Lizzie-chronicles of an unemployed girl

Hello friends,
So it’s been up and down here in Boston. I still don’t have a job, it sucks, but I am collecting unemployment while I keep looking. It's not that bad, I get about $170 a week. I’ve worked a day here a day there for the temp agency, which is ok except the pay is lower for short-term jobs. You can still collect unemployment if you work part-time, it’s just less. I’ve been pretty bored during the week, at least Katie only works Thursday, Friday, Saturday so we hang out the other days. I’ve cleaned the house a lot, we joined netflix and I got Katie hooked on Lost so we started at the beginning and now we’re halfway through the 2nd season. I’ve been reading for fun, which is still a weird thought for me, I finally found a gym that’s not a ridiculous amount of money per month so I feel less like a bum every day. I hate not having a job, I’m so used to being busy, I just feel useless sometimes. And, even though it makes me sound like a bad person, I feel somewhat validated when I hear about other people who are in the same boat, like for example my friend’s sister’s boyfriend who is a doctor from Harvard and was some fancy shmancy man in the financial world and was laid off recently. Wow I am a bad person, but misery loves company right?

While my friend was visiting from Argentina my camera was either lost or stolen. All I know is, I was at the top of the Prudential taking pictures and then when we got home I couldn’t find it. So that was upsetting, especially because I didn’t have the money at that point to buy a new one. My dad found one online in all the after Christmas sales and bought it for me, the same one I had but now with double the mega pixels.

THEN, the power cord on my laptop broke, there were wires exposed and everything so I bought a new one. But, apparently it must have fried my computer in the process because the new cord wouldn’t let it turn on. The geek squad told me I need a new motherboard and I might as well buy a new computer for what it would cost. Damn. I wished I hadn’t paid $150 to get my cd drive fixed back in October because everything just went kapoot anyways. I was sooo not ready to cough up $1500 for a nice mac (which is what I want for my next computer) that would be obsolete by the time I get back from the Peace Corps. And I certainly didn’t want to have to keep borrowing Katie’s computer while living here. So, I bought one of those mini-computers (a netbook) and it cost $350.

Now I have it, it seems to be working wonderfully, it has 7 hours of battery life, and it’s 10inches so I can fit it in a purse. And I worked a couple of days this week, so hopefully things are looking up. And, Emily and Caitlin are coming to visit for Valentine’s Day/ President’s Day weekend! Everyone is welcome to come at any time! I hope no one’s forgotten about Memorial Day weekend for Lizzie Fest (that’s what Katie’s calling it anyway) in Boston.

Last weekend my friend Anya came to visit and we celebrated her birthday both nights. Friday we went to a fun Irish pub and before we had even taken off our coats she and I were up at the bar to get a beer and some guy in his 40s comes up to us and says “excuse me ladies I’m going to have to buy you drinks” I tell him it’s her birthday and he says “ohh I have to give you a birthday kiss then.” He then proceeds to lay a slobbery kiss on her cheek, then he comes towards me with his lips puckered and says “is it your birthday too?” and I lean back as far as I can saying “no, no,no my birthday’s in June!” so he leans away from me, pays for our drinks and then goes back to his friends and his lady who he was there with. Haha. Then Saturday we had a piñata, or a “pin-naughty” as we called it. It was a disney princess one that we filled with candy, nips of booze (plastic bottles so they wouldn’t break), and condoms (from the “pleasure pack”) haha. Then we went out dancing, I met and danced with a cute Indian guy, who ended up wanting my number which I gave to him for some reason and then got his so I would know when not to pick up the phone. I just had no urge to see him again, plus, as I was leaving he yelled “love you, love you” and I was thinking “am I back in argentina?“ haha. He called me twice and texted me twice over the next two days, once at 12:30am on monday. Wow, I sure know how to meet creepers. Don’t even get me started on “uconn boy”…

Last night was fun too. I went to Fire and Ice with my friend Chelsea, who went to Skidmore and was a year above us. She’s at grad school here in Boston and we’ve been hanging out a lot. For those of you who haven’t heard of Fire and Ice, it’s a restaurant where you pay $17 and it’s all you can eat. Lauren would probably be freaked out by the idea, but you pick you raw ingredients, put them in a bowl, pick a sauce and they cook it for you on a huge griddle in front of you. The first time we went up I had noodles with steak and some asian-style veggies and sauce and then I got a fajita-style one. Chelsea and I also ordered a huge blue drink in addition to a large margarita. We ordered a “chocolate cake for two” but it was huge, as in literally bigger than Chelsea’s head (we took a picture to prove it). We were laughing wondering how we were gonna eat it, so Chelsea goes over to a table of two guys we had made friends with while waiting for our food, and asks them if they want some cake. So they came over, ate a few bites and bought us another huge blue drink. She and I decided it’s the best pick-up line ever “excuse me, we have way to much chocolate cake, will you help us eat it?” hahah. I still have more than half of it left in my fridge. Maybe I’ll bring it out with me tonight to get more drinks, haha.

So I forgot if I told you about “girl corner” in my apartment. Katie and I have this little alcove between the hallway, her room, and our bathroom that we cut off from the world with cutains. We decided to make it into a ridiculously girly corner. We have a horizontal mirror with a shelf under it where we can put on makeup, a fluffy boa bordering it, pictures of us, a picture of Patrick Dempsey, and an article my mom sent me on where to meet single people in boston (god, she’s already turning into my sassy nanny). Anywhoo, it’s fun, and since I started learning Swahili I put up post-its all around the house on objects so everyone can learn along with me. I have “man” in Swahili on McDreamy’s picture and as soon as I learn “handsome” I will put it up there too, haha.

Now you can learn too, here are some fun words in Swahili:
Paka= cat
Mbwa= dog (pronounced mmm buah)
Mwanamume= man (pronounced muah na moo may) ok that was a hard one I should stick to the small words
Ndege= plane/bird (pronounced nn deh gay)

Okay I guess that’s it for now. I hope no one minds that I put the world clocks on the blog, I thought it was a fun feature. Although, I’m not sure how accurate it is in china/Kenya.