Regina Noctis

I was trying to post about all the stuff that’s been happening since karaoke on Thursday night, and just have not been able to do so. I get a couple sentences typed, and then some interruption comes along. Tonight will pretty much be without interruptions, but since I’ve gotten very little sleep for days on end, I’m in no mood to ramble about everything.

So, rather than everything else I was going to say, I will limit myself to this.

“Tainted Ass Sock”

We now return you to your regularly scheduled posts.

I had difficulty falling asleep, and didn’t get there until around 7 in the morning. Then a call came in at 9:30 in the morning and woke me. The recruiter in Fremont had a possible position, and she wanted me to send her a copy of my resume, since she only had the one from Monster. So I emailed it, and then it took me a while to fall asleep again.

I was right on the edge of sleep when the phone rang again. It was around 11:30, and it was and . There were problems renting a car. They wouldn’t be able to get one. So they needed me to pick them up at the airport and drive them to all the errands that needed to be run. So I hauled myself out of bed, threw on some clothes, and went to find them.

First stop was to deal with Sylvan’s broken cell phone, and that took a little time. They tried to apply extra charges, and Sylvan pitched a fit. They had to call a manager, and the fees got waived. I tried to nap in the car, but the large number of bees flying around the car made me too paranoid to keep the windows open. And it was too hot to sleep once they were closed.

Then began Tux Trek. Sylvan had to be at the store by four to get the tux fitted, but he didn’t know which store it was at. He thought maybe it was in Palo Alto, so we headed there, only to discover that the Men’s Wearhouse there had been relocated. So we grabbed some lunch, and then headed to the new location in Redwood City.

When we got there, it turned out that it wasn’t the one that had Sylvan’s tux. But during the course of the conversation, he pulled out the receipt, and discovered that the store was on it. The Sunnyvale store. So, we piled back in the car. The salesman at the Wearhouse called ahead, since it was approaching four, to let them know we were on our way and to cool their jets.

We finally got there, a little bit before four. I sat in the car and tried again to get a catnap in while Sylvan was being fitted. I failed to get any sleep, but even just closing my eyes for a little while helped.

Then we headed back to my place, and sat here for a little while and talked. We were interrupted by a call. was coming to pick Sylvan up for the manicure appointment. While he was getting ready, I noticed that we also had messages waiting on the voicemail, so I checked them.

One of the calls was from the Fremont recruiter. She needed me to call her by five, because she had a position for me over in Fremont that would be starting tomorrow morning. I ran to the clock to check the time. I missed out. It was nearly six.

Then the lovely Dancer (looking particularly beautiful today, I might add) arrived to pick up Sylvan, and called shortly after he left. I just hung up the phone with her. It was so wonderful to hear her voice again. And her sharp wit. She’ll be at karaoke tonight, as will most of the people we know. I’m very excited that I get to see her again. It’s been so long. Too long. And I’ll be seeing there too. And of course, I’ll be seeing Sylvan and Wolfie and Dev there. I’m their ride. So many of the people that I absolutely adore will be there tonight. It’s going to be fabulous.

Now, if I can only find a bit more energy. I need to keep going until 1 or so in the morning, at least, on the 2 1/2 hours of sleep I got today.

Iced mochas. That’s the answer. Off to get some caffeine!

A question sent to about using her as a reference has brought on a short burst of email back and forth and has reminded me exactly how brilliant and wonderful she is. And it’s brought something to look forward to, getting together sometime next week for coffee or something. Yay! It will be wonderful to see my Goth Goddess again! We’ve been out of contact far too long.

The interview went very well. Veronica will talk with the Fremont recruiter and get more details on the job in Fremont. It’s likely that I’ll get it, and even though the commute will be annoying, I’m willing to drive it. And I’ve decided to just take the position. A paycheck in the hand is worth two in the bush. Or something like that.

One of the things that Veronica seemed happy with was that was the one who referred me. She’s very impressed with Liggy. As she should be. Liggy’s a goddess.

Not that all of this is going to stop me from applying to the other company I want to work for.

The resumes that was kind enough to print out are great. Thank you again, so much!

I can’t wait for Thursday. and arrive on Thursday. I miss them so much.

Of course, if I get the position, I probably won’t be around to watch Sylvan watch his soaps. That used to be a great source of amusement when we were housemates. I’ll miss that.

But at least I’ll have him and Wolfie around to bother for a while, job or no job. And I can drag them out to karaoke (yay, then I can hear Wolfie sing again!)

In spite of getting less sleep than I would have liked, today has been a good day. Nothing to complain about, certainly.

Now, lunch, and then more applying for jobs. Wheeeeeeeee.

I got a call from a recruiter today.

She actually works for On Staff, which I already have an interview for, at one this afternoon. (Thank you, !) I’m interviewing at their San Jose office. The recruiter who called me after seeing my resume on Monster works in the Fremont office.

Just based on my resume, the Fremont recruiter offered me a job. Before I’ve even gone in, filled out the application, interviewed, etc. She wants to match me up with her favorite client in Fremont, if I’m willing to make the commute every day.

I would be working for American Title (as opposed to First American Title.) And when she asked me what my required rate of pay was, I told her that I didn’t want to be making less than what I was making at EPIC, which was $15 an hour. She laughed and told me that this position pays a LOT more than $15 an hour.

There was a company, a different company, I really wanted to work for. I’ve been honing a cover letter to a razor’s edge to send to them along with my resume. And it wouldn’t be escrow. This job through On Staff would be.

But on the other hand, this job with On Staff sounds like a pretty sure thing, and at a lot more than I was making at EPIC, I don’t know that I want to turn this down. This is a hard choice to make. Do I take the relatively sure thing, or turn it down tomorrow on something that I might get, but would rather be doing?

Ugh.

I’ve been thinking about this all day. I still can’t make up my mind, and it’s less than 12 hours to the interview now.

This not having a job thing is driving me nuts. I need to be doing. Which is another factor in the do-I-or-don’t-I question.

On top of all of that, there’s the Europe tour.

’s ex-girlfriend was at karaoke last night. And we went out to dinner after with her. She’s close friends with a gay British gentleman, and he will be taking her to Europe with him as vocal coach. The two of them and the company he’s a part of will be touring for four months. She only has to come up with $150 in airport fees and taxes. And when Amy, the ex-girlfriend, mentioned that Dev and I can really cook, he made the offer to us as well. The company has all this food, and the guy that normally does their cooking is on an extended leave of absence. He wants Dev and me to accompany them as cooks, same deal that Amy’s getting. I don’t know when this is happening, whether it’s next week, next month, or what. And what do we do about the apartment while we’re gone? We’d like it to come back to, but it’s not like we can afford to pay up the rent for four months. And then some, since we wouldn’t have jobs that we’re coming back to. We’d need to be set for job hunting once the tour was done.

If I hadn’t recently acquired all this furniture, I’d say the hell with it, ship what little I did have back down to Delano, and do this thing. I could probably convince a friend or two to let me couch surf when I got back, until I was on my feet again. But now there’s all this stuff, all of which I’d like to come back to as well.

I’m considering a conversation with Nicholas. See if maybe he’d be willing to let me sublet this place to a friend or two for four months. If the timing is what I think it is, I might be able to find someone who could and would want to do it… maybe as breathing room while looking for someplace other than the one that they’re in now.

I don’t know. There are too many factors and too many decisions involved with this. I’m a Libra, dammit! I don’t decisions well. And I’m apparently rubbing off on Dev. She’s having a harder time deciding, too.

Aargh.

I got sent out to buy two new pairs of shoes, something I can wear on job interviews, and, when I get another job, to work.

It took us three stores, but and I finally found the two pairs of shoes. Now I just have to pass the amount I spent along to my mom, and she’ll reimburse me.

While we were at the first of the two malls we hit, we stopped in at Lane Bryant. We discovered that they were having a clearance sale on bustiers. So I have a leopard-print strapless one now, and Dev has a black one with a gold tracery patterning it. And then Dev made a Find. Two black velvet dresses with spaghetti straps and square sparkly bits on the straps. And a rather high slit on the left side. They were also on clearance. All these things were about seven bucks each.

Second mall, third store, we found the shoes. And since the second mall happened to be Valley Fair, we stopped off at the new Torrid store. Between the two of us, we want one of everything. Sometimes two.

We got matching jewelry to go with our new matching dresses, and tights (different patterns, though.) So now we have matching karaoke outfits. We’ll have to debut them this Thursday in honor of and ’s visit.

I’m wearing the black dress right now. I had to try it on. And I must say, I’m not accustomed to quite this much bare skin.

But what the hell.

Maybe I’ll even get pawed by some strange woman (other than my roommate, who was just stroking my arm, the wench) so I’ll have something to gripe about. :D

and I went out to the King of Clubs to karaoke. Spencer was there, and sat with us. He did “Hello, Dolly” again, at my request. I so love it when he does that number. showed up a bit later, and sat down with us and was, well, Nate. There’s no other way to put it. Fortunately, Nate being so Nate is a good thing rather than a bad.

And then the Comedy Event of the Night happened.

During a duet by a couple of the KoC regulars, the smoke machine started working. At first it looked like it was going to be just a little puff of smoke, and that was fine. I was rather amused by it, really.

But then it didn’t stop.

Smoke kept pouring out of the smoke machine. For a good five minutes, there was nonstop smoke. It was so thick in the bar that you couldn’t see the person two feet from you. Nate wandered around, making foghorn noises. The whole crowd of us, following Nate’s hooting, got up and headed out the door. I was among a small group that decided that they weren’t walking, they were actually swimming, so we all breast-stroked and dog-paddled our way out the door. When I looked back inside, I could make out a slight flickering of light in the fog, where the disco ball was merrily rotating. Every once in a while, there was the faint shadow of a person wandering by. A few people didn’t make it out of the bar. I figure that they got lost in the fog and couldn’t find the door. People started wondering if we should try and find a flashlight, and have someone rotating with it at the door, so there’d be a lighthouse to guide all the ships lost at sea in there.

The bartenders were rushing around, trying to figure out where the smoke machine switch was located, and how it got flipped. They had no more idea than any of the rest of us. Eventually, a solution was found. One of the karaoke DJ’s had set her music binder down on top of the switch for the smoke machine, so the button couldn’t release after a brief interval. The Thursday night karaoke DJ went in looking for the two women who were running it tonight, and he was the one who found the binder on the switch.

I have to say, Nate makes a decent foghorn. I’ll have to keep him around for the next time I encounter a Tulle fog over in the Central Valley. I’ll just strap him to the hood of the car, and he can hoot until I’m clear of it. Wouldn’t be any stranger a mode of transportation for Nate than the days when he used to insist on riding in the trunks of cars when we were going someplace.

Someone really needed to sing “Smoke Gets in your Eyes” tonight.

I need a printer. The place I’m interviewing on Tuesday wants a hard copy of my resume.

I guess I can hit Kinko’s, and doing that’s a struggle, since I have to get around my inner miser who doesn’t want to spend money on anything other than bills, rent, and food right now.

Today was the first time I’ve seen him since he shaved off the goatee.

He waved to me, and I didn’t even pay attention, because I didn’t recognize him.

You’d think I’d still know him without the facial hair. I knew him for years and years when he didn’t have any. But it’d become so much a part of my mental image of him, that he was a complete stranger until I’d actually been in the store for a while.

Whoops.

Mmmm… this chili is soooooo good. Oh, wait. The roomie wants me to put aside what I will want later for dinner, and package up the rest? Why? So she can take it to work? Feed my chili to the people at work? Not on your life! I may be nice at times, but I’m never that nice. Okay, maybe for sis, but no one else there! And Nate, he can have some. But I’m keeping as much as I can here! My chili! Mine! Mine, you hear me! MINE! ALL YOUR CHILI ARE BELONG TO ME! MWAHAHAHA! I SHALL TAKE OVER ALL THE CHILI IN THE WORLD! NO ONE CAN STOP M… Oh… ummm… what? Oh… well… for the roomie’s lunch. Okay.

Now, off to package up the chili for .

When it comes to Cincinnati chili, I want it all. But for some people, I’ll make an exception.

Another megolamaniacal moment averted by the roomie’s lunch. So just remember, next time you’re eating chili, it’s only because of Dev that you can. Otherwise, I’d own it all.

…to have gotten so little done.

Valley Med’s hurry up and wait policies and tendency to close down Fast Track (a misnomer if there ever was one) without telling the people that were waiting for there turn to go in there brought one very long day with a lot of staring at hospital walls. And reading. I finished the book that I started reading yesterday night. It felt like half a lifetime spent sitting on the same uncomfortable seat. And I wasn’t even there the entire time that was waiting. I went off a couple times to forage food for her or for me.

But the blood pressure medication has been gotten, and will keep her going until her next doctor’s appointment. And I’d rather have wasted the day now being her ride than see her hospitalized or worse because we didn’t do this now.

When we got back home, there was assorted personal drama to be dealt with. I wound up blessing the foresight I had the other day that prompted me to make lots of extra steamed white rice when I last cooked a Chinese dinner. I don’t think I would have had much patience to do anything other than the quick and simple fried rice I threw together for dinner for the two of us.

So, the Medical Day out of the way, dinner eaten, and the Meatcicle from Hell convinced to relinquish its grasp on the freezer door and submit to being refrigerated so it can start to thaw, the day is finally winding down, and I can spend tomorrow working like a maniac to find myself a new job to make up for the lack of anything much done on that today. I did, at least, put the final polishing touches on my resume. It’s gone from a laundry list of job duties to a written sales pitch. Now I just need to convince myself that I’m not a big fraud, which is an entirely false feeling. Everything on that thing is true. Oh well.

Nighty-night. Time to lie down and get the kinks out of my back, so I can put them all back by sitting too long in front of the computer, looking for jobs and sending out resumes. Wheeee.

Today’s job hunt must be put on hold, at least for a little while.

When went by Valley Med yesterday to point out that there was a month’s discrepancy between the last day of her blood pressure meds (today she took the last pill) and her doctor’s appointment to get tested and get the prescription for her refill, she was denied any blood pressure medication to tide her over until the appointment. Despite the fact that they have stressed that she needs to take it every day, or risk some dire, and possibly fatal, circumstances.

They told her that the only way she could get some now to keep her going until her scheduled appointment is to sit in the emergency room until someone can see her and test her.

So, Dev and I are off to Valley Med. Knowing that place, we’ll be there for many an hour.

I will be so happy when her benefits kick in at work. Then she can get away from the useless hospital and get some real medical treatment.

This is the second time in the last couple months that someone I know has had problems being treated at Valley Med. And both have been situations that are or could become life-threatening if not treated.

Fuckers.

YABCM (Yet Another BayCon Meeting) happens this coming Sunday. Whoopee.

, are you coming down for this one?

Sometimes, I just have too many ideas for one head.

You know, that woman speaks 18 languages, and she can’t say “no” in any of them.

Dorothy Parker

Up until now, I’ve been able to stay angry about the circumstances of my firing. Anger, in this case, is good. It keeps me motivated. If I’m angry, I keep moving forward. I have no time for depression. I go out and get things accomplished, get things organized, keep on going. If I get depressed, I tend to retreat into doing nothing much other than sleeping. I lose all forward momentum. So, the last thing I need right now is to get depressed because I don’t have a job. The money in my savings is very limited, and even with unemployment and help from my mom, it’s not going to stretch all that far. I need to find another job, and I need to find it fast. Or else I have to move out of here and resign myself to dependency on someone else to pay the expenses of living. I don’t want to be there again. I spent too long doing that already.

But now that I’m back from Hellano and have a week of jobhunting coming up, I am getting hit by depression. I was watching a movie before attempting to sleep, and bam, all of the sudden I just wanted to cry and curl up in a ball and just give up. I can’t let myself do this. I have to fight this, and this is a battle that I haven’t been very good at in the past. This time, I have less room to not be very good at it, though. If I give in and give up, I lose my place to live here, as well as my roommate’s place to live. We both have options if that happens, but they’re not necessarily options that we want to take. They are mostly the court of last resort options, rather than homelessness.

I’ve got no time for depression. Why couldn’t anger have lasted just a while longer? *sigh*

For those, like and , who may remember this from Boxland of the late 80’s…

Rubbermaid’s Quote of the Day

I’m going to memorize your name and throw my head away.
Oscar Levant

Just got email from Essah in New Jersey. A mutual friend out there passed away. He got very ill, and when he went to the doctor last January, he was diagnosed with leukemia.

He’s brain-dead now. Only the machines are keeping him alive. His mother hasn’t been able to give up hope that somehow he’ll recover. She hasn’t been able to tell the doctors to pull the plug.

Goddess, what a position to be in.

Rest in peace, John. :(

I’d never driven the Pacheco Pass in heavy rain before. Fog, yes, but not rain. I have to say that it doesn’t do anything to improve the drive. A curving road through mountains, with steep drops alternating with nice, tall rocks to smack into is not the place to have your car threatening to hydroplane. I’m just glad that I had a lot of practice driving in heavy rains in New Jersey. The car never did more than threaten. Which is more than I can say for a lot of people. It was rather impressive, the number of tow-trucks out there hauling cars out of the trouble their drivers plus rain had gotten them into.

And now my pillow is calling my name. I’m very, very tired. Unusual for me. I don’t generally get hit by this until a bit later, though I can often force myself to sleep now rather than later. But I started yawning by about 2 in the morning, while on the drive back. So, yes, time to answer the call of the pillow.

We watched pure cheese-food today. I can’t even call it cheese. It’s worse than that.

The movie is called Ankle Biters and it’s about midget vampires.

It was awful.

And now the song at the end is stuck in my head. The closing credits scrolled to a song that was pretty much just guitar and some guy shouting, “Three feet tall! Two inch fangs!”

It was right down there with Redneck Zombies.

Good thing I like awful movies. Cause this was very awful.

Now, I’m nearly all packed, and then I’m hitting the road. Off to see the mother unit in Hellano.