My dad informed me that I will be getting my first paycheck from him this Friday. So yay, money. I also lined up two job interviews for later this week. One is an informational interview with a company that somehow found my information and contacted me. The other is for a part-time retail job. It’s all better than nothing, right?

So at any rate, you know how they say don’t drink and drive, give the keys to you friends, yada yada? Well they don’t seem to have a saying for the “make-sure-friend-knows-to-turn-lights-on-so-bitchy-suburban-cops-don’t-hand-you-dumb-fine” situation. I went out to the bars in the River North area this weekend, having driven to my cousin’s friend’s apartment in the city earlier. I, of course, end up drinking away happily and at the end of the night we arrange for my sober cousin (whose house I was supposed to be sleeping at that Saturday night) to drive my car back to her house while her boyfriend drove hers. Well, unfortunately neither of us noticed that the lights on my car were not turned on while she drove. Since her car automatically turns its lights on, she just didn’t think to check with mine. Once we hit the suburbs, we realized our mistake and then the cops pulled us over immediately after our lights were finally turned on. Like seriously…what the fuck? Someone remind me to pay my cousin for my half of the ticket fine she was issued…

I’m exhausted and I feel like I’ve worked an entire, laborious 9-to-5 workday (except without the satisfaction of knowing you’ll be paid for it). Here’s what I managed to do:

• Fixed my virus problem! A few weeks ago (a couple of days after I returned from the Philippines, to be exact) my Windows unexpectedly went nuts on me. Everything disappeared, leaving just my wallpaper for me to look at. When the Start bar reappeared, my anti-virus software kept popping up to inform me there was a serious security threat to my computer (as if I hadn’t already caught onto that, laptop). After my anti-virus quarantined the threats, everything seemed fine…except my programs wouldn’t launch. My anti-virus and Sticky Notes wouldn’t launch upon start, and everything else would give me an “Open with…” prompt. Eventually I was able to use my laptop’s programs by right-clicking and selecting “Run as administrator,” but even I knew that wasn’t a proper solution; some programs still wouldn’t start, and in fact, my Adobe Reader started effing up on me and I couldn’t view PDFs for a while. After a lot of Googling, I fiddled around with the registry and downloaded this program. Now everything seems to be back to normal…for now.
• I went through this blog’s pages and updated/re-wrote a few things here and there. I’ve also decided to be more proactive with my social media outlets (which in themselves are very few) and went through them, adjusting settings and cleaning up links. I’m keeping links to my Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ accounts off this website for now, although I’m sure if anyone really wanted to and tried they could probably find me anyways. I’m also reviving the use of my LJ, though for what purposes I still don’t know yet. My domain plans will have to be explained further in a later post.
• Looked for more ways to beef up my profile and more jobs to apply to. This is self-explanatory.

…and I know there’s more that I did but now it’s past midnight, thunderstorms are rumbling, and I’m dead tired.

I got a job. Sort of. Last week my dad woke me up in the morning to tell me he wants me to come to his office, fill out a job application, and start manning the phones. Like on that day, good grief. And so here I am, at my dad’s place of business which is barely over a year old and which I helped start up last year, sitting at the computer and waiting to take down phone calls. While I am fully more than happy to help out my father and help his business grow, I feel a little odd working for him. It’s like I’m not really making my own money if I’m being paid by my own dad. But I’ve got nothing else to do, and I haven’t been able to do work for Demand Studios in a while since there’s slim pickings for actual do-able articles, so any form of income is better than none, right?

On another note, I’ve been dreaming a lot lately about either going back to Costa Rica (as in planning a trip) or actually being in there again. Various members of my host family keep appearing, and my intense penchant for popular Latin music (hellooooooooo, Prince Royce) has yet to waver. This can only mean one thing…I must go back, haha. Where I’m going to find the funds to do that, I still don’t know, considering all my graduation money went down the drain into paying bills, old apartment rent, etc. I think I’ve mentioned all this before.

One thing I miss about Costa Rica is the amazingly generous hospitality and friendliness. And I don’t just mean my host family and school — I mean everyone. For example, last entry I mentioned that I went out to the bars in Wrigleyville a couple weekends ago. What I didn’t mention was that we ended up getting kicked out after my friend drank too much, blacked out and subsequently began throwing up on the floor of the bar (we were sitting at the tables in the back). Every employee that passed by was giving us death stares, and it wasn’t until a bartender cried out “Oh, heeeeeell naww!” that I knew we were done for and had to go. No friendly “Is she okay?” queries, no looks of concern. Just straight up “Get her the fuck out of here” looks from people.

Now, let me recount the few times I threw up in Costa Rica last fall semester. Oh, there were a few, haha. I remember sitting at a table with my friends, drinking beer merrily and playing cards as usual. I ended up buying a bottle of rum that night (oh, how I miss the awesomely cheap bottle service in Costa Rica) and later throwing up on the floor (and also on one of my friends, but that’s another story). Our waiter that night promptly rushed over to me and told my friends I should probably go to the bathroom. He didn’t make any fuss, just cleaned everything up and kept checking to see if I was okay. In fact, the next time we were at that bar and he was working, he laughed at me and asked how I was doing. And in fact, he ended up befriending us and now we’re Facebook buddies and everything. On another occasion, we were at another bar that was hosting Ladies Night (my GOD, I miss those nights in Costa Rica even more), which translated into me and my friends getting very drunk very fast. Once again, I threw up on the floor and my friends debated about whether to take me home or not. But alas! We weren’t going to let our night end there. One friend told me I must be strong and rally through the night, so she sat me at the bar and asked the bartenders to give me something to help my…condition. They gave me some grenadine (how that’s supposed to help, I don’t know) and let me sit at the bar for a while. Eventually I stopped feeling like I was going to hurl, and somehow later ended up on top of the bar, dancing with a bartender nonetheless.

Goodness I miss Costa Rica. Americans can sometimes be just so unfriendly!

I know, I know, being nearly 22 years old does not exactly constitute one as feeling old yet, but I have several reasons for feeling as such. First of all, it’s a Tuesday night. I was invited to go out for drinks with some friends, but feeling incredibly lazy I decided to stay in. Even though I have absolutely nothing to do tomorrow (or for the rest of my life, as a matter of fact). I used to be able to go out 7 days a week! Now I can barely get my ass out on a Tuesday night — a Tuesday night, MY night of the week!! In Costa Rica we had a bar we’d go to every Tuesday; at school Tuesday nights were the best week nights to go out; even here at home I’m often getting texts to go to this bar or that. But alas, tonight I just did not feel like it. Something must be wrong with me.

Another reason for feeling old: my brother and I went to Meijer and there were displays of “Back-to-School” items everywhere. School supplies for the kiddies, dorm essentials for the freshmen. It was the latter that nearly set me off and made me reminisce of my own first college move-in nearly four years ago. It also made me realize how much I love decorating and furnishing my space, because I kept scrounging for items to use in my tiny bedroom here at my parents’ house. I can’t wait for the day I actually move out and have a real apartment of my own again.

On another note, last Saturday I went out to the bars in Wrigleyville for the very first time. I didn’t really know what to expect, but I definitely didn’t realize it would be so crazy. There were people everywhere, bars everywhere, drinks everywhere, all spilling out into streets. I didn’t drink much, so I stayed rather subdued for much of the night — which I guess must have translated into everyone thinking I was an uptight bitch. Forreals! Twice a person used the word “uptight” to describe me, and countless others were asking me if I was having fun or not. And for the most part, yeah, I was having fun. But people were calling me uptight! And asking me if I even enjoyed going out period! (OK, that’s a lie but I’m sure that’s what was on their minds.) To be clear, I was out with a small group of friends, only one of whom actually knows me very personally. The rest of the people I socialized with were complete strangers and distant acquaintances. Plus, I was sober. So, no I wasn’t my usual life-of-the-party self last Saturday. Why don’t guys just realize that when a girl is acting “uptight” and “uninterested,” it’s because they’re not interested at all?!

“I’m going to do what I want to do. I’m going to be who I really am. I’m going to figure out what that is.”

I’m doing something right now that’s very radical for me. I’m making a plan for myself. I mean, I’m always doing to-do lists like they’re my job, but instead of figuring out what toiletries I need to buy on my next trip to the store, I’m figuring out the next few years of my life for the very first time, like ever.

I can’t go back to my old seasonal job at the movie theater. It’s just too awkward now with the GM. I went there today to watch the third Transformers, and saw that she was behind the popper for a bit. So I went over to say hi, and while we made small talk, at the end of the conversation she was all, “So what do you want?” And after all the weirdness I had to go through last year (asking to work only sparingly over the summer; not being able to work over winter break due to the fact they thought I’d be in Costa Rica for a whole year, not semester; and not calling in May to ask for my job back like I promised because of my internship and vacation), I just knew she thought I was coming to ask if I could work again. Which, I mean, I wasn’t. But admittedly I was testing the waters there…and now I know that that chapter of my life is officially over. What a weird ending. Sad, too, because there are a lot more people I know still working there than I thought.

So now I am in full job hunting mode. I even finally bought a suit jacket/blazer. I know they say summers aren’t necessarily the greatest hiring periods, but I’m applying to anything that remotely sounds interesting and is within commuting distance for me. And that includes other mall jobs that could sustain me for a bit while I look for my first grown up job. But alas, Carson Pirie Scott’s already emailed me back saying they weren’t going to “pursue my profile further.” Being a grown up is tough.

Speaking of, I noticed today that the last two movies I watched have had eerie resemblances to my current life. Yesterday I finally saw The Hangover Part II, and I felt like I was being transported back to my two week stay in the Philippines: the annoyingly long journey, Delta Airlines, and the riding around in public jeep transports. In fact, what with all the Asian people and beautiful beach resorts, it was almost like my vacation in the Philippines…sans the whole drugs and partying and car chases. And then today! I took my little brother to see the third Transformers, and there he was, the lead human character, Sam Witwicky, a recent college graduate desperate to find a real career job! It like totally inspired me to kick my butt into overdrive and be serious about my future. The kicker was when everything shifted to the battle scenes in Chicago. I’ve seen a lot of disaster movies, and Chicago is almost never featured. Usually you only see cities like New York or L.A. or D.C. get trampled on and blown up and whatnot. But when the Decepticons started shooting up the place and people were running everywhere and they’re blowing up very familiar buildings…I almost started crying! And when they had that massive car chase down I-88, it was so surreal. Made me really wish I could have gone into the city to watch them film last summer, like everyone else I know seemed to have done.