Day Two

I slept in until like 7:45am. It was amazing.

Tracy was at work. I got up and made myself a bacon egg and cheese sandwich with some coffee and OJ. I put on a movie to watch while I cooked and ate. I worked on my resume and played on the internet for a little while until Tracy came home.

After Tracy came home, we went down to hang out with Eric and lil' Dylan. We hit up the 'beach' down at Seward Park and laid out in the sun for a couple hours.

Afterwards we decided to go get some tacos from Rancho Bravo, taco truck turned Taqueria. Camie & Eric had never been there, so we thought it would be a good idea, even though Tracy and I wanted to go to an actual Taco Truck.

Rancho Bravo was pretty exciting. Camie and Eric got there before Tracy and I. Camie was eating a burrito, and Eric had finished his tacos already. He asked me to get him another taco when I ordered my food.

We were close to wrapping everything up there, and Eric tried to pay me a couple bucks for the taco. I told him not to worry about it, that taco was courtesy of the US Government. We laughed, then I heard the lady sitting across from me say something incoherent about the US. I could see her pointing at me and she continued to say crazy things. It was nice.

I'm not sure exactly what she was saying, but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with me going to hell, and then she said something about prenatal something something hell. She was getting louder. Then a nice hipster boy decided to be hilarious and said "Yeah, crazy lady."

That upset her and then she yelled "I'M NOT FUCKING CRAZY! I'm independent I can see my family FUCK YOU FUCK YOU" and she threw her cup of water and ice on the floor. One of the employees then came up to her and asked her if everything was ok. He was polite. She responded with "I'M NOT ALRIGHT! NOTHING'S ALRIGHT!"

The whole restaurant was paying attention at this point. The employee then told her he would call the police. She then told him "WHAT, YOU GONNA KICK ME OUT OF MY UNIVERSE!? YOU CAN'T KICK ME OUT, I"M GOD! Now leave," and she waved her fingers in a way to let him know that she was finished.

Then she went and focused her attention back to my table. Someone else in the restaurant yelled "just leave, lady!" and then she threw her plate with a taco and salsa down and the ground, stood up and started walking around yelling and drooling and letting the spit fly everywhere. now that she was out of our way, we decided to leave.

We were only outside for a minute when she was shoved out of the main doors of Rancho Bravo. Someone in there took the initiative to actually touch her and force her outside. He then held the doors closed so she couldn't get back in. You could hear the people inside cheering. This angered her more and she started to bang on the windows.

Rancho Bravo is just a few blocks from the copshop on Capitol Hill. A police officer was driving by, so I thought I would try to flag him down to let him know that there is a crazy lady causing a disturbance.

Now, I'm not sure what the policy for the police if they see someone trying to wave them down. Maybe they are only allowed to stop if they are contacted by their dispatch or what, but he just looked at me waving at him, and drove on past.

Then we got ice cream at Molly Moon's and then we went home.

End Day Two.

At the beach Eric brought up the idea of me just going to culinary school rather than getting another job I will end up hating in a few months.

This is something people have been telling me to do for a long time, but I was making good money. I didn't like my Job all that much, but you know, money.

Now that I make no money, getting loans and going to school full time sounds fairly appealing.

The Culinary Institute of America requires six months of professional kitchen experience. There's a branch down in Northern California, and Tracy would love to be closer to her family. I am thinking of applying there, getting a job up here in a kitchen somewhere. Once out lease is up we could move down there and I'll start going to school.

This idea excites me quite a bit.

Unemployment Day One

July 9, 2009 was a pretty big day for me. For one, it was the one year anniversary with my lovely lady, Tracy. Also, it was the day I lost my job and became one of the millions of people in America collecting unemployment benefits.

I decided it would be a good idea to chronicle the life of someone that is going through what so many other people are going through. I have chosen to chronicle me because I am pretty awesome, and I happen to be newly unemployed, so I am the perfect candidate really. Hence this blog.

So here's how day one went.

I am at work for a few hours, I've scheduled a couple of appointments to meet with some clients, called some manufacturers to make sure things are still on schedule. Then I get an email from the Operations Manger that says "come see me when you have a minute." I instantly got the feeling that this could be them firing me. It's just the kind of email someone gets when that happens. I get up and go to his office and he asks me to shut the door. He says "The company is going through some restructuring and they've decided to eliminate one of the project manager positions. So I'm going to have to let you go."

That was pretty much it. I thanked him for not beating around the bush. He told me it was hard since he liked me as a person, but it's what the company decided. I left my blackberry and key on the desk. I grabbed my red Swingline stapler and headed home. (I'm pretty sure that I forgot the piece of paper I need to go claim my winnings from Vegas if the Mariner's win the World Series. Man wouldn't that be a kick in the crotch?)

I got home around 10:30am or so, and Tracy was on the phone and seemed surprised and happy to see me, naturally since I am so great and fantastic. But she could tell I wasn't happy, and I told her I just lost my job.

At first I was pretty upset. The president of my company liked to remind everyone that anyone could be let go and any given time. It's not the greatest feeling to have constantly weighing on you down. The first thing I did was got online to figure out how to file for unemployment benefits.

After figuring that out and sulking for a bit, Tracy made me some coffee and a snack and got to talking to me about the whole situation and reminded me that just the other day I was talking about how I would love to be able to leave my job and find something else, and the only thing really holding me back was the poor condition of the job market. So now I get to find something else to do, and that this is all really a blessing, and not a curse at all.

I started to calm down. I was still not happy that I was jobless. But I was starting to feel the relief of not having to look at my blackberry every hour to make sure shit wasn't currently hitting my fan.

Then Tracy and I decided to go out and buy a couch, which our apartment has been missing since March. Don't worry, we didn't go crazy. It was $30 at Value Village. It's big and orange and awesome. After arranging for my good friend Ian to meet with me later in the day to go pick up the couch with his truck, Tracy promptly fell asleep. She didn't seem too worried about the whole situation.

Tracy got up to go to work, and I went to go get the couch with Ian. After picking up the couch we went and met up with a couple friends at Ian's favorite bar, Naked City. With the couch in the back of the truck, I proceeded to get a celebratory lay-off drunk on, with only 2 beers. Man, when you don't drink much for a while, a couple of good beers can go a long way.

After beers, Ian and I came and dropped the couch off, and he headed home. I made dinner and waited for my special lady friend to come home to enjoy the couch together.

Then we went to bed, and that was the end of day one.