The Four Things Thing

I decided to do the Four Things Thing tag I found on YouTube. My thinking is that it might be fun to do something a bit different on this blog.

Four Jobs I’ve held:
1) Office assistant
2) RFID tagger for libraries
3) Doing a bit of everything in a fast food place
4) Janitor

Four movies I’ve watched more than once:
1) Fury
2) Day of the Doctor
3) Aliens
4) Pride and Prejudice (BBC)

Four books I’d recommend:
1) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
2) Books set in the world of Tortall by Tamora Pierce
3) The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
4) Bone by Jeff Smith

Since it is impossible for me to narrow it down to just four books, I'm recommending my all time favorite novel plus three brilliant book series.

Four places I’ve been, compass points edition: 
1) Baton Rogue, Louisiana  (I was born there but don't remember it)
2) Victoria, Canada
3) The John Day Fossil Beds in Eastern Oregon
4) The redwood forests in California

Painted Hills, part of John Day, photo I took

Four things I don’t eat: 
1) Spam
2) Rocks
3) Cat food
4) Water (I drink water)
 
Four TV shows I watched: 
1) Doctor Who
2) Babylon 5
3) Star Trek
4) Battle Star Galactica, the remake

I'm still working my way through #1, own and have watched all of #2 (minus one movie attached to the series), and have gotten distracted from the last two though they're fun.

Four things I’m looking forward to this year:
1) Spending another year with my boyfriend
2) Reading more books
3) The results of learning how to communicate better
4) Learning how to relax

Four things I’m saying: 
1) Pepperoni pizza with mushrooms is delicious
2) Walking barefoot on the grass is awesome
3) Reading is excellent
4) Listening to David Gilmour is surprisingly relaxing

I discovered this last bit when my boyfriend sent me a link to the following clip this evening.



Four adjectives you’d use to describe the ocean:
1) Beautiful
2) Turbulent
3) Peaceful
4) Mysterious

Four flavors you like:
1) Chocolate
2) Chocolate
3) Chocolate
4) Chocolate

Four times of day you’re on online:

There's no real particular time set aside. Just, whenever I feel like it if I'm able to.

Four things you want to do better tomorrow:
1) Have more patience
2) Relax (as in, don't carry so much tension)
3) Enjoy the day
4) Focus

Choices

I wrote this last year when I was between the time that my temp job ended and I started back to school. It's been lurking in my draft folder, and doesn't reflect where I am now, but I thought that rather than deleting the post I may as well finally hit the "publish" button on it. As you may guess from the tone, I was very frustrated at the time. I think it's actually the tone that made me decide to keep it to myself, since I couldn't write on this topic without being angry.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

May I just say, it's pretty amazing how many people will find out just a few details about my life and then feel qualified to tell me how I'm living it wrong.

Apparently there's a certain order that people are supposed to do things in.

1) Finish high school
2) Go get a four year college degree
3) Move out of your parents house, finally

Because I've chosen to get my own place before finishing my degree, people of an older generation often (though I'll admit not always) seem to feel it is their right (or duty) to criticize me. Without even asking why they start telling me why I should stay with my parents for as long as possible.

"Stay home, let your parents worry about the bills!"

"Really, grocery shopping is a pain."

"But your mom's doing the laundry right now!" 

No, mine isn't. So this one cracks me up.

"Don't worry about responsibility yet! Just finish your degree."

Don't even get me started on why I will tune someone out once they use this last argument on me. Let's just say that I find it hard to take someone seriously when they suggest that attending school means I'm free of responsibility.

There was one woman who got so insistent on trying to change my life that I finally had to say "Hey, you aren't telling me anything that I haven't spent the last two years considering. And yeah, I've had my own place before, so I know all about paying bills and grocery shopping. Just, stop." Because I have heard it all. And I have considered it all. And a relative stranger isn't going to change my mind.

I also have to point out that even though my home life is ok, that isn't the case for everyone. My own reasons for moving out are to do with independence, but others might be making this decision because they're worried about their safety. The fact that those individuals receive the same advice that I do from people who know nothing about them seems pretty mind boggling and really sad to me. And, I'll admit, it bothers me if I let myself think about them being told these same things, which I guarantee they are.

*deep breath*

It would be really nice if people stopped telling relative strangers how to live their life based on only a few details. It's one thing to advise someone who you've gotten to know. You know, like advising friends and loved ones. But someone who you've barely even had one proper conversation with? How can you expect to give them good life advice?

I've wondered if I need to limit myself to only telling relative strangers of my own generation about my goals. I've never had anyone in their 20's criticize me for wanting my own place soon. Instead, they'll tell me that they know how hard it is to return to living with your parents after having your own place, no matter how much you love them. Once you get a bit of freedom, it's hard to give that up. I don't know if there's a cultural difference between my own generation and older generations that causes this difference in attitude, or if my own generation is still young enough to appreciate what it's like to not be dependent on someone else.

But you want to know what I really hate about constantly receiving the above advice when I don't try to hide my goals? I find myself thinking the following: "The adults are bugging me again." I probably don't need to explain why I don't want to think like that.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

All this still bothers me if I let myself think about it. There's some distance from the anger I express above because I'm now back on the "right track" that is approved of, so people aren't giving me a hard time about being out of school anymore. But I've never liked that our culture puts so much pressure on people to follow a particular path, and it's personal for me now after I've experienced the disapproval for myself.

Sunflower, since I want something pleasant here

Back to job hunting

I'm currently between jobs, and have been for a couple weeks. Most of that time I've spent recovering from an annoyingly persistent bug that kept pouncing on me every time I thought I was better. Don't ask me what it was, because I don't know. All I can say is that it was unpleasant and persistent, and that I was never as nearly recovered as I thought I was.

The temp job I got in June kept getting extended, but that ended when there wasn't the budget to keep me into this year. So now it's on to something new for me.

I don't know what I'll be doing next. Preferably something permanent that will allow me to move into my own place. Ok, so yeah, I did move out with a temp job once. But even though I have no regrets, it's not something that I plan to do again.

In the meantime, I do want to get back into the habit of writing regularly. Either on this blog, or my book blog. Preferably, both. I know, I keep saying that I want to get back to keeping up my blog(s). Hopefully I'll actually stick with it this time.

Scraps of happiness

In the last year I started filling up a small jar with little scraps of paper. The bits of paper were full of good things that had happened, and I'd intended to read them all on solstice.

Unfortunately I was sick on solstice, so that didn't happen. (Then I got better, only to get sick again. Dangit! This has not been a great last couple of weeks.) Now it's almost New Years Eve, and I'm finally getting around to looking at what good things happened in the last year.

I didn't write everything down, so this is hardly an exhaustive list. Here's most of what I found in the jar.

Duck pond with Murray, visited a farm where I got blackberry honey. -- summer 2013

Discovered that Murray can pick out the perfect pair of sneakers for me. ♡ -- summer 2013

Finished inspecting cells at work. -- summer 2013 [this was a special assignment that I was very happy to finish]

I was hired on to a temp job -- 6/14/2013

Murray and I had Valentine's dinner together at [a favorite restaurant] ♡ -- 2/15/2013

The smell of fresh rain at night -- 8/22/2013

Drank a whole Guinness, realized I'm developing good taste. The one drink made me tipsy. -- 3/16/13

Portland Highland Games -- 7/20/13

Beka is recovering. She's more active, and takes her meds more quickly. :) -- 12/31/2012 [this one is painful to read since she then took a turn for the worst and we lost her]

Birthday date with Murray ♡ -- 3/9/2013

Figured out how to clean the honey jar -- soak the lid in hot water, then wet a paper towel with hot water and wrap it around the rim. -- 1/25/13

Sabine, Kora, and Aniki move in together -- 3/6/2013 [and then were separated...but oh well!]

Temp job got extended -- 6/13

Started my new job -- 6/17/13

Sabine is recovered from her spay and is off her meds :) -- 3/3/2013

Got my first bra fitting -- 3/29/2013 [I know, I know...I can't believe I waited until age twenty-four, and it turns out that a properly fitted bra makes a HUGE difference]

Had my first Guinness. -- 3/16/2013

Drank my first cup of black coffee. -- 4/4/2013

I brought home Kora and Aniki. -- 2/1/2013

Got my birthday presents from The Belly Dancer-- 2/3/2013

I reached 200 blog posts on Dancing With Fey -- 2/11/2013

Learned how to hand wash bras -- spring 2013

Spring has sprung! -- 3/8/2013 [I don't care what the calendar says, when it feels like spring it's spring]

I could make a few comments on the previous year based on what I wrote on those scraps of paper, but I'll leave it at that for now.

Scraps of happiness

It would make work more interesting...

One of my (varied) tasks at my job is doing inventory on old records, and while noting down the destruction dates on boxes I keep imagining certain lines from Lord of the Rings. I somehow suspect that people would look at me funny, though, if I started yelling "Cast it into the fire! Destroy it!" while I'm taking inventory.

Yeah, that would go over well...

Recent lessons in life...

...or maybe lessons that I only recently understood.

1) When I work full time I can get distracted from writing. I think it happened with my first full time job, and it's happening again with this one.

(This needs to change. The distracted bit, not the working bit.)

2) Giving the rats coffee ice cream may be a mistake, but I cannot find it in me to regret this choice.

3) Maybe I shouldn't have tried to move on past the "easy" and/or "boring" parts of Dungeons and Dragons so quickly. That could be why things got so hard that I gave up for a while.

(Don't ask how I deemed certain quests "boring"...sometimes I astound myself.)

4) Tea is good. Tea is very good.

5) Push ups make it easier to lift heavy boxes at work. Duh.

6) While I don't get hungover on gin and tonic, beer is another story. This is an experience I do NOT want to repeat.

7) I miss my apartment.

I may expound on some of these lessons soon.

Detail Of A Cup With Tea by Petr Kratochvil

...food fight?

I cleaned the rat cages this evening. Things went pretty normally, though with the new fact that I'm not putting Kora and Aniki in with Sabine even briefly. (Let's just say that Sabine isn't playing nice anymore. This is an unpleasant and depressing fact for both her and me.) Nothing out of the ordinary happened until I put the younger girls back in their own cage.

Niki came to greet me when I was bending over to pick up the trash bag I'd been using, so I was more or less on eye level with her. Of course I was mildly distracted by how adorable she is, and failed to notice that she had something in her mouth until she threw it at me. I looked down...and realized it was food.

That rat threw her food at me.

I don't know if she: 1) was thanking me for cleaning her cage, 2) was requesting different food, 3) was trying to initiate a food fight, or 4) all the above.

Whichever it is, I am still extremely perplexed and amazed.

Adorable Niki is adorable

In other news, I have a temp job that starts on the day this post goes up. This is the first work I've had this year, so I'm pretty happy, and just hoping that my unemployment stint is pretty much over.

Unemployed again

My recent rant about my weight actually wasn't written because I was ticked off about what the scales said. Even though I am. What induced me to get ranting about something, anything, was the fact that I had just lost my job about an hour or so before I wrote the post.

Yes, this was the day before Thanksgiving.

Of course I had to process things before I could actually write on here about that painful phone call. And I had to figure out what to say.

What the boss said is that there were certain aspects of the job that I wasn't mastering. I knew this. And I was actually showing some improvement in those areas (or I thought I was), but I guess not enough. And my skills elsewhere didn't make up for my weaknesses.

I'd also missed a week of work due to being sick. This wasn't exactly cited as a reason, but I have to wonder.

(I would have missed more work, too. Losing six pounds in a week takes a lot out of a person's strength, apparently, and I'm still recovering.)

On the upside, I guess, I learned in this job that I'm great on the register. I'm also good at chopping up meat and veggies.

Now to find another job...

Getting my liqour service permit

Getting my liqour service permit was a bit interesting.

First of all, the prospect of attending a class to get my license and then taking the test was intimidating. (This was despite me getting my food handlers card quite easily.) When I actually took take the class I found that I'd had nothing to worry about, and that it's actually pretty easy. I even scored 100% on the test. This was my first time getting the permit, too.

But then, the fun started...

Shortly after the class/test I got two separate things from OLCC (Oregon Liqour Control Commision) in the mail. 1) A postcard saying that I would be receiving my permit soon. And, 2) a letter saying that it was too soon for me to renew my service permit and that they were refunding me the $26 for my application. Oh, and they also addressed me as Mr. Rucker in the letter.

I think you can understand why I was quite confused.

When I called to find out what the heck was going on, I found out that someone else gave them my SSN two years ago. Which is why I received two contradicting things in the mail. And they had somehow entered gender down as male.

Luckily the person I spoke to at OLCC was very apologetic, and was quick to jump to fix it. They took care of the SSN problem, and fixed my gender.

Then I finally got my liqour serveric permit...and found that they had added a foot to my height.

I would be frustrated, but the people at OLCC are too helpful. So this post isn't really to complain, it's more to laugh at the things that happen. And to say I'm glad that they're quick to fix mistakes. They're sending me a new permit with my proper height, and this time it should have all my info correct.

The new job, and a discovery

I won't talk much about work, and I'm certainly not putting the location online. But I will tell you that the food is yummy.

I'll also tell you what I think my favorite part of the job is: cutting up the food. Chicken, lettuce, peppers...doesn't matter. If I'm cutting something, I'm happy.

Also, I made a personal discovery on the job. I don't find raw meat gross anymore. I'm not sure when this happened, but it's been since I moved into my own apartment. Not handling raw meat was actually one perk to being vegetarian a few years ago, and when I started eating meat again I was sad to realize that I no longer had an excuse to not deal with raw meat. After all, if I'm going to eat it, I can't refuse to handle it on ethical grounds.

Maybe raw meat stopped being gross when I started to enjoy cooking. I wonder if those two facts are related. Hmm...

New job

So this will be two posts in one day, but oh well.

You may remember that I mentioned I had a job interview the other day, and I commanded you to requested that you wish me luck. Well guess what? I've got the job.

I was actually sort of in a daze yesterday after I got hired, and got very little accomplished. Too amazed that I got the job I guess, even though I'd had a good feeling about it.

It's in a restaurant, and I'll be doing a bit of everything. Cleaning, food prep, whatever needs to be done. I start on the 7th, and unfortunately I won't know what kind of hours or days I'll be working until then.

But hey, it's a job! Never mind that I don't know my hours yet. And it looks like fun. And I've had a really good feeling about this from the moment I scheduled the interview, so hopefully I'll be given the maximum number of hours that I can work.

You know, it occurs to me that although it's hard for me to get interviews, those interviews usually lead to employment...actually they always have led to me getting hired. :)

The Hillsboro libraries

As part of my previous job as an RFID tagger I got to visit numerous libraries in Washington County. Each library is unique, with its own feel and even its own history. Some of them I particularly liked, and I wanted to write about a few of them.

The first library we tagged at was Shute Park, which is the branch of Hillsboro library. Both have big windows, which I really love in a library. I like it when a building feels so open, especially when I can look out from between stacks of books and see a beautiful pond like I can at the main library.

In addition to the lovely view, Shute Park has a park (with swings!!!) in front of it and the main library has a coffee shop in the entrance. My employer said that all libraries should have coffee shops, and I’ve got to say that I agree with him on that. And a fireplace. All libraries should also have a cozy fireplace, which Hillsboro main library also has. If possible, they should also be cozy and homey, which Shute Park certainly is. The main library is a little too big to be cozy, but the view makes up for that.

I can’t really say which of the two are my favorite. One is cozy, but the other has coffee and a fireplace. I like them both.

Snowing at the main library

ps. I had a job interview yesterday morning for a restaurant. Wish me luck!

More snow! Outside the main library.

Another milestone

The last nine months have involved some major milestones for me. Here they are, in the order they occurred.

1) I'm in a serious relationship. WOW. And this is the first time I'm dating. Another WOW.

2) I got my first full time job. I want to say WOW again but I feel like I've already used up my WOWs...

3) I finally acknowledged that I'm bisexual. Funny, this only happened after falling in love.

4) I'm in my own apartment. WOW.

And now, milestone #5...

5) Today I got my learners permit. I'm finally going to learn to drive.

Yes I'm 23 and am only now learning to drive. Often I was asked why I never tried for my license, and I would sometimes try to explain. But finally I got tired of strangers telling me how to live my life ("You need to know how to drive! Your excuse is not valid!") and gave non-answers.

What it boiled down to, though, is that driving is a lot of responsibility and I didn't want that responsibility. Plus I didn't have the confidence.

But I'm finally living independently, and am sort of feeling like I can do anything right now. Plus my boyfriend encouraged me, and I'm not sure if I would have had the confidence to go to the DMV today without his support.

So here I come, I'm gonna learn to drive. :)

DONE

I have offically worked my way out of a job.

I've already shared that my job was in a library, but for privacy's sake I didn't say exactly what I was doing or where. Now that the job is over I am finally comfortable sharing those details!

Washington County Cooperative Library Services (WCCLS) has been switching over to using RFID technology. There are a lot of libraries in the system, and a ton of books and other materials. Since each item needs a tag (and some need two tags) this is a huge project. Was a huge project. It started on January 1st, and has taken until this week to complete.

Yes, I was a tagger. Eight hours a day, five days a week, putting RFID tags in items and then programing the tags. Sound monotonous? It sometimes was, but usually time passed pretty quickly. It also paid well. :)

One cool thing about the job was being able to listen to audio books while working. But I think the best bit was going to the different libraries and getting to see behind the scenes in all of them. Maybe that makes me a nerd. Yes, I guess it does make me a nerd. But that's fine, because nerds are fun.

So it's back to job hunting. Hopefully I'll find something quickly. Hopefully. :)

Pagan Values Month: Litha

How to become the most popular employee at work? Bring in brownies. And yes, this does have something to do with the solstice. :)

Two days ago on Litha (aka summer solstice) I didn't have any plans. I had been working for the sixth day straight because that's just how my ever changing schedule worked out since last week my days off were in the middle of the week and this week they're later. In fairness, I have been taking enough sick days recently that my employer probably didn't expect me to make it that long without calling in sick. In truth, neither did I. Apparently I'm getting better.

But back to solstice. I didn't have anything planned, and was really tired. I mean, really tired. But I somehow found the energy to cook. So cooking turned into my celebration.

My dinner

The marinade ingredients

I experimented with marinating for the first time, using sake with some soy sauce and a bit of ginger and garlic powder. I marinated chicken and mushrooms for about two hours before cooking. It was delicious. I also cooked some potato slices later, and together they made for a delicious lunch the next day.

But the brownies...oh the brownies. Yum.

You see, I have a secret ingredient in cooking brownies: cayenne pepper. Actually that's my boyfriend's secret ingredient, but I stole it from him. It makes brownies so delicious that coworkers kept complimenting me, and one even asked for the recipe.

So that's I celebrated my solstice: cooking. And it made me very popular at work the next day. :)