The Silver Screen Oasis

Alison, what a lovely holiday for Hedvig and for you. You might have another career as a guide. If ever the money gods smile down on me, I would like to book a tour!!!! Thanks for sharing, if you have pictures, please post them, too!

Nancy

Of course you could have tour. I'll post some pics soon

Is it okay if I post a couple of images of the nature first? I'm so grateful to you for taking me there Alison. It was a great vacation for me. Your family was also very nice and welcoming!

Beautiful landscapes Hedvig. Truly gorgeous.

Hedvig, they are lovely, they showcase the Lakes so well. We had nice weather too, something not always guaranteed. We loved having you here

Hedwig, the images are beautiful!

Allison, so glad you and your family got to enjoy Spain. Lovely photos!

Thanks

I've had the most lovely day today. I'd arranged to meet Silentscreen/Brenda at Chatsworth. She's over in the UK to visit her brother who she found 18 months ago. Brenda is the most lovely lady, very warm and easy to talk to, looks younger than her years, I've known her for three years having met her through a love of classic film. She has a lovely brother and sister in law, I felt honoured to be able to share some of their family time, the day went very quickly. Her brother lives in Suffolk which is the other end of the country from me, so graciously he brought Brenda to Chatsworth, a place she'd wanted to visit for a long time and only two hours from my home. Brenda's brother took lots of pictures of us, I'm sure when Brenda gets home she'll put a couple on our thread.

I've felt very privileged this year to meet 2 of my pals.

Alison,

Very honored to meet you as well! You're just like your photos, but look ten years younger. Bruce liked you very much. He says Northerners are the most friendly and warm hearted sort. He liked you from the moment he first spoke with you on the phone, but what's not to love?

Just got in last night- shattered at the moment, but I'm putting photos up on FB. I'll try to get some here as well.

Brenda

Brenda,

I'm glad your brother liked me, I found him very easy to talk to and made me feel very welcome. Northerners do have a reputation of being warm and friendly. My head will swell with the compliment of looking 10 years younger than my actual age. I told Chris but he can't see it, but then he's used to looking at me everyday.

I'm glad you got to see Chatsworth, it's so grand and beautiful.

You need to take it easy for a few days, you've had a busy two weeks.

Alison

Hey, want to hear something amusing? Well, I found it amusing.

Last Sunday I was at Yankee Stadium to see the Yanks play Kansas City. Before the game, the Yanks were on the field warming up, running, tossing the ball, stretching, schmoozing, etc.

I had good seats (read: expensive) in the second section up from field level. There was a woman behind me shouting and screaming at Robinson Canoe. "Rob-BEE!!! Rob-BEE!! she shrieked. Not getting any response, she came down to the rail of the section, which was right in front of me.

She was quite a little hoochie momma, of middle age, wearing short shorts, and a very clingy tanktop, which had rolls of her flesh hanging over the seams. She also had a very, very bad peroxide blonde thing going. When I saw her, that she was hardly a kid and was so rabid about getting Cano's attention I said "Good grief, who's that -- his mother?"

She kept shouting "Rob-BEE!! Rob-BEE!!" until finally Jeter, who was at second base talking to Cano, poked him and called the woman to his attention. Cano waved to her, and she shouted something in Spanish to him, which I didn't catch because she had her back to me. Cano mimed that he would telephone her.

Then she turned around and started walking back up to her seat, saying with great satisfaction to no one in particular "THAT'S my son!!!"

jdb1 wrote:Last Sunday I was at Yankee Stadium to see the Yanks play Kansas City.

That was a loooooong game. Too bad A-Rod didn't hit his 600th!

(By the way, I think tonight's my turn to pitch a no-hitter.)

On the off chance some of you may be curious as to what's happened to me over the past few months...

A few months ago, I'd pretty much had enough of applying and waiting around for interviews, so I decided to make the rest of the year a quest for self-improvement in a number of ways. I decided to try to become as social as I could, so I joined several networking websites and also decided to join the local Toastmasters club. I'm an official member now, and I've already given my "icebreaker" speech, in which I tell the group about my background. I've also been working through a number of books on various types of software such as PowerPoint, the Adobe Creative Suite, web design, etc. in order to gain some knowledge and experience, and I'm hoping to be able to get through those before school starts in late August and keep building on what I've learned while in school.

I met a lady at Toastmasters who works for the Red Cross, and I've been volunteering there for the past month doing some human resources-type tasks (which is what my schooling will be for, in case I didn't mention that yet) and gaining a bit of experience. I'm eligible for a volunteer position that will be opening in Sept. - it's technically a job (there's a living stipend and it is 40 hours a week), but we're still referred to as volunteers. It's for a VISTA, and the experience would be worth 10 times the pay. It's not for sure yet, but I'm hopeful. I'll be writing articles and proposals, communicating with our Americorps volunteers, attending trainings and eventually doing some of my own, and a host of other tasks as well.

I'm also going to be volunteering in the offices of a hospice facility. If I do well enough I may consider helping some of the hospice one-on-one volunteers, but we'll see.

Meanwhile, I've still got the resumes out there. Nothing yet, but I just keep hoping. In the meantime, if you know of anything available in North or South Carolina for an out of work English grad hoping to eventually break into HR management/development, I'd be grateful for a heads-up.

I'm unlikely to hear of any HR jobs coming up where you are but good luck anyway.

It sounds like you are doing everything you can to make yourself stand out in the field of candidates, very often it's a case of getting to know people first and they think of the really keen guy who's improving himself and volunteering. I'm glad things are on the up for you, your post feels very different to some of your previous posts, I can tell that you have turned a corner. My fingers are crossed for everything to come right for you.

My niece is studying marketing in college and is doing an internship with the Red Cross. It might lead to a job as she is coordinating for fundraisers and such. She is enjoying herself.

Good for you for working so hard at getting things going. My family knows people in NC but not so much in your field but will try to keep an ear out for you.