"It’s tragic that extremists co-opt the notion of God, and that hipsters and artists reject spirituality out of hand. I don’t have a fixed idea of God. But I feel that it’s us – the messed-up, the half-crazy, the burning, the questing – that need God, a lot more than the goody-two-shoes do. "
-- Mike Doughty, Musician.
I got this off a Starbucks cup (yay for consumerism disguised as creative thought!) but I totally agree. Never do I need God so much as when my life is in this kind of tumolt and upheaval, when I am positively out of my mind with self-doubt and uncertainty.
I got an internship with the Darcy Burner campaign, which is exciting and may open the door to future political employment. Unfortunately it's an unpaid internship, so the job hunt continues. I'm hoping to get a job at Starbucks. I always wanted to work at a coffeeshop once in my life, and here's my chance. For a while I was feeling sorry for myself that nothing had worked out yet for me, but then while running errands my mom and I ran into the mother of a girl I went to school with. She has just graduated with a communications/public relations degree and is working at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I feel vindicated, because whereas earlier, I thought I was the only one who didn't have it all figured out (Sarah and Jamie in grad school, Katharine and Chris with full-time jobs that can lead to careers, Kathleen with a $40,000+/yr engineering job), I'm now grasping that there are a lot of really smart, talented people in my age group who are still struggling to get it together.
And on a lighter note, Rena's moneysaving tips for the Puyallup Fair: 1) Bring a bottle of water. You can refill it at drinking fountains, and this tip alone will save you $2.50 a bottle or $4.00 per Coke. 2) Prioritize. Rides and food get expensive in a hurry, and your time and energy will run out as well, so figure out what you really want and do that first. When I was a kid, Mom and Dad would let us choose one treat and one ride and that was it. 3) Free stuff rocks. Animal barns, piglets, juggling acts, many concerts: all free. But get there early for concerts, because seating goes quickly. Also, a lot of companies are giving out free samples of experimental new products (mmmm...GoTarts...it's like a PopTart only better.) My personal favorite, however, is the building full of vendors trying to sell their kitchen gadgets and cleaning gizmos. Those presentations/spiels are awesome! 4) Share food. ("Joey doesn't share food!") A lot of the food at the fair is huge, and you'd end up throwing a lot of it away if you had to finish it yourself. You also get to try more things if everybody in the group buys something different, and you cut your losses if something is a ripoff. (Specific known ripoffs: The Mad Greek by the Blue Gate, and the plain hamburgers and cheeseburgers at Fred E's in the restaurant building, where I work.) 5) Buy for value. The SuperNachos at the Mexican place between the Restaurant Building and the Grandstand are HUGE. And Scones are still the best bargain at the fair. If you want cotton candy to take home, buy it outside the fair--it's much cheaper, but for scones, you MUST buy them inside the fair because the scone booths outside give you puny flat scones. 6) Wear comfortable shoes, and bring quarters for Footsie Wootsies. This isn't really a moneysaving tip, but it's really important. You will be standing/walking all day long, and you want to take care of your feet. Side note: Footsie Wootsie is a brand name of one of the foot-jiggle machines ("Pep your step!") which has since been phased out and replaced by the ones where you sit on the hand (anyone else find that creepy?) that cost $0.50 instead of a quarter. There are still a few 25 cent foot jiggle machines, and for the most part they're a better value than the new ones. 7) Don't pay more than $5 for parking. You're going to be walking all day anyway; why not park a little farther away and save your money for things you really want to spend it on. The earlier in the day you go, the better your chances of finding cheap as free parking. 8) Come visit me at Fred E's in the restaurant building! No, not to buy our overpriced lame food (unless you want fish & chips, gardenburgers, or chicken breast sandwiches, in which case we are the best place to go) but because unless it's mealtime, I am really bored a lot of the time. But stop by during the slow time from 1:30 to 5:00 or after 7:30. I'm there every day but Wednesday from 1:00 til closing or close to it. I can also direct you to any food booth near the red gate, because by now I know who has chili cheese fries and who has onion rings, etc, etc, etc.
Somewhat impulsively, Chris and I moved into a house in Tacoma we're renting with Evan. The move gave me something to focus my nervous, upset energy on besides finding a job. The problem is that it's not just finding a job--I've done that. I'm going to be working at the Puyallup Fair in the evenings and probably still jobhunting during the days. The problem is that I need to figure out what the heck I want from my life, and have to at least pick a direction to head in. I know I'm not committing now to do something for the rest of my life, but it's true that what I choose to do next narrows my possibilities for the future. It'll open up new doors, true enough, but it's really scary trying to decide what I want.
In other news, Chris and I are going with my family to my grandparents' cabin in Eastern Washington for Labor Day, so it'll be a good chance to get away. Plus we (finally!) have internet and cable TV at the house, so I'm pretty dang ecstatic about that.
Ooh! Also, Chris and Evan and I have a new D&D campaign going. I'm a dwarven fighter with a warhammer and Evan is a halfling rogue. We're about to stow away on a pirate ship to plunder it once the crew mutinies, that is, if Evan can tear himself apart from the half-elf serving wench he managed to seduce. So awesome.
