Revival

Good news folks, I am back! So much has happened that I am not unemployed (I'm currently one of those crazy AmeriCorps VISTAs) and I am ending my term early to start a lovely new career as an Adjunct Instructor at a local community college. Yay! However, I am running across a new old problem: money. Yes, this plagues eveyone. I found that I will need secondary work in order to support myself and I have applied at tons of places. I should start my rejection of the week again since it only took 2 days for my application to be thrown out by Macy's. Apparently they had no positions that matched my "skill set". What the hell does that mean? So apparently I am not skilled enough to fold clothes, cashier, and walk around. I am the queen of walking around! Hell, for extra I'll just stand there and smile until I look like that video by Soundgarden "Blackhole Sun" (creepiest video ever). I do have an interview this morning and hopefully all goes well so I can start raking in the minimal cash in order for me to pay for my car and perhaps move out. Yes..I still fabulously live at home. I am all that is awesome.

Hot Guys and Cupcakes

OK I am at Starbucks and there is this beautiful specimen of a man a few tables in front of me. He looks about 5'11, 195 solid, brown hair, stubble, blue eyes, and a nice butt. He looks like a guy who likes to watch cage fighting, football, dates skinny tall overly-tanned blondes, listens to Nickelback, Eminem, and has a secret affinity for the Beastie Boys. He could be a student, an autobody repair guy, or a salesman...who knows. I can guess that when he goes out he wears jeans, a tight Tapout t-shirt, and a faux-hawk. In the words of my friends and guys not like him....he is probably a massive douche. He also has beautiful teeth......wow. This is the type of guy that I look at from afar and would never talk to...not even when drunk because his "hotness" freaks me out. I am used to skinny, nerdy, white guys that are into video games, classical and Indie music, and RPGs. Is there really a type that we are assigned since birth and are doomed to be attracted to and attractive to? Soooo here is the weird part....looking at him makes me want a cupcake. I seriously now want a chocolate cupcake. Maybe this is my weird way of replacing feelings of Oh-lala for sweets. This might explain weight gain...hmmm.

Nom Nom Nom

So I haven't written in a while and not much has been going on. I am still searching for a job and am getting a little sick of doing so. I have been rejected and NOT answered by so many people I am becoming slightly depressed. I was also recently even been given the excuse of "not enough hours" by a daycare that made it seem like I had the job in the bag. Seriously employers...be honest! I am so sick of driving far away just to meet another dead end. Also, whoever said education is the way to get a job was full of crap. My graduate degree is more of a hinderance to getting a job than anything. Just because I am educated doesn't mean that I am above making coffee or data entry. The patheticness knows no bounds.

Other than this incessant bitching....there are a few bright spots. A good friend of mine is moving back to El Woods (poor her) and we are going to start training for a half marathon and a triathalon set for March  and May next year. The Tri doesn't look too bad and it is a 200 meter swim, 8 mile bike ride and a 2 mile run. I could totally do all that mess in a year while kicking ass and taking names. I have also be dieting and trying to cut out white foods since they are satan. I have found that by cutting those things out that I have more energy and my stomach has majorly shrunk. I had some bread on Saturday and it felt like a huge lump in my stomach and that was an icky feeling. I am thankful for that feeling because I don't like feeling that way. So I am making an effort to be healthy and I like it. Anyway, I hope I will be blogging about running soon...AHHHHHHH! I am a little scared of it, but we shall see.

When it rains, it pours

So I was talking to a friend (read: she is across from me now) about our patterns with guys and when the inevitible floods and droughts come. She says that usually the fall semester (Aug-Dec) is her flood and the rest of the year you can hear crickets churping in the background. My flood is usually Oct-Feb and around March/April everything fizzles out. I wonder how many other women have their guy "cycles" figured out? This isn't a direct science, but those who observe patterns can find one in the dating world. Now, the new thing is that my friend finds her pattern differeing, perhaps this is just an anomoly OR maybe it will be her new pattern. I remember hearing that the closer a women is to her cycle, the more attractive she becomes, perhaps this should be field tested among my ladies...hmmm...I see a project coming on! Actualy I think it has been scientifically tested before, but this could be fun. If any of you want to participate it would be a longitudinal study with surveys one week before and one week after your cycle where you describe the following questiong: How physically attractive do you feel? (1-10); How many men have approached you in a flirting mannor in person?; How many dates have you been asked on?; How confident do you feel? (1-10).

I probably need to think of what my other questions and variables will be. This will probably never happen, but meh, just an idea.

Next Steps

Sooo my computer at home sucks and won't let me post anything. To update everyone (which is only Aly), TFA gave me the finger and I am still looking for jobs. I am not disappointed since they are an elitist cult. Don't get me wrong, I really don't have bad feelings that I didn't get in, but I am actually relieved. I was freaked out that I was going to be sent to some hell of a school and have to hang out with recent college grads that cry on a nightly basis.

Speaking of crying a daily basis, I had a garage sale last weekend (hot) and it was the biggest bust on the planet. I sold some items of a friend and some stuff of mine and needless to say she made $15 and I made $7. We only had 6 groups come to our house and two of them bought nothing. However, some good came of it since I loaded all of our crap in the car and took it to Goodwill, they can deal with my great aunt's rustic (read: ugly) paintings and bad fashion. After that disaster I went to Chinatown to meet a few buds :) and we indulged in Asian delicacies and watched a mouse that was apparently living in the restaurant....yummy. We also hung out in the herb store (not a code word) and found out that there is an herb for EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING. If you want to know, message me. I am waiting on a few jobs and we shall see the next step for Ashley in my crusade for Justice and the American Way!

Interviews Everywhere

Really?

I got an email tonight from TFA and.....they have invited me to the final interview. Wow. I was more than shocked. There is some poor kid on the east coast sobbing in their dorm room on their Ralph Lauren pillow case and I beat them...weird. This thing is about as hard to crack as a petrified walnut and my crappy interview and candid answers on their stupid internet crap impressed them enough to let me in. Go figure. This is the one thing that I have really put on the back burner and have cared the least about and I really am in awe that I have made it this far. I will say that I am proud of myself for beating out some snotty kids who wanted to put this on their resume to Goldman Sachs, but who knows how it will go. This is pretty much a crap shoot and they may think that I suck in person. I still just want a job and if they can get me there faster then so be it.

Oh yeah...another reject as of recent was from MidSouth Bank...."we had a large applicant pool and we have found others whose resumes more so meet our needs at this time"....blah blah blah. If my resume said GED and manager at Burger King for 2 years I would have been hired. This over/under qualified thing is starting to bug me. Even my father commented on the fact that he never thought it would take this long for me to get a job...me too Dad, me too.

Today I introduced Stacey to Hot Pot and it was OK. Obviously the Hot Pot in Xi'an was amazing and amazingly cheap....Little Sheep here cost us around $50 for 2 people and in China it would have been around $8 bucks with way more veggie and meat options. Alas...we are not in China anymore. I got a $10 off coupon valid through March 31 if anyone wants to go with me...any takers...crickets...crickets.