Friday, March 6, 2009

unemployed, snow, pam ~

Yesterday I had a scheduled orientation with WorkSource in downtown Bellingham. Yep, that's right, I'm unemployed . I dreaded the orientation because it was going to last three hours and parking is painful downtown.

I pretty much had myself overly organized in the morning. I've created my very special orange notebook. I've systematically punched holes in each document and job application I've completed and placed them in the notebook with great care. I've developed a filing system to make sure I'm on track of everything which literally means absolutely nothing but gives me a worthless sense of satisfaction.

After getting my orange notebook all ready to go, I pulled out a knitting project to have handy during any time I might just be sitting around. I packed a little snack in case my blood sugar went haywire and planned my attack to find a place to park.

With ample time to get into town, I pulled myself together. At some point I realized I was hearing strange sounds on the skylight in my bathroom. Not wearing my glasses, I peered out the window and thought, "Oh, crap! Is that snow?" After grabbing my glasses I could more clearly see that the grass was getting white. Great! Now I'll have to drive to town and walk to the meeting location in the snow.

Knowing that there is usually a world of difference in what's happening in Bellingham weather wise, I planned for such and put on some layers. While driving into town, it snowed, it hailed, it rained and then it snow pelletted (don't know the technical term for it). By the time I was in downtown Bellingham things had calmed down some. I found my planned parking location and saw what I thought was a friend's car.

I did a little push and pull dance ~ wanting to go into her studio to say hi and knowing that if I didn't start walking I'd be late for the orientation. I resisted....I hit the pavement and started walking.


Once in the building, I was pleasantly surprised. Things seemed much calmer and more organized than when I had been in there many years back. I found out where the orientation was to be located and headed down the hall to the meeting room. Once I popped in the door, I realized people were standing without a place to sit. Yikes! What the heck is going on...I quickly sized up the room and saw that there were a few empty spots tucked around here and there. So I marched up front and wedged myself down an aisle forcefully saying "excuse me, excuse me..." (It seems that people never want to make way for what is obvious... The obvious situation was that there were at least 3 people at the door waiting and 3 open seats that were buried in the crowd. People also don't want to interact and offer the open seat or ask the room if there is an open seat. Not me.....I'm an organizer and quickly moved in for the kill [aka finding myself a seat].)

The orientation was to begin at 1:15p, I looked up at the clock and it was now 1:10p. Yeah! I'm in the door and in a seat with time to spare ~ time to get out the knitting. Before I was completely settled into a knitting routine, a guy came in and turned on a PowerPoint presentation. People around me were busy completing their employment questionnaires ~ yes, that's right ~ I had already completed mine and it was in my orange notebook.

It was still before the actually starting time and people weren't all in the room ~ people were rustling around and it was apparent things weren't organized. Then finally a woman came in the door and took control. Whew! I hate disorganized meetings, so I was glad to have someone standing in the front of the room.

It was Pam, our orientation leader. Pam was spunky and I could tell right away she knew her stuff. She quickly told us that they were having an overflow today and that she was called in at the last minute to do the presentation. The other half of the attendees were in another room with another group leader. Pam also told us we were LUCKY! "Lucky? We're unemployed, is that lucky?" I thought. She continued to tell us that we were lucky because even though the program is scheduled for 3 hours, she usually gets everyone out the door early!!! Whoo hoo!

Okay, so Pam got going giving us the required information. She answered everyone's questions, and offered additional help to folks after the session. She was a dynamo! Pam deserves an award for her communication style and ability to present boring but very important information effectively.

By 3pm, Pam was done. I couldn't control myself and babbled something to her about being great! I asked if I could take her picture for my blog since I wanted to post something about her wonderful presentation. She graciously agreed, so here's Pam ~

When I headed back outside, there wasn't any precipitation! The snow pellets had ceased. Now walking back to the car in a relaxed state, I clicked a few shots and thought about poor Eartha Kitty.

Eartha was long gone, but her portrait is still above the junk store she use to govern. Eartha Kitty's had been around a very long time ~ probably since my high school days. One of the other junk stores, "Funky Junk", use to be next door back then ~ that was before the days of the Pink Flamingo. All these places are vacant now waiting to be revitalized...in this economy? It may be a while.

So almost back to my car, I see the car I thought belonged to a friend was still there.




I shuffled on down to the Waterfront Artist Studio Collective to see if anyone was home. In the door, there is a second "security" level to pass.....

Following the directions before me, I rang the bell.



and waited.....


and waited.....

Nobody was home. From my vantage point at the bottom the stairs and behind the locked doors, I could see the black hole. The back hole of a hallway which leads to Linda Sue's magical studio filled with purple starfish...but, there was nothing down there but blackness.

Linda Sue, where were you!

So here I am, another unemployed Friday. Yes, it is a bit of black hole like Linda Sue's hallway to nothingness. But, thankfully, Pam at WorkSource was a pleasing experience this week. Pam was right, we were lucky. Not that she was going to get us out the door in under 3 hours, but because she led our orientation.

I'm ready to be employed! Come and get me, dream job!










1 comment:

  1. Sorry to have missed you because I was not there. Dang! who is driving my car around town?

    ReplyDelete