How I Spent The Forty-Fourth Week Of The Rest Of My Life

It seems like I should spend every week of my life with a fever and sick in bed.  This week I had three phone interviews.  None were for a full-time job but two were for temp agencies and one for a freelance position.  The freelance position is the most exciting since I'll be working in a position which I could actually put on my resume as community management. I'm competing against a couple of other people and the place usually doesn't hire people who are looking for full-time work.  But it's not like I'm going to actually find full-time work in the month that this position runs.

I actually think the phone interview went pretty well.  Oddly enough, I only kept Borders on my resume for this position to keep the thing a full page. The person who was interviewing me actually worked at Borders at at the same time (though she was doing it as a college job instead of a post-college job). She was the lead clerk in the cafe while I was lead clerk of music.  We discussed how it was both of our first tastes of marketing through merchandising our respective departments.  She said she usually keeps phone interviews short so it was good that this one went pretty long due to this connection.

They hire for various freelance projects all the time so hopefully she'll keep me in mind for other projects even  if this one falls through.  I haven't been able to network much out in Woodbridge so I need all of the people keeping me in mind as possible.


The start of next week, however, is going to be spent networking to an extent so who knows.  I have a conference on Monday and Tuesday.  With all sorts of social media people.  And on Wednesday, I'm going to a Social Media Club of D.C. meeting. I was hoping by the next time I did this that I would be fully employed.  But maybe I'll have an offer from one of the temporary gigs.

If not, I'll probably be in good company there with the many people not working in my sector.

Once I settle in Rockville, I'm probably just going to start applying at part-time retail type stuff close to my new apartment (and there's a lot of it).  That will let me both freelance and will give me some money for taking a class at American University to get back into the swing of things.  It seems like there are tons of internships available at all times around here.  But most require you to be in school.  I can do that.

Here's how I "spent" last week:

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1 ($16.05)

• 9:52 a.m. Roti Mediterranean Grill - $2.75.  I had planned on going to the gym before leaving for New York City but decided just to get breakfast instead.  It was a good thing that I did since the bus didn't stop for lunch.
• 10:22 a.m. Tynan Coffee & Tea - $4.00.  Since I was still feeling pretty tired and the bus wasn't for another hour.  I drank some of my tea and the rest spilled all over me on the bus.
• 5:07 p.m. Karim & Sons - $4.00.  My first order of business in New York City was getting the keys to the apartment where I was staying near Zuccotti Park.  But I didn't go in.  Only got two knishes across the street.
• 7:35 p.m. Uptown 2 Deli - $5.30.  Getting to Harlem after dark worried me a little.  But I was staying in a safe neighborhood.  And it had a delicious bodega.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2 ($46.40)

• 9:45 a.m. New York Sports Club - Free. One of the reasons that I joined Washington Sports Club was that I knew I would be going to New York City at least a few times.  The sister club deal came in handy.
• 11:22 a.m. City One Chinese Restaurants - $6.40.  Just like at home, I got cheap Chinese across the street from the gym.
• 11:56 a.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  One thing I couldn't take a vacation from was applying for jobs.  I had to meet my quota to get unemployment.  I applied for two jobs at this Starbucks in Harlem.
• 3:48 p.m. Occupy Wall Street - $2.00.  It's definitely smelly and disorganized but it hardly seemed like Calcutta.  I prefer Occupy D.C.'s order immensely.  Though I still bought a button.
• 4:30 p.m. Karim & Sons - $4.00.  Knowing that I was about to embark on some drinking, I knew I needed a bit of food to tide me over.
• 5:26 p.m. Motor City Bar - $8.00.  The fact that I managed to spend that much when it was buy one, get one free happy hour at New York City's Detroit bar should say I was a little tipsy.
• 8:03 p.m. Odessa - $22.00.  After eating at Veselka before, which New Yorkers claim is better than any Ukrainian place in Chicago, and being disappointed, I didn't figure this would live up to similar billing.  But it definitely did.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3 ($174.49)

• 10:12 a.m. High Line Park - Free.  I figured I had at least one day to play tourist in New York City so I finally tried out the High Line.  It was nice but too close to the East River.  I was pretty cold.
• 11:21 a.m. Target - $109.99.  Right after I had left Woodbridge, I realized that I had forgotten my bathing suit.  Target didn't have any, but I did buy workout shorts.  And my meds.
• 1:24 p.m. Pizza Bagel Burger - $5.50.  If I lived in New York City, I would probably eat at nothing but bodegas.  It seems like a really quick and easy way to eat there.  This one was across from the spa.
• 1:46 p.m. Sandoony USA - $15.00.  This was my vacation.  I didn't really understand how to correctly use the spa like many of the Russians there, but I was so relaxed by the time I left that I could barely move my legs.  This Groupon was well worth it.
• 4:50 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  I should have known that a Starbucks near NYU would be too full to do anything.  But I did get to play on the internet for a bit.
• 6:56 p.m. Bambaleo - $40.00.  A dinner to thank my friends who let me stay for free was the least I could do.  And this turned out to be a really good Mexican restaurant.  Probably the best I had ever had in New York City.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4 ($55.39)

• 10:17 a.m. Cloud 9 - $12.00.  Even though all of the bars in Hell's Kitchen seemed to be open as I walked to my bus, I decided to be a good kid and just get breakfast instead.
• 11:46 a.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  It had gotten a bit chilly in New York City so I didn't want to wait outside for the bus.  There was nowhere to sit in this closest Starbucks to Penn Station though.  And, even worse, there wasn't a bathroom!
• 5:12 p.m. Union Station - $39.39.  Most of this cost was the round trip bus ticket.  But it was also Taco Bell.  I couldn't believe the bus got me back on time to eat dinner and go to sleep when I got home.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5 (Free)

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6 ($5.51)

• 8:20 p.m. 7-Eleven - $5.51.  After an entire weekend of laying in bed exhausted, I figured I just needed to get out and about and get some burritos.  After New York City, Woodbridge seemed so quiet.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7 ($28.18)

• 11:33 a.m. AMC Potomac Mills 18 & IMAX - $10.00.  I almost stopped by Potomac Mills Mall on the way home from New York City to see A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas on its opening night.  But I showed restraint and saw it in its first showing on Monday.
• 1:49 p.m. Potomac Mills Mall - $8.18.  After the movie, I decided to just stay at the mall and go to the food court.  Going home, I knew, would mean that I didn't accomplish much.
• 2:34 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  I applied for a job while sitting in this relatively quiet Starbucks.  It felt especially fulfilling after seeing Harold & Kumar.  Though one of them has a very good job.

So that's $326.02.  Considering that half the week was spent in New York City and a third of that was spent on medication, that actually wasn't that bad a week.  Of course, it would have been better if I had gotten some sort of interview offer.  Still I consider it time well spent before winter keeps me inside as I know that it will.  My total money spent since I've been unemployed is $9056.33.