Well, after Scamgate 2013 I became borderline furious with craigslist and remembered my mom saying nice things about monster.com. I opened a free account there this morning, sent out my résumé five times with a few easy clicks (and short cover letters typed into the appropriate boxes) and next thing I know I have an interview scheduled for Monday! A real interview too, not a yahoo messenger one. When I called my mom to tell her she asked what the job was, so I said "well, they're going to send me a check-" and then got a big kick out of her shocked gasp. No no, not falling for that again. Sigh.
Actually I don't really remember which job it is that I'm going to... let me go check. Okay, according to
the website that was linked in the emails they sent me, it's some kind of a marketing company (and marketing/advertising was a field I was somewhat interested in, along with publishing and translation) and
the ad I answered said they wanted entry-level management in twelve different fields. I don't care what field, I just want a steady full-time job! Anyway, management in any of the twelve fields they need would be a step up on my résumé from the retail jobs I've been dealing with thus far. Plus it's an office job rather than a store job, and that was my goal! All in all, not bad for a day's work! I just hope they take me. I did some math, and the minimum income I can live off of (if you take in rent, utilities, metrocard, student loans, phone [actually I doubled what I'm paying now because I reeaalllly want a smartphone], and brown rice meals) is about $1100 a month. They told me to come in ready to tell them what I wanted to be paid, so I decided I'd say about $15 an hour, but would be willing to start lower and work hard to reach that point. I'm never sure what it is that employers want to hear when they ask that question, so my mom helped me brainstorm. If I could do $15/hr in a full-time position, I'd have an extra thousand a month for savings... or to buy furniture. Or to eat more than a serving of brown rice from my giant vat each meal. Heck, I would maybe even be able to afford my own studio apartment within a year or so!
My other issue besides jobs right now is health stuff. I've made an appointment for the end of the month with a doctor who was VERY highly recommended on yelp, but I keep having second thoughts. He isn't an MD, but has
a really long list of qualifications that I logically realize must be valid, but the Southerner in me (do-what-the-government-says,-other-countries-don't-know-shit) is still really wary. I'm going to talk to him about my blood-thinner decisions and stuff like that. I was looking for a doctor who focuses more on nutrition and lifestyle and less on treating symptoms with drugs, especially after my previous doctor was thoughtless enough to give me a medication that will almost definitely lead to vitamin K deficiency if taken for drawn-out periods of time and then tell me I would have to take it for the rest of my life without ever mentioning the risk. I feel like western medicine relies too much on immediacy: what are your symptoms NOW? how can we make it better NOW? rather than the whole picture: what might have brought this on? how can you change your lifestyle to avoid this in the future? So yeah, I guess I am going to the right doctor for all that, but the lack of the letters "MD" still makes me antsy for some reason.
For a much smaller victory, I've been dealing with congestion for the past week, and it's really getting me down. I simultaneously can't breathe and have snot literally drip out of my nose sometimes without me realizing it. My lips are so chapped they're cracked, and sleeping is absolutely tedious. I was googling to see what kind of medicine I should buy when I go to the pharmacy to renew my blood thinners tomorrow, and I stumbled across the concept of a neti pot. Intrigued at the idea of solving the problem with salt and water rather than drugs (that apparently can lead to addiction and an even worse bout of congestion when you stop taking them), I nicked a squeeze bottle from the kitchen, filled it with warm salty water, and did my best to emulate a neti pot.
It. Was. Instantaneous. The process was messy since the bottle wasn't quite doing the job the right way, but when I finally did manage to get a little bit of a trickle out the other nostril (without it all going down my throat and making me panic like a kid drowning in a pool) I immediately felt it all clearing up. Once I get the real pot and get the hang of the head tilt, I feel like this would be a cinch to incorporate into a morning or evening routine to keep my nose clear... maybe forever! So yeah, I'm all excited about neti pots this evening.
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