A Lackluster Kind of Last Week

Last week was a hard week professionally speaking. I recently put in a lot of job applications, and there was one in particular I felt really good about. I mean, I thought I had this thing in the bag. When I got the no last Tuesday I was absolutely flummoxed. Flummoxed.

I have no idea how I could have possibly been any more qualified for a position than I was for this one. This, along with a string of nos from other positions I had applied for, left me with a lot of doubt and a little bit of despair. I took a step back, tried to review my qualifications as objectively as I possibly could, and I am still a little stumped. I have worked with PR firms, nonprofits, lobbying firms, elementary schools, newspapers, external relations offices, alumni relations offices, and summer school programs. I have spent over 4 months in Africa doing development projects and research.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to brag on myself here. The point of this is that I am still not even qualified for assistant positions in companies. I am not actually getting rejected from jobs because they found someone better, I am not even being considered for positions because I don't have the right qualifications. This makes me look back at my nearly two years of graduate education and over $20,000 spent, and wonder  about what it was all for. From what I have seen so far, no one will hire you without at least 3-5 years of experience in exactly the same area you are applying for.

So here's my question to all the hiring officials at all the organizations who have received applications from me thus far:

How in the world do you expect to hire people with experience when no one will hire anyone without already having the experience?

What do you want? It is like this awful vicious circle. It seems like companies prefer someone who has spent the last 5 years working in a minimum wage, paper pushing office position over someone who has a graduate degree in management. This is extremely frustrating for me. I am worried that I may end up forced to accept a low-paying position that I am over qualified for because no one else will even consider me. However, despite all the set-backs, I have not given up quite yet. I am still applying to tons of jobs and looking for new possibilities. I know if I just keep trying something will work out for us.

Here is a little bit of inspiration for the day if anyone is interested. This definitely made me feel better about things after reading it. And not to be a total downer I will say that I have a pretty great life. I might not find a job next year, but I have a great husband, a great family, and great friends. I know everything will work out like it is supposed to, I just need to have the patience for everything to sort itself out.

Here are two picture from Blickenstaff's (i.e. the best toy store every):

 And yes, I now own this lunch box!

And here are some pictures from Halloween (we won a couples costume award!). Sorry the pictures are not any better, but I do what I can. Sadly enough, all my red lip stick had worn off by this time and most of my pouf had flattened as well.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Ok . . . so that title was way too overdramatic. It just popped into my head and I went with it.

It has been quite a long day though. You know those days that just don't seem to ever end? It's not a bad day or anything just a ridiculously long and boring one and you keep thinking that it has to be later than it really is and every minute seems to take about five and when it is going to be bedtime already days . . . oh you know!

Since my day has been so unbearably long I figured I might as well be productive and blog for the first time in . . . well way too long.

First of all (and unfortunately I have no pictures to post for this thought) I love my job. I most certainly do! In might be one of the few places here in Provo where I really, really feel like I'm needed and appreciated. Of course, it does not take too much to win the admiration of 1st graders but they make you feel like what you're doing is worthwhile.

We played kickball on Wednesday and it went so well. It was without contestation the best day we've had in sports class so far. I will credit myself with a rather fantastic ability to wing it. It was supposed to be bocce ball day but due to unforeseen circumstances (all the music stands had been moved into the equipment room) I had to use only what I could reach from the doorway. We played Kickball, Jr. . . a sport I invented as we went.

Rules:

Every member of the kicking team got to kick once.

If you're in the field get the ball to the pitcher.

If you're running, run until the pitcher gets the ball.

The End.

It was a fun time.

We made salsa with my K-3 health class on Thursday. It was so much fun to see the kids get so excited about cooking (something that I love too!) They kept calling the ingredients recipes and it was adorable.

"Hey teacher are there more recipes to put in?"

"Can I stir in the next recipe?"

We made salsa. Surprisingly enough, only 1 of the 15ish kids didn't eat it. That's pretty amazing considering how picky children that age are and the fact this recipe had raw onions, avocado, green onions and red pepper in it.

On Friday, we launched rockets in my space science class. I will admit I was more than a little nervous about how this was going to go. I personally have only launched one model rocket in my entire life and I barely remember it. Luckily, it went awesome. It was a fun activity and I love seeing the kids get so excited about learning. One of the smartest and most interested in science kids in my class is also one of the youngest. He is only in 3rd grade. His rocket for some reason unbeknownst to me (I am not a scientist you know) veered off course and landed on the roof. I could see the crushed look on his face and he was trying hard to be brave and hold back his tears. I felt so bad for him and just wanted to give him a hug (he looked so darn sad), but of course that's not allowed. I did, however, assure him we would take every possible measure to get his rocket back. He still looked like he had just lost his very best friend. It really is tough to be a kid. Everything is so dramatic.

Even though I have been much to busy to blog lately, I squeezed some time in for cooking. Not a ton . . . but some. Here are some of my new delicious favorites:

Carrot Ginger Soup : I tweaked this recipe a bit. I used skim milk instead of cream, powered ginger and I didn't use any butternut squash. I think it turned out just fine. Delicious really!

Chocolate Chip Cookies (with coconut oil):

Pizza: Homemade pizza is so much fun because you have to follow the recipe on the crust but you can do whatever in the world you want with the toppings (within reason of course) and it is still delicious. I made three different ones but my favorite was definitely the BBQ chicken with gouda cheese and red onions.

Apple Cake: This may be my favorite so far. It's not too sweet and just tastes like fall in cake form! YUM!

Ok last topic change I promise:

Halloween! I went to a pretty rocking dance party on Friday night. It was slightly more exciting because we crashed a stake dance that wasn't ours. I am blown away by some people's creativity when it comes to Halloween costumes. There was a Quail Man there. That's all I'm saying! JulieAnn and I looked pretty fantastic too.

Happy Halloween dear friends . . . and family! and strangers and random blog stalkers!

My happy song these days:

To Have Joy

President Ucthdorf talked about having joy in this life and the next in his fireside address tonight. I really liked how he said a heaven where we just sing all day is not the kind of heaven he wants to go do (that was paraphrased btw). I fully agree. Laughing, fun, joy, family, friends, etc. are all essential to truly enjoying this life and the next.

In the spirit of following his advice, I will share some photos from my undeniably joyful weekend.

I love how when life gives you a figurative smack in the face and you're feeling a little bummed about it, so many good things happen to make up for it i.e. job opportunities, new friends, fun activities, and other all together awesome things that make the bad thing seem like it didn't really matter.

A weekend complete with some of my favorite things including dressing up, dancing, sweets, talking about music, soup in bread bowls, a haunted house, scary movies, and some hot chocolate certainly makes up for a lot. The aftermath of the costume was not so pretty though:

I washed my hair three times to get all the blue out! I also need to dry clean my favorite coat now. Definitely worth it though!

Oh, and interview #4 tomorrow at 11am, This one is unpaid so it is a last resort, but cross those fingers anyways!

Stay Tuned

Right now there are sooooo many stay tuned things going on in my life. Since this is my last semester of school, things in my life will be changing, possibly drastically, very soon.

I knocked out interviews 2 and 3 looking sharp in my dress pants and vest today. I received compliments on my resume which made me feel good. I mentioned this yesterday, but I feel it even more today: I really want this internship in California! I will find out within the next few weeks if I got any of the jobs (stay tuned). I feel pretty good about them right now.

I also found some extremely elusive free time, gasp, today. In this free time I bought fabric for my shirt project in sewing class (stay tuned) and yarn, shoes, a shirt and tights for my halloween costume (stay tuned).

I anxiously await Halloween every year. I really, REALLY like to dress up. As a matter of fact, I am sitting in my living room right now looking like I had got in a fight in the back of an alley from my pre-Halloween makeup experiments earlier this evening. I entertained myself by prancing around in my costume earlier this evening! It turned out even better than I hoped!

I'm making soup tomorrow night as well (stay tuned) for the ward Halloween party. Oh, the joys of being on activities committee. I will post pictures of the finished Halloween costume very, very soon (stay tuned).

My official acceptance for HELP's Uganda team came today! It was mostly a formality, but it's exciting nonetheless.

Riveting Non-fiction

So I was reading CNN.com today in my print publishing class. It's pretty much the only way to keep me awake (and therefore sort of paying attention) in this class. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have aerobic dance so early the same morning, but I make do. I learn how to use InDesign while catching up on the day's news. I don't see anything much wrong with my system. Whilst perusing the site I came across this story about an engaged couple who were unable to get married because the man was sent to prison (according to the story wrongfully so). It's a very well written feature article. Be advised: If you read this (which I highly recommend or I wouldn't be posting this) it is to be continued so be prepared for a cliffhanger. It's a love story!

On a completely unrelated note, I found a website that shows how to make a wig out of yarn. I will be making my blue wig very, very soon!

This wig is made out of yarn and a beanie! How much simpler can you get?

Here is exactly what I'm going for with my Halloween costume:

Thriller

I get to learn Thriller in my aerobic dance class next week. I am excited. I can bust out the real dance when Thriller inevitably gets played at the ward Halloween party this Friday. Also, I will be making this soup recipe for said party.

Party Review

I have decided that facebook event invites are like direct mailers. You can only expect to have a very, very low percentage of response. However, there were about 15 people here, which is a good number for our small living room with limited seating. Some more party prep pics:

Today has been a pretty happy day for me. I took a midterm that was nowhere near as difficult as I imagined. Honestly, the worst part was when my hand got really tired during the short answer portion. I really haven't been doing a lot of actual writing on paper lately, obviously, and I'm a little rusty. 

I am ready to put my zipper in my skirt! 

I got another call about a job interview (that brings my total up to three). And I got an e-mail response for the only unpaid internship I'd be willing to accept. It's for a record company affiliated with Deseret Books. I have always wanted to work in music business and this might be a good start!

Oh, and I have a ticket for the football game tomorrow, and it's only $10!

Go Cougs!

This is Halloween!

First of all, I really really love Brand New. They are one of my favorite bands. However, I think I had my first ever negative experience with them this morning. I have aerobic dance at 8am, and per usual I was running a bit late. It was a cloudy, dismal kind of morning and I was really sleepy. This song really bummed me out when I heard it this morning. It is a beautiful song, but not necessarily appropriate at the time.

Also, Halloween is soon! I love Halloween! I love the fall. I love pumpkins and pretty much all pumpkin flavored foods. I love the fall colors, the fall weather, and fall attire. Basically, this is a very happy time of year. One of my favorite parts is dressing up. I have my costume all planned out so stay turned for pictures. 

In the spirit of Halloween, tonight for FHE we carved pumpkins. James and I did very well considering the fact neither one of us is very artistically inclined and we both had a complete block on what the do for the first 10ish minutes. We ended up placing second out of 10 in the FHE competition.

Oh, Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

Oh, did I mention I don't particularly care for Spongebob? Because I don't. But it did make for an awesome pumpkin!

And one last thing. Janell and I are throwing a pre-Halloween movie night party this Friday featuring none other than my very  favorite Halloween movie: The Nightmare Before Christmas!

Here's a little snip to get you excited! Oh and there will be cupcakes out the wazooooo!

Eclectic

Just a few thoughts and things to share:

1.) I am a clumsy girl. I made myself bleed not once but twice today because of my sheer stupidity. First, I scratched my elbow so hard with my fingernail in the process of taking off my hoodie that it actually bled, and then again a few hours later I cut my hand with a knife in my hand when I got a sudden terrible itch in my ear (it's a kind of complicated situation).

2.) Nie Nie was on Oprah today. I obviously didn't get to watch it due to my lack of both cable and time. But I watched this clip. Not the best reporting skills, but it doesn't diminish her story. She is amazing.

3.) I made these:

I think they are adorable despite the fact I didn't get a very adorable kind of grade on them. I'm wearing them to bed tonight, and in my opinion they are perfect!

4.) Potential Halloween costume:

I already have the blue wig, dragonfly clip, and yellow jacket. All I need is the boots!

5.) I should not be a science teacher, and no one should have let me be one. I pretty much bored the pants off even my most attentive and cooperative students today with my bumbling attempts to explain how cell phones and circuit boards work.

6.) This time in two nights I will have attended the Brand New concert.

7.) This time in three nights I will have seen The Used.

The end