rivkaesque's Journal

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Did not get the job
I promised to tell immense numbers of people, but I'm too emotionally drained to do it right now. I really was hoping for this - it would have been such a great fit.

thanks to all who lent support and especially to those who let me crash with them. It looks like I won't be back in town any time soon.

Current Mood: crushed

So, booked the flight out for the third and hopefully final interview.
Will be flying in on Tuesday, interviewing Wednesday, and flying out at 2 pm on Thursday unless they offer me a job straight off. (Interviewing in the middle of my family's big holiday system is a scheduling challenge!)

At least I have great friends who let me crash at their places for all this insanity.

Job update!
So, sorry if you've tried to get in touch since the weekend. Between cleaning up from Rosh Hashana, getting my sister off to London, various meetings here, and my own wigging out over the potential job with CSN, I've let a lot slip. Specific sorries to Sorek, J, M, and certain family members. Today was CSNs deadline for letting me know, annnnnd.....

They want to talk to me about another position in Marketing Operations. I’m very excited about working for them (a geek-founded, politically liberal company with a strong emphasis on work-life balance for its employees and a casual computer-geek culture? Selling good furniture, small appliances, and other tools for comfortable living? I’ve died and gone to the late 90s!), so I’ll be taking that interview as well, I hope. I plan to talk to them at 6:15 am Denver time tomorrow, 8:15 Boston time, to discuss this position and set up the interview. Hopefully, they'll either let me do it by phone/conference call, or indicate that they are very serious.

Anyhow, I may yet get to live&work in Boston this year. I'm not holding my breath only because that would make talking to the HR guy very difficult.

My sister's bon mots
Just now, my sister and I were discussing something, and I told her to feel free to tease me about being effete. Her response?

"I don't tease in French; I don't have an English degree."

And this is just an average evening for her.

Success at risotto! (posted a little late)
So, I have attempted eight times to make a completely dairy-free risotto with no substitutions (no fake cream, no fake Parmesan, etc) in my parent's kitchen.
Why have I not attempted this elsewhere, you ask? Mostly because I keep thinking of it when standing in my folk's kitchen going "How on earth am I going to make this meal feel special?"

In any event, I have always made the attempt using brown rice (because it was available), oil, various herbs & spices, and broth of one kind or another. Two evenings ago, on the eighth attempt, I finally made a pretty decent brown-rice chicken flavored 'risotto' that had only 1 tbsp of oil for the whole thing (1 cup rice). (Well, plus a little bit of fat from the chicken broth, I assume.) I covered half of it with slices of cucumber and a poached opaka fillet and stuck both halves in the fridge because I had given up on it being 'ready soon' and just had a meal bar. I reheated it yesterday morning and discovered 2 things.

1: It was pretty good! It seems patience and a good heavy pan are the keys.
2: I love cucumber slices lightly poached in garlic-rich risotto. They, in and of themselves, were marvelous. Someone mentioned braised cucumbers in my hearing recently. I should really look up a recipe for that.

Life has been kinda nuts since, and I am now posting. The next step is incorporating bitlies of yummy other food into the risotto!

Also - found a Java textbook at a price I could afford. Am now studying Java.

Interview in Boston!
I have an interview with CSN stores for their Junior DBA position in Boston at 10 am on the 16th! Every body wish me luck!

Race!Fail exhaustion
OK, I admit it. I was stupid. I subscribed to stupid-free and some other 'funny drama bits' group. And now, a bare three weeks later, I. cannot. take. anymore. The Race!Fail is pervasive. The Gender!Fail abounds. And oh, my goddess, the Religion!Fail that would not die. Now, I freely acknowledge that I have been ignorant, and once or twice committed Race!Fail and/or Religion!Fail myself, but when someone tells me something is offensive I freakin' listen! I alter my behavior! Gasp!

The descriptions are fun, but I think I am going to stop reading the comments and clicking on the links, because if I am faced one more example of 'you shouldn't be offended because it's just my opinion', 'My God is right, your god is a heathen idol poopiehead', or some similar idiocy I may commit a felony on the whole freakin' internet.

Or actually stop following LJ, which might mean giving up my entire social life.

One of my big suitcases exploded.
In point of fact, it was my old huge tramp around Europe. backpack. Granted, I had it packed kind of to the gills, but when I picked it up to go weigh it, about 4 different seams popped. OK, so I'm going to have to replace and repack it. By late tomorrow. Grrrr!

Lois McMaster Bujold fanfic
Is it just me, or does literary fanfic tend to be better than media fanfic? And does Vorkosigan fanfic tend to stay way up there in terms of quality and IC-ness?

So, my current fitness journal -
And may I say that I love it much more than Fitday - is at my.sparkpeople.com/RIVKAESQUE . If you just want my fitness and food info, there's a link on the left called 'shared food and fitness trackers'. And If you click the blogs tab at the top of the post, you can get a feed of my fitness blog if you really want.

Blasphemy illegal in MA?
So I mentioned to my Dad while I was home about Ireland passing their blasphemy laws - and today he sent me this link.

http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/272-36.htm

WTF?

Back in Boston
So I'm back! the visit was amazing - family, friends, and two really good performances. The Two Gents was incredible! It was played as a 'late rehearsal' - a play within a play. There were interruptions and note and people walking through where the walls were going to be. The only bit that didn't quite work was the director's sudden realization that his insistence upon a very dark Proteus was wrong. But as that was a necessary plot point, I can over look a little deus ex machina feel.

However, I did have the problem of destroying my computer. I've got a new one, but it was a tense two days.
I got in this morning at around 1 am, when the T had stopped, and came home when it started running, so I'm just now waking up and going through my morning routine - i guess it is, technically, still morning.

Or I may get a little more sleep.

Frag, I think I'm sick. (pointless post)
Let's see. body aches, feeling cold enough to wear turtlenecks even when it's 70 degrees, mild nausea, dizziness, and sleepiness.

Yup, I'm sick.

Frag.

OK, WTF?
So, I was reading through a thread mentioned on Fandom Wank, and I noticed this.

Can anyone tell me whether this is actually true? People have committed suicide over frikkin' TWILIGHT!?!?!

I'ma goin' to Denver!
My friend Mary Ann is a Travel Angel. My biggest regret about being in MA this Summer (and, hopefully, longer - keep your fingers crossed) has been missing my yearly trips to the Colorado Shakespeare Festival with my mother and grandparents. Guess what that amazing woman did?

That's right! I am now flying in to Denver around noon on the 16th of July, and then flying back very late the next Wednesday! Quite aside from the wonder of seeing my folks again (Amazing, how much I've missed them!) I shall also see my grandparent (ditto) and Mary Ann!

You know, she's amazing. It's not just the sending me places (although that rocks), she's also one of those people whom it's at once exiting and relaxing to be around. She's a marvelous person, fun, a fellow foodie, etc. I think, if she wasn't quite literally old enough to be my mother, or if she wasn't married and had ever indicated she was into females, I'd make a play for her. On top of the fun it is to be around her, she's gorgeous.

Random bit
Timothy Dalton is an excellent Mr. Rochester. Then again, I've had a bit of crush on the actor for some time, so I may be biased.

Dim sum, anyone?
OK, this is for next weekend, the weekend of the 30th. I've been desperately missing dim sum (Dim Sum Chef in Super 88 just isn't the same), and I want to go with people. It's no fun alone. So, everyone, dim sum next weekend? And if you have friends you think would get on with the folks who've said they're going, bring them too. Especially if they're fen. Comment or email me if you want to go. I'm thinking Saturday , noonish, Chinatown, Imperial Garden if no-one has a preference for another. But I could go with Sunday or a later time.

It has finally happened

vakevtoevto has added you as a friend.

And.... Google get rich quick schemes! That's all this journal is.

LJ spam. It has finally happened.

I loved today's big meal so much I had to write about it.
Soooooo goood! Soup, veggie, and dessert - all of 'em yummy!

Soup:
Approx. 1/4 pound squid, diced
handful frozen scallops
1/4 log fish cake
5 stalks sliced Chinese broccoli
fish stock (about a cup after it had boiled and reduced and been absorbed into various things.
boil until squid is cooked through
5 sliced winter mushroom caps
small handful wakame
boil until mushrooms are translucent
1 packet hon-boshi soup bouillon
about 1/4 cup fresh udon noodles
boil 2 minutes. It's soup!

Veggie:
diced long beans
1 tsp diced garlic
1/2 tbsp butter
pepper
saute very briefly

Dessert
1 plum, wedged
Approx 1 tbsp sweetened condensed milk for dipping

I didn't even realize this was relatively healthy until I had finished the plums. So, yay.

One good thing...
about being unemployed. Sure, I miss the income and, oddly enough, the dead-lined deliverables and daily tasks, but unemployment does have its upside. On days like today, when it is warm and the air smells gorgeous - that many-flowered, grass-fresh scent most perfumes try and fail miserably to emulate - it is possible to spend all day out of doors. So, instead of spending 8:00 am to 6:00 p.m. in an office doing computer related stuff and maybe getting outside for a half hour on a lunch break, I spent 10:30 am to 6:00 pm outdoors with a short indoor break for lunch. I would have gone out sooner, but I had jobs to apply to.
And now, I admit I'm doing computer related stuff. But it's in the warm lilac, grass and lily of the valley scented outdoor air.

Living in the moment. Life is good.