I've been learning a lot lately since moving to Boston and adjusting to full-time work and actually cooking more than Macaroni and Cheese. Two nights ago I learned that spaghetti, believe it or not, is actually flammable. Yeah, you probably already knew that, and I should have. I should probably say also that I haven't really upgraded that much from Mac & Cheese since that night I was making plain spaghetti and tomatoe sauce, come to think of it, that really is no upgrade so maybe I haven't really changed and I still suck at cooking. Anyways, I put half a box of spaghetti (which was way too much for just me) in, for no particular reason except laziness and lack of thinking, a tiny pot thinking I could just push it down after it got soft. Instead, a good amount of the spaghetti leaning over the edge cut on fire (I don't really pay attention when I'm waiting for things to boil). Needless to say burnt spaghetti is not a delicacy of any country that I know of. Just to further point out my ineptitude at cooking, I tried to steam challets the other night (don't ask how or why I got challets) and realized after 20 minutes of steaming that that didn't actually accomplish any thing.
On a completely different note, I went out the other night with my new friend who's a lesbian. We were going bowling (every thing's candle stick around here) and couldn't get a lane so we went to get drinks instead. She recognized some one and then two other girls came who knew the first girl. All the sudden it was just me a four lesbians and I was serving as wing man to my friend. It was very awkward also considering I just met this friend. How do I get myself in these situations? Maybe more importantly, why do I blog about these embarrassing things? I'm not sure if it makes me feel better to get it out or to know that at least I might be giving a few laughs to some friends.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Check Engine Light is on
This might not be interesting to any body but me but I feel like raving about my car for a minute. I am so pissed off at Wendy (I never should have named my Corolla either or any car for that matter- for people who do this - it is stupid), today this tomorrow that. Let me give you a short 1-2 year history of my luck (rather dismal luck) with my car which by the way is only 8 years old, which for the following summary, is remarkable.
-Two days ago I was driving and parking my car when I either ran over some glass or hit the curb going very slowly and my wheel just popped (lost all air) completely. I almost put the rescue donut on without professional help but couldn't get the tire off because of the rust. Triple A comes and taps it with a big log and the problem is fixed at a discount of $25 (the tow would have been terrible). On a side note, maybe I should start carrying one of those big logs around except it would get annoying when each of my passengers asks: "what's the big log for?"
-That wasn't actually so bad. What was, was driving home from Minnesota this past summer and having a deer run in to my car at 2 in the morning in Michigan after a 12 hour drive. I'm not sure but I think the deer was more destroyed than my $2000 damaged car whose door who would no longer close and whose shell was sprayed with deer blood and hair.
-Two windows smashed and two stereos systems jacked while at school
-Pebble or some small rock hitting my windshield while I was driving creating a small whole that I ignore for several weeks until the crack spreads across my entire wind shield and I am forced to pay for a pricey replacement.
-Sitting in a car line waiting to get tickets to skiing last winter in Minnesota and the car in front of me backs right in to me for no particular reason as I lay on the horn wondering what the hell he's thinking. Another big damage but luckily he took responsibility.
-Driving down 94 last year when my car hood decides it wants to suddenly shoot up, completely bend in to the frame of the car, and blind 99% of my vision while driving 70 on a highway. Not only was this terrifying but it also cost another $1000 in repairs.
-Every trip I've taken since school (New York, Boston, Pitt.) I've had some repair some minor (serpentine belt) and some major (new clutch - even though I only had 65,000k) and basically my dad, whose anger is renewed each time these things happen, thinks I am entirely to blame. I also have gotten two parking tickets and one towing since moving to Boston - this is probably mostly my fault except that they are crazy here about that stuff.
Now the lesson here is that I probably shouldn't be driving. But I disagree - I'm not a bad driver and I'm not causing accidents but at the same time, could all of this stuff really happen to one person in the period of less than two years? Besides some other things that I think I am forgetting and an equally scary array of things from the previous period of two years, having my "check engine light" go off today might be one of the last straws. I don't even care if the light is just screwed up (like my E-brake which for some reason is always on now).
-Two days ago I was driving and parking my car when I either ran over some glass or hit the curb going very slowly and my wheel just popped (lost all air) completely. I almost put the rescue donut on without professional help but couldn't get the tire off because of the rust. Triple A comes and taps it with a big log and the problem is fixed at a discount of $25 (the tow would have been terrible). On a side note, maybe I should start carrying one of those big logs around except it would get annoying when each of my passengers asks: "what's the big log for?"
-That wasn't actually so bad. What was, was driving home from Minnesota this past summer and having a deer run in to my car at 2 in the morning in Michigan after a 12 hour drive. I'm not sure but I think the deer was more destroyed than my $2000 damaged car whose door who would no longer close and whose shell was sprayed with deer blood and hair.
-Two windows smashed and two stereos systems jacked while at school
-Pebble or some small rock hitting my windshield while I was driving creating a small whole that I ignore for several weeks until the crack spreads across my entire wind shield and I am forced to pay for a pricey replacement.
-Sitting in a car line waiting to get tickets to skiing last winter in Minnesota and the car in front of me backs right in to me for no particular reason as I lay on the horn wondering what the hell he's thinking. Another big damage but luckily he took responsibility.
-Driving down 94 last year when my car hood decides it wants to suddenly shoot up, completely bend in to the frame of the car, and blind 99% of my vision while driving 70 on a highway. Not only was this terrifying but it also cost another $1000 in repairs.
-Every trip I've taken since school (New York, Boston, Pitt.) I've had some repair some minor (serpentine belt) and some major (new clutch - even though I only had 65,000k) and basically my dad, whose anger is renewed each time these things happen, thinks I am entirely to blame. I also have gotten two parking tickets and one towing since moving to Boston - this is probably mostly my fault except that they are crazy here about that stuff.
Now the lesson here is that I probably shouldn't be driving. But I disagree - I'm not a bad driver and I'm not causing accidents but at the same time, could all of this stuff really happen to one person in the period of less than two years? Besides some other things that I think I am forgetting and an equally scary array of things from the previous period of two years, having my "check engine light" go off today might be one of the last straws. I don't even care if the light is just screwed up (like my E-brake which for some reason is always on now).
Saturday, March 1, 2008
There are pills in my fish
I was watching the news tonight (some thing I do rarely now that I don't have a t.v.) and to my horror I discovered that there's been a recall of Gortons frozen fish. Apparently some one in Pennsylvania found pills of some sort in their fish. Coincidentally, I had 6 frozen Gorton fish earlier this week and actually became very ill that night with a sore throat, irregular heart beat, and excessive sweating. I haven't felt good all week and it all made sense...until I realized that the 1,000 recalled frozen fish cases weighed 4 ounces less than the ones I got and the UPC code of mine was one digit off: narrowly escaped a bullet and coincidental got sick or is there some thing fishy going on with GORTONS?!!! (sorry, I couldn't resist the pun)
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Selling hot chocolate
Some of my friends described my new job to other people as selling hot chocolate. The truth is that that's not exactly right. Here is a run down from today:
-Get up at 7 (eeg), actually no, try to get up at 7, get up at 7:23 with difficulty, 45 minute commute to work in West Bridgewater, MA.
-Check email/read some fair trade/international articles sent to me
-Not feel too bad about using Outlook (very annoying program) and having to organize in a program called CRM (this is where all of our customer's info. is held)
-Prospect - we look for grocery stores (mostly) who would carry our bulk coffee, since this is where the real $ is at. Hot chocolate is really not so important, at least as much as it is delicious. On a side note, we just came out with a drinking chocolate that's $9 that is most the premium hot chocolate drinking experience I have ever had-it is like drinking pure goodness.
-Cold call = try to talk to this guy Stepan Yang at Mulberry Market in Philadelphia (this is where we are concentrating right now) and here for the 6th time in a heavy accent that he is not in...explain to other people that fair trade is not the same as free trade and ask if their customers care (about organics, fair trade, etc.) which most of the time they don't
-Informational session on the nature of worker-owner coop. and what it means to be a worker-owner (this happens in your 2nd year) but is central to the company, or coop rather
-Observe boring board meeting
-Return to van for long commute home
The good: this was kind of a boring day but some days we have Brew Crew where we learn how to do coffee cuppings (like wine tastings), or go visit accounts, or talk to the hippies at Whole Foods, or do competition analysis. This is not just another office job with the same thing every day. The people are also cool.
The bad: Even though I am trying to promote some thing good; namely, small farmers from poor 3rd world countries and an alternative trade model, I have to reconcile with the fact that I am a sale's man (or sale's person if you want to be PC about it). It's not really a bad thing except I get the feeling people look at sale's people like lawyers, except on a less prestigious level. Luckily, I'm not selling stupid retail, tchotkes, or selling cars and saying: "I've got a deal for you! Just today, because I like you, I'm going to give you my special price. For just 10 easy installments..."
-Get up at 7 (eeg), actually no, try to get up at 7, get up at 7:23 with difficulty, 45 minute commute to work in West Bridgewater, MA.
-Check email/read some fair trade/international articles sent to me
-Not feel too bad about using Outlook (very annoying program) and having to organize in a program called CRM (this is where all of our customer's info. is held)
-Prospect - we look for grocery stores (mostly) who would carry our bulk coffee, since this is where the real $ is at. Hot chocolate is really not so important, at least as much as it is delicious. On a side note, we just came out with a drinking chocolate that's $9 that is most the premium hot chocolate drinking experience I have ever had-it is like drinking pure goodness.
-Cold call = try to talk to this guy Stepan Yang at Mulberry Market in Philadelphia (this is where we are concentrating right now) and here for the 6th time in a heavy accent that he is not in...explain to other people that fair trade is not the same as free trade and ask if their customers care (about organics, fair trade, etc.) which most of the time they don't
-Informational session on the nature of worker-owner coop. and what it means to be a worker-owner (this happens in your 2nd year) but is central to the company, or coop rather
-Observe boring board meeting
-Return to van for long commute home
The good: this was kind of a boring day but some days we have Brew Crew where we learn how to do coffee cuppings (like wine tastings), or go visit accounts, or talk to the hippies at Whole Foods, or do competition analysis. This is not just another office job with the same thing every day. The people are also cool.
The bad: Even though I am trying to promote some thing good; namely, small farmers from poor 3rd world countries and an alternative trade model, I have to reconcile with the fact that I am a sale's man (or sale's person if you want to be PC about it). It's not really a bad thing except I get the feeling people look at sale's people like lawyers, except on a less prestigious level. Luckily, I'm not selling stupid retail, tchotkes, or selling cars and saying: "I've got a deal for you! Just today, because I like you, I'm going to give you my special price. For just 10 easy installments..."
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
The Northern Racoon Eclipse
I don't know why but I threw together a couple of interesting things I saw tonight for my blog. The picture of the eclipse here is current and cool but I did not expect the weirdness level when I went outside into the chilly Boston night that I saw. There was the eclipse, but there was also a tree with a raccoon sneaking around (I actually have seen another urban dweller in the last two days -a skunk) and peering over at me as brief faded northern lights streaked across the sky. It was surreal. Besides that, I was sent an interesting political art page here that people might want to check out:
http://www.brazilianartists.net/home/flags/
http://www.brazilianartists.net/home/flags/
Monday, February 11, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Feeling Young Again
I've just started my new job at Equal Exchange, 45 minutes south of Boston. This is how I've felt most of the time (see above -clueless, inexperienced, and ridiculous). When the secretary at EE first saw me she said: "Who's the new 10 year-old?"
I'm trying not to be too self-conscience of my appearance or reveal to the 40/50 + year olds working next to me that I am 22 (and yes, probably look younger). But I guess this is normal in a lot of work places.
It's just weird that at the end of college you feel sort of grown up and matured and then you enter the real world and you are the youngest again; like being a freshman in high school but worse. To add to that, my house mates are 32, 30, 28, and 26, which isn't really a big deal, except that they ask to see my I.D. when I drink a beer.
So other than that, the move has been pretty smooth so far. My new house is good, the roommates are cool, and the job seems pleasant - more on this to come as well as some pictures hopefully of my new place.
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