Gettin' Outta Dodge

What does a funemployed person do to pass the time?
1. Job Search
2. Read books
3. Watch TV
4. Take a trip to Israel and Turkey

I've had my fill of the first three, so I've opted now for #4.

In just about 22 hours I will be boarding a plane in San Francisco headed for New York.
Once in New York, I will be meeting up with my trip guides from Israel Outdoors at JFK's Terminal 4.
Then, at 11:50pm tomorrow, I will be boarding an El Al flight for Tel Aviv.

Holy crap.

I'll do my best to continue blogging from my trip.

It's about to be a very different kind of month.

Good News/Bad News

I'm a little ill, which sucks.

But I'm funemployed, so splitting my precious daytime hours between my bed, the couch, and the big comfy chair in my living room is not, as it has been so many times in the past, accompanied by constant contact with the office.

No email, no texts, no phone calls. No ridiculous guilt for being legitimately sick.

Just swollen glands, headaches and severe lethargy. What a relief!

Hey You! Yeah, You With The Job!

I understand it's a bank holiday today.
I get that many many people have the day off.

However.

Even if you have to work today, I really REALLY don't really want to hear about it.

Enjoy the paycheck and quit the Facebook Status bitching.

Thank you.

Google Rules My Shit

Seriously, Google. Just take it over. Grab the reigns and take off running.

I've done as much as I can up until this point and now I'm good to go.

Google is clearly more capable of running my life than I am and I'm okay with that.

Between Google, Apple and Starbucks, I'm pretty much set. And here's why.

Ways Google Rules My Shit:

• My roommates and I have a Google Doc where we input all household expenses for the month (bills, toilet paper purchases, etc.) and my one genius roommate has created equations in the doc so it all tells us how much we owe in rent for that month.
• It looks pretty.
  
• Conversations. 'Nuff said.
  

Ways Apple Rules My Shit:

• My iPhone talks to my Gmail, my Address Book, my iCal, iPhoto, iTunes, etc. to create this lovely, seemless experience from laptop to phone to internet.
• Apple thinks like I do.
• Apple products are sexy.
  

Ways Starbucks Rules My Shit:

• After having worked at Starbucks for 3 1/2 years, I can say, without hesitation, they treat their employees, on EVERY level of the ladder, very very well. Between full health benefits for 20 hr/week employees, a rigorous management training program and totally dedicated management, it's a great place to work.
• The delish breakfast sandwiches.
• The free wifi.
• Howard Schultz is a golden god.

And then, this afternoon, the experience came full circle.
I was sitting at Starbucks, on my MacBook, checking my GMail, syncing my iPhone and searching for the new Lost! Remix that Coldplay did with Jay-Z on iTunes while plugged into my Apple ear buds, when I see this:

(Because the image is so unbelievably small: iTunes is telling me what song is currently playing at the Starbucks I'm sitting at.)

I'm checking out of my life now.

Just take me in your gentle, pillow-like hands, sync me up, design me to look like a sexy white plastic mobile device with a logo that looks something like this, only emblazoned on paper coffee cup, and call me iAlexis.

My Third San Franciscoversary

I have now officially been in San Francisco for three years.

That's three years of the N Judah, with a job downtown, and therefore, three years of monthly Muni FastPasses.

Since my relocation three years ago...

• My address has stayed the same, but am currently living with flatmates #4, #6 and #7 (and our #2 Couch Surfer).
• I have worked at two ninetofives, my first as a tour guide second as a marketing and events manager for a swanky architecture/design magazine.
• I have had my life irrevocably changed and my sense of existence keenly sharpened by a loss in my family.
• I have lived in two of the 4 bedrooms.
• My toilet has been set aflame*, and I've co-hosted three pretty kick ass parties.
  

But I have to say, the next 12 months promise to be the most interesting.

*Although photograph does provide an idea of my former toilet's fate, it is, in fact, not my toilet.

BIG Break in the Job Search

I am a HUGE fan of Dog the Bounty Hunter.
So if you know me, or have read a certain recent post of mine, you know that this:


Gets me very VERY excited.

Funemployed Chatting

I recently had a iChat conversation with my good friend over at DEPLORABLE/BEAUTIFUL that turned, as our conversations often do, to funemployment (he's a card carrying member, too).
This particular time, however, the conversation was sprinkled with a good dose of perspective and wry humor.

Please, to enjoy...
Instant Messages of the Unemployed: A Shot of Perspective
by Kevin Dick

Funemployment Goldmine: Farmers Market!

On a nice day, head out to your local farmers market, take in the smells and sights, and dig in!


Waiting for an ex coworker last week in front of the Ferry Building, I had time to take advantage of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. I was greeted with free kettle corn, pomegranate, several kinds of citrus, humus AND almond and chocolate brittle. All this before lunch!

Seriously, it's a frikkin' goldmine. I highly recommend this activity as a totally socially acceptable way to get a free snack, or, dare I say, a free lunch.

Economic Breakup

A friend recently lent me some words of encouragement with the following in an email.
At least you're one of a gazillion people getting laid off, so when the economy says "it's not you, it's me," you know it actually means it.

Newly Funemployed!
Robin got her walking papers just this past week!
Robin, it's not you, it's them... and now, you're one of us. Congrats!