Buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy ride cheres!

Calla Lilies to Cala Cakes - Buckle Up, Chere - It's Gonna Be A Bumpy (but fun) Ride!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

60 Days (+) Of California Living (thus far)

Wow, I've been here two months already!?
The weather here has been really nice, a tad warm - but NOTHING like what Houston's been dealing with: 23 days STRAIGHT of 100+ degree high-temps!?!?!
My only weather-related negative comment about L.A.: no thunderstorms. Dan swears there will be some this fall. I'm holding him to it.

I really want a full-time job w/a decent salary, which means: back to the furniture world. So last week, I e-mailed a mid-market office furniture dealer that is located in Burbank (about 9 miles away). Just as a tickler, y'know "hey, I'm here, I can do this, any needs?" kind of thing. In a stroke of luck, they are INTERESTED! :) They requested my resume', so I e-mailed it to them - for a project manager/sales support position! Later in the day, I received an e-mail back to schedule an interview! :) It was set up for last Wednesday at 10 a.m..

That meant - I needed to top off my hair color which had grown out from the cruddy way I had done it three weeks earlier. I spent Tuesday hitting the shops for something to spice up my work clothes. I scored a couple of Adrienne Vittadini tops (one a knit long-sleeved in a mid-range olive tone, and the other a black/heather grey rugby stripe tunic w/patch pockets that I can wear over jeans, leggings...whatnot) and a fun, flouncy peasant skirt in colors that will make it through summer and well into fall. I also scored hair color and raided the beauty supply for coloring brushes and a bowl. I spent the afternoon diligently addressing the root of my root problem. The results of my efforts was quite nice.

I went to the interview, arrived a little early. It lasted about 40 minutes, the lady was very nice and it seemed to go well. I'm at present waiting on the decision. I called today and she said they were reviewing other candidates and would let me know. She seemed in a good mood, was pleasant...hoping that's a good sign for me.

If I can get this job and at a decent salary, I'll be in veritable clover. I can save towards a place in New Orleans, as well as go back for a visit...SOON(?).

On the homefront - GrisGris is now comfy sleeping in the bedroom w/us and Dan's cats! Progress! It just 'happened'...though I suspect it dovetailed nicely w/the fact the cats realizing, when she's in close proximity to them...they all get treats! LOL!

I have slightly reworked the kitchen set-up, getting a glitter-dome set up - time to start working on Muses Shoes!

Goodnight, here's to good news on the jobfront tomorrow.
W.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Has It Been Almost Two Months Already???

Okay, I made it to L.A. in the expected amount of travel time. I took a little time to mellow out after the hectic nature of the preps to move and the move itself. The cats are settling in - Boo's two cats are getting better at sharing the apartment and my two are getting better at not being soooo spootie.

Since then, I've interviewed at two specialty cake bakeries and submitted my resume' to many other places. Most of all of my job hopes have been fairly dashed by extreme pseudo-excuseable rudeness of companies that ask for resume's but can't be bothered to send even a "screw you", "no dice", "are you serious" back...let alone a simple "thank you for your submission" and actually follow up w/a "you don't meet our req's at this time"... Or better yet, "Please come in, we'd love to talk to you."

Sure, in that first couple of weeks, I did swing by See's and dropped in an application - but they aren't looking for folks until the holidays are upon us...might not contact me until like September/October.

I am actually working in a part-time capacity at a neat little cake boutique in Beverly Hills, but just once a week (when I'm needed) isn't really cutting the financial mustard. I've even recently submitted my resume' for a position at a Knoll dealer - it could be neat, and profitable - but even that search agent hasn't responded w/anything yet.

Let me say this: I don't do extended 'downtime' well. I'm getting a handle on it - as I'm getting disheartened by the day. I hope something profitable that I want to do comes up SOON.

That being said - I really dig L.A., we haven't done any 'tripping the light fantastic' things, heck, I haven't even been to Hollywood proper yet. I have been to Burbank (love it!), North Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Studio City, Van Nuys, Northridge and Glendale (and some other little areas I can't fully recall).

We live a few blocks off of Ventura Boulevard, which is like (for my NOLA peeps) Magazine Street on steroids. It's cool, walkable and all manner of shops and businesses. There's also a great Farmers' Market less than a mile away. We went for the first time this past Saturday and I was blown away w/the array of locally grown produce...pics on my flickr account.

Oh! On a way cool note: my friend who has many cookbooks and children's books under his belt, has asked me to create cake recipes and a couple of designs (NOLA-centric, of course) for a book to come out this Fall!!! :) :) :) And he would like pics of some of my prior NOLA-themed cakes for the book, too! I may well be published by the end of the year!

I know more stuff has happened, but most of it is me sitting on the sofa watching re-runs of "Sex & the City" on E! or Style... Who knows, maybe this weekend, we'll go to the Sherman Oaks Castle and I can get some skee-ball games under my belt. I'll pretend the ball is smacking the less-than-responsive job folks...!? LOL!

I promise to write more often. Cheers.