The Chicago tribune never contacted me again after my second phone conversation with them last Thursday. I called today but nobody answered, so i left a message and sent an email as well. Curious.
Zillow in Seattle wants to talk to me again next Tuesday.
I talked on Wednesday to several folks at Coffey Communications in Walla Walla, Washington. Turns out it’s a pretty small city, even smaller than Ames, and several hours from both Seattle and Portland. Bummer.
Canright in Portland wants to talk to me next week, but hasn’t made an appointment yet.
I applied at a few places in NYC because i realized that two of the best friends i’ve ever had live out there now, so why not?
Also thinking of applying to work for Facebook in Palo Alto, CA.
All the anticipation has me alternately very excited and rather depressed. Today is an excited day. 
Oh crap, i was supposed to call for my first unemployment check today. Whoopee…
Friday was quite an adventure here in Ames, Iowa. It rained quite a bit last week, enough apparently to totally flood the meadow across the street from us, and then the street itself, and then the apartment buildings in the area. Dan called me at 11 AM while i was still in bed and told me to get out and move my car up to the next street to the North because ours was flooding. “I don’t see any water in the parking lot–wait a sec, yeah the street is totally filled with water.”
From the east end of South 5th, around noon on Friday
Behind our apartment buildings (ours is the grey one).
We got our cars out and up to South 4th just in time. I went and knocked on Karl’s door to tell him to move his vehicle and Dan went knocking on all of our neighbor’s doors, because cars were quickly becoming too submerged to drive through the water. He went into the office and suggested that they alert people. “What, you want us to go knock on everyone’s door?” “Uh, YEAH, that’s what i’ve just been DOING.” So he got their asses going. Good work.
Meanwhile, I waded back to our place with my big rubber boots on and quickly packed a bag and grabbed some bananas. I went back to my car, ate a banana and tried to decide whose house i could shower at… There’s a back staircase from S 4th to Nina & Karl’s apartment complex so i called him, took a shower at their place and was able to get out the back door and back to my car though the water had risen to their parking lot by the time i was done.
Dan stuck around and had a ball wading through the brown water with Ryan and making friends with the neighbors while i went to the mall for a bit (where i found THE JACKET!) before my dental appointment and then got out of town. I was on my way to Des Moines when my car suddenly shut off in the middle of the interstate. I was able to pull over onto the shoulder, called mom and then Dan who came with Ryan to rescue me after first grabbing a burger or two. Ryan identified that my fuel line had become disconnected, reconnected it for me and i was on my way. THANK YOU, Ryan!
Some day i’ll tally up all the money that Dan and Ryan have saved me on computer and car repairs and feel guilty, and then take them out to a nice dinner or something. Amazingly, all the bad luck of the day ended up making me feel very fortunate to A: have an apartment that’s on concrete stilts; 2: Have found the perfect jacket finally 
C: Still have super healthy teeth even after a year and a half away from the dentist; 4: Have friends to rescue me; and E: be close enough to just hop down and visit my family. Never mind that i experienced a flood and car problems on the same day.
I stayed in DM that night and visited with Tim, Angie, Jamie and Mom and perhaps Grandma and Grandpa heard some of what we were saying, having been in the same room for most of the time. I had an interview with Zillow in Seattle which was a little awkward because i had forgotten about the time difference and expected a call at 3:30 rather than 5:30, and the phone connection was rather fuzzy.
Cut to today. Nothing in my email inbox. I feel anxious. Chicago? Seattle? Portland? Chicago? Portland? Seattle? Interviews? Plane rides? Hotels? Nothing at all?? Everyone warns me about Chicago. There is still nothing to speak of in Portland, my top choice. I am still waiting. This will be my first week without pay.
A note on the map:
McLeod in Texas sent me a gentle rejection, i’ve had phone interviews with Zillow in Seattle and the Chicago Tribune (which went well & sounds promising), and i applied for a job in DM today because the company is called Red 5 Interactive and, being a big Star Wars geek, i couldn’t pass up the chance.
Red 5 being, of course, Luke Skywalker’s handle during the Battle of Yavin in Star Wars Episode IV.
This is a map of the jobs i applied to last week. I didn’t realize until making this map that i’ve completely neglected to apply for any jobs in Iowa. There aren’t any i’m interested in, i guess. I’ve already been rejected by a handfull, so i feel like Iowa doesn’t even want me here. Screw it.
I want to go to Portland but it’s just painfully lacking in opportunity for the likes of me. My only shot would be freelancing, and that’s scary. I don’t really want to go to Chicago but there are so many more jobs there than anywhere else. I interview with the Tribune today at four.
I read that it takes an average of seventeen interviews to get a job. I think that means people either score right away or blow every interview they manage to get before giving up, and the average just happens to fall at seventeen. Not encouraging at all.
The good news is i’ve conquered every Grand Prix on Mario Kart and my name now bears a star next to it when i play online. I don’t think i’ve ever spent this much time on a video game before. Bravo, Nintendo. I hate you.
I have been in the presence of gods, my friends. Gods whom some refer to as Radiohead. Yesterday we made our pilgrimage to the holy land of St Louis, where Radiohead descended to the earth to bestow upon us their glorious sounds. And thus they spake:
“Do i smell doughnuts? Who could eat a doughnut at a time like this?”
(imagine the Geiko gecko saying it–that’s what Thom Yorke sounds like.)
They didn’t say much more than that, but they played probably every In Rainbows song and most of Kid A, along with a few older songs. Fake Plastic Trees was my favorite. I can die happy now, i told Dan.
It was worth the twelve hours in my tiny car, especially since Dan drove the whole way home through the night and let me sleep. Not worth the effort, though, was getting my ass out of bed and to work this morning, only to be promptly canned. Given the pink slip. Laid off. Not fired, exactly, they didn’t want to have to let me go (quote unquote) but times are hard and there’s this block and well, someone had to get chopped.
Whew. Just like that. Two weeks severance pay and then i’m on my own. I’m a full-time job seeker now, and i don’t figure i can be picky anymore. I’ll be pretty much applying all over the country, i think, and let my career take me where it will.
I’m scared, but this is probably the kick in the ass i needed to really make a change. And–hey, at least i get to sleep in. A LOT.