Mumbling Madly

Today, after tinkering around with my resume for hours and writing a cover letter with my thesaurus close at hand, I went to the only dancewear label manufactured in the northwest. It’s a company that produces leotards, costumes, etc, all within the confines of their Seattle warehouse. The fact that it’s made in the US, steps away from the customer service desk, is totally awesome. (Hint: Kimberly bought one of their leotards under my recommendation )
The second I found out we were moving to Seattle, I wanted to work for this company. I schmoozed the Colorado rep and found a name. I called said name even before coming out here. Today I did my required “follow up.” I have no idea how well I did, but I dressed up and shook hands with the clothing designer and spouted off various retail quips and dancewear tidbits. (I don’t know how this came about but I joked: “Yeah, we had to make the executive decision at my store to keep XL leotard-wearers from wearing ballet pink!” Ho ho, such a snooty dance retail thing to say). I felt goofy and awkward afterwards. But I have to say, my theater background has always helped me nail interviews. Granted, this was informal, but I hope I made a good first impression. So we’ll see….now I just have to keep my hopes from blossoming.
Later I tagged along with old theater friend, Sam, and watched him teach Redmond middle schooler’s choreography from “The Wiz.” It was surprisingly tiring, even just to watch.
Josh is sick. Breaking news: Boeing CEO steps down after his elicit affair with an executive is revealed. Ouch. Apparently this CEO had really turned things around at Boeing, focusing largely on removing the corruption that had been running rampant and implementing ethics manuals, contracts, and requiring all employees take Ethics Class 101. So sad that this man was, in reality, breaking so many of his own ethical rules.
I felt “Arrested Development” fell a tad short last night…perhaps it was because Josh and I devoured the first season on DVD last week. I have to ask: What the hell was WRONG with Portia DeRossi’s eyebrows? Did anyone else feel that they looked garishly painted on? Did I miss something?

Two days ago, Josh and I attended an art show that my dear friend, Brandon, has contributed several large pieces of work to. Like myself, Brandon has been absent from Seattle for the past 5 years. Unlike me, he’s been living it up in New York, gaining success as a comic book artist. (You should all check out his latest book: Escalator). Now Brandon’s back in Seattle, and I can’t be more thrilled.
This art show was incredibly good fun…there was free 3 Buck Chuck Wine and Pabst Blue Ribbon. A fellow in the corner was making delicious treats using an actual plug-in sandwhich maker. I ran into a few people I used to know fairly well, and we chatted incessantly about what the hell we’ve been doing the past 5 years. It made me feel incredibly connected with the city, something I haven’t felt here as much as I had hoped. Granted, this event was far more personnable than the Fort Collins ArtWalk. Below are some pictures:

I amused Brandon when I informed him that I actually sold shorts this tiny to ballet dancers.

The artist himself, sipping on free red wine.

Brandon and Meredith.

So how did our little cat do on her multiple travel adventure? She did: OK. We didn’t drug her, like was suggested by some but discouraged by the vet. Her soft cage was the sweetest ride, no matter what she claims. (The thing is lined with sheep’s skin!) The airport terrified her. It was a relief when we finally touched down.
Here is Josh with Hobbes looking stoic:

I’m smiling because we’re leaving Colorado in a matter of minutes. This was still early enough into the adventure that jaded cynicism hadn’t fully saturated me:

We finally released Hobbes in the comfortable confines of the Residence Inn. Josh thoughfully placed a chair by the window so she could look outside:

Now that I have access to my photos, uploading, etc. I’m going to go back in time and post some pictures from our Big Move. (This also serves as a well needed distraction from working on the ole’ resume).
Our first night here, we were taken under Ryan’s wing. Here’s the little devil now:

Later that week, Ryan treated us to a new found delicacy: Beefalo. Yup, that’s right, it’s a combination of beef and buffalo meat. (I know, I know, everyone thought it was gay porn). It was pretty damn good. Ryan has a really nicely decorated pad over in the Queen Anne/Ballard area. Note the slightly deflated red fitness ball to Josh’s right…we sort of sunk it:

This is my favorite picture: Me posing as Boba Fett. This is an authentic helmet from the movie, signed by the actor himself. Looking at it now, I highly doubt Boba ever posed like that…he’s way more stealthy.

Seriously, folks…I need to take a look at your resumes. There are so many different ways to write a resume, I’m having a little trouble knowing where to start. What makes an effective resume? How can I highlight the fact that I’m a friggin teacher and the skills gained from teaching sassy teens to potty-training tots should cover every human resource, communciation, customer-relations job out there. But I don’t know the words, I don’t know the lingo, (I just know that I should have nice paper). Any advice? Any input? Please email me, or post, dear friends.

So, we live in Madrona…sort of…ok, we live across the street from Madrona…this half is actually Lechi. But certain area maps include our part of the hood as Madrona…and more people have heard of Madrona so it all works out. If you truck west down Cherry it turns into James and than waalaa! you’re downtown. If you continue going east you start seeing these wonderful, huge, homes on “The Ridge” that look out over the water. A home up the street, recently sold for 600,000, and that’s not even with a view. Anyway, Cherry eventually intersects with 39th which takes you to Madrona Park and the beach. Josh and I innocently thought we would ride our bikes yesterday to the beach. Josh: Newly restored mountain bike. Me: 1977 Suburban Schwinn I picked up in F.C. for $20–but, newly tuned and oh-so-vintage. We set out, not realizing that the streets here are merciless to out-of-shape bikers. We’re talking asses kicked up the first hill…and than my brakes squealed dangerously down the next hill. Josh tried to make the best out of it, what with the mountain bike and all, but I wasn’t fairing well. At one point, we tied our bikes up aginst a light post and tried to continue on foot. This was halted when we approached a huge ravine with a trail running zigzag down to a busy street. This trail was steep and definitely no picnic…and coming back up proved too unbearable to think about it. We aborted the mission. I wheezed the whole way home. Hills are a new thing for me, there were no hills in Ft. Collins…really, there were NONE. We lived in the Front Range, which means Flat As The Eye Can See. Biking was effortless, and expected if you were to live in a small town. We’ve also found that maybe our stick-shift Honda Civic is not the best around-town car…my stomach sinks whenever we’re perched on a hill waiting at a red light. I’m not a city driver anyway, in fact, the last time I lived here I took the bus everywhere. Last week, when returning the rental car, I attempted the impossible: Following Josh in the Civic in downtown Seattle during rush hour. That’s right FOLLOWING him up and down the hills as he tried to find the Seattle Hilton. I prayed, I yelled, I clinched my steering wheel until it was white…I tried to hold it together. Luckily, people were very nice, and let me cut in or cross over multiple lanes to avoid merging onto I-5. The permanant look of horror plastered onto my face must have clued them in to my growing insanity. While people are more laid back in their cars here, I haven’t seen such lazy driving in a while! People meander across several lanes of traffic without signaling, refuse to head-check, and generally drive like crap here. Josh would rather deal with the high-paced, phychotic, speed that CO drivers prefer, tail-gating you on the freeway going 85 mph. Everyone there is impatient and in a hurry, while in Seattle people like to stop for no reason and than wave you around. Either way, I’m opting out of driving if I can. I’d rather sit on a stuffy bus than try to avoid getting side-swiped. Stay tuned for pictures!

I reached an abysmal point with my non-stop, job cruising, internet perusing. Granted, there’s something to be said about how awesome it is to look up every single local theater’s website and locate their employment page….and than slowly start feeling intimidated and overwhelmed. One page leads to another and all of a sudden I’m seriously considering getting my teacher’s license, or a Pilates teaching certificate, and than I look at my empty bank account and I remember that schooling takes money, and Josh and I (combined) have been students for eight years, almost consecutively…and what the hell? I don’t want to be a student anymore. But I don’t want to be a broke-ass wife, hanging around waitin for my man to come home with the bacon either…my addiction to clothing is far too deep for that. My job search has spanned from the Starbucks corporate employment page, (YES! I would be a great Communications Specialist!) to the Pacific Northwest Ballet gift shop clerk. Crap.