Rejected!

I received my first rejection letter from a hiring manager today. Wow. I thought they would just toss my resume, but no, he actually spent time to tell me that I was rejected. How considerate!

I almost felt the need to respond and thank him. Then again, it's like when you're pulled over and given a traffic citation, are you really going to thank the police officer? Probably not.

Last night I found out that one of my visa's balance was due today. I freaked out, because I almost never missed a payment. Once I was very close, so I called the bank to ask for their mercy. Of course it went fine, they gave me a one-time pass. However I thought I couldn't do it again now. So this morning before work I went to their downtown location, which I visited a few years ago when I applied and got my car loan. I remember it was hard to find, and the streets were littered, smelly, and busy. And I was lost too. It was not the most pleasant memory apart from getting the loan. 

The trip went much smoother this morning. I found a good parking spot. Although the streets still smelled, they weren't as dirty or busy as before. I walked in, paid off the balance, and came back to my car while the meter still running. I got to work fine too. Yay for me. 

It feels good that I can navigate downtown better these days. It also feels quite good to catch my mistake just in time and fix it without too big a hassle.

Celebration

Saturday night 11 of us went to Yai's on Vermont to celebrate yours truly finally getting his green card. The food was excellent, Jen was a little surprised because the restaurant didn't seem like a good Thai restaurant from the outside, but it was better than a lot of Thai restaurants we had been to. There were too many good dishes to mention, but the standout were the fermented bamboo shoots with tofu, wild boar with eggplant, and cashew tofu. I was happy we came here for my celebration. Thanks again to Dave + Jose for picking out the food for us. 

We decided to hang out some more since Yai's did not serve alcohol or could not BYOB. Jen and Jose and Dave discussed where to go for a while and finally decided on Hop Louie. The traffic going to Chinatown was horrible. There was a bar or club in the midway that everyone wanted to get in and the lanes were slow until we passed that intersection. The parking in Chinatown was a breeze, however. There was no line waiting outside either. We found a big table and sat down comfortably. Jen was my sugar mama tonight. Not only she bought my dinner, she also took care of the drinks for me and Sylvia. Thanks babe! The music was upbeat inside and I was seat dancing lots. Jen brought a Polaroid camera which was a hit with everyone. We took a lot of silly photos and laughed like kids throughout the night. It was a sweet, exciting, relaxing, and wonderful night for me.

Yesterday I forgot to blog. It did cross my mind, but I didn't get to it in the end. It was a very lazy and hot Sunday. I hung around the house, went out to get some groceries, bought a tuna sandwich at Subway (now $5.00 only, yay), took a nap, then it got super hot in the apartment, so I went to TJMaxx to chill down a bit. 

Today I submitted another resume. Finished uploading additional artwork that are "aside from current employment." Almost called my manager "stupid" but was quick enough not to finish the word. Yes, he caught it and has been teasing me about it all day long.

Dream

I just woke up from a weird dream and I must write it down as the memory is fading fast.

I am shopping with PK and Sheryl. PK has this red purse that is small and somewhat square shape with round corners. He has lots of random makeup items in it. I think it's silly. He pulls out a lipstick and starts to put it on his lips, just to be funny. We are in a farmer's market type of surrounding. I feel PK only carries this purse because he thinks it's hilarious. He has other stuff in there too, I don't remember. I begin to tell him stop being wasteful. I tell him I think he's spending money on random stuff that holds no actual value, and while they are very cheap, they add up. They are just little things he thinks are funny and he thinks will get a reaction out of us. He gets upset. I become angrier. Sheryl tries to mediate between us. I do not want to look at or talk to PK. We end up not buying anything at the market. We get back to our car in the parking structure. PK drives this vintage beetle type of car. He is mad and leaves the red purse on the top of the car. Sheryl asks if he's getting rid of the purse, he says nothing and hits the accelerator. The car zooms forward. Now somehow the red purse is in a blue envelop, I turn my head and see it falls on the ground. We drive another round in the parking lot so I see that envelop again.

Then I woke up. There's a lot of details I forgot. I don't know any Sheryl in real life, this friend in my dream is like a combination of Jen and Sylvia. I believe this dream is a collage of images I saw yesterday. PK's car was in a new VW commercial. The blue envelop was the one I used to hold some of my work's mailers and catalog. However I don't get the shiny red purse and PK wearing the lipstick part.

Yes I do think PK buys random stuff. Yes he sometimes does silly, seemingly pointless things to get a reaction. I do too.

Perhaps it's a dream more about me than about PK.

Oil Change

I left work early today to get oil change, new front brake pad, and tires rotated for the car. I had gotten lost going to this mechanic before, so I reminded myself to be careful. When exiting, I picked the south ramp and was happy that I took the right path. I kept driving and driving, not seeing the street where I was supposed to make a right turn. Then I knew I went the wrong way again! The road just didn't seem to end, or have a traffic light, or a crossing street anywhere. I finally got out of the road and made the necessary moves to return to the right direction. I was way off. How could I think I was on the right track when I was again wrong from the start?

The wait at the shop was long. There was already a line before I got there. Inside the customer lounge everyone looked anxious. Today LA was hot, stuffy, and very dry, and not having the AC on definitely did not make anyone feel any calmer. Finally my car was pulled in and got its service. Of course they didn't check the cling cling sound I asked them to look at, and I was charged additional $8.00 for "brake checking" - Times are indeed tough these days! In the end, they said my front tires should be replaced, no need to rotate, and the front brake pad still had 35% , so I could wait 'til next time. I felt they were rushing everyone. It was almost 4:30 and I supposed it was understandable. Still, I left feeling neglected because I waited almost an hour, and I didn't get what I came here for. Not exactly anyway.

The good thing is I didn't spend a fortune today. That day will come soon though.

Feeling better

I am feeling better today. I had a sore back this week and for some reason my stomach was also misbehaving. Perhaps the pain reliever was causing my tummy to go wild. Or was it the milk? I don't know. For days my body just was not working right. I stopped taking the over-the-counter pain reliever yesterday, as well as the milk, in the morning. I switched back to soymilk when I ate breakfast. Today not only was my stomach acting better, my back had also improved. Nothing beats feeling healthy and able to move freely.

What am I going to do with the milk?

I applied to 2 more places today. I tell myself to make progress when I have down time, even just small steps. It feels good to picture a greater future and see myself becoming stronger and more confident. Of course the job market these days is tough and there is no certainty for anyone who is looking for work. I'm lucky I am still employed and can afford to search jobs while sitting in my office comfortably. Good luck to every fellow job hunters out there.

Posh & Fancy

I went to a nice steak house called Arnie Morton's with TY last night. I entered from the street level and went down to its lower level where the restaurant was. It was a posh, upscale steak house with courteous and attractive wait staff and comfortable seating. Lots of wine bottle set-ups as main decoration, enhanced by warm welcoming lighting and uplifting fancy atmosphere, I could tell dining here was going to be pricey. Fortunately we had this coupon for "dinner for two" so at least the meal was at a discount. I saw other customers got to have their food shown / introduced by their waiter, we didn't get that service because most of our options was already preset by the coupon.

We started with 2 glasses of B.V. red wine. I didn't know what B.V. stood for, it was the first one on the wine list and TY just ordered that. The house onion bread smelled yummy and tasted good when it was warm. We then both had Morton's salad. The blue cheese dressing was nice, however I didn't really understand the anchovy on top, it just made the salad saltier. Overall it was a cold and satisfying salad. For the main course we both had filet, cooked medium, I added a crab cake for mine while TY had butter shrimps. I had to say the crab cake and the giant shrimps were excellent. They were even tastier than the steak! I don't know, I guess I just don't have that finer pallet.

We chatted about his trip and his work. And of course he congratulated me on my green card. We finished the meal with two different desserts, a hot chocolate cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side and a key lime pie. I actually ended up eating the chocolate cake alone because TY was too full after his cappuccino. It was a delicious, gooey cake. Yum! But I couldn't even touch the pie afterwards, so I had it boxed to go.

I came home and went back out to Target to get some big size envelops for mailing out resumes. I sent out my first application package at the post office, went home, left again to go to the gym. It was a full, productive, wonderful evening.

Working Throu This and That

Today I was busy finishing my application for this particular job I became very interested in. I was going to print, write and fill in the information, then I changed my mind. It's better to type on the computer so my info will look neat and clean. Luckily the PDF was created with text selection so I was able to complete it with ease. I will mail it out tomorrow. Let's hope for the best.

There was some work to do this morning. I got them done fast and soon went back to look at job postings. I didn't see more that I was interested in applying. Probably tomorrow.

I'm sleepy now. I don't know why.