Scissor Steps

Remember scissor steps in "Mother, May I"? It wasn't really jumping, but it was bigger than a regular step and certainly better than baby steps, but you had to make sure to execute them properly or you'd lose your balance and be out of the game. I ran across this picture of a Buddha made of scissors online and thought it a fitting image to head up the blog, because some form of scissor stepping makes up a lot of existence.

Here in the first minutes of November 2010, I wanted to put something up on the blog just because over a week has gone by. And I think it's been a week full of scissor steps; jerky, significant gains on various fronts interspersed with inactivity.

The interview at Thibiant went well. In fact, it turned into two interviews. The first was with the woman who I would be replacing if I get the job. Turns out it's a one-person operation, doing PowerPoint presentations, graphics and forms for the manufacturing areas of the business and architectural signage for the plant and operations.

She and I spent a little over an hour together, and she asked if I could wait around for a bit so the head of HR could talk with me. I did, and we had a very good interview, with her saying they had a couple other people to interview that week, and that she would be calling me back next week. Today is next week, so I'm eager to see if I made it to the final round of interviews, which will include one with the president of the company (he's very hands on and works a lot with the arts & graphics person).

The commute, while long, is on the easy side, hopping onto the 210 Freeway here in Pasadena, changing to the 118 in the North San Fernando Valley, and driving a couple miles on surface streets to the plant. If I actually land the job, we'll see how feasible commuting on Metrolink would be.

The place seems pretty amicable, and everyone I saw there seemed to be happy and enjoying themselves. They even had a couple of contests going for Halloween: Guess the number of candy corn pieces in the jar and guess the weight of a very large pumpkin that was hauled into the lobby by several guys who were obviously from the production area in back.

The rest of last week was spent trying not to focus on the prospect of an second interview, but that's hard to do. I spent the usual time looking over job postings, sending out applications (very few, because there wasn't a lot advertised that was up my alley) and feeling frustrated that more people aren't hiring full time.

I did locate the ottomans that will be replacing the coffee table in the living room, and they were very reasonable: upholstered truncated cubes with tops that reverse to serving trays. They're small, and inside they have a second ottoman, even smaller, that we can use by the bookcases.

I got these at the same supersite from which I purchased the patio fountain. They had given me a 10% discount code good for a week and the shipping was free, so these came at a really sweet price.

On Saturday we stopped in at Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up a faux fur throw for the couch (literally, for the couch: the cats have been clawing their spot on it, so the throw is to protect the fabric). It's a lynx print, and really much subtler than it appears in the picture. It's lined and thick enough to provide a good barrier.

Both of the cats are in love with the throw and seem to take it for some sort of mother surrogate. Patty was even licking and cleaning it Saturday evening.

While we were in the store, we also saw a rug that we thought would be great for the living room. It was well within the budget, especially with BB&B's 20% off coupon, so we picked that up, too. Just about the only thing lacking in the living room now are the bookcases, and I'm kind of hesitant to order the materials for those until I see what happens on the employment front.

Yesterday (Sunday), Steve and I cleaned out the CD collection which was sitting around in various racks in the bedroom. There's about 250 of them, and we actually dusted each one, alphabetized them and put them back in their racks, now stored in the office closet, along with the VCR tapes we took out of the living room.

There are also about 40 or so cassette tapes Steve kept, but the only thing we have to play them on is an old Walkman. Now, with the move of a bookcase from the bedroom into the office, we will have enough room to bring the recliner and its side table up to the bedroom and have a nice little sitting area.

All this activity, all this planning and organization, just to keep from going crazy while unemployed. It crossed my mind last week that, once I do land a new job, these projects will go from being a major concern to secondary priority. That, however, would be a very nice problem to have.