Artichoke Dreams

Or at least don’t try to exchange it.

The Boy and I decided to get on the same plan to save money, since we spend a pretty penny talking to each other. Long distance relationships are a drag.

So we find that we can both get Blackberries on AT&T for super cheap. It’s about a penny a phone to buy a new contract at amazon.com. That’s awesome.

I order the phones and I’m 90% sure that I buy a black and a red pearl.

I do not check the order properly.

I get a Curve and a Pearl. I call, to see if they’ll exchange it. Apparently, you get routed to India first and then re-routed to somewhere in the south. All my CS agents have has southern accents. Maybe Virginia or something. They say they’ll submit my info the the cell phone department and they’ll get back to me.

I say OK, then call back later, asking if i can just talk to them. They say that this mythical cell phone department doesn’t have a phone number. The second CS also get a bunch of things wrong. Says I did indeed order two pearls, then later recants that. Also says that I’ll probably have to return my whole order, cancel my new contract with AT&T and then re-order. Oh yeah, I’ll have to pay the early termination fee.

So I’m pissed off, but I wait. I don’t hear from this mythical department today, so I call.

This third CS says that it might take another day because they’re a small department. I cannot talk to them by phone, but they ARE reachable after 5 p.m. Hm. This sounds pretty contradictory, as yesterday they said that they weren’t reachable after 5 p.m. I say I’d really like to take care of it today, I’m going out of town and e-mail access isn’t for sure. She says, “you can check your e-mail from any computer.”

Way to insult my intelligence.

We’ll see what happens tomorrow. But do NOT buy a phone from amazon.com Their customer service is terrible.

I got pkimbui.com up and rolling.

It looks pretty hot if you ask me. It’s got my resume and some clips as well.

Hire me.

I ate a salad for dinner. With tuna, hard boiled eggs, walnuts and some fontina.

I hate salad, but it was yummy.

Be proud of my increasing culinary love for salad.

It looks like I’m moving in with my brother in a month or so.

I didn’t get a job I applied to here in town and there is little likelihood that I’ll find something else, so it’s off to San Diego to save some money and continue to look for work.

If I’m lucky I’ll find something great in the next couple of weeks, but things are starting to look grim. I’m generally under or over-qualified for jobs. I would be a great web producer for another newspaper, except no one is hiring for that right now. No one is hiring for anything right now.

Thank goodness for unemployment.

that I am not going to write about my former company too much.

Honestly, I think I’m over it. They screwed me over, but I’m working on righting it. I am not angry at most people. I am angry at the CEO who took a gigantic bonus this year, but still laid off 1,400 people.

I am not angry at my former paper, although I express dismay that I will probably not work in journalism again. It makes me sad to think that all the enthusiasm and hope I had leaving college for the field never really had a chance to be realized.

Anyway, unlike some company-sactioned bloggers, I did not have a financial advisor sit down with me when I heard the news. I do not have any savings. I have a significant amount of debt, from my car, credit cards and otherwise.

So. the job hunt has proved….sad. I haven’t heard back from anywhere that I applied and I seem vastly underqualified or overqualified for many things. I have a potential interview, which does not really excite me, but it will be a challenge to learn to write differently.

I’m looking for freelance work where I can get it, so I can add to my meager blogging income. But a full-time telecommute job is ideal right now. Or at least in the Bay Area.

I’m headed to UNITY next week to meet up with journalist friends. Hopefully I can get some job leads there and network my ass off.

If anyone is headed there as well, let me know and we can lunch or dinner or something.

I plan on taking my resume, nicely printed and shoving it in the face of every news organization on the West Coast.

Here’s hoping it works.

Time Well Blogged | MyBadThoughts.com Yup, this is how my life is pretty much every day right now.

Two things happened today. I talked to my brother and then I finished my book. In order of thoughts.

Conversation with my brother

My brother, who I generally refer to (out of love) as Ugly, was trying to convince me that I shouldn’t be afraid of what’s ahead. I was trying to explain to him that it’s not fear of being broke or having to move or getting a new job, it’s more that I have such a multitude of decisions that it’s overwhelming. I’m bad a decisions. Often, I’ll spend so long contemplating what to have for dinner that I’ll forget to eat dinner.

It shouldn’t be scary, he said. I have the chance and the push to try something completely different. Something I’ve been dreaming of for awhile. I can move across the country, or stay here. I can take my career whereever I’d like to.

It’s a rare chance, he said. To do something completely different.

And he’s right. There are some decisions that are simpler than others, like when I’m going to move home. The answer to that is soon. Staying with my brother won’t be a huge problem.

I will figure it out and I will find what is best and I will end up somewhere better. I know I’ve been saying that since last week, but I’m slowly starting to believe it. I’m trying not to be as lethargic and to get off my ass and actually do something.

My book

I just finished reading Phillip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials.

It’s amazing. The theme, or moral or what I got out of the book is that you have to live your life for the greater good. Sacrifices are necessary. Things will suck. You will be sad.

It’s not anything I did not know, of course.

But I’m thinking that there is a purpose. I don’t really subscribe to God or Christianity strictly. I’m Pagan, more or less. But our lives have a purpose, whether small or great. We need to not live for ourselves. Of course happiness is great, but it’s not everything. Happiness is a piece of the puzzle.

I think. I’m really typing out loud.

So. I am trying to make the decisions I need to, after talking to my brother, that will be the best overall and lead me to where I’m supposed to be, after reading my book.

It’s almost as if I have two pieces of a photo and I can’t get the edges to line up right. It’s driving me nuts trying to get it done, but something is not working. So here I am moving the pieces up and down and left and right.

The Boy asked me, not two minutes ago, why I am not blogging more about what is going on (you know, job loss, sleeping in til noon, and drinking heavily)

I am waiting until Friday, which is my last day.

Then you might hear more. If i have the guts.

I have mentioned earlier that Twitter lost my account about three weeks ago. I put up a comment on the Get Satisfaction Boards and e-mailed Twitter directly.

They said it was a bug and they were working on it. I patiently waited. A week later I prodded, and they said they were working on it and would contact me as soon as it was fixed.

I wait.

I email again last week.

No response.

I get on the Get Satisfaction boards today to find that no one has gotten their account back and one person was offered a tee-shirt for their troubles.

Really?

I understand Twitter is a free service and that I shouldn’t expect too much. But they could at least reply to e-mails. Their transparency is not going very far for me right now. Customer service is number one for a paid or free service. I ran a community web site. I know.

I don’t want to give up on Twitter, but I might have to forsake them soon and move to Friendfeed or back to Pownce or something. I loved Twitter, I convinced work to use it on numerous occasions. For breaking news and then for the recent elections. And this is the thanks I get. Great.

What’s up, Twitter? How about you take care of the people who promote you most?

I know people were worried about my state of mind when I posted about what happened this week.

I’m OK.

I wanted to say thanks to everyone, friends and strangers alike, for being so incredibly supporting and amazing. I’ve gotten phone calls, e-mails, and encouragement from places I never expected. I feel blessed (a term I rarely use) to have such wonderful people surrounding me.

I’m taking a week or so off from stressing about this whole deal to spend with my friends and pretend I’m on vacation. I’ve been able to work on my blog re-design (again), and work on some freelance possibilities. I’m still applying to everything I can left and right, but I’m realizing that yes, like everyone said, this may be the best thing that happened to me.

I can chase my dreams for a bit and see what happens.

I am spending time with people I rarely got to see before. I am sleeping better.

I can do this. I will do this.

But, if you do have a job open or need a kickbutt web producer/blog writer, you know where to find me.