The one time that I met a Goessel Mennonite on BART

         OH MY GOSH ALL THE THINGS ARE HAPPENING AT ONCE!!!!!!!!!!!!! No, for real, that's why I haven't written anything for 2 weeks. Sorry about that. So, a recap:

         Two weeks ago was Bethel's and KU's Spring Breaks. So Grace and Natalie came to visit Friday through Friday. We went to church, went to Marin, saw the redwoods, did the touristy things, and hung out. For more on that, see my recent Facebook album.

         On that same Friday, I found out that I got a job at UCSF. So I was like “OMG IF I HAVE A JOB I CAN'T LIVE AT THE CATHOLIC WORKER MUST FIND ANOTHER PLACE TO LIVE!!!!” So I was spamming out my information on Craigslist (quantity over quality is my strong suit, apparently), responding to the emails, and visiting houses. I've probably seen like 10. And let me tell you, house hunting is literally the worst thing ever. Worse than a job interview. At least with a job interview, you can be like “Yeah, I have this knowledge, and this knowledge, and this knowledge, and I am a good fit for your organization because of this and this and this.” You have obvious, quantifiable, skills. Searching for a room in a house is different. You have to fit in with the people already living in the house.   And you don't know how you'll fit in the house until you meet them. So you have to be kind of fun, kind of cool, laid back, clean, not up in their business, have a job, be ok with all sorts of activities, not eat meat, not bring meat into the house, not have a dog or a cat, not have visitors EVER, and never ever host parties. Really. Some people are ridiculous. So like I said, I spent the last two weeks looking at a house or two a day. I was also doing training for my new job, so it was like this – Get up at 6am, get to BART, ride transit for an hour, get to class at 8, leave class at 5, go around the area and look at houses until 7, get home at 8, spam out more requests until 9 or 10, go to sleep, repeat. Exhausting.

          One of the first houses that I saw was perfect, and it tainted the rest of them. It was cute, in a nice neighborhood (no shootings/graffiti/prostitutes), near transit/grocery stores, was inhabited by intelligent science-y people, and was immaculate. I loved it as soon as I walked in. But they were like, “Yeah, we'll call you in a couple days!” and then I didn't hear from them. Later, I saw the same house on Craigslist, so I was like “Ok, well, that's too bad, on the to next house!” So on Saturday, I was just about ready to seal the deal with one of two OTHER houses, when an email from the first house pops up, being like “Hey, we want to live with you!” So yeah. I wish they had told me about a week ago, because my week would have been so much less horrible. But on the bright side, I HAVE A HOUSE THAT I REALLY AM EXCITED ABOUT!!!! So I'll move in here in the next week or so. I have to do the rental agreement and pay a bunch of money and stuff like that, but then I'll be good to go!

          Also, I have a pretty great story for you guys. I was on BART last Friday, headed to see Ben. I was just chillin' out with my bike, on a pretty packed car, listening to my iPod and not paying attention to anything. Then this dude sitting next to me tapped me on the arm and pointed to a pin on my bag. Ryan Goertzen bought it for me for Christmas and it says “Time to sing 606. It's a Mennonite thing.” And he was like “Dude, where'd you get that?” And I said “Um... my cousin bought it for me?” And he was like “Dude, I'm Mennonite!!” And I was like “?!?!?!!!!!?!????!!!!!!!!!! Whereabouts?” “Kansas. Goessel.” And I did a weird little “!!!!!?????!?!!!!!?!??!!!?????!!!!!!!!” dance and shrieked “OMG I WENT TO BETHEL AND I'M RELATED TO HALF OF GOESSEL!!!!!!!” And he was like “Yeah, my name is Schultze, Chase Schultze.” “Unruh. Claire.” “Are you related to Marie Unruh?” “She's my cousin!” “Dude, I TOTALLY know who you are! She came to San Francisco and visited me a couple months ago, and we looked at your Facebook profile!” “Yeah? Well I bet you know Ryan Goertzen then? He's the one who gave me this pin! He's my second cousin!”

         It was probably one of the coolest things that has happened to me so far. Rando guy on BART happens to be a Mennonite from Goessel Kansas. What are the chances that he'd even be on BART at the same time, in the same car, sitting right next to me, and then be checking out my pin?!!? So we proceeded to have a nice little chat about stuff. That's what I love about Mennonites (among many other things) – as soon as you meet one, you have an instant connection – you already know what they believe in, you probably have several mutual friends, and you don't have to explain all the acronyms! Then we went our separate ways, but as Ben and I were coming back from supper, we ran into him again! So we had a couple of drinks together and talked some more. It was awesome, and it made my whole day.

I Can Haz Job?

       I have a job. A job that I really think I will enjoy, and one that will definitely get my foot in the door. Here's what happened:

      I've been submitting resumes for time immemorial, and haven't heard much back, other than “Hey, just FYI, I can't open your attachment.” Then, suddenly, on Tuesday, this guy calls at like 9pm, super rushed sounding, like “Hey-so-are-you-available-for-an-interview-on-Friday-for-a-job-at-UCSF-Medical-Center?” Whoa dude, slow down. Turns out they were a staffing agency that was helping UCSF put together a group of people to “float” to different departments as needed. They wanted to interview like 40 people to get together a group of 15, and my resume had come through the chute at just the right time.

So I showed up this Friday afternoon, to the 37^th floor of a Montgomery St skyscraper (they have a beautiful view. If I worked in their office, I'd never get anything done) for the interview. The staffing agency talked to me for a bit about what to expect in the upcoming interview, then took me back down to the basement of the building (my ears popped on the way, that's how high we were) for the interview. It was essentially speed dating. The interview lasted 10 minutes and then at the end, they told the guy yes or no regarding my employment status. So I put on my “I-am-a-super-personable-person” game face and rocked the interview. And they hired me.

         So then they were like, “Hey, can you come back next week and do some paperwork and take a drug test?” And I was like “Um, my sisters are coming next week and I won't really have time, can I just do it now?” So I did. I guzzled down some water, then walked to the clinic that does the drug test. And then I sat there. For an hour. On a full bladder. They should implement that at Guantanamo or something. Good grief. Finally, the lady called me back and was like “Ok, you have four minutes to fill this cup a quarter of the way full,” and I was like “Not a problem.”

         So anyway, now I have a job. And the training phase (where they shove a bunch of admissions protocols down my throat) starts on the 25^th,, lasts for a week, and then I can start real work after that. It's temp-to-hire, so if the managers in one of the departments that I float to like my performance (which has always been the case in previous jobs), they'll hire me for real. And I need to move out of the CW because obviously if I don't work there, I can't live there. And my sisters are in town this upcoming week. It'll be a real busy few weeks, full of lots of changes, that's for sure.

          But the main point is, I have a job. In a hospital. And it looks like it will be a really good opportunity to get some really good experience and make some really good connections.   

We're all Hufflepuffs here

         This weekend, Ben and I actually did something worth writing about. We started off with pizza from EXTREME PIZZA, which puts cilantro on all their pizza. Whoever thought of that deserves a medal. While we were waiting for our food to show up, we met Jono Nathan, one of our acquaintances from Bethel who is now living in the city. I hadn't seen him since he graduated almost four years ago, so it was cool to see what he was up to. Afterwards, we went to the H.E.R. House (Hannah, Emma, Rosanna) to hang out with friends. Both Hannah and Emma had had birthdays in the last week or so, so that was the excuse.   

Little bit of kitchen dancing

Bro-ing out. 

 The next morning, we went back to their house for brunch. Scrambled eggs, pancakes, vegan sausage, fruit, stuff like that.

Midway through the morning, some sort of religious recruiter stopped by with this gem of a pamphlet. Ben is a dead ringer for Jesus. We also spent a lot of time talking about Harry Potter and arguing about the colors of the respective houses.    

 Later, Ben took me around to some of the houses that his boss is flipping. For someone who read and re-read house-restoration magazines as a kid, it was really cool to see the process. And yes, that really did happen. For years I had a stack of “Old House Journal” next to my bed, and spent time re-creating the blueprints in the back with Legos. True story.
          We'd also been wanting to go to Tilden Park for awhile, since it's near Ben's house. So we finally were able to do that. It's a regional park that is in the Berkeley hills overlooking the Bay, and it is full of nature.  It's actually really high in the hills, so maybe we shouldn't have taken the road that went directly perpendicular to the ridgeline - it was a pretty steep grade, and the brakes on Ben's car were starting to smell REALLY hot by the time we finally hit flatter ground!

I love poppies.  They are unapologetically gaudy.

Looks like the koalas have been doing some work on
the eucalyptus trees out here.  

             We tried to get to church on time on Sunday, but that didn't happen. So we were 20 minutes late, but at least we didn't miss any good hymns this time. Afterwards we went to Duboce Park to see the dogs. Australian-shepherd spotting count – 3. It was a good day.

Border collie or something.  He was a very good dog.

These two Aussies are owned by the same lady.  I am jealous. 

 Also there was this guy with bubbles. It looked so fun.

 On our way to the BART station, we stopped at Burger Meister for a spur-of-the-moment mint chocolate chip shake. It was delicious.

         Also on the way to the BART station, we ran into this little parade for Hugo Chavez. Or at least, it was based on Hugo Chavez, but it seemed to be more like “Hey, Hugo Chavez did this stuff for Venezuela, but also let's get excited about Che Guevarra, Cesar Chavez, FMLN, and all of the workers-rights, left-wing things in Latin America!”    

          Finally, Ben picked up a DVD about John Deere from the church free table, after I came back from work, so we had some popcorn and watched that. I thought it was cool, but Ben said it would be like him talking to me about sports for an hour and a half.

Job Search (illustrated)

              I've decided that my time at Catholic Worker has just about run it's course. It's not that I don't like working here and all; it's just not what I want to do with my life; and the sooner I get on with doing what I actually want to do with my life, the better off I'll be. And I need to earn some actual money, instead of just a stipend and the pittance that I earn working 10 hours a week for the lady with cerebral palsy. So – job search. In previous jobs, I've filled out one application, had one interview, and pretty much been hired on the spot. Or they called me out of the blue and offered me a job. But that was in Kansas, where life is easier and everything makes more sense. This is California, where you can't swing a cat by the tail (yes, that's what I've been doing with Kitty) without hitting someone who has a bachelor's degree, lots of experience in the field, and is still settling for jobs beneath his or her potential. Gotta love this economy. 

  

             Around here, searching on Craigslist seems to be the way that most people find jobs. So I'm on Craigslist a lot. A LOT. More than Facebook, maybe, which is saying a lot more than I'd care to admit about my Facebook usage. And I've been visiting the individual sites for a lot of hospitals and clinics and such. And I've updated and polished my Marla Krell resume like a dozen times. I've probably sent out my resume a hundred times by now. I'm not keeping track, it'll just make me hate my life. I also compulsively check my email for responses. Like every 10 minutes. And I just got a new Gmail account (finally caved after Yahoo repeatedly came down with extremely virulent cases of “technical difficulties” right when I needed to do something important). So now I have TWO email addresses to check. First world problems.   

            On the bright side, my time with Catholic Worker is very open-ended, which means that, unlike MVS, I can stay as long as I like and leave whenever I want. So that's handy, anyway. So that's the story for now. I've had two interviews, one which was reasonably promising, the other, not so much. That was a week ago. They said they'd get back to me in a month. Suffersuffersuffer. So in the interim, I guess I'll spam out more applications...

          If anyone has any helpful ideas, I'd be happy to entertain them. Serve 'em some cocktail shrimp, do a little dance for them, maybe play the saxophone...  

Shameless Selfies

Another reasonably uneventful weekend.

Here are some pictures of the kitty that's been hanging around our house lately. He is adorable.  

        My friend Nick (past Catholic Worker and major, major connoisseur of all the restaurants in Berkeley) recommended Brazil Cafe last week, so we decided to give it a try on Friday. Best. Decision. Ever. Ben got the sampler plate and I ordered a sandwich called “Obama's Favorite,” mostly because I want to know what kind of hot brasilian sandwich Obama is into. The highlights of the sandwich included pork and cilantro salsa, which was unbelievably good. The décor of the place was also just great. Lots of points to Nick for the recommendation.   

Rio de Janeiro Jesus.  I want this umbrella. 

Just so you all know, this sandwich is Obama's favorite

Afterwards, we went to Lush Gelato. I chose some mint chocolate chip, which tasted exactly like the mint tea that Mom sometimes made for us, back when we had mint in the garden.

         On Saturday, we went to a Farmer's Market near the Berkeley BART station. It was pretty neat – there was a whole stand devoted to tulips, which are my favorite flower.  

 Unfortunately, since it was a farmer's market and everything is organic and vegan-free and gluten-free and chemical-free, and raised with the same tender loving care as one would devote to an infant, it was INCREDIBLY expensive. So we each bought one stupidly-overpriced thing, and then sat in the nearby park. It was a really nice day – sunny, slight breeze, nice and warm.

And then the fog came in. With a vengeance. Suddenly it was cold and no longer pleasant. So we moved our base of operations to a coffee shop, and then back home once we'd finished our hot drinks and it was too cold to just loiter around. Let me tell you, when the fog comes in, you'd better batten down the hatches and put on your longjohns, because the temperature change is RADICAL. Like Martin-Luther-nails-the-95-theses-to-the-door-of-the-Wittenburg-Church radical.   

         So we went home and took some shameless selfies before I had to go to work.   

I hope those didn't gross you out too much.