Hey blog, I got a job! So I guess this is goodbye... Just kidding. But I do have considerably less free time now, which is a completely excellent thing. When you're working and you're bored or frustrated sometimes you fantasize about what it would be like to not have a job and do whatever you want all day long. But unfortunately it's not as fun as it seems, mostly because you can't enjoy doing anything without having a nagging worry about spending money and spiraling into debt and ending up on the street.
So yes, job is good. I'm a receptionist for a construction firm and they pay me well so all in all it's very nice and the job is easy. I mostly answer phones and transfer the caller to the correct extension. And the callers don't yell at me, so that's good. Once someone called and was kind of grumbling at me about a superintendent on a job site and was like "HE GOT THE WRONG TIME ZONE!" and I was just like "oh sorry about that, I'll let him know" and then he hung up. One of my jobs the other day was sorting through resumes, categorizing and filing them. This involved me reading the resumes and I realized I don't know if I could be in HR or any capacity where it was my job to hire someone. It wasn't that the resumes were tedious or annoying, although some of them desperately needed reformatting, but you could see the desperation written all over the page. Everyone was unemployed, most everyone had been laid off, and most everyone was willing to do absolutely anything as long as it was a job. So yeah, I count myself lucky.
Besides that my life is still pretty dull. I went to the theatre and saw Bridesmaids last weekend and while it was funny and sweet and endearing, I still can't believe it has been heralded as the movie to set the "path" for truly funny women. While it was "raunchy" it still had tameness about it. It was advertised as the anti "rom com," but it was still so formulaic! All in all I was a little disappointed. I was entertained and I laughed and I loved Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph but it seemed reined in somehow. Also I felt like Melissa McCarthy's character was trying way WAAAAAYYY too hard.
Well that's it for now. I'm doing some thrift store shopping today, still looking for wooden outdoor chairs that I can refinish. Also getting a sandwich at the best damn sandwich place in the world. I kind of wish this wasn't a three day weekend and I could just go to work tomorrow. That's how pathetic I am.
With summer fast approaching it's really, truly beginning. I mentioned this earlier. THE SUN. It thirsts for your blood. I saw this video recently and by the end of it I was crying:
Besides the obvious, I'm not sure why it upset me so much. And I don't mean to diminish the cause by joking about it, because I fear skin cancer and believe in preventing it. I was the one in college tsk-tsking my friends trips to the tanning beds, bringing extra sun screen and reciting cancer statistics. Of course they ignored me. But I haven't always been so conscientious, unfortunately. As a child I resisted the sunscreen, and although my mother did her damndest to hold me down and slather me up I've had a few bad burns in my lifetime. Back then (ohhh sooo many years ago. Not.) sunscreen wasn't as convenient as it is now, and was usually gloppy and white and cold, and your skin never absorbed it very well so you were sure to be streaked in white even 30 minutes after applying it. Now a days there are gels, sprays, SPF in moisturizer and makeup, SPF even in sunless tanner.
I guess my concern and fear comes from the fact that I feel no matter what I do I'll still get sick. I'm fair skinned with blonde hair and blue eyes, up there on the chart of most likely to get skin cancer. And despite all my knowledge about protecting my skin, there were times in my life where I just didn't care, as a child hating the process, and as a teenager just wanting to fit in and enjoy the sun like everyone else. All I can do now is just hope for the best and keep an eye out for weird moles.
Wellll that was depressing. So protect your skin! Watch the video! Wear a hat and sunscreen but still go outside and enjoy yourself. Doooo it. In conclusion, enjoy this article about chihuahua derby racing.
Sometimes (alright let's be real... ALL THE TIME) I get online and either I stumble or find a link that's so delightful and wonderful and I laugh and think about how lucky I am. Whether it be a website selling the world's biggest gummi bear or this video about the human slinky:
And then, inevitably, I will come across something immensely upsetting. LIKE THIS ARTICLE ABOUT "NEW" SUN SAFETY RULES! NOOOOO!! Sunblock no longer good enough. Now you have to wear an "antioxidant enriched moisturizer"! WHAT IS THAT. Or how about this:
"Old rule: A little sun is healthy—20 minutes three times a week allows your body to produce vitamin D. New rule: It’s not smart to go out-of-doors unprotected."
Kids- the sun is your enemy. It does want to kill you. Do not leave your home without slathering up. At the very least you will get ugly looking from wrinkles and at the very worst you will DIE.
And I knowww that it's most likely bullshit, that you can go outdoors to get the mail without sunscreen and you'll live to tell the tale. My logical brain knows this. My grandfather is approaching 95 years old and lived and worked on a farm when sunscreen wasn't even a thought. But also my grandfather lived in Minnesota and didn't spend the summer laying outside in a bikini. In Florida.
And while I know this is likely advertising execs trying to manipulate me and I know I should resist... I can't. I pass the sunscreen aisle and my neurotic, anxiety prone, slightly hypochondriac self can't pass it up. Bought the sunscreen. Will wear it. And of course at the end of the summer, I will find a mole that has most likely always been there and then convince myself I have cancer. Then half an hour later I will convince myself I am dying of cancer.
