{ 31.5.01 }

The thing with "experience", as in, "work experience", is that you have to be employed or have had employment in order to have said "experience". So when a job ad in the newspaper for a waitress position says, "must be experienced", and you've been a waitress before, you should feel some level of comfort in the likelihood of getting that job. However, when weeks go by after your initial interview and the submission of your resume, and the ad resurfaces in the paper with the addition of "VERY" before "experienced", you have to wonder why they're making it harder than it ordinarily is to get the job. A person who is "VERY experienced" at being a waitress is, more than likely, ALREADY a waitress, working somewhere else, not willing to go from one waitress job to another just because she is already VERY experienced.

It's very frustrating. It makes me feel like a bit of a loser, to be honest. I've been out of work for a while now, after my last temp job finished up (and even then, it was only through my mother's weird connections that I was able to get that job. I'd tried with an actual temp agency and they told me that they couldn't put me into the position I was interested in - call centre work starting at 16! Dollars! An hour! - because the firm in question wanted their temps to go on to full time work with the company. My question to you is why would you solicit full-time workers through a TEMP agency? Temp! Temporary! Not full time, not forever! For! The! Love! Of! God! What must you do...?!), and at the moment my only source of income is a twice-weekly (if that) "paper round" distributing pamphlets and other tree-demeaning matter in a neighbourhood I have to drive to. Augh.

VERY experienced! Arrrrghhh...!

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{ 30.5.01 }

Somewhat Pointless TV Talk: Angel, Buffy, Big Brother, and VIP

I'm watching "Angel" right now. Angel and some guy from Wolfram and Hart are taking an elevator ride to Hell. And there's muzak playing in said elevator.

That's just so fitting.

Dear Joss Whedon,

I don't know if it was your idea directly, but killing the Slayer's mommy? Bad move, buddy. I'm all sad now.

love,
sammy

Tonight on Big Brother: two interlopers were introduced into the house..! How could they? It'll ruin the house dynamic! Although it is kind of interesting, so I won't, you know, abandon the show entirely. I love watching Christina and Peter, because I'm a cuddle voyeur.

The introduction of Anita and Rachel was good for at least one moment: Ben and Blair sharing a cute and dorky moment upon discovering two new hot girls: "Johnnie's gay, and Pete's taken. Yes..!!" - cue dweeby yet adorable high-five here. Oh, my sides. If they repeat that clip over and over again in show promos I will be insanely happy.

As for VIP, well, it's on tonight. It's tacky. It's trashy. It's Pamela Anderson Lee in various hot-shades of PVC and pleather, where mini-skirts can double as boob tubes and vice versa. It's a world of glorious cheese. Don't spoil my fun.

Next time on Somewhat Pointless TV Talk: Home and Away (why can't they just come right out and say what happened to Dani, or is it too taboo to mention that date rape actually happens?) and week-afternoon reruns of The Brady Bunch: oh, Jan, your low self-esteem is my low self-esteem. I have found a TV soul sister!

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{ 28.5.01 }

It's all very grey around here. Not the good kind of grey. The good kind of grey is storm clouds piling upon each other in the sky, like stacks of soft yarn waiting to be knitted into a comforting cardigan. The bad kind of grey is the fog that envelops the mind, creeping into cracks and small spaces and bringing with it the dull pain of things uncertain.

Everything is uncertain. Nothing is staid, nothing is sacred.

I feel like I'm six years old again, hiding from the screaming and yelling of parental fights, knowing somewhere deep inside that it's all my fault.

It's so grey in here.

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{ 26.5.01 }

Run #2 of the split pea soup was quite successful. Every time I stirred it (approximately every five to ten minutes) and scraped off what was sticking to the bottom of the pot, I added an extra cup of water... about three or four altogether, I didn't want it to be too watery. I also only let it cook until the vegetables were just tender; the carrots retained their colour and the chunks of potato didn't disintegrate. The result was - at least to me - perfect, and every leftover bowl since has been just lovely!

I also made a pot of Sicilian chickpea soup this week - very yummy and addictive, but it takes a lot of time to prepare. I don't have the recipe on hand right at this moment, but I'll post it a bit later.

Another "recipe" off the top of my head: cut a large pita bread into pieces of various shape and size, place on a baking tray, spray lightly with olive oil spray (my mother just puts olive oil into a mist-er bottle - she got one for about $20 from Target, I'm definitely going to have to get one myself soon), sprinkle with spices (I really like cajun spice, but pizza herbs or anything else works as well) and bake in a hot oven for about five minutes or until brown and crispy. Just like chips but at a fraction of the fat. You might want to make a lot - you can't stop at just the one bowl!

Just watched: Final Destination on video... I loved it when I saw it last year in the cinema, but it scared the crap out of me this time around. I'm not comfortable with horror movies at the moment - why am I becoming so easily spooked by these things? I used to love them. Now even the fictional representation of death is frightening me. I'm just very scared and timid these days.

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{ 21.5.01 }

I could only give about one third of my regular plasma donation tonight - apparently the apherisis machine found fault with my vein and even after the nurse slid the needle further into my arm, it was just never going to happen. Oh well, I still managed to give some.

I also noticed that each apherisis machine has a label on it, featuring a name, probably for easy identification purposes (so they don't have to recall where "Machine 3954001" went) - the three I noticed were "Angel", "Willow" and "Buffy". One of the nurses giggled when I made my realisation and exclaimed, "Oh, cool...!!"

On the way home from the blood bank, I found an AM station playing "Chattanooga Choo Choo". The drivers surrounding me must have thought my little seated dance quite odd.

New journal entry up.

There could be a new recipe here soon - I was futtering around with tomatoes, onions, garlic, generic brand mixed frozen vegetables and fettucine tonight. I just have to play with spices and seasonings more - I think it needed some curry.

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{ 20.5.01 }

Post-dinner note: If, in the process of making that split pea soup yourself, you become impatient waiting for the vegetables to become tender, don't - for the love of god, don't - up the heat in order to get them to cook quickly. Just keep the heat low and increase the cooking time, and that way you won't have a burnt mess to contend with. <grumble>

Other than that, the non-burnt parts of the soup tasted alright - yummy and filling. I have a feeling this recipe will become a firm winter favourite for me. It has all the makings of comfort food, and is also low fat and cheap to make.

In other news, there's a new journal entry up.

+ + +

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More recipe madness: this one isn't mine, nor is it from a miscellaneous-will-never-track-down source, but I have to recommend this Vegetarian Split Pea Soup. As we speak, the pot is bubbling away on the stove in the soup's last hour of cooking (it takes three hours of cooking time - but you don't have to do a lot and since it's mostly just quiet simmering, you can relax and catch up with a good book and be sure the soup won't burn or overcook), and the bread machine has put forth a lovely fresh loaf of white crusty bread - can't wait for dinner time...

(As a bonus, we even had everything the recipe requires right in the kitchen. How perfect is that?)

It's kind of pathetic to reveal how I came about making this soup... I was watching the Saturday episode of Big Brother this morning on tape, and Peter was making dinner to celebrate the success of finishing the 40 hour famine, which reminded me of an episode in the past fortnight where Ben made lentil soup... which prompted me to find a lentil soup recipe at souprecipe.com... which turned into me making this fantastic pot of soup this afternoon.

That was pathetic, right? Sigh.

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{ 18.5.01 }

Recipe Corner: Oatie Macaroons

I found this yummy cookie recipe taped to the side of the sultana jar in the kitchen - not sure where it came from, but it's really easy and quick to make.

Ingredients:
2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar (or sugar substitute, e.g., Splenda)
1 cup quick cooking oats
2 teaspoons cornflour (cornstarch for you Americans...)

Method:
Whisk eggwhites until frothy. Add sugar gradually, fold in oats and cornflour. Place teaspoons of mixture on a greased tray. (Allow room for biscuits to flatten out during cooking.) Yields about 12 moderately sized cookies or 16 small.
Bake in centre of moderately slow oven (175 C; about 340 F) for approximately 20 minutes.

You might want to add raisins, sultanas or chopped mixed dried fruit. I haven't tried that yet but will soon - the batch I made last night has almost disappeared!

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{ 15.5.01 }

The candle burns, the wick grows weak
in its humble glow, I seek
the comforts past and yet to be
my world unfurled in front of me.

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{ 13.5.01 }

"I'm sorry, I can't come to the site right now, I'm quite involved with Big Brother. I'll be back in about 65 days. Please leave a message at the tone. Beeeeeeeeeep!!"

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