The Hippies Are Here, You Just May Not See Them.

Dear All,

Not much new in Berkeley. Shannon and I are still applying to jobs. I did however get offered an interview at another auction gallery. A fine art auction gallery, mind you. Not some sketchy place near an adult bookstore like last time. We shall see how it goes. I think it is full time and pays alright. I also applied for another job at SFMOMA, making my total of applications there 4. UC Berkeley is also hiring a development associate for the Lawrence Hall of Science, so I applied. It's a short AC transit ride up the hill, and the school would get me about a 75% discount on unlimited AC rides each month.

It had been sunny lately until the past couple of days. A big storm is coming in, and it's been raining hard today. I don't think I mentioned this before, so I'll talk about it now. On the opposite side of my block is a group of houses built by the school as an architecture project. They are a bunch of beautiful cottage-like homes. Actually, apartments. Every morning, the sun shines in our windows, and I can look out at the rooftops of these homes. They look like storybook houses. Really.

This is an acceptable picture, but it doesn't even show the Cinderella-like tower off to the right. The garage along the bottom ruins the fantasy of it all. Off in the distance, on clear days, you can see the bay and hills of San Francisco, or maybe it's just the North Bay.

So we're officially out of money. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the move. We would be much worse off if we didn't have you all. I'm just going to have to dip into the ol' insurance policy, unfortunately. Hopefully I'll pay it back someday. For the time being, Shannon plays the Sims on PS2 to bide his time. I've slowly been losing my mind, so I started reading just about everything. I've read every Blueprint and Domino magazine in the house. I also read the latest issue of Shape. Now I need to buy Self. I also read my Andrea Palladio book, a birthday present from Britt. If I don't hear anything from anyone next week in terms of jobs, then I'm going to contact a temp agency in the city for new grads. I need a paycheck and some retail therapy.

I've also been watching more of the local news to keep up on new events. Soon, everyone in the nation will be seeing commercials of how the City of Berkeley said the Marines recruiters are not welcome here. They have been trying to keep them out of the city, and things are heating up! If you want to protest something, however, Berkeley is the place to do it. Which brings me to other news. There are apparently Tree Dwellers on the Berkely campus. I live next to that campus! In recent events, the school hired people to cut some of the ropes the Tree People put up due to safety reasons. Well, a bucket of human feces was knocked to the ground. It is now more difficult to get from tree house to tree house, and the Tree People are mad! They are saying that the school is making the trees even more dangerous and are appalled with the school's excuses. I did't know people still did that type of stuff. But, as I said before, Berkeley is the place to protest. Maybe I'm old and jaded and mature beyond my years. I like the ground, and I'm going to stick with it.

I gave my sister, brother, and Britt a tour of the apartment through vchatting. Everyone should do it! It was nice to see some familiar faces, even if they got a bit pixelated at times.

That's all for tonight. Love you all!

-j

Taxes, Taxes, Taxes...Why does the man gotta be so hard on us?

Hello All,

Another day at the ol' Arch Street apartment. Shannon and I seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place for the time being. Yesterday we walked to Safeway grocery. It's quite a jaunt, but we thought we could handle it. Silly us, didn't take the walk home into consideration. After taking a few breaks along the way, we finally made it home. Achy joints and all. We had to be quite frugal with our purchases as our funds are beginning to run really low. We did, however, make a necessary purchase of Cherry Vanilla Diet Dr. Pepper, or as I prefer to call it, CVDDP. It sounds dumb to buy a fridge pack of this stuff when we know we're walking home, but what you all do not know is that CVDDP is practically nonexistent on the West Coast, or at least as far as I know. Everyone knows this is my favorite beverage ever. I did feel a little guilty, as I am trying to drink more water. I had a soda at lunch today, and it was well worth the purchase.

Last night, we decided to go to Valentine's dinner despite our funds. We have not done anything special for a Valentine's day before or the last Christmas we had, or our last couple of birthdays. Money is just plain evil. We ate at herbivore, a completely vegan restaurant in downtown Berkeley with amazing "normal" yet healthy food. Even my parents would like their stuff. We had pasta dishes with white wine and even splurged on some german chocolate cake with a scoop of ice cream for dessert. We had to do it.

Today, however, has really brought us down. We walked downtown to have Shannon's taxes prepared by H&R Block. I realized I had forgotten to put on my ring. I'm not much of a superstitious person, but things seem to be unlucky for us when I'm not wearing that ring. I even warned Shannon about it. Sure enough, the unluckiness happened. It turned out Shannon owes the state of Iowa money. We were hoping he would get money back to help pay rent. I guess this is where the line "Don't count your chickens before they've hatched." comes in. I should have known.

This event reminded me to call my mother to see if she received my W2. I mailed it out on Monday and even watched the mailman pick it up. So far she hasn't seen it. I hope she gets it tomorrow, otherwise she has to cancel her appointment with the "tax man," as we like to call him. Then I'll need the library to fax my information on Monday. I wish I would have known sooner, so they could have done it today. I just want my money! And I know I'll get some, as I still claim dependent and did the zero option on my tax form.

While on the phone with my mother, I learned that the beloved Caddy has been laid to rest. My sister's friend borrowed it for a few weeks because her own car broke down. Today, she pulled out in front of someone else and totaled it. She won't have to pay a dime seeing as the car was lent to her. And seeing as she borrowed our car because she couldn't pay for her own car, she probably won't offer to pay a dime either. And the "man" won't make her. Perhaps I'm being bitter. Perhaps I'm materialistic, but that car was a legacy. It wasn't even a "nice" car, but it was a damn good car to everyone.

Okay "Man". I'm fed up with you.

The only thing holding us together is the fact that I have insurance policy money to fall back on in case of an emergency. Money I was hoping not to need. On a lighter note, we have invited Kristin and Luke over to the apartment for supper tonight as an apartment warming party/thanks for giving us a place to stay for a few weeks party. Shannon and I just finished making a vegan peanut butter chocolate pie with chocolate graham cracker crust. MMMMMM. We will be attempting to recreate the IC New-Pi Coop's famed Vegan Cajun Tofu sandwich for supper. If this turns out to be amazing, I think our spirits will be lifted (or we may just yearn to be back in Iowa City). *Cue: Cheers theme song*

As for job news, Shannon has applied for a Bumble & Bumble regional sales representative. Let's all wish him the best! We still haven't found out his test date yet for his boards. I have applied to three positions alone at the SFMOMA. I also applied for a gallery assistant manager position in the Mission District, although it is a long stretch. Why not? I keep looking back on that offer from the Asian Art Museum, but I just know there is something better out there for me. We shall see.

We miss you all. Buy a mac if you don't have one, get on aim, call us, and we can ichat aka vchat.

-j

New York, Poland, LA, Iowa

Dear All-

Last night was a difficult night. I spent my weekend in our new apartment and was reminded of how much I miss just calling someone up to go out for a drink or watch a movie. Karolina, a girl I will discuss later, made a good point today that she could live anywhere in the world as long as she had good friends around her. California is great, but it's not very fun or exciting when you don't have different friends to enjoy it with. It makes it even harder when you realize your funds are getting low and can't just spend money on things to do for fun.

Today, however, was much better than 24 hours ago. We started out by making brunch for friends of our roommates. Shannon and I made crepes, and he also made a tofu scramble. Steph, one of the friends, made vegan banana bread. Katie, our roommate, made roasted tomatoes and polenta, roasted potatoes, a quiche that was unfortunately not vegan. There was also monkey bread. I can't recall what else there was at the moment.

There were about 12 people in the house today for brunch. A majority of us live in or have lived in this apartment. Karolina is from Poland, lived near LA, and now is a model/actress in New York. She came here with her friend who knew all of the roommates. He writes film scores and creates animation design (I believe). Steph, the bread maker, is from LA but lived in the apartment. She is also friends with Katie and Hanni.

Hanni, her boyfriend Sy, Katie, her boyfriend Jason, Carolina, her friend whose name I can't recall, Shannon, and I all walked to the park after brunch. We sat around, talked about knitting, modeling, hair, and Brazil, among other things. It was gorgeous outside today. I wore my MK outfit today, AND I didn't even need a coat or sweater. It was great and not Iowa weather. It felt good to be outside and talking with a group of fun and interesting people.

In other news, I went to another interview at an auction gallery. I definitely don't want the position. THEY DON'T EVEN HANDLE THE ARTWORK PROPERLY! Sorry if I come off as a snob ruined by academia, but you don't touch the paintings with your bare hands! It was offensive. As for the Asian Art Museum position, it was all drama. I was offered the job. I politely asked to wait to give a decision until the end of the week. The HR representative said it would be okay, then called me back within minutes to tell me she was rescinding the offer! She wanted to hire right away since it was a temporary position and someone was needed asap. I handled it well and explained my position on the need for a BART pass to be provided to me. She said I could call her Friday anyway to see if anyone was hired yet. How unprofessional? I think I was overqualified for the position, and I'm discovering what a good paying job is. The AAM one was not so great. Obviously, I did not call her back. I did, however, learn that the SF Museum of Modern Art is hiring in the development department full time and also is hiring an administrative assistant for the Architecture and Design department. Both pay over $20 an hour and have benefits. Both jobs would be perfect for me, but I have to admit, the admin job seems exciting since my focus in school was architectural history. You all need to wish me luck!

And to end this post, I need to start making some money so I can start going to the gym. Although I have been able to easily start my way to a more organic diet, I have been eating a lot of delicious home cooking, and dining out.

-j

(UPDATE)
We all decided to be creepy last night and google Karolina after she told us what work she's done (and of course she left already). Karolina Wydra was on the cover of Elle magazine, did that Dockers commercial on the cable car chasing the guy thing, target commercials, a part in Be Kind Rewind (2008), Dooney and Bourke ads, and more. She's really beautiful.