I read three great political editorials this morning:
An editorial in the New York Times – Addicted to Bush
An editorial in The Daily Kos – Why Liberals Should Love the 2nd Amendment
For those of you in San Diego, CA – Southwestern College’s Proper Snack Bar (addressing the corruption at Southwestern College)
Del Mar Fair by jarnott.
Today my Dad and I went to the San Diego County Fair for Father’s Day. It was great to spend the day with my Dad, we don’t get to hang out much.
We started out eating a lot of the greasy food around the fair. I had a fried s’more, fried twinkie with strawberry sauce, Australian battered potatoes with chile sauce & sour cream, a hot dog and blue moon. My Dad had a sausage, helped me with the Australian battered potatoes, a hot dog, pizza and New Castle.
We both really enjoyed looking at the student showcase, especially the journalism and photography. It was also AMAZING to look at all of the professional photography. I definitely want to submit some of my work next year. We also briefly sat in on this photofinishing workshop, but the guy running it was completely self-absorbed and rather than teaching Photoshop he spent the first 30 minutes of the workshop telling us how wonderful he is and how we should buy his book. After about 45 minutes of his workshop – where I learned what I already knew about levels – and watched self-loving guy try to explain to a very dense spectator how to work Windows Explorer, we finally walked out.
I don’t know of any decent photographers who use Windows, so he pretty much lost all credibility with me from the start of his presentation.
The exhibits were interesting as always, the “print your own canvas” booth was particularly engaging, except I would never want to print pictures on an inkjet printer.
We had a great vacation to the Pacific Northwest. The places we traveled:
Getting There
I love traveling to other places around the US and experiencing the culture. It shows me how beautiful and different every state is. We started out around 11am in San Diego to hit Los Angeles traffic at the ideal time. Our plan proved successful. We drove all the way to Vancouver, BC which took us about 24 hours. I drove from San Diego, CA to Portland, OR and my Mom drove the rest of the way.
We watched the sunset around Sacramento, CA and then drove through the California mountains near Lake Shasta at night. It was snowing but completely beautiful. My only complaint was that I ran over a deer at one point (it was already dead). We arrived to Portland, OR when the sun started coming out and got to Seattle, WA around 10 am. We finally arrived to Birch Bay, WA (our condo) at about 12pm.
Vancouver, BC
After checking into our hotel in Birch Bay, WA (northern most part of WA) we drove up to Vancouver, BC. When we got to the border line to cross into Canada, we realized that we had forgotten our passports. The Canadian customs agent was very unfriendly but did grudgingly let us into Canada. It was immediately apparent that we were in a different country. The roads were much nicer, of course it was in kilometers, the people were nicer and it was just an altogether better place. The British influence was very apparent in a beautiful way. On the down side, the prices were higher on everything, the sales “provincial” tax was a lot higher than we are used to in the United States and the Canadian Dollar (CAD) is worth more than the US Dollar (USD). We weren’t going to let that ruin our day though.
My first goal was to get in touch with my friend Liam who lives near Vancouver so we could meet up for coffee or something. Unfortunately it didn’t work out because he was expecting us to come to BC the next day. So instead my Mom and I went to Starbucks to get coffee, drove around the city exploring and then eventually headed back to the border.
While in BC I didn’t hear one car horn. Despite having congested roads, no left turn signals (all left turns were yield) and narrow lanes going through the city, everyone was very patient and polite. The locals were incredibly nice to us as tourists and when I was unsure of being able to legally make a right turn on red, a guy in another lane honked at me and motioned to me that I could.
Driving in kilometers with different traffic laws was a little bit stressful. All of the road signs were different and there was a lot of road construction with changing speed limits. But we made it through.
All of Canada was very green. Both literally and figuratively. Pretty and lushly green but also green environmentally. All of the public transportation was electric, cars are required to turn off their engines when idling and there was tons of programs for recycling. Their roads were not cluttered with ignorant Americans in “global warming machines” (SUVs with 1 person driving in them, on the freeway). Almost everyone had compact cars and the few SUVs or trucks that we saw were actually for use off-road.
We next headed to White Rock, BC where we visited a public park and looked at awesome views of the ocean. After that we sat in line for 1.5 hours to cross back into the US. We expected a big hassle from the Feds for not having our passports but they were actually super nice. They did send us through secondary, but just checked our identities and let us go.
Northern Washington
We went back to Birch Bay, WA and hung out in our condo for the rest of the night. It was a completely beautiful area. Naturally beautiful. Being within Puget Sound, the ocean was very different than we are used to. Very small waves, peaceful currents, etc. But it was also really cold, so I was shocked and amazed that people were actually playing in the water.
All of Washington is completely surrounded by forests. Trees, ferns, green everywhere. I expected to have mad allergies up in that area because of all the green but I actually didn’t even have to take my allergy medicine until we got back to California the next week.
We watched the sunset in Birch Bay and then watched TV the rest of the night.
Seattle, WA
The only word I can think of to describe Seattle is amazing. It was unbelievable. It was filled with culture and beautiful people. It was like Chicago meets California but with better summer weather. I loved how environmentally friendly the city was, how everyone seemed to work together and how “green” it was (again both literally and figuratively).
Of course being the Starbucks junkie that I am, we had to visit the original Starbucks in Pikes Place. So we spent most of the day at Pikes Place Market. I got to visit Starbucks, the gum wall, an amazing fish place and another restaurant that was the maker of the original meatloaf sandwich. I also got to do a guided wine tasting that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Next we went over to the other side of Puget Sound for pictures of the city and then over to the area near University of Washington where we went to the biggest Apple Store on this side of the Mississippi. Having the same enthusiasm for Apple that I do for Starbucks, that was amazing to see.
I’m strongly considering going to the University of Washington. More likely for graduate school than for undergraduate though.
More Northern Washington
We spent the next few days back up in Norther Washington both in Birth Bay, WA and Bellingham, WA. One of my best friends lives in Bellingham so it was a lot of fun to hang out with her and her boyfriend. We went out to dinner with them one night, got to explore the town a bit and then took a drive out into the “country” to get more awesome pictures of the surrounding area.
The next day we stayed in Birch Bay, WA and enjoyed the tourist attractions such as mopeding.
The next day we went over to Deception Pass, WA where the movie The Ring was filmed. It was completely beautiful and a great ride, I really enjoyed it. We stopped a lot to explore the area, crossed part of the bridge on food and then eventually went down to the state park to explore further.
After that we went back to Birch Bay and said our final goodbyes to this beautiful part of the country. The next morning we left early to head for the city of Forks, Washington. It was a long drive. We had to catch a ferry over and then drive another 200 or so miles. Overall the drive to Forks was much more interesting than the place itself. We got to stop in Olympic National Park and see lots of happy greenery.
Forks, WA
Even though I don’t need to give an explanation, I still will in case someone has been living under a rock for the past few years. Forks, WA is the city where Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books took place. As my Mom and I are both huge Twilight fans we found it prudent to check out this now famous town.
It was slightly disappointing because the Twilight movies are what formed both of our mental pictures of Twilight and none of the movies were actually filmed in Forks. It was still great to pay homage to the town though. We went to a store called Dazzled by Twilight which was the official Twilight gift store. We then went to La Push Indian Reservation where parts of the book were set. The cloudy foggy weather pictured in the movies is really exactly how the area looks. Finally we ate a Twilight themed dinner and settled down in our Twilight themed hotel room.
The next morning we left Forks, WA for the very long ride to Portland, OR. It was a beautiful drive through the forest, lakes, rivers, streams, mountains, etc. It looked very Twilighty the whole way and I’m thankful to have been forced to take the scenic route rather than a freeway.
Portland, OR
This was a very disappointing city. It was filled with transients, smelled like urine and just seemed dirty. At first look it was a lot like San Francisco (in the good ways) but we just didn’t have a good experience. Everyone told us different things to see which ultimately had us going back and forth across the city without actually seeing anything.
The key thing that we got to see was VooDoo Donuts (very over rated) and a few breweries.
At our hotel, the Marriott Courtyard at Lloyd Center, I got AMAZING service from the bartender Lacy. She is the one good thing I could really say about Portland, very nice people. Lacy made me rethink my negative experience and I now plan to revisit Portland someday to give it another chance.
Being a true native who grows her own crops and believes in everything local, Lacy gave me an amazing guided tasting of the hotel’s microbrew beers which I then bought several glasses of and had a great night.
We had a very long drive back down to Vacaville, CA. Pretty much drove all day.
San Francisco, CA
Not much to talk about in San Francisco. It’s still my favorite city, but I just didn’t have a great experience. Was grieving about some love life issues and stayed in a piece of shit hotel (Inn at the Opera by Shell Vacations) which I highly recommend you steer clear of. We went out drinking at a great local bar called Martuni and I had a little bit too much fun and regretted it the next day.
San Francisco would have been much better if we would have: 1) been in a nicer hotel like we are used to (Marriott all the way), 2) had been with my friend Carrie, 3) had not gone out drinking and 4) wouldn’t have had love life problems.
The Trip Home
It’s pretty much tied between Olympic National Park and Highway 1 (CA Coastal Highway) on the way home. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.
In Conclusion
Canada is completely beautiful and better than the US in pretty much every way except for the sales tax and slower speed limit. The people are nicer, they drive better, the country is cleaner and they have a more laid back way of life.
Northern Washington is a beautiful place with beautiful weather. I know a lot of people complain about the rain and the perpetual fog but we didn’t really find it inconvenient. In fact I prefer it to San Diego weather. It would have been nice to see the sun (we didn’t see it all week) but it was still beautiful nonetheless.
Seattle was simply amazing. I love it. I want to go back and I wouldn’t mind living there
Forks was a bummer. It would have been a lot more interesting if I hadn’t seen the Twilight movies and was going with my mind’s eye from the books.
Portland was not a good experience except for the amazing bartender Lacy.
San Francisco was not what it usually was, but that is not the city’s fault.
The trip home was beautiful and scenic.
To say Carnival exceeded every expectation would be understating it. They did an absolutely phenomenal job making us feel at home and anticipating our every need even before we did ourselves.
We left San Diego, CA on 3 September 2009 around 4pm. I had always heard good things about cruises but didn’t know it would be as great as it was. When we first arrived on board we went up to Deck 9 to Drama Bar to hang out and meet other people while they prepared our state room.
We were amazed that there was an on-board Casino and a bar that had every drink you could imagine. There was also wifi and mobile phone service on the whole boat, although it was a bit pricey. Mobile phone service followed $6.99 a minute to the United States and $9.99 per minute to the rest of the world. Internet was $0.75 per minute or $24 for one hour.
After a while we got bored hanging out in Drama Bar (there wasn’t enough drama yet) so we went exploring the rest of the ship for a few hours.
This was deck 11 on the back of the ship while still docked in San Diego. There were a lot of seagulls around on the ship in San Diego and they followed us all the way out past Point Loma, enjoying swooping down and around the waves the boat was making in the water.
Here was one such seagull up on deck 11 by one of the adult jaccuzis and the sporting area (where the net is). Not long after this, we went down to our room to unload our stuff and then were called back upstairs for an emergency evacuation drill. The evacuation drill was the most boring time of our whole trip, but better safe than sorry.
Here are both of us in the Cole Porter lounge chillaxing during the evacuation drill. We were in lifeboat “E”. After this we went back up on Deck 11 to take some pictures, capturing the beauty that is San Diego and also getting a workout since we had climbed up and down about 50 flights of stairs (no exaggeration) by now. It is true that you eat a lot on a cruise, but you also work it off with all the stairs.
It felt really good to be out on deck with the nice breeze as hot and humid as it was in San Diego on embarkment day.
After going all the way out of the Point Loma Channel we went and got some drinks at the Lido Bar which had 3 amazing badtenders and an even more amazing barback named Kishore. There were two Thai bartenders and one Croatian bartenders and then Kishore who is Indian. They met out every need and gave us tons of awesome information about both the Elation and Cabo San Lucas.
Next we went to our room and got dressed for dinner which was a bit more formal than our running around clothes. Our waiter was named Elder and he’s from Honduras. He was absolutely amazing too! The dinner was five star every night and it was weird but nice not to have to worry about paying for it since it was included in the cruise.
Here is the shrimp appetizer that my Mom got.
Here is the cornfed chicken dinner that I got.
This was my Mom’s BBQ ribs.
This was the low fat / low carb orange cake that had FULL flavor.
This is the chocolate melting cake which was like partially cooked brownies and was sinfully amazing.
I also had a duck appetizer that is not pictured. It was amazing too. It was pieces of melon and cold duck breast.
When we came back from dinner our Steward Paul had already turned down our beds and put mints on our pillows. He also made us a stingray towel animal. Paul is another amazing person that Carnival is fortunate to have.
I didn’t sleep that well because our room was kinda hot and my Mom snores a lot…but oh well I lived. Apparently I woke her up snoring too, this makes me appreciate having my own room (and own thermostat) at home.
The next day was our “fun day at sea” and it was indeed fun. The only part that wasn’t fun is that we had these dumb bitches across from us, they were totally your all American dumb blonde sorority bitches (the unfriendly kind) who had fugly, rude, obnoxious, fat, rude boyfriends who probably only got these girls because the girls are secretly insecure. This reminds me of this girl I used to work with named who was super pretty and had this fat ugly loser boyfriend that she supported financially and only kept around because she was too insecure to think she could get another boyfriend. Anyway all of that aside, these losers were making so much noise, screaming out their doors from one room to another, playing loud music, etc. We could hear them 3 halls down from our room. I guess a few people called security on them (including us) and when security came the dumb bitches were drunk so they were fighting with security when asked to quiet down. The security guard was this kind little Indian guy that the dumb bitches totally were rude to. Anyway, in the end he told them they would either stop or find their own way home from Cabo. So they were quiet the rest of the trip until the last night.
They have a European style coffee shop on board with a sweet little Chinese barista. She was amazing, very interesting to talk to and knew my drink after the first time I ordered it. She gave us a lot of great information about China and about visiting it.
This was also the day that I decided to try my hand at gambling. It turns out that I suck and I juts lost a bunch of money.
This was me playing Blackjack. It was $5 a pop and I won about $20 but then lost it again.
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.
My Mom was actually doing good playing slots. 
A bit to the left in this picture is another group of testosterone driven frat boy bitches who were trying to fight each other to prove their masculinity. The security staff was having none of it and was about to take them to the brig.
Here I was having a Stella Artrois on deck 12. Notice my Mom’s famous iced tea to the right.
After this we watched the sunset and then got ready for dinner.
Here we are in the elevator for formal night heading down to the Inspiration dining room.
Here was more seasonal melon with proschuto.
This night I ordered two dinners because it was both lobster and prime rib night and I love both about equally.
Here was prime rib with baked potato and onion rings.
Here was twin lobster tails and jumbo prawns. The lobster and shrimp were both excellent!
After dinner we went up on deck 12 where they have a jogging track and miniature golf.
It was really windy up there.
Here is the moon casting its light on the ocean. It was so bright that it looked like the sun. My Astronomical knowledge says that this is a waxing gibbous (nearly full) since it came out before midnight. It is scary that I know that.
Here is one of the poolside bars where I went to get soda. Very nice bartenders here too.
Here was the Lido deck pool area at night. It was calm and peaceful in the tropical Mexican ocean.
Here is my Momma chillaxing in a pool chair.
Tonight Paul made us a bunny towel animal. It looks kinda evil but it’s the thought that counts.
I slept better this night.
The next day was Cabo so we had to wake up early and then line up to take a Tender to shore. That is basically a little boat because the Cruise ship is too big to dock in the Cabo San Lucas Marina.
In a way it was a bit sad how Americanized Cabo was. Everyone spoke English, they had Subway, Dairy Queen, Hooters, Hard Rock Cafe, etc. It’s Mexico, they should have cabanas on the beach, tequila and Mexican food. They shouldn’t have to speak English either, we don’t speak Spanish for Mexican tourists coming to the United States. But oh well.
This is the day that I went parasailing, which was truly amazing. You feel weightless and free in the air. You can’t hear anything, it is completely silent up there. You’d think you’d hear rushing wind, but it is completely silent.
I was up there for a good 10 to 12 minutes and our guides had it down to a science. They hardly even seemed to pay attention they were so naturally good at what they did. They knew exactly which direction to turn the boat, how to get me up higher or lower using the wind, etc. We also got a great view of Los Arcos and World’s End.
We also saw a Sealion colony. I never realized that Sealions lived so far south, I thought that they were like Arctic and Antarctic animals.
After this we went back into Cabo, went shopping, ate lunch and drank…way too much.
I also smoked a Cuban Cigar which didn’t taste all that wonderful but it was great to try one since they are illegal in the United States. Not many Americans can say they have had Cuban Cigars.
By the time this picture was taken, I had way too much to drink and don’t remember anything after this. The whole time we were there I had 7 Coronas, 2 Sol, 2 shots of Don Julio, 2 shots of El Jimador, 2 shots of Jose Cuervo Especial, 2 shots of Patron Silver and 2 shots of Cabo Wabo Blanco. I also had a margarita and pina colada.
I vaguely remember stumbling to the bathroom to go pee and then stumbling back. I don’t remember the rest but my Mom told me about it. I guess we went to the Cabo Duty Free store to look at alcohol and cologne. I bumped into this lady hard who sighed at me and then stumbled the other way and almost knocked over a display of perfume. My Mom drug me outside by my ear and told me to stand against the wall and not move. She went back inside to apologize to the lady who I bumped into. She then realized that it was my childhood dentist Minchie. They then hugged and were all happy to see each other. After that they both helped me onto the Tender back to the Elation. Right when we got off I fell on my ass right in front of Mexican Customs. My Mom somehow got me to the room, got my glasses off and I woke up like 4 hours later not remember anything since I had gone to the bathroom.
I slept through dinner and all of the shows and everything. Then I had a bad headache and went to get some soda and water and food at the casual restaurant on the ship. We had sandwiches and calazone and then went to the Lido deck for dancing, mexican food, more drinks and an awesome DJ.
The next day (Sunday) was another day at sea. We woke up, went to breakfast, I still felt a bit weird from all the tequila (no hang over though) and we played bingo and did a slot tournament. We both lost the tournament but it was still fun. I also played some video poker which I wasn’t so bad at. We had some martinis too which were great, a lemondrop and a tiramisu martini.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, we ate another great dinner and then watched the sunset.
We had French Onion Soup and Tomato with Mozzarella Salad.
I had Veal Parmasagna.
My Mom had some kind of chicken dish.
For desert she had tropical fruit platter.
We shared gouda cheese.
Here is Baked Alaska desert.
Here is us in the elevator going back from dinner.
Here is the beautiful sunset. It was very cold and windy outside, definitely back toward San Diego from the warm tropical Mexican waters.
In the morning we will be back to San Diego and ready to disembark and go through customs. All in all this was an amazing vacation and one of the most memorable that I have ever taken in my life.
My turn ons: all the food, the beauty of Cabo, lots of tequila, parasailing, pretty birds, nice helpful Mexicans in Cabo, amazing staff.
My turn offs: dumb loud rude bitches down the hall, rude Americans, Americans in general, the professional shopper on board our ship was very haughty and rude to us, various pushy street people in Cabo trying to sell us stuff.
This trip showed me a lot of different cultures as hardly anyone on board the ship was American. Most of the cooks were Indian, most of the wait staff were Asian (specifically Filipino, Thai and Indonesian), European and Thai bartenders and lots of South African and Australian staff. They were so nice and pleasant, helpful, kind and went above and beyond to assist us. The only staff member that I had a complaint about was the “destination shopper” (professional shopper familiar with the Mexican riviera) because she was very haughty, uppity and rude when we asked her questions. She was a bit more friendly in the city of Cabo San Lucas but still nothing like the other people on the ship.
I talked to Kishore the barback for a long time and he gave me a lot of information about working for Carnival. I would love to be the resident DJ for Carnival and travel the world while getting paid for it. I need to get back home and hit the turntables and practice a bit more.
Thank you for an amazing holiday Carnival! We look forward to booking another cruise.
It is weird to use a phrase that Bill O’Reilly coined, but it is very true. Racial Witchhunter (noun) – one who tries to find racism and discrimination in the most petty things.
I saw the following comment on Facebook today and couldn’t help reply. I admit, I did not know how they meant their statement, so I did jump the gun a bit on assumptions, but I still stand to my comments.
Racial Witchhunter: “Cali is most def. not the place for me…it’s more racist folks here than it is in the backwoods of Mississippi! At least down south you already know wat the deal is…people are just so damn IGNORANT”
Me: “I hate to be devil’s advocate here, but everyone is racist in some way. I know a lot more black people who hate white people than the other way around. And yes I know that my ancestors enslaved them, but I didn’t personally so for them to hate me is pretty silly. But overall I think CA is a lot more accepting than anywhere else. Except for the idiots in like Lakeside and Santee I don’t know of too many overly racist people here.”
Racial Witchhunter: “michael first off you really do not know wat the hell you are talking about! i did not say anything about YOU or YOUR ancestors, or anybody hating you or white people for that matter and you have know idea wat i experienced or went thru o make any comment on the matter… I am the last one to blame the entire white race for wat happened in the past. your comments are without merit and furthermore not everyone is racist, period. And you also made an assumption that I was talking about white people, so the next time you decide to coment on an issue you know absoutely little to nothing about, DON’T!”
Me: “I did not accuse you of having any of those sentiments, I was generalizing racism as I see it in California and in the US. IE: my opinion, not a fact. I am sorry you are so angry but people disagree on things it is part of life. It’s pretty childish to explode on them.”
Racial Witchhunter: “Actually its pretty ignorant to go in or comment on any situation in which you have zero to little knowledge. I do not disagree with you because you have no grounds to stand on. I could say that I know plenty of white people who hate black than you know black people who hate white people, but THAT would be childish of me. And f.y.i, just because the observations you partake in within California does not negate the experiences other peole go thru let alone negate the fact that it exists. Obviously your world is much more sheltered than me and for that you must feel O SO LUCKY!“
Me: “It does exist and it sucks. I felt it every day at CPH being the huge ethnic minority. But you’re right, I don’t know the background on your comments and making assumptions is obviously bad, so I apologize if my musings offended you.”
I should have known better than to comment on something about racism coming from 1) an African-American female and 2) someone with the political views “if it ain’t Obama, it ain’t no good” but I couldn’t help myself. I’m used to educated people who can listen to other people’s opinions even if they disagree.
The facts as I see them: everyone is prejudiced in some way be it sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, weight, age etc. Society programs us to favor straight 20-something fair skinned upper-middle-class males.
If not prejudiced or “racist” in some way, this racial witchhunter is at least very hostile with a lot of bitterness toward people who disagree with her. But I would go as far as to say has some kind of hard feelings toward white middle-class males since she reacted in the way she did. Perhaps males in general. She reminds me in so many ways of Chima from Season 11 of Big Brother on CBS.
She accuses me of making assumptions about her but then turns around and makes assumptions about me that I am 1) accusing her individually of being racist and 2) accusing her of thinking all white people are evil for enslaving her ancestors. I said no such thing, I was speaking in a generalization of racism in California and America as I see it.
Next is her comment that I know nothing about “racism”. I went to a predominately hispanic high school where I was discriminated against every single day. Walking down the halls I would be called things like “pinche guero” (fucking whitey) every day. On top of that I am gay, so I know a lot more about being discriminated against than she does. She can at least get married and have children legally.
Next is a personal attack on me. She assumes I am sheltered because I have different opinions than she does. Honestly, I did have a sheltered life, but I’m a pretty cultured person as well. I have traveled a lot, I have friends from all different walks of life, many of them African-American friends. I worked with a friend on an African-American clothing line and I voted for Obama. I was raised to be color blind and I still am. I judge people on ignorance and rudeness, not color or any other factor out of their control.
In the end I was the bigger man and apologized if I offended her. Life is too short to get so upset over something so insignificant. It would have been fruitless to continue the virtual argument because it would have only got me deleted from her Facebook account.
Based on this huge overreaction I would say her “racism” is more due to ignorance than her race. If she blows up on people for disagreeing with her and hates other groups (which she obviously does) then who can blame people for being rude to her?
It is ignorant to call California a racist place; it is more accepting than anywhere else in the United States that I have been. It has more opportunity than anywhere else I have been. But the sad reality is that no matter where you go, not everyone will like you. People will always find something wrong. Such is life, get over it, accept reality, move on and enjoy life for what it is: an awesome adventure.
I seem to have greatly underestimated the state of the current job market. I always heard of people being on unemployment but never thought I would be one of them. I’m glad it is a social service that is available, but even though it’s only been two weeks I feel like there is a ticking clock counting down the time until it runs out.
I have been using various job websites, particularly Craigslist and have been applying for jobs like crazy but so far out of 300 to 500 positions that I have e-mailed about, I have only heard back from three places. I’m certainly qualified for my age with more work experience than almost anyone I know but there are still so few bites out there.
I saw one position on Craigslist where a guy wanting a personal assistant in Coronado required someone with a degree to fix his coffee, clean his house and run his errands for him. The position only paid $10 an hour. At first I scoffed at that, but in this market I bet there are a lot of people out-of-work who would work for that.
I’m just thankful that I still live at home with a Mother who still has a very good and stable job working in healthcare.
The cliche is that there are so many part time jobs out there for college students to kick back and have fun while going to school – but the reality in today’s market is that most of these jobs are even being taken up by adults with much more qualifications.
I got comfortable at my last job making $15 an hour with benefits but it is seeming more and more like it may be wishful thinking to expect to find another job like that. Even my last job started cutting benefits and promoting people up who made far less money to do the job I was doing, getting rid of the people who made what I did.
A lot of the “experts” are saying our market has started to improve or has at least stopped declining, but I’m having trouble seeing it. Hopefully it starts improving rather than just stabilizing.
I’m a very resourceful person who would do just about any job if I had to, but I would much rather have a comfortable office job than be working at McDonalds or something.
I wish I could be one of those people in my situation just kicking back on unemployment vacation for the summer and enjoying it, but that’s not realistic. I hate not working, sitting around at home is totally lame despite how cool it looks to a lot of people.
Hopefully I find something soon. Is anyone else in a similar situation? Or has anyone found a new job with relative ease around San Diego? Am I asking for too much money or will some good company discover me soon?
It is a shame, in this day and time, especially in a place as liberal as California that Proposition 8 was upheld in court. I would think that everyone, even super conservative christian bigots would want others to be happy. Equality should be for everyone, unconditionally, not just for people who support the conservative agenda.
