How I Spent The Twenty-Second Week Of The Rest Of My Life

This entry should be subtitled: Won't You Be My Reference?


See, today on Idealist.org, I came across my dream job.  Social Media and Communications Assistant for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace!

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the world’s premier global think tank, is seeking an energetic Social Media professional to join its communications team in Washington, DC. Excellent entry level opportunity. Primary responsibilities will include executing Carnegie’s day-to-day social media strategy through the use of the website, Twitter, Facebook, and other forms of engagement. Responsibilities will also include updating Carnegie’s media and general contact databases; sending electronic distributions; and monitoring internal events and external news hooks to aid in short- and long-term strategic planning. Position will assist on a weekly basis with event planning and logistics and support the wider communications team in their outreach efforts.


There is only one small snag.  I haven't had to actually hit up references in about 10 years.  There are plenty of people who can vouch for my skills when it comes to chapter relations (I just got a really nice unsolicited endorsement on LinkedIn today from an instructor/Chapter President I used to work with).  The problem is that they don't know my skills on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites.  And Carnegie is looking for three of those.  The job's open to the 20th, so time isn't super of the essence, but if anyone reading this is a former co-worker, and would provide people with the knowledge of both my work and social media skills, it would be great.


I have a couple of people in mind. ;)


Anyhow, besides that, I've just been applying for jobs for the last couple of weeks.  And I've been playing about on OK Cupid.  Ironically, I'm meeting someone for coffee on Tuesday.  So I have a sort of date before I even have a job interview.  What kind of bizarro world is this Washington D.C. place?


She's actually a policy analyst for the federal government.  So even if we turn out to hate each other, I get to figure out exactly what skills are needed for the job I eventually hope to get.  She's got a master's in Public Policy from Georgetown, so I'm guessing something like that.


But I mean, that's in the future.  I still need these references for the job I want right now. :)


Here's how I "spent" last week:


TUESDAY, MAY 31 ($18.00)

• 11:44 a.m. Bilbo Baggins - $14.00.  Okay, I am a huge geek since this is the first place that I went on my day in Alexandria.  More geeky still is this was my third time here.  There are a lot of not-for-profits in Alexandria.  If I get a job at one of them, I'll probably be here all the time!
• 1:23 p.m. Waterfront Park - Free.  Sitting on the Potomac in Alexandria made me want to get a job there even more.  Though most of the jobs are at the top of King Street and this park is at the bottom.
• 2:36 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  The Starbucks in Old Town Alexandria looks historic.  They haven't really done anything to the exterior to ruin it.  But they also haven't retrofitted many power outlets.  Recharge fail.
• 3:59 p.m. Alexandria National Cemetery - Free.  I had planned on going to Arlington had I woken up early enough to beat the heat.  Since I didn't, I went to the smaller, but no less poignant, one in Alexandria.  People had a least put flags out.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1 ($2.10)

• 11:22 a.m. County Center Owner's Association Clubhouse - Free.  It was another scorcher.  I didn't make it to the gym early enough in the day for it not to be 90.  I think I burned as many calories on the way there as I did on the treadmill.
• 9:15 p.m. 7-Eleven - $2.10.  When I read that they were giving away free movie tickets to every 88th check-in, I could no longer contain my craving for a Slurpee.  I didn't win.  Except for the yummy Slurpee.

THURSDAY, JUNE 2 ($15.63)

• 12:02 p.m. Lincoln Memorial - Free.  I actually got to town too early to eat lunch in Capitol Hill, so I trecked back on the Blue Line underground to The Mall.  I had forgotten how huge the statue of Lincoln was.  It's almost intimidating.
• 12:34 p.m. Vietnam Veteran's Memorial - Free.  Some kid was very excited to get a picture of one of the servicemen on the servicemen's statue's butt.  I have never supported child abuse, but I wanted to see it at that moment.
• 1:35 p.m. Ted's Bulletin - $14.00.  This is probably destined to become my favorite restaurant.  Their mission is to make grownup versions of kid's foods.  I got a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup.  And I was in love.
• 5:42 p.m. CVS Pharmacy - $1.63.  Getting home from the city took over three hours!  I needed to stop here just to get a water bottle for the last part of the journey.

FRIDAY, JUNE 3 ($18.34)

• 1:23 p.m. Truckeroo - $11.00.  When I saw that there was an event that promised 20-25 of Washington D.C.'s food trucks, I couldn't avoid going.  I ended up going to CapMac because I missed The Southern's mac and cheese in Chicago.  It was pretty tasty, but not quite as good.
• 3:11 p.m. Thomas Jefferson Memorial - Free.  One thing I thought which proved to be very wrong was that L'Enfant Plaza was closer to this monument than Smithsonian.  This is very untrue.  Though no Metro stop is close.  At least it was a scenic walk.
• 5:26 p.m. Union Station - $5.25.  After what I went through the day before with buses, I didn't even care that it would cost more to take the train.  And with the train, there was Taco Bell.
• 8:01 p.m. Walgreens - $2.09.  My feet hurt!  Had I not been completely out of soap, there would be no way that I would have ran this errand.

SATURDAY, JUNE 4 (Free)

SUNDAY, JUNE 5 ($13.00)

• 6:39 p.m. County Center Owner's Association Clubhouse - Free.  After not leaving my host's condo the entirety of Saturday to rest my feet, I figured a trip to the gym was in order to get back on them.
• 8:58 p.m. IHOP - $13.00.  Even though I had food left in the refrigerator, I really wanted a feta cheese omelette.  When they didn't have this, I got their new cinnamon pancakes covered in whipped cream.  I deserved it!

MONDAY, JUNE 6 ($14.36)

• 9:34 a.m. Potomac Mills Mall - $1.50.  The water that I bought here at the start of the day and the air conditioning that accompanied it was priceless.
• 11:22 a.m. Greek Deli - $8.86.  Still wanting my feta cheese omelette, I went to one of the few Greek places in Washington D.C.  They stopped serving breakfast just before I got there.  So I got some sort of vegetarian combo.  I didn't recognize any of the dishes.  If that's what Washington D.C. calls Greek, it's not good.
• 1:16 p.m. National Archives and Record Administration - Free.  This was my 1776th check-in on Foursquare as was suggested by a friend of mine.  It was as awesome as I remember it from a few years ago.  Though I don't remember the Declaration of Independence being so faded.
• 3:20 p.m. Smithsonian National Zoo - Free.  I finally made it to the zoo!  This was the last day for a while where the temperature was supposed to be under 88 so I relished it.  I actually wasn't that impressed with this zoo, to be totally honest though.  Still that it's free is pretty darn amazing.
• 4:51 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  The back entrance to the zoo is in Mount Pleasant.  So how could I not end up at the nearby Starbucks in Columbia Heights.  It was actually kind of not crowded since it was so "late" in the day.  It was nice.

So that's $81.43. My most spendthrifty (if you can call it that) in a while.  It always helps that I didn't need to buy anything extra expensive like clothes or plane tickets.  At the end of next week, I'm heading to New York City so that's not going to be cheap.  Stupid Groupons!  Why did they tempt me?  My total money spent since I've been unemployed is $4553.77.