want a home...

7/1/09 7:10 PM

No post yesterday, sorry about that. I’ve been attempting to get a job. Still no success, but I do have an appointment with an employment agency tomorrow. I’m at Mother Ann’s Salisbury home, 55 The Close, while Mother Ann is out at dinner with her friends (Dory, Margaret, and Moraid). Jamie and Joshua are curled up here with me, and I’m watching “Most Annoying People 2008.” Dory and I went to Evensong at the Cathedral tonight, and it was quite lovely, even though it was just said, not sung. I met Father Ed, who works at the Cathedral. I’ve seen him before, all the other times I’ve visited, but now I actually know his name.

Heh… Sarah Palin is number 54 on the list.

Today, I went to one employment agency to be told that they had absolutely nothing for me. They recommended several bigger agencies and said they were in the market square, but… I couldn’t find them. I DID find a place called “Personnel Placements,” and they were so sweet and helpful, and I now have an appointment at 11 tomorrow. I also met with Linda Cooper and her friend Sally Smythe. Sally has a place for me to stay, for £15/day, and she has a cat! Gizmo is her tabby, and she’s a tiny little thing with a HUGE body. She has a very small frame, very large belly, chest, and upper legs. I went to see Sally house today, and I’d get my own room, practically my own bathroom, washing, internet… well, maybe the internet. Sally has broadband connected to her computer, but it looks like the same thing Mother Ann has, and hers doesn’t work with my computer at all (it doesn’t even recognize things when I have it plugged in). I can give it a try, but it might not work.

That’s been irritating—I always feel bad using someone else’s computer. It’s just not the same as having my own programs, own saved files, own games to play while waiting for a friend to reply over IM, my own keyboard/mouse that I feel comfortable with, webcam… I just hope the internet works for my computer at Sally’s.

I CAN connect through the McDonald’s wireless, but McDonald’s keeps that regulated by not providing places to plug your laptop into, and really, it’s not fun to be racing to get everything done before your battery kicks out. My computer warns me to save everything about two seconds before it just shuts down.

I’m on my own laptop right now, but, of course, no internet. I’ll have to get on Mother Ann’s computer when we go back so I can put this up, and I need to email my CV to Personnel Placements. I’m just spoiled, I guess, and used to having my internet available whenever I wanted/needed it.

I’ve been putting a puzzle together (finished it last night) and reading Red Seas Under Red Skies while not submitting my CV online (oh, wait, that means I have to have an internet connection, right?) Red Seas really is amazing. I’m trying to read it slowly, to savor it.

Mom, Mary, and Seth: the third book in the Gentleman Bastards series by Scott Lynch is due out in February, so if you bring it to me when/if you come to visit, I will be absolutely thrilled. It’s called The Republic of Thieves.

In other news, the cathedral is absolutely gorgeous still. I love it, especially when it’s all dark outside and there’s only a handful of people inside. It was very quiet and serene.

I hope Personnel Placements can help me find SOMETHING. I want a job. I want to stop relying on other people, and I want to rely on myself. I want my own place to live, with my own internet and my own cat.

In the meantime, I’m just going to try to get some sleep.
7/1/09 10:25 PM

Sleep didn't work. I think what I want, more than anything, is my own FOOD. I want to be able to snack when I'm hungry, instead of wondering if it's okay to touch this or that. I want to know where I can find a glass to pour myself some water. I want breakfast food that I like to eat and want to be able to leave a half-eaten bar of chocolate on a table and come back to find the entire bar still there. I want to be able to go to the store and find things I like to eat and buy them, knowing that I'll have room to store them without feeling bad. I want my food, my space, and I want a cat to share my space with, not a dog. Cat. Feline. Not-needy creature.

It'll be a long time before I get what I want, though.

I watched Star Trek: Voyager while waiting for Ann to come back from dinner. I already saw the episode before, but there were less commercial interruptions. It's so odd, sometimes British shows get the whole half hour or hour in without being interrupted once. When are you supposed to take bathroom breaks!?

I also got to see Mother Ann's mostly-tame pheasant today. She feeds it, so it doesn't run off. He was a lovely bird, all shifting-colored feathers and green and red head.