Why I like Nor Cal, & how to get there....
Why
Nor Cal is right for me
I hate people. Not all people, and not even all the people I typically hate.
I got caught in traffic yesterday on my flight – I mean drive – home. It could be confused with a flight, because I was flying. See what I was going for there? Anyways. So I make Oakland in record time, getting great gas mileage, and I’m thinking that perhaps I can make it beyond Oakland on to the I-5 (from the I-580) before 2:30pm. Finally, 3:45 rolls around, and I’m just getting to the I-5.
Gotta love traffic. Or in my particular case, hate it with a passion that might just someday cause one to “go postal.” What the frick? I mean, it’s not a holiday weekend, it’s not rush hour, and it certainly is NOT Los Angeles (I know because I was following the signs to there, and the signs told me it was still more than, like, 300 miles away). Well, three accidents later, and we still aren’t clear of the gridlock. An additional 30 minutes of driving, and still not passed the gridlock. So when do we finally get passed the gridlock? Oh, just whenever, no real reason behind it.
Because. It. Mysteriously. Just. Vanishes. Much like any chance of this being an interesting tale, my friends. There was no lane that merged, there was no other freeway that we met up with, there was just… nothing. And then, free & clear all the way home.
So why is it then, that we are all just pack ourselves in like sardines? Just to annoy ourselves? Really, overpopulation has to be a factor.
You damn people better not come anywhere near my beautiful Lost Coast locale, lest ye be sentenced to death for trespassing by I, the judge, jury, and executioner.
At least call ahead first, OK?
No Pictures! Except maybe this one!
I didn’t take many pictures during my trek up there or back. Not that there was nothing worth photographing – oh no – but rather, because I saw that I could get really carried away with it, and still not really get people to understand the inherent beauty of the area. Which of course is probably why that place has remained the way it is; no one ever goes there, and pictures from heaven only make sense to those already there. A forest through the trees sort of thing, if you will.
But obviously I took a few. For comparison’s sake. We’ve been there before during the summer, and I wanted to show The Girl the difference in certain places from summer to winter/spring. For instance, we had come across this cemetery and noticed how brown it was. The grass was dead, the people were dead, it was just really dead all around. Fast forward to last week, and now, only the people are dead! Lush green grass, thanks in large part to water.
It’s this magical stuff that falls out of the sky around there, rather regularly, and keeps things living all year ‘round! Like giant Coastal Redwood trees! And grass and pines and cows and horses and, by extension, people!
Yep, pictures could never do it justice. Except maybe for that one at the top. It’s kind of pretty.
Prospects
So about that job hunt. Didn’t find much that was screaming for me. Like I said before, the job market up there is tight, and it’s really hard to break in to. Plus I’m an “outsider,” and I knew that I was at some point going to have to go up and meet people, let them experience me, and make them aware I’m not just some fly-by-night guy, some So Cal Hottie, but I’m also a Northern Californian trapped – Trapped! I say! – in a southern Californian’s body.
So I beat the streets, and found myself interviewing at Target (who had been a prospect all along), and Walgreens. They both went rather well, and both hinted that they’d like to continue the interview process. But both also said that their hiring process can be lengthy for management opportunities, and that they don’t currently have positions sitting around open.
Walgreens, however, is planning on two more stores in the area. Target has an ETL that’s attempting to transfer to another store, and a Team Leader (a position a little lower than I should be hired into) that’s graduating from HSU and leaving. So there are possibilities. Which is good. Because before the interviews Thursday, I was beginning to wonder.
Nice to shake people’s hands and smile pretty, though. Nice to be taken seriously instead of handed a # through a computer monitor and told that you’ll be contacted. Right… Got the schmooze going, so hopefully things work out OK.
Because like I said, no one wants me staying here. If I stal I’m still going somewhere, even if it’s only Postal.
Peace.