Here, People Say "See Ya" To People They Know They Will Never See Again

I go to the post office on a regular basis, because we have a P.O. Box. The Post Office is located in West End, the funky neighborhood next to ours. They sell the same stuff that you would see in a US Post Office, with the addition of a few things. For example, you can buy a mobile phone at the post office here. The kind that you pay as you go, with a SIM card. They also sell printers, and toner for printers. They also sell greeting cards, and general office supplies. So, I guess they are so much more than a post office. And they look different from the post offices I grew up with. Their logo simply says POST in design-ey letters, and they use a lot of red and white, and a little yellow in their packaging.

Whenever I go in, there is a long line. My first thought is, oh no way. My second thought is, what else do I have to do? This was my big excursion of the day! So I get in line and it goes really fast. The people behind the counter are really nice. It is surprising. They are just nice in that normal way. Back home, the people who were nice at the Post Office were those people who are just UNBELIEVABLY nice. You know those people. They have a twinkle in their eyes, and you know that they will scatter little droplets of wisdom all over the exchange. You walk away, and think, damn! That guy was nice! And then later when you go to bed, you think, boy, that person was so nice, maybe there's a lesson in that, how can I be happy all the time, no matter what crappy thing I have to do...zzzzzzzz. Rarely do you meet someone behind the counter at the US Post Office who is just calm and normal and nice in a non-manipulative way. I wonder if Jesus has anything to do with that.

Anyway, these people at the West End Post Office are nice in a normal way. Meaning they are not always nice. Sometimes they are just neutral, doing their job, and have no time to be pleasant. But it is never in a way where you feel like somehow you are annoying them by being there. It's a delicate wire they walk. There are 3 of them in the West End Post Office: a curvy, pretty woman with dark hair, a plain chubby woman with blonde hair, and a very skinny man with a beard and moustache. Last night, I went to check the PO Box after hours, and I saw him walking out of the place. He was wearing a leather jacket, and carrying a matching motorcycle helmet. By day, he is serving the people, and by night, he is OWNING the road! I did not expect this man to be a motorcycle rider. It changes my perception of him. He may be not so nice after all. That may just be some persona he wears to get the job done.

After that, I went to return a DVD. "Mean Girls". I had never seen it. Darcy gave me a hard time about it. "Why on earth did you rent that movie", "You are a crazy girl", etc. But, as I was watching it, he kept walking in and out of the room, doing this and that, and when he would come back, he would ask, "what happened?" "who is she?" so, he liked it. I really liked it. My school wasn't like that, but those elements of meanness were certainly around. But they were really between the pretty girls, who were all competing for various boys. The movie seemed to be commenting on how insecure we are, and how rather than trying to lift each other up, we play on each other's insecurities. Strengthen the sisterhood! I don't have a sister, but if I did, I would hope she and I would make each other feel good about ourselves.

We have Domino's pizza here. It is next to the video store. It smells really bad. Such a junky greasy smell, that it makes me never want to eat junk food. Yesterday when I walked by it, I saw the crazy woman there. She lives across the street from us, and she is genuinely troubled. She is tiny and wiry and never stops moving or talking to herself or shaking her head. One time, I saw her wanting to cross the street. There were no moving cars anywhere. She couldn't do it. She would take to steps, and then a bird would fly by and she would run back down the sidewalk. I passed her by, and even walked slowly, so she could walk with me. She got halfway, and a car drove by on the road intersecting ours, and she retreated.

She makes me sad, and intrigues me because she obviously has a hard time functioning in the world, and the voices never seem to retreat, but I see her doing the things everyone does. She takes the bus, I have seen her taking out the garbage, sweeping her sidewalk, buy food at the supermarket, and wait for a pizza she ordered at Domino's. She also wear lipstick, bright red. It makes me wonder if deep down inside, there is someone placid like the post office people, and she is just fighting through all the stuff her body is doing to do what she needs to in order to live. Anyway, when I see her, I admire that she lives her life, even though it is so hard for her to do things. Even though she is scared to cross the street, she is waiting for the right moment, when the birds don't fly and the cars don't move. Then, she's gonna bolt.

This week I have applied for a job to work in an outdoor shop, and have asked a few places if they are hiring. Nothing so far. Earlier, I applied at a temp agency. I didn't hear back from them. I also applied at the Brisbane Convention Centre, and they sent me a rejection letter. Jerks!

Next week I am going to Sydney for 3 days, and I am going to see a few companies. I don't know if it will do any good, but it's something.

I Have Too Much Time to Stress and Write This Blog Entry

Saul took us to a party last weekend. It was a jungle theme. We only found out about it 2 hours before, so we did not have a chance to make costumes. Saul didn't either. But it was okay. His friend, Nicki, who was hosting the party, had ears for people who came in their everyday clothes.

Saul did not wear his ears. He is a cool cat.


There were a lot of people there. Most of the men dressed in safari outfits. Most of the women wore outfits with animal prints on them. One guy wore a tiger outfit. One guy dressed like Che Gueverra. Two people dressed like dead people, with spider webs all over them. Here in Australia, there are many spiders that can kill you. Yesterday morning, there was a spider on our window sill that looked freaky. It was small, but unrecognizable. It also had a little tail, which I seem to recall being a sign of danger. Darcy didn't think it was poisonous, but just the same, he threw it out with a stick, and when I told him I wanted the window closed when we went to sleep, he said ok.

They played a lot of disco music and 80's new wave pop songs at the party Saturday, and that was fun. Everyone was dancing. There was a ton of food. It was weird to hear all the songs I loved as a kid, and teenager. So many of the songs I have in my music library, and they only come out when I am alone, because I always seem to be dating rockers. Darcy is a rocker, but more of a light rocker - Ben Harper, Michael Franti. He also likes African music, electronic, Johnny Cash - he likes a nice variety, and we share most tastes. But if I want to pull out KC and the Sunshine Band, or Heatwave, I am on my own. It's okay. I can dig it.

My work situation here is desperate. No work here, no work there, no work anywhere. I am going to have to find other kinds of work, and lie to get it, as I have no other kind of skills. It's giving me major stress. It's giving Darcy stress too. I think I need to seriously look at getting different work altogether, at least for awhile. It makes me sad, as I enjoy my work, but I need to earn a living.

Yesterday, in the late afternoon, we met Saul at The Forest. He had the day off, as did the city of Brisbane, for the EKKA, which is like a county fair. It's been happening for the past week and a half, and ends soon, I think. Maybe yesterday was the last day. We didn't go. It cost 21bucks to get in, then more to go on rides and eat cotton candy (which here is called Fairy Floss) and look at cows. I enjoyed the Hillsboro county fair when I was a young teen in NH. I went one time with my best friend back then, and we went on the rock n' roll ride. It was my choice, because they were playing KISS music on it. I know I know - I am just being honest though. Anyway, the guy who operated it had bad teeth and wore his shirt unbuttoned and smiled at all the girls. We shared our car with 2 other girls who squealed when they looked at him. He was not attractive. But he was paying attention. For 13 year old girls, that is enough, coming from a man. If he was old enough to be called one. He started the ride and we began to rock. But then one of those girls got sick and started throwing up all over us as we turned around and around, and then she started crying as her vomit was being flung at us. Finally, the guy stopped the ride after about 8 spins around the axis, and I don't know how many revolutions of our individual car. We got out, and hosed off what we could by the horses. We didn't say goodbye to those girls. They pissed us off. We went on the ride again, but this time skanky man let us ride for free. He seemed sweet on my friend. Everyone was sweet on her. She has blonde hair, and blue eyes. It took us places.

I spent the EKKA day making a pair of slippers, and I am almost done. They are made of sheepskin. I originally was going to make little dainty slippers, and I went to a neat store in the West End, called Recycled Garbage. That is essentially what they sell. Scraps and irregulars and surplus of all kinds of materials. I saw blue sheepskin scraps there, and shoe bottoms, and my design plans were drastically changed. I would not say they are attractive. They make Darcy laugh very hard. But, when he put them on, he agreed that they felt very very good. That's the real point of slippers anyway, right?

Back to the job thing. I need to find some real work, work that will pay rent AND bills AND not suck the life out of me. I am thinking about photo retouching, though I know nothing about cameras or photo developing. I am just a digital girl. But, within my limits, I have done some retouching for a couple of people (okay my husband), but I don't think I have done a bad job:

Before:



After:



Before:




After:




So, I am putting it out there, on my blog, which I know is read by millions: I am offering my services as a photo retoucher to the world.

I know there are better ways of going about this. Today is the first day.

Must change my thinking...must change my thinking...must open my mind to possibilities...


The Brisbane Writer's Festival has not been the fun activity I though it might be. So far. Now, I am doing Powerpoint presentations for them, and working at home. Meeting people? Nope. Having fun? Nope. Learning new software? Yes, but it's powerpoint. Powerpoint is pretty lame. Easy to use though. I guess they've got the kids doing their homework with it these days.

The festival is in a month's time. The organizers are desperately understaffed. But now, unless I get paid, I ain't doin' it. I need a real job, man.

busywork

Not much to tell this past week. I volunteered for the Brisbane Writers Festival. It takes place next month. I figured I could usher an event here and there and then get to see some things for free. At my interview, I discovered that the whole festival is run by volunteers. The people who recruit and organise the eventual 95 volunteers are also volunteers. Why can't some of these people get paid? It really annoyed me that with the exception of the Directors and the people who designed the website and print material and the writers themselves, everyone else is a volunteer. The paid staff probably accounts for 10% of the staff involved, from what I can see.

The woman who interviewed me had me fill out a form to get a Blue Card. In Australia, if you will be working with children or may be near children in your job, you must have a Blue Card, in which tells people that the Australian Government has done a background check on you, and you haven't done anything bad.

The woman who interviewed me then had me look at the list of positions I could do, and wanted to know what I wanted to do. Aside from usher, there was information booth attendant, green room manager, event manager, artist liaison, and a bunch of other things I can't remember, but they had a lot of responsibility. Suddenly I didn't want to volunteer at all. I saw myself getting roped in to feeling responsible for stuff and being unable to take a real job because of desperate coordinators needing me. I know the reality is that I am not indispensable, being a volunteer, but you get involved in something and it's hard not to feel responsible. Anyway, I said I would be an usher. Then she asked me if I would do some secretarial stuff and I said sure. So I spent the next 2 days typing the program information in a different format so it would be easier for them to put on the website. I spent one day figuring out how to make a Table in Microsoft Word, and wondering why I had to organize it that way. Tables are annoying. I'm sure they are handy for someone, but not for me. I would rather just draw lines where I want them, and organise the info as I see fit. Anyway, I emailed the document last Friday morning, and haven't heard a peep. Maybe the tables have turned. I know that doesn't make any sense, and isn't funny, but I like it just the same.

Yesterday we went to the Medieval Fayre that was happening down the road from us. We were only there for the last hour. We drove by it earlier in the day and I can't believe how excited it made me, and how embarrassed it seemed to make Darcy. But then, in the end, he wanted to go!!! I knew it. So, we went, and visited a few "camps" that sport different weapons and styles of fighting from different parts of Europe from the Medieval times. Chainmail is very heavy. I bet most knights twisted ankles and fainted from heat exhaustion before they could strike their first blows. We also got to try our (left)hands at archery. I am not very good. Then the fayre was closing down so we went to ye olde Indian Food Booth and bought some samosas for the walk home.

One of the movies I worked on last year in Australia is apparently out in the States now, or will be soon. THE MARINE. Here is the trailer:

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/themarine.html

The other movie I worked on I think already came and went, a horror movie called See No Evil.

Bad movies, but seamless visual effects. Seamless!!!

I find out in 2 days if I am to go to Sydney next week for a job. Fingers and toes! (crossed)