atotalblamblam | Sporadic Update

Al Pacino as Sonny, from "Dog Day Afternoon." You like sexually confused men.

Which Unstable Man are you Most Attracted to?
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I asked for less hours at my job so I could spend time with my mom and sister while they were here, so they cut my hours down. To one day a week. I've been searching around a lot on the internet for jobs and looking through the newspaper classifieds, but haven't yet actually gone somewhere and given them my resume'. I've been doing a lot of research about working as a wildfire lookout for the summer. Pretty good pay, amazing amazing scenery and solitude. In fact, so much solitude, I'm not sure... well, I was going to say I'm not sure if I could handle that much solitude. Then I realized that a more accurate statement is that I can handle the solitude pretty well, but I'm not sure if my family can deal. Not having a way of getting in touch with me whenever they feel like it. I mentioned my interest in being a lookout to Grandma, and she gave me a look like Oh foolish child! You don't really want to do something like that and she commenced to explaining to me that lookouts escape firey deaths by the skin of their teeth on a daily basis. Sure, Grandma. I bet if I was a guy she wouldn't tell me things like that. She'd be like, Oh, brave, manly Aimee! I'm so proud of you etc.! (I'm in rich text mode, btw :B)

I'm not submitting to my overprotective family. If I want to spend the summer in a little box on stilts on the top of a mountain peering through binoculars, I goddamn will. Haha, I will admit there is the danger of being struck by lightning, but in every tower they have this stool you sit on that keeps you from getting electrocuted.

I'm tentatively looking at summer backcountry firefighter jobs, too, but mostly just out of curiousity. On the other side of the coin, I'm looking into working at this alternative hot springs retreat/ehm... nudist colony, doing housekeeping or kitchenwork or childcare if I'm lucky. And I'm going to apply to the Backcountry Trails Program again this year. Summer is going to be awesome.

So it turns out that I have a lot of college loans that I'm having to pay off. I've been avoiding paying any of them for oh, the last five months or so. Well I finally spent a day sorting through the chaos. After paying about $250, using half a dozen forbearances, and sending for deferrment and consolidation applications, I'm almost out of the dark. I just need to keep a semi-steady income until I either join Americorps for a year or go back to school.

So while I was at it, I did some figuring for how much money I'm going to need to save up for my year au pairing in Iceland and subsequent six months to a year volunteering on organic farms in Scotland. It came to about $5,500. This included a $3,700 allowance for a round-trip ticket to Reykjavik, Iceland and a round-trip ticket to Glascow, a random major city I picked for Scotland. Then I figured out how much I'd have to earn per hour, working 35 hrs./week for 10 months, adding about 35% of the total amount for taxes, and it came out to like $5.50 an hour. Oregon minimum wage is $7.05, Wash. State is even more, so even if I work at min. wage, this is so easily doable!

And THEN I got on the computer and played around on some discount airfare websites... AND DISCOVERED SOMETHING. It's called the multi-destination flight. Now, I'm not sure if it works when time between flights is as long as a year (like, a year in iceland, up to a year in Scotland), but if this works, OMG! I tried it, and the ticket came to less than $1,500!!! Dude, that's fucking cheap! And layovers in Chicago, London, and Germany or Switzerland! Dude, even the layovers are exciting to think about.

The playlist just looped back to the songs from that Icelandic cast recording of Rocky Horror. Sweet Transvestite, to be exact. And there's this part where Icelandic Frankie sings what sounds like, "I'm as THICKLE as a GIGGLE," and it is apallingly funny.

Undoubtedly I have more to say, but I've run out of steam.

Here's an enormous picture of a lookout tower:

Edit: I thought of more stuff to write about. First, how am I going to get some solid childcare experience asap so I can start applying with the au pair agency. I mean, I've already got like basic experience babysitting my three - sometimes four all at once - girl cousins over the years, and occasionally playing with the girl who lives by Aunt G.'s house. And I'm good at it, but I'm rarely payed, it doesn't really resemble professional work at all. I'd like to have something else to show the agency, and perhaps have a better chance of being placed with a good family.

All these things that I want to do will have to be very studiously and faithfully prepared for, and far ahead of time.

Right now: Must stay employed, whether that means keeping my current job, finding a new one, or even working as a telemarketer.

Right now: Must get ss card, apply for passport, and working on getting a driver's license.

Right now - End of Week: Must apply to any interesting federal jobs, including lookout, ranger aid, firefighter if interested, and definitely find out about that one in Girdwood.

February: Develop Alaska pictures and begin application process for Backcountry Trails.

March or April: Get in contact with au pair agency. Try to get this done as quickly as possible if I'll be difficult to reach during summer job.

In Iceland: Find out as much as possible about on the sly jobs in Iceland, also immigration, etc.

In Iceland: Become member of WWOOF UK, write to desired farms and figure out itinerary, transit info, etc. If nec., ship not-needed items back home, have needed items shipped to me

In Iceland: If necessary, begin (and finish?) application process with BUNAC NZ.

In Scotland: If possible, apply to BUNAC NZ after having acquired farm experience.

Will I be staying at home for a while to rest, or going straight to NZ? If straight to NZ, need to consider how to pay for price of plane ticket and initial living expenses, as well as loans.

In NZ: If possible and if desired, get Americorps job lined up.

One of the things life so far has taught me is how important it is to plan ahead if you want to do really amazing things and be successful at it. To plan ahead, even if you change your mind every other day. I've had so much lag time in the last few years, although a lot of it would have been hard to avoid. I quit school in Jan. and didn't leave for Alaska until May, and I'm not even counting all the months I was enrolled in school, but wasn't do any homework and only going to class half the time. I got back home at the end of Aug., but I didn't get a job until Nov., and it's a crappy one that I could have avoided if I had put more time and effort into getting a better one.

More to come.

Oh yeah! I cut my hair today. Nothing huge, still have the looong locks, but I cut my bangs all shaggy and experimental and artsy fartsy. Yay me. Also painted my nails bright, sparkly red like a bumper car. And after cutting my hair, I stayed in my housecoat all day.

Also, FUCK. I just remembered that the very next day I work, I'm supposed to come in carrying a brand spanking new Social Security card. This could be as soon as Friday, and I haven't even applied for it yet! Fuck, I might have to call in sick or something. I told my supe I already had it like a lying dumbass. Also needed veryvery soon is a food handler's card, which I also have yet to apply for.