A brief update on my job search:
1. My Tuesday afternoon interview downtown was moved to Wednesday morning. I will follow the wise counsel of friends and not drive. There is too much risk that traffic delays could cause me to be late. Even if I leave 3 hours before I need to be there. I will take the train.
2. The hiring manager for the Wisconsin job, with a terrific company, told the recruiter he liked my resume so much he would skip the phone interview. We will move directly to the on site interview. This is exactly what happened for job #1. The manager wanted to see me early this week. I had to decline, mentioning the conflict with the first interview.
3. I am in the running for a third job, this one like the first also downtown.
4. A recruiter contacted me today to see if I would be interested in yet another job.
Of course, given the economy
Danya (imported) wrote: Thu Apr 15, 2010 8:46 pm
it is entirely possible that none of these p
ossibilities will result in a job offer. I am very encouraged, though, by these developments.
I had something of an urban adventure on Saturday. I drove part way to the city, then decided to take the 'el' the rest of the way. This saved money parking downtown and I avoided potential traffic snarls. I wound up exploring a part of Chicago I had not been to in years. I had my camera along.
The camera caused several problems, or rather my concentration on it did.
At one point, I was partly in the street photographing skyscrapers behind a raised drawbridge. I wasn't the only one in the street, but unlike the other people I stayed there taking pictures. A bus driver had to honk at me to get me to move! Reminds me of the time in New Orleans when I had a more direct confrontation with a bus, and for a similar reason.
At one point, I took the steps from Wacker Drive down to the side of the Chicago River. I wanted to photograph the boats that were being taken back to their warm weather moorings in the Lake Michigan marina. As I was maneuvering to get a better view, I backed into a concrete curb and fell. No harm done. I can get very much 'in the zone' when taking pictures.
I walked around the city for at least 2 1/2 hours. Finally, my body started to tell me that the donut I had for breakfast was not enough to keep me going through 4:30 PM. So I headed back to the 'el'. I needed to get back on the blue line, which downtown is actually a subway.
At the subway station, a young scrawny looking man with a goatee approached me. No one else was in sight. This is when I remembered Erica Ann's words of advice, "You don't want to look like a tourist gawking at all the tall buildings while you carry your camera.":) The thing is, I never tire of gawking at the buildings in any city. While I could not gawk at the buildings from below ground level, I was sitting there with a very nice camera.
The young man sat down next to me and started off by telling me his story. He was in the city, visiting from college in Indiana. His 5 minute tale came down to his being irresponsible the night before. He had gotten very drunk, so he said, and not only gotten sick in a taxi but along the way left his identification and money behind. He freely admitted that he had been very foolish.
He needed to get back to Indiana. Seems like he was somehow able to call his mother. She told him to find a nice lady from out of town, who had children and would understand. Surely such a woman would give him the $44.12 he needed for the trip home. For some reason, he thought I was just such a woman. Little did he know I have no children.
He noted that none of the Chicago women would give him the time of day, let alone travel funds. I will not reveal whether or not I gave him any money. For now I'll leave things at I have given money to strangers in the past. I make a decision based on my intuition. Alright, I tend to be tender hearted, or soft-headed!
Then I made the mistake of getting on the right train but going in the wrong direction.
Now, I might not have let this happen if the young man were not continuing to distract me with his story.
Once the train returned above ground, I noticed (sort of) that the route back did not seem to be quite the same as the one I had taken downtown. I was so busy looking at the 137 photos I'd taken that I did not give this incongruity much thought.
In the end, I had to make the entire trip back downtown and out to near O'Hare airport, where I was parked. I was still getting by on the morning's donut, wanting to avoid spending money on a meal I could make at home.
Along the way, and despite the repeated recording of a man's voice politely notifying the 'customers' that there was to be no gambling or soliciting on the train, another man asked me for money so he would have bus fare.
Just this evening, I drove to the local train station to be sure I could easily find it Wednesday morning. I stood at the station looking at the schedule when a woman approached and asked for a dollar. I wasn't expecting this in a far northwestern suburb.
At least all of these people clearly accepted me as Danya!
Even on Saturday when I was experiencing not a 'poof' of facial hair growth but a less serious 'puff.' Next Sunday, I'll be back to 3 hours of electrolysis. My electrologist told me yesterday that she expects a more serious outbreak in the next week or two. We may be able to head that off with aggressive treatment.
. I'm not quite sure how to go about this, but I'll figure it out.
