The Stalker

My husband found a Nova Usagi cell phone charm when he was taking out the trash today. The Usagi is a cross between a pink rabbit and a bird and was Nova's mascot for years. Every branch had dozens of Usagi items for sale, although no one ever seemed to buy them when I was there.

I've only seen the Usagi in Japan. I searched Ebay to see if there are underground Usagi collectors in America, but only one user listed anything and he or she lives in Japan. So how in the hell did a Nova Usagi cell phone charm (I assume it's a charm) find its way to a Tampa, FL parking lot? And what are the odds a former Nova employee would find it? Very mysterious.

It's stalking us.

The Traveling License Plates

In Japan, my husband and I used to visit an American hamburger joint called Oatman's whenever we got a craving for familiar food. Named after a Route 66 tourist attraction, Oatman's serves great burgers not unlike ones you'd find in the States. This is unusual for Japan, as many other restaurants serving foreign food often destroy it by putting raw eggs, mayonnaise or other strange ingredients on top. For example, this is what they've done to Pizza Hunt pizza.....

To create a vintage American feel, the owners of Oatman's have decorated the entire restaurant with old advertisements, products and license plates from the United States. There are plastic Hamburglar toys, old concert posters and license plates from the '80s. The license plates are fake, there is a sticker from a novelty shop where the annual registration one should be, and this gave my husband and I an idea. We had a stack of our own old license plates at home, (I often had to forbid my husband from hanging them on the walls in our apartment) why not send them to Japan for display at one of our favorite hangouts? That way Oatman's would have authentic license plates from former customers and we'd be able to leave our mark in Japan, in a small, humorous way. So that is what we did. We had to wait until we moved back to the United States to find the plates, but we eventually located them and I sent them to an old student of mine who lives near the restaurant. She delivered the plates a few days ago. Thanks Tomomi! This is the picture she sent back as photographic evidence...

She says the owner wasn't in when she delivered the plates, but that the staff assured her they'd put them up soon. I'm not sure why, but my husband and I find the idea of our old license plates hanging in a restaurant near Tokyo wildly amusing. It doesn't take much.

Day in the Sun

My husband hates it when I write entries like the one I posted yesterday. In his words they are whiny and so "woe is me." He's probably right, but that's how I deal with my frustrations. I rant and whine them out. Nevertheless, I want to try and write about more positive things so that's what I'm going to do today. Today was a good day. This morning my husband and I went to a career fair and I met an important contact. The HR woman seemed interested in my experience and qualifications, and represents a company I worked at in the past so hopefully something will develop. After the fair, my husband and I walked down to a lagoon near our apartment complex to enjoy the warm weather. He fished. I drank beer and got a tan. In January. Yea Florida! Here are some photos. Please pardon the gloating undertones. :-)

Here's the entrance to the lagoon. It's literally a 15 minute walk from our front door. A few people appear from time to time, but we're usually the only ones there.

Here's a view of the bay from the lagoon. Dolphins and manatees often cruise by in warmer weather.

My husband with his BIG catch

Sunset fishing

There Was Never a Tale More Filled With Woe...

The job hunting woes continue. I'm stuck! I haven't had any interview offers since December. My phone sits silently in my purse. My email account receives nothing but crapola job alerts from CareerBuilder and Monster. The wall of silence is maddening. I've reworked my resume and my cover letter, but no one is responding. It's very frustrating and disheartening. I check Monster, HotJobs, CareerBuilder and similar sites weekly, if not daily. I've saved the career opportunity pages of dozens of local companies in a favorites folder and check for new positions daily. I've gone to a career fair. I've put the word out about my job hunt to the few people I know but nothing has developed. Nothing! Nothing! Nothing! I don't know what else to do.

(where all of my resumes end up)

In my worst moments I'm jealous of everyone working in my desired field. I wonder why they're successful when I'm not. I wonder why the hell I even bothered to get a degree, much less two, when neither appears to be doing any good. I wonder why I spent so much time working for free at three internships when no employers take notice. Hell, I even applied for an entry-level job at one of the places I interned (twice!) and both times they refused to even interview me! I hate feeling jealous and bitter, but job hunting brings out the worst in me.

The only thing I haven't really done is network. I know how important it is to network and that the old saying 'it's not what you know, but who you know' is absolutely true. Unfortunately I don't know anyone in my desired field, and I'm not particularly good at mingling with strangers. I feel embarrassed asking friends and acquaintances to pass my resume along and the prideful side of me wants to get a job completely on my own. I've only have made a small effort to network. I asked a former coworker if she knew of any jobs and this inquiry lead to another former coworker's husband submitting my resume to his HR person. Unfortunately it was for a position in which I have no interest or applicable skills. I haven't heard anything anyway. A couple of other loose (very loose) acquaintances have offered to pass my resume along to people they know, but I have yet to get their contact information and follow up. Mainly because I don't know them very well and find the whole thing embarrassing. I need to get over that.

From this point on I'm going to make more of an effort to network, even though I hate it and had hoped to secure a job based solely on my own merits. I'm scheduled to begin volunteer work at an animal shelter next month, so maybe I'll meet a contact there. I'm also going to have to swallow my pride and follow up with the acquaintances who may or may not know someone. I'd like to join the local PRSA (Public Relations Society of America), but the membership fees for the national and local chapters add up to a few hundred dollars and must be paid up front. I simply can't afford that right now. Any other ideas?

Of course, all of this would be moot if the HR lady at the television station would just call to schedule an interview already so that I can wow her and be hired. I applied to a job at the station in November and followed up when I didn't hear anything. The HR lady told me the position was filled and I thanked her for letting me know. Earlier this month she emailed me and said the position was open again and asked if I was still interested. I said yes and a week later she called to say she would be calling for an interview sometime after the 18th. It seems promising but I really wish she'd call. They relisted the position on the website so I'll have plenty of competition. The Bitter Betty voice in my head is telling me that even if I do wow her in an interview, a board member's sister's cousin's daughter's friend is going to get the job regardless of his/her qualifications, or mine. Betty's friends, Conceited Cathy and Delusional Dorothy, suggested that I didn't get the PR agency job I interviewed for because the successful candidate (now pictured on the agency website) probably got the job because she somehow knew the woman or went to the same university. Damn networking!

Random Thoughts From Someone Who Has Nothing to Do All Day

I hate bathroom attendants. They make me feel awkward. I feel obligated to tip, even though I am perfectly capable of washing my own hands, but am too cheap to give someone a dollar for handing me a paper towel. When there is a bathroom attendant on duty I usually scurry out the bathroom without washing my hands. It's ridiculous, but true.

I don't understand the Soulja Boy Superman dance craze. When did this come about? Is it new or is it something that developed when I was in Japan? The song sounds dreadful, but I kind of wish I could do the dance. Is that weird?

I have no idea why Kim Kardashian is famous. Who is she? Where does she come from? Last night I had a dream she was a distant relative of mine and who would be coming to the annual family reunion. My family doesn't even have an annual family reunion.

I hate not having anything to do all day, every day. I know an unlimited amount of free time sounds glorious, but it's not good for me. I get in a rut where I don't want to leave the house, even to drink beer with the neighbors or run errands. I badly need a job and my inability to get one is depressing.

I am huge pack rat and have saved letters from pen pals I had over ten years ago. Last night, I was reading through them and found one from someone I'm sure was a sexual predator. It was supposedly from a seventeen year old girl, but the writing looked masculine, talked about bondage and gave me detailed instructions on how to take my measurements. Creepy! I guess sexual predators had to write letters before the Internet was so common.

Speaking of writing letters, I just sent $30 worth of postcards to teachers and students I met in Japan. Some went to Japan, some to Canada, some to England, some to Ireland and some to other states in the U.S. I'm trying to get people to come and visit us.

That is all.

Derlurking Photo Fun

Hooray for delurking!

If you are a regular visitor or a fist time reader, leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Well, only if it's nice. I don't really want to read any more comments about my foolish, pedestrian blog. :-) To entice closet readers to comment, I am stealing an idea from Random Musings of My Life who borrowed it from someone else. Anyone who comments may include a request for me to take and post a photo of something and I promise to fulfill the request in the next few days. Within reason of course. No nudity. No crime. No hazardous situations. So use your imagination and be creative, but don't get carried away. I look forward to your comments and to taking the pictures. I just got a new digital camera for Christmas and need an excuse to use it.

Update

Sorry for the blogging delay. My husband and I have been busy moving to Tampa and settling into our apartment. Also, we've been using someone else's wireless account and the connection isn't the strongest. I'm still looking for a job and starting to get rather frustrated. I've literally applied to 47 jobs in 52 days and have only had 3 interviews. Is that normal? My main weak point, I think, is that I haven't had any professional PR experience, just internships. I refuse to go back to the insurance industry, something I do have experience in, so the only thing I can do is keep cranking out the applications. Anyone have any job hunting advice?

Other than job hunting, there's not much going on. My husband and I really like living in Tampa again and the weather has been terrific. It was 80 something degrees today! We've been reconnecting with our old friends and two of our neighbors have become my husband's fishing buddies. One of them may have even gotten him a job. Damn networking. The neighbor doesn't even know what public relations is, so no hope for me there. People in the apartment complex are still as loud and crazy as ever. One of our neighbors vacuums and blares music no earlier than midnight and another's house guest was recently carted away for alcohol poisoning. I have enjoyed the bayside pool though.

That's really all I have to say now.