Job foiled

I got a call around 9:30am that I didn’t get the job for the first interview. I’m a little bummed about that, because the school had what I wanted and was at a reasonable distance to my home.

Now I’ve set up my computer to send faxes to all the schools with any Kindergarten, Grade 1 or 2 or any combination of those out. It’s been a long time since I heard the modem go off, but glad I have one, because faxing over the internet costs money. Faxing is very slow, but at least its automated after I punch in the phone numbers.

Here’s hoping something else (better) comes out of this horrid job search experience. The fax machines are probably dying now, from the thousands of faxes its receiving from all the graduates from the faculties of education on this last day of school before the summer holiday.

Employment Opportunities

At around 11pm on Tuesday evening, I was doing my usual check of the TDSB hiring page, to see if there are any new updates. In fact, I check everyday, even though they suggest that the list for available schools won’t be out until the end of June. This time I was in luck. The page had changed finally, with a notice that the list will be up at 9am the next morning.

Of course my alarm was set to be up 10 minutes before 9, and even stopped all outgoing downloads to ensure I have the sufficient bandwidth to get the full speed of broadband internet available. I checked every 20 seconds from 8:55am until the page was finally changed. Only one list was posted, as the webmaster made changes with each refresh. The list I needed was up. I quickly opened the document and printed it off. With my highlighters and district wide school map on my closet door, I began my work.

I highlighted all the positions I was interested in, and all of them except for a few were full positions. Apparently, few schools needed full time Kindergarten teachers from the pool of new teachers. I noticed my previous elementary school was hiring, so I made a quick call to the principal that I knew. The call turned into an interview for 12:05pm later that day.

The interview went well. I dressed in a purple polo shirt with khakis and black shoes and belt. I came prepared with my updating teaching reports (that were not online, nor were we told to update them!), my philosophy of education and several copies of my resume (unstapled. I heard they liked them better that way, so they can see everything side by side. Even though I would have prefer to double side to save paper). The panel of teachers and the principal questioned me for about 30 minutes during their lunch time, and I think I answered them clearly and professionally. One of the teachers suggested she was surprised of how young I looked even though I had such a thick resume. I hope that was a selling point for me.

I am getting anxious as I write this next part because it is still all pending.

The principal suggested that he would be hiring that very day. He will call the person who is hired that day, and will start the next day (the last day of school), for an orientation of sorts.

I was in fear to leave the house. Even though I had left both my house and cell numbers, I think the school calls the house number first. Checking to see if I had a message every few minutes, just in case I had missed the call by accident. By 11pm, I began to think, perhaps they weren’t calling the unsuccessful candidates. I went to bed nervous and anxious for morning to arrive.

I called the school again this morning at 8:15am. The principal told me that he had sent the candidates name to be hired with the school board, but hasn’t heard back for approval just yet. He will call all candidates to let them know either way.

SIGH of relief! So now I will sit and wait…ALL DAY, until that fateful phone call. I will however, make other calls to schools, in case it does fall through. I hope it doesn’t though.

Hugs and kisses

How does one decide who gets a hug only, and who gets a hug and a kiss with a greeting or departure formalities?

I have notice a discrepancy among my friends who initiate a hug only or a hug and kiss either on the cheeks or mouth. There doesn't seem to be a rule that I could figure out from the kisses I get and the kisses I see other people get from the same people.

Call me jealous, but I’d like equal treatment!!!

I'm not one to usually request for a kiss, it’s usually initiated by someone else. My ex, John, usually gets a kiss from me on the lips upon a departure.

What is the rule? Is there a hierarchy or kisses and hugs? Somebody fill me in.

House party

After work on Sunday, I went to a house party and had a great time with PM's friends. The host was extremely nice and let me use his shower. Conversation ranged from casual, serious, scientific to sexual. I was fabulous. We also sat outside the whole time, and really sparked a longing to have a nice outdoor space available in my condo to entertain outside on a nice summer night. Maybe it will have to wait for a house purchase for that to happen.

Pride 2005

This year has been something different in terms of pride festivities. I had spent the majority of the time serving beer at the 519. Having done the job last year before, as the tent supervisor, I got better at doing it this year. I think I had a better perspective of what needs to be done, how to make sure people know what they are doing, and giving mini training sessions that encompass everything the volunteers need before they start serving. It helped a lot that we had many that helped out both days for a few hours. By the end of the day, my voice was shot, my feet hurt and was damned tired. My pouring skills are still up to snuff as well, especially the double handed pour! PM has been mocking me the whole time since I don’t like to promote alcoholism and binge drinking. It does seem like an oxymoron, but it's the biggest fundraiser for the community centre of the year. I had sent notice to many people to come visit me at work, and a few did. It was so nice to see people I knew in the sea of people that lined up for beer. I was a bit disappointed that certain people didn't make an appearance though.

I had decided to work both days of pride in hopes I’d see some hotties. The only hottie I wanted was the one behind the bar at 5ive. None really caught my attention while I was serving beer though. I did get lots of thanks for not pouring too much head.

I could still use some more work on managing my volunteers. There was one that I had suspected of stealing tickets, but I wasn't sure until he just disappeared from his post. Friendly guy and kinda cute, so he was probably using it to his advantage. I also noticed a lot of the volunteers unhappy with the staff in charge because the volunteers felt the staff was pulling a power trip on them. At the same time, staff sees the bigger picture of what needs to be done. Very interesting observations.

Postal carriers a la car

On my way home today, I saw a postal carrier parked at the side of the street in his personal car. Sitting in the driver’s seat, getting his mail sorted. It was the first time I had even seen that happening. I’ve seen them in trucks, going to pick up mail from the service boxes, then walking to the required destinations. Never had I seen one actually drive to where they need to go. Unusual sight for sure.

Elevated elevator security

It seems that in the age of raised security, elevators now restrict the movements of its passengers. I was at a condo building in the Harbourfront the other day and the elevator required a RF key to get to the desired floor. In fact, residents can only access the floor they live on. Guests must be buzzed in and the elevator will only take you to the floor that corresponded with the phone number of the resident. It’s a bit crazy, since you can't even visit friends from other floors. Mind you, one could easily walk down a flight of stairs too. A concierge down in the lobby doesn't seem like such a bad idea after all, when given the options.

Written on Palm Notes

Picky Tastes

After eating in some of the city's finest restaurants, i have become quite the food snob. After convocation, we went to the gallery grill - on U of T campus for lunch. The food was not bad, although my sea scallops weren't quite done right. Then for dinner, we went to the David Duncan house, a fine dining restaurant with a very very dim ambiance. The fillet mignon was nicely done and had a great soft texture. On the other hand, the asparagus with hollandaise was disgusting. The asparagus was over cooked and terribly limp. The hollandaise was a nasty concoction that looked like it had just been under the broiler but almost as if the sauce had broke. The carrots were also very soggy. Yucky veggies this place produced. The server brought us dessert menus and essentially flung it on the table and the menus actually slid across the table a bit. Very unprofessional. I told my parents I’m taking them to canoe to see how service is really done.

Written on Palm Notes

Beach Volleyball

I went to watch beach volleyball today with PM. The main objective was really to gawk at the hotties with no shirts on. A few were in the crowd to drool over. A few for me, a few for PM. We saw a few friends around, and even some of my high school friends. Paul and i sat on the bench after cruising for a bit and just talked. Conversation was our usual mish mash of topics from politics to digital cameras. It was definitely worth the trip, even without the hotties.

Written on Palm Notes

Three dolla! Only three dolla!

On the way to convocation, we drove to a parking lot to park the car in Scarborough and take transit down to convocation hall. Parking all day only costs $3!!! Imagine that! The cost of parking downtown would have been $10 at least. Suburb parking is amazing!

Written on Palm Notes

Jamie’s School Dinners – First Impressions

An interesting concept for a show… improve the quality of nutrition in school meals. A huge problem right off the bat was that the students were still very much attached to the junk food they had been offered in school before he arrived. He just started serving healthy food in the lunch room and to no ones surprise (but Jamie), only one student picked up his healthy food. Perhaps a bit of education for the students about healthy food would trigger more interest in the new healthy menu. Without the education piece, having healthy food is mostly a waste of money because children don’t like to try the unknown.