resume, either. I just have to keep waiting and keep looking, neither of which I enjoy.

But I do enjoy going out for a beer or two, especially when they’re on sale, which is what I’m doing tonight. No, I don’t just sit at a table by myself, for those that are wondering or concerned, but I always find someone to talk to for a little while. I’m being social, not being a social intravert. I go out for the atmosphere and the environment, not for the beer. Sure, I could sit at home and drink beer, but there’s no fun in that for me.

So instead I go out for beer I can’t buy in stores, anyhow.

I’ll keep you all updated on the job situation. Later, all.

I’ve got a penguin in my hands. OK, so I’m running out of my end of post picture ideas. I’ve only got so many poses and expressions to work with.

Posted in Beer, General