i really wish i was there to see her again...

... or lack there of!

So I've really been trying to learn to cook lately, and I'd have to say, I'm really not that bad! I can follow directions on a box or whatever i find on line, pretty darn well, i might say!

However, this evening I made a bobo... I was steaming some yummy asparagus! and i even have that cute little steamer thing you get at the grocery store to prevent you from "boiling" rather than steaming... well anyways, so I know to always put water in before you put the pot on the stove, my old roommate once made that mistake and i learned from that one! However, tonight i learned the importance of putting "enough" water in the pot... I guess all the water i put in steamed out and then there was none left :( as a result, i now have a dead $5.99 target saucepan :(



and I've only had the poor thing a few weeks... well, I guess it's time for a new one! I might even spring for the $10 one this time.

here is what I've been up to since the last time i posted in march...

I did stay at the job i "hated" so much. it got better, some ppl left, others came, and i actually have stuff to do now (most of the time)
All in all, i like it! I'm working on "cool" buildings and learning lots of new things... still not making much, but def getting good experience!

and in may/june i moved!!! from south miami to north miami! from 45 min to get to work to 15 min, and from an hour to get home to 15 min! my new apt is closer to work, closer to the beach, only 15 minutes from south beach! but a lot farther from my friends :(

the new place is a single bedroom, single bath, 800sf, little kitchen, but big living room and bedroom. the apt complex has 2 pools (one is right next to my building) and a gym and tennis courts!!! now i just need to motivate myself to go the the gym when i get home from work!

ok, well here are some pics of the new place!



that's the living room



and the dining room



and the ity bity kitchen



and me with scooby on my bed!!!!!

so yeah, that's that... i'm about to finally become a Florida resident! but i really don't want to lose my ny id, i really like how bendy it is!!!
oh well... it beats paying ny income taxes!!! hehehehe!

ok, so i start out by giving a little time line:

a little over a year ago i started to really look for a job, both in buffalo and here in Miami. ya know, something to do over the summer, get some experience and maybe continue after i graduate

but i didn't get anything and ended up spending the summer in buffalo doing nothing (well, having a little fun, but no work)

then i came back to Miami in august to finish up school (just 2 classes so i could definitely still work with school)

but didn't get anything

I graduated in December and have been sitting on my ass around here looking for jobs (both engineering stuff which i should do and like retail jobs)

but still nothing.

and I've gone on interviews, but they keep telling me they will get back to me when they have an opening (you know that means) so still nothing

so then i went to career fairs here at UM and these guys i was speaking too all sounded really excited to have me join them and all that jazz, so a few called back for interviews, but not the one i was really excited about. so i went on a few more interviews, but still no hits

(well there was this one, but the guy was soo creepy. now i'm not racist or anything, but in serious, the guy said to me, "you can think of us as the UN, we have people from India, Pakistan, Africa, Columbia,..., well of course Cuba, and with you, we will have America too." aren't being a company in America, shouldn't there already be an American working there? and he was really excited to introduce me to everyone, introducing me as, "this is Julie, she will be joining us soon." i don't remember agreeing to this. and there was a 2 year contract i had to sign, meaning i had to be there at least 2 years, that's quite a commitment to the UN! and i would only be getting $30,000, but the kicker was, as i was leaving, this weird little man who interviewed me, gave me a kiss on the cheek! now i've gotten use to it from my friends cuz they all do it to me, but that was definitely not professional! so i declined my first ever offer)

but then i was back to nothing, with time ticking away till the lease on my apt was up, and my parents said i had to come back to buffalo (NO, i can't do the cold anymore)

so, then (Monday 3/13) i was up in Ft Myers for another interview and visiting with relatives, when i got a phone call from one of the companies i interviewed with down here, and he asked me if i was still available and if i could stop by the office on Thursday (3/16) to fill out some paperwork. (now i didn't really like that company, but you understand, i was dispirit, i really needed a job)

so i went on Thursday, filled out the tax forms and all that stuff and asked the necessary questions, and finally, "when would you like me to start?" and then hit with the, "Monday!"

well ok, i guess... it wont be as bad as i think, its a job! i'm only making $30,000 to start out, but it's what i think i want to do, so why not just give it a shot.

so i'll tell you a little bit about my past week aka, my first week of real work:

i drive 45 min to get there every day, and over an hour to get home (it's only like 20 miles away, f'n traffic) So i leave at 7:30am and don't get home till after 6:00pm get an hour lunch break which is the only time the Internet works in the office (my only time for aim and emailing!) and pretty much what i do is be some guys bitch, which i'm cool with, but he doesn't give me anything to do. so i sit in a little cubicle for 9 hours while actually working maybe 1 hour each day. no one talks to me, well the guy next to me was talking to me a little bit on Friday, but all he was telling me was office gossip, that people don't get along. and they all speak Spanish, and my boss guy smells, he's Italian, like born and raised in Italy, but come on, a little deodorant never hurt anyone.

ok, so that's work, but on Monday, my first day, when i just sat there all day, i received 2 phone calls and an email from other companies, one of which i really liked.

so he finally got a hold of me on Tuesday, i told him i just started work and that he was a week late.

WHY ARE ALL THESE COMPANIES CALLING ME NOW??? I HAVE BEEN SITTING AROUND FOR MONTHS DOING NOTHING, NOW THEY ALL WANT ME??? NOT FAIR!!!

so long story short, I'm gonna try to get a 2 hour lunch break on Friday to go interview with this other company who will be paying me lots more, and doing bridge design, and hopefully having nicer people to work with and one of the guys i spoke to for that company at the career fail had really nice eyes!!! and it's in Ft Lauderdale!! (get me out of Cuba, i mean Miami)

so yeah here's my question, so if this new company does offer me a job and i do take it, do i need to give the company i'm with now, my 2 weeks notice? i would have only been with them 2 weeks?? how does that work???

ok, so there was my rant!

and i'll be back in buffalo for Easter, i haven't been there for Easter in 6 years!!! i figured it was about time...

guess who just graduated?!?!?! IT WAS ME!!! haha, took me long enough... but here are a few pictures to prove it!!!

here, for this one, i made the mistake of giving my mom my camera because, well, she doesn't know how to use digital cameras and the zoom function was way beyond her, so here i am on stage. really, that's me next to the little orance blob.

and here are the "professional" ones, (am i allowed to post these?? sure, why not?)

(and why do i always make such stupid faces in pictuers that are suppossed to be serious?)


but this is my favorite picture of the day. (it was after the ceremony, once the camera was taken away from my mom and my brother started going camera happy)



so that's that! i'm offically an architectural engineer!! but still no job, but i'll be back in buffalo in 2 days, well late sunday night.

OK, i'm just gonna say right now that i'm not gonna talk about the last quarter of the game, and especially not the last 30 seconds.

but i would like to say that i was amazed at the amount of people in Bills attire at the game today. it felt like a home game w/o the cold weather, snow, freezing winds, drunk people picking fights with everyone else, cops beating those drunk people with those big police sticks they carry around, and security guards in their bright yellow outfits at every section incase a fight does break out...

but OMG, there were soo many bills fans, it was amazing!!! as we were walking in there were guys chanting the "shout" song. oh, it got me soo excited!

and from my seats up in the nose bleed section, you could definitly hear the "lets go buffalo" chant way louder than anything the dolphins were saying!

and OMG, at the end of the 3rd quarter when everyone started to leave cuz it was obvious the bills were gonna win the game, i wish i had a camera cuz you would think rich stadium or whatever its called now was painted orange and aqua but was filled with bills fans, cuz it was really filled with blue and red shirts...

ok, well i had a good time, aside from what i said i'm not gonna talk about, and met lots of dolphins fans, they were fun, gave me lots of beer and food.

oh, and best of all, so wow, you people talking about craigslist are smart people! i just discovered it the other day, and got 3 tix for $15 each, but then $25 shipping cuz i baught them on friday night, and then $20 parking, so only $90 for all 3 of us, what a good deal!!! the day only cost me $30.00

ok, remember back about 2 weeks ago when i had some banana's that i had already had for a week yet were still green???

bananas purchased on november 2nd... yes, that's right 19 days ago!!! theses bananas have been sitting on my counter along with others i have since purchased, but here ya go, this is them now!!! in addition to some flour, sugar, an some "tropical fruit" or whatever it is in those dole fruit cups... but it's tasty, my roomate and i tried some, might be a little dry, but that's about it... but the dry factor is kinda my fault, so the rescipe says to drain the fruit then if it looks dry to add some in, well i didn't add it in, i kept it for myself to make a tasty little drink with OJ and vodka... sorry no picture of that (but it was goood) but here is that those strangly green bananas eventually turned into



and even more strange, the bananas never did turn yellow, they went from green to brown... oh well, that's all i needed em to do!!!

I LOVE MOOSE JUICE!!! if you don't know what im talking about, im sorry, but if you do, then i'm sure you love it too!!!

Moose Juice is De-Lish!!!!

k, that's it for now...

oh, but an update on the bananas, they are still kinda tinted green, but i think they have also browned a bit so i think they should be ready for banana bread soon!!!

ok, this might seem a little odd, but i bought these bananas on wednesday, wednesday november 2nd. and today is sunday, sunday november 6th.

and they may have been a little more green than the typical banana color, but that was all they had, so i figured why not cuz typically when i buy bananas they start to go brown the day after i buy em. and i usually get em a bit green (lesson learned from shopping w/ my mom when i was little, get em a little greener than you'd like so they last ya) so i thought they would definitly be good and ready by now...

but look at em:


and im not playing with the colors or anything. here you can compare it with the color of my hand (and the bright pink nail polish... yeah i was bored this weekend)



they are just soooo green... still



do ya think they will ever yellow themselves???




i sure hope they do...

i gotta make some more banana bread!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

(I took this of my puppy right b4 i headed back down to the wilma stricken miami)



(and that was a hard pic to take, she does not sit still)

but i had lots of fun back in buffalo the past 10 days... damn, i was there soo long.

but look how cute fraggle rock and the hockey goalie look together ;) ((e:mike) was soo orange)




and yeah!!! (e:paul) on your interview!!! i have one tomorrow, eeek, im nervous, but i hope it goes as well and yours did!!! I just hope i can fit into my suit! that suit is my only chance of getting the job.... hehehehe, well i hope that's not true.