Famine, famine, famine, then a cookie

When it comes to my attempts to make my living from consulting, it's mostly famine, and then two conflicting feast invitations. I will go months with nothing, and then two offers will come for the same weekend, meaning I can only do one.

Remember when, after more than a year of unemployment, I got TWO job offers, one to Afghanistan and the other to Iraq? At that time, Afghanistan was the better choice, but now...

I'm going to Belgrade, Serbia in a few weeks, to do a training (I finally get to work for the State Department!!... well, kinda... see my blog for more details), and if it goes well, it could lead to me getting to do another, bigger gig in March in Prague. But that later gig would happen immediately after the only other training I've got: a gig in Australia. That means I'll be away from home for most of March, and that Stefan can't go with me; he has his own business trips to attend to, and would prefer to save up his vacation time for when I don't have to do any work during the trip. Plus, when we go to Australia for fun, we want to spend an entire month there.

See my public calendar for updates about my schedule, in case you are, I hope, planning for your trip to come see us (you are planning, right?). Bummer that I have to miss the Mt. Angel German Christmas market...

No, no job prospects. With Draconian state budget cuts continuing, there's just not that much to apply for. Yes, I'm very thankful for what I do have, and for these meager consulting gigs. I really am. I do the "at least I don't..." or the "at least I have..." exercise frequently, I promise. It's just that, you know, not having a steady, regular income is scary.

In other news...

You know all those friend recommendations you get if you are on FaceBook? Lately, a lot of those Friend recommendations for me have been guys who, when we were in junior high and high school, I had a HUGE crush on, so much so that I couldn't talk to them. To me, they were movie stars. I doubt they ever knew my name. I've been amused that most of these guys I thought could not possibly be cuter and dreamy did NOT age well. Not that I've aged well but, well, you know, kind of cool to find out yet again that we're all human.

I'm getting even more annoyed with FaceBook. I'm so tired of people I don't know wanting to "friend" me. And some people want to friend me that I don't want to friend (I like using my account to speak freely, and I can't do that with just anyone). So I created a professional FaceBook account, and I point everyone I don't know, or don't want to know, or don't want them to know about my personal life, to that. I've also created a FaceBook Fan page (won't you become my fan?).

Okay, off to walk dearest Albi.

A wee bit of an ego boost

I'm honored and happy for my blog (an entry from last week, to be specific) to be featured in the Wall Street Journal's "Blog Watch" column for Nov. 16 (already online).

Gee, and I thought the highlight of my day would be practicing on my motorcycle (which was a great deal of fun, nonetheless).

The power of negative thinking

The History channel is beyond addictive. As is the Travel Channel. I'm watching a documentary on "Roman Vice" as I write this. I'm not watching it for the titillating tidbits (though titillating they are); I'm watching it for the scenes from Pompeii. I'm so incredibly homesick for Roman ruins (btw, if you are ever interested in going to Naples, I highly recommend this bed and breakfast for your stay, right next to Pompeii). Europe spoiled me beyond belief, getting to live amid the history I've loved to study most. I miss it so.

Stefan loved his trip to Colorado and back on his quest for a bike title -- it was exactly what he was needing. If he can get that title at long last (we won't know about this attempt until next month at the earliest), our lives will get sooooooooo much better. In fact, if I were offered a job or a motorcycle title, I'd take the title. Seriously. Stefan's given up so much that he loved dearly in order to come to the USA -- if he doesn't get the title, then I want to go back to Europe in 2011. Not kidding. I'll be a haus frau for the rest of my life if it means my husband can ride his beloved bike again.

It's been too rainy to ride my own motorcycle. I would love to be able to use all this available free time to learn to ride, but I refuse to ride on even a damp road -- I need to be a much more experienced rider.

Ironically, I'm so happy to learn that thinking negatively can boost your memory, and that Barbara Ehrenreich's book, Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America is such a top seller. Clearly, in my current state of mind, it's time for me to write a book, as there is fame to be had!

I've accepted that I'm not going to get a job this year. It was a sad realization, but I've accepted it. For those of you who have jobs, I hope you realize how lucky you are. I moved back to the USA in order to work, and while I knew it would be tough, I never dreamed I wouldn't have a job by now. For a person like me, who finds my personal value in either working or traveling, times are tough. I've had four interviews this year -- I hope this doesn't sound arrogant, but I'm not used to interviewing and not getting the job.

And with that said, let me say again: I'd rather Stefan have a title for his motorcycle (or get to be a volunteer firefighter) than me to have a job. I really would.

Not that I'm not keeping busy; I've got a lot of things to do every day. I have a project that's going to keep me intensely busy up until Thanksgiving, and two free classes I want to take in December. I'm being productive every day, really I am. I just wish I was getting paid for all that I'm doing.

Stefan's company would have paid me to drive a U-Haul truck from the East Coast to Portland! And I would have done it, except that I won't subject Albi to an airline flight again (unless we move back to Germany), and I won't drive that long without her.

What keeps my spirits up? Other than my wonderful husband and oh-so-sweet dog and the History and Travel channels, I read FakeAPStylebook and every day. Oh, and now that there's confirmed water on the moon, I'm dreaming again of that moon base in my lifetime... if we can't have jet packs, then I want that freakin' moon base.

I'm mostly done with cleaning out about 15 years of files. Whew! An interesting find was my play program from The Stephen Foster Story, which I saw some time in the 1980s. I could not believe I still had it. Ofcourse I used The Google to find out what happened to the lead actors. Here's today's weirdness: the actress who played Jeannie is now a psychic singer. What exactly is a psychic singer? I'm not sure, but if there's money it it, then I think I've found my new home-based job.

Why is CNN International not offered on any satellite or cable package in the USA? Why? And who do I write to complain: CNN? DirectTV? Who? Yes, I love having BBC America, but having CNN International would put me back in touch with the world news and international perspectives that the USA networks avoid like the plague.

The Bowling Green Daily News reported that Kentucky ranks among the 11 worst states in the country for women's health care. Kentucky ranks 46th in the U.S. for women’s health and well-being and 51st for days of good mental health. Kentucky women in urban areas like Louisville generally fare better than women in poverty-stricken regions like eastern Kentucky, but the overall quality of care for women - 52 percent of the state’s population - is the worst in the USA on several bench mark measures. And people wondered why I did so well in Afghanistan as far as relating to locals there...

This week's fascinating person from history: Cyrus the Great. The Persian Empire was an awesome thing. And Cyrus was revolutionary in his leadership style (respecting the cultural practices and religion of the people he conquered, freeing the Jews of Babylon, and on and on). Where did I find out about Cyrus? Guess...

I'd love a phone call! Just email me or IM me and say "let's talk now!" and we can talk on Skype or iVisit. And our guest room (my office) awaits visitors! (Anne, looks like you will be first).

Go Hilltoppers!

So, I'm heading home with Albi after a lovely morning walk today, wearing my lucky Western Kentucky t-shirt (the one with Big Red on it), and I hear someone say, "Excuse me." And I look over, and this woman is getting out of her SUV in her drive way, and she opens up her jacket to show... her HILLTOPPERS T-SHIRT.

I yell "SHUT UP" and run over and hug her. I then notice her husband is also wearing a Hilltoppers t-shirt. She's from Bowling Green, and her siblings all graduated from WKU. Her husband was born in Denmark but grew up in the USA. They got married in Germany -- I don't have all the details of that yet. She says she knows Nancy Toombs in Henderson, Kentucky (2006 recipient of an awared from the National Education Association).

We're now all best friends and hope to get together soon.

And I probably scared all my ever-so-reserved, never-make-eye-contact neighbors to death with all my jumping up and down, but I DON'T CARE. It's time to shake up Oregon with some real Kentucky ENERGY. (I'm not sure Germany has ever recovered from my eight years there...).

Happy November

I've finally started scanning photos from my grandfather's WWII scrapbook. It's something I've wanted to do for a very long time. These photos are of or by Jack Cravens during his service in the USA Army, serving in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, some time in the 1940s during the second World War.

More than 20 years ago, I interviewed my grandfather about his service. It took him years to finally talk to me about it -- I think he didn't believe girls should talk about such things. But I pestered him for years, and finally wore him down. I recorded it and years later, and then transcribed it.

Project after this? Transcribing two tapes of my grandmother talking about the Great Depression, the home front, etc. With all this incredible technology at our fingertips, it's so easy to record your family history!

I'm also still cleaning out papers. I'm now tackling my collection of theatre programs. Yes, some of them are going to go. I'm making a spreadsheet of every professional or university production I've seen, and including information about who was in the production or other notable things for later reference. I found out that I've seen Jane Krakowski twice on stage (most recently in Guys and Dolls with Ewan McGregor, and the first time back in the 1990s, when she was just 21, in Grand Hotel), that I saw Elisabeth Shue (in Some Americans Abroad) and James Fleet (in a supporting role in the Taming of the Shrew in Stratford-Upon-Avon). I remember everyone from Williamstown, but not necessarily from Broadway.

Halloween was a disappointment. I'd been told that the area took the holiday hugely seriously, and there were many houses in our neighborhood that went all out with their decorations, so we were expecting hordes. But we live on a loop, and most of our immediate neighbors don't celebrate Halloween (they kept their houses dark and didn't answer the door). So the hordes stayed on the main street. I bet I didn't have 100 kids. I did have four pre-teens with no costumes show up five minutes before the end of official trick-or-treating time, and I turned them away for not having costumes. They were angry but walked away because, you know, with fierce guard dog Albi ready to attack....

I've ridden my motorcycle just one day, and then just up and down the street and a few times around the block. I want to do that for several days before I head out into something more ambitious (like the grocery!). I won't ride it unless Stefan is here, and right now, Stefan is not here right now. He's on a quest to Colorado.

Stefan starts his job in two weeks. Me -- I'm about to run out of jobs to apply for... my sector has been hit hugely by the recession, and I now know just how much. Tell me why I left Germany, please? I've forgotten.

Currently re-reading: Pride and Prejudice. I'm on a diet of no book buying until I get a job, so in the meantime, I'm re-reading things, or reading gift books I haven't gotten to yet. I so long to be as witty and poised as Elizabeth Bennett... if you don't want to read it, or if you want to see the best movie version of it, here ya go.

Another pre-Halloween update

Recently, Stefan made chili. Yummy (both Stefan AND the chili). And the ingredients looked so purdy in our ceramics from Stefan's home town.

We really love our house, and we're so excited to host Anne at Christmas and Stefan's parents in May. Others? We soooooooo want visitors! Come try out Stefan's homemade cornhole game in our backyard!

We really enjoyed the six-part documentary Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut) on IFC recently. It brought back so many wonderful memories for me. I grew up with Monty Python as much as I grew up with Star Wars. And I've become such a huge fan of all of the remaining Pythons' post-Python work (Palin's travels, Terry Jones' historical documentaries, Terry Gilliam's movies, and anything Cleese or Idle do). We loved the behind-the-scenes stories, some of which I knew already having watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Life of Brian (not just my favorite Python movie, but one of my favorite films of all time) with the commentaries on (more than once).

I've thrown a lot away, gotten rid of two boxes of stuff at our recent garage sale, and gotten rid of even more stuff in a mass donation to Goodwill. But I'm still not unpacked. It's my office that's the problem. One of the problems with being a communications professional is that you have to save so much paper, either your own portfolio or examples of publications you need for reference. I made the mistake of throwing away reference material from a management class years ago, and I have so regretted it so many times; it's made me squeamish about getting rid of certain stuff. I've loved reading through postcards and letters people have sent me over the years. That's been like therapy. It even lead to my getting in touch with some people from oh-so-long ago. I've thrown away from of them, but some I just can't part with (because who knows when I'll need something like therapy again).

I've been using our scanner a bit, first to scan and then upload some old family photos, and then to upload some old photos of me. The comments about my second-grade school photo were awesome -- they made me cry. Ya'll not only know but, but seem to like me as well:

Little would we know from looking at this deceptively docile child what a hellraiser she would turn out to be!

I wonder, even at that young age, were you beginning to become the fighter for justice that you are today? Did you break up the fights over dodge ... Read Moreball and hopscotch cheaters? Did you stand up to your teachers for teaching opinions rather than fact? No matter, you are all of that now and loved deeply for it.

You have always been and still are both beautiful and indignant over injustice. :)

The grrr heard round the world and may you never lose it...go Jayne!

My next project will be scanning the photos from my grandfather's WWII scrapbook.

By now, you probably all know about my new toy. As noted on the photo, I won't be doing anything particularly ambitious on it this year; I'm spending every dry, not-freezing day between now and March just driving around the neighborhood and getting to know it as much as possible. We bought the bike from a guy in Washington state. Stefan had to drive it down through some horrid rain, which scared me to death. And, unfortunately, he'll have to ride through horrid conditions again later this week in our ongoing quest for a title for his own Honda. I'll be a nervous wreck while he's on the road to Colorado and back...

BTW, we had to take our written tests again to get our licenses transferred from Kentucky to Oregon and I flunked the motorcycle test the first time. I almost cried. I did so well on the written test in Kentucky, but Oregon's questions are much harder (and often irrelevant, quite frankly -- Stefan thought so too). Also, I wasn't wearing my lucky WKU t-shirt. That night, I cooked my first pot roast, and the next day, I took the test again, this time wearing my lucky WKU t-shirt, and barely passed. So, was it the t-shirt or the pot roast?

Still no jobs for either of us. And still no volunteer firefighting. And still no word if the state volunteer firefighters association is going to take me up on my offer to do a free training. But Stefan is still trying -- he contacted the state's public safety and training office about his dilemma, and they were gobsmacked that the Oregon firefighters were claiming his German training is nada. So now he's going down to the state capital on Tuesday for a meeting of his own. We loathe the phrase, "Well, I guess that's just how things are." Jayne and Stefan are rockin' Oregon!

We had a lovely time presenting about our trip last year through Eastern Europe at the Portland Hawthorne Hostel. About 12 people were there, all guests at the hostel, including a German guy on his motorcycle doing a tour of North and South America. Stefan did really well in particular; Mr. Shy spoke right up several times. We're looking forward to doing it again tomorrow night at the Northwest Portland Hostel.

It's such a shame that there are so few hostels in the USA; in Europe, you can often hike from one hostel to another (and many people do!). And it's a double shame that the oh-so-low-profile USA hosteling organization doesn't engage in any activities to encourage more hostels to be built in the USA, and limits its talk about hostels only to serving "young people." The idea behind hostels in Europe (Germany, to be specific), was to provide friendly, inexpensive overnight accommodations for young travelers, but all over Europe, most hostels cater to travelers of all ages. Hostels in Europe provide both dormitory-style rooms with separate quarters for men and women, and private family and couples rooms. Most allow people to camp in the front or back lawn (sadly, HI-USA discourages this). A lot of people choose to stay in hostels because of how easy it is to meet fellow travelers and how hostels have more information posted about local things to do than a luxury hotel's concierge could ever know about.

Albi's fine, oblivious to her fame on YouTube. She's really needy, following us from room to room, although she does sometimes get up in the night and sleep in Stefan's office. She's still not convinced we're staying in this house for a while. I don't think she likes how big it is -- she really liked us all being in the car, or the tent, or a hotel room. Lately, she's been laying with her body on the carpet but her head on the faux wooden floor of the entryway. What's up with that?

Okay, off to watch Big Bang Theory. Drop me a line -- I still love email.

Pre-Halloween Update

I guess we are truly moved in, except for some boxes in my office. I've gone through all my things and have a huge amount of clothes and dishes to either sell at a rummage sale or take to Goodwill (I'm a big fan of Goodwill, per its focus on providing job training and placement services for people who face employment challenges). Being the voracious reader that I am, you will be surprised at the few number of books I have to sell (I had gotten rid of a lot of books when I moved to Germany).

When are you coming to visit? We've got corn hole!

Per cleaning out my things and Stefan and I merging all our worldly goods together, I now respectfully beg that no one ever buy or send us:

• anything with the University of Kentucky on it. Not that I'm not still a Kentucky basketball fan but, geesh, I've got a ridiculous amount of stuff with UK on it.
  
• t-shirts of any kind (both of us have too many even with cleaning out our stash).
• coffee mugs, glasses, utensils, cookware or dishes of any kind.
• dish rags, towels, blankets or linens of any kind.
• dog collars.
• dog bowls.
• Christmas decorations (believe me, Mamaw gave me more than enough over the years).
• picture frames.
• candles (we could light and heat our house for months).
• luggage.
• bags.
  

I'd say camping gear as well, but we're such gear queers when it comes to camping... can you really have too much camping gear? This coming from a household with three tents...

We've begun the nasty process of getting restitution from Xpress Van Lines, the company that moved our things from Louisville to Portland, with a month of storage in Los Angeles. Not only did they do an incredible amount of damage to our things, they also had a clause so that our month of free storage was, in fact, not at all free -- they wanted to charge eight times the going rate for storage in L.A. My detailed review on Yelp will be coming soon as well, but until then, here are photos that show some of the damage.

We've decorated the outside of the house a bit for Halloween, just enough so that the neighborhood kids will know that they can come a'callin' for treats. I have a feeling we're going to have a TON of kids. Let's see how many times I have to say, "Sorry, but no costume, no candy."

Stefan had his first job interview, and its very probable he will be getting an offer. Downside is that the job will be a hefty commute for him. But, right now, the word "job" is all that either of us are looking for. I did my fourth interview of the year; let's hope four is a charm. I've never interviewed so many times in my life -- gone are the days when an interview meant a job for me. Frown. Plus, a job is going to seriously cut into my NCIS rerun viewing.

My presentation to a certain association of volunteer firefighters in a certain state went well. I'd love a consulting gig out of it, but what I would like more is for Stefan to get to be a volunteer firefighter out of it. GEESH. I never want to hear a fire house whining about needing volunteers again.

I've loved the weather lately, especially when it's been crisp in the morning. Albi loves cold weather -- she loves to run when it is. But just in the last few days, it's really warmed up. Just as long as it's not too cold, and it's dry, for our probably rummage sale next weekend and for corn hole in the back yard (yes, Stefan finished, and it's awesome). Now, if we could just figure out how the freakin' thermostat works...

Still no motorcycle title. I suspect the company took too much time between two or more the steps in the process, hence why they are suddenly saying, after 13 weeks, that they may not be able to get the title after all. It's already been a huge blow to Stefan to not get to be a volunteer firefighter -- no title for the Africa Twin too, and I wouldn't blame him if he said he wanted to go back to Germany.

I grew up in a household without the book Where the Wild Things Are (or anything by Dr. Seuss, for that matter), but because it was all around me in other people's homes and the school library, I saw it, read it, and loved it (just like Dr. Seuss books). Stefan doesn't understand why, every time a preview for the movie comes on, I tear up and look like a nine-year-old that's just been told Santa is coming. And how in the world do you explain it if you didn't grow up with it?!? But who knows when we'll see it -- it's amazing how busy you are even when you are unemployed. A reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle asked the author, "What do you say to parents who think the Wild Things film may be too scary?" Author Maurice Sendak replied, "I would tell them to go to hell. That's a question I will not tolerate." (more). Hee hee.