Life and Times of AlieMalie

I can’t continue holding this together. I got an email back saying that an organization (that shall remain nameless) wanted an interview with me and could I please respond with my availability? I did and have heard nothing back. I’ve probably applied for well over 100 jobs and have only gotten three responses. One interview ask (same one as above) and two confirmations that they’ve received my resume.

I don’t know what to do. I can’t live on nothing.

So it’s common knowledge that I’m applying to a million jobs pretty much everyday. I march up to the Starbucks up the street from my house (because they have free! internet and I’m cheap), plant myself in one of their comfy chairs and spend hours looking at job descriptions, deciding if I qualify for and like the job, and then head into gmail to attach my cover letter and resume. Sometimes, the job description asks that the applicant submit a writing sample as well, and honestly? I don’t do serious writing well. At least not on policy. Well, I have a lot of qualifications to this. I can write an excellent paper on anything political science related, except it’ll be 30 pages long. And I’m not sure the Chief of Staff of any office wants to read something on the Hungarian Integration into the European Union. Or Romanian Fiscal Policy. Unless, of course, they sit on the Foreign Relations Committee, but I haven’t come across any job postings from them – yet. Cross your fingers.

Anyway, so this is what I’m struggling with in my job search: The Writing Sample. A part of me thinks that I could totally land a job submitting one of my Europe, Morocco & Canada stories because I would have the CoS rolling on the floor with laughter in some parts. Painfully funny. And they show I can write. But then again, I think of all those crazy staffers who left their sense of humor somewhere in rural West Virginia on their trek to DC from Home State.

But I could try. I would totally leave an impression. And either nail the job or have all my emails blocked from any email address on Capitol Hill.

You know what I just don’t understand? Why the GOP is against putting a cap on executive pay for companies that are receiving assistance from the federal government. These are the same companies that, after receiving billions in taxpayer money last year, went ahead and authorized over $18 billion in bonuses to executives and employees.

That? That’s despicable. And now the GOP is hemming and hawing about the federal government telling shareholders how much they can pay the executives?! Yes, in fact, that’s right. Especially when it’s my money as a taxpayer. I don’t approve of an executive of a company, like, say, Chrysler – who’s CEO is the former CEO of Home Depot who was given a $210 million golden parachute from Home Depot when they asked him to leave – getting a bonus when he’s asking the federal government for a $7 billion loan to help tide the company over after gross mismanagement during his tenure. Sorry. No go.

If you’re going to force our economy into collapse through, like I said, gross mismanagement, be prepared to face the consequences. I feel like these CEOs are acting like a teenager who has been given access to the parents’ credit card and think there’s no bill in the mail. When our government loans you billions, don’t expect that you can turn around and continue your careless spending. I fully expect to get my money back – with interest. Shoveling the money from those loans out the door via undeserving bonuses is just rewarding the people who required your having to ask for a loan in the first place. Positive reinforcement for poor behavior? Screw that.

My buddy Tina put it best and linked to a video of Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill and her rage about the executive bonuses.

I’m willing to give this country another chance, that’s why I worked my tail off and ended up breaking friendships and other relationships to work on the campaign for a year. I’ve given my all, really. But if this sort of behavior continues, I’m not sure even a Democratic White House and Congress can keep me here.

I have far too many excuses, none of which are good enough – aside from the whole trying to find employment thing – as to why I haven’t been blogging. And travel, holy crap I’ve been traveling. I’ve been to – let me count them – 14 different states in the last month. Just a little insane. Anyway, I have some of my pictures up from the inauguration, so I’ll post my faves. And you’ll just have to exercise more patience ’til I can come up with an actual blog post. I know, lame. Oh well.

We went to the inauguration and spent a grand total of 13 hours on January 20 out in sub freezing temperatures. I was cold. And that, my friends, is the understatement of the year and quite possibly of the decade. I. FROZE. You can see the windburn on my cheeks in this picture – we’d already been out in the cold in line in the Purple Line of Doom (a take on the Purple Tunnel of Doom which we managed to avoid) for 4 hours. This was 8AM.

We finally made it past security to our standing ticketed area ON THE CAPITOL GROUNDS when the sun came up. I cannot tell you how happy I was to see the sunrise that morning – not because it was the last sunrise Bushie would see as president but because it meant that there would be a large ball of fire in the sky radiating WARMTH.

We were really close. But really close doesn’t discount the fact that there was a damn tree in the way. Oh well, I WUZ THERE. Yea, bad grammar and all.

Bushie was just about to fly over my head in this photo – no longer CiC. Thank god.

We went to the Youth Ball and saw Ashton Kutcher, Kanye West and Fall Out Boy. Not very impressed because the Secret Service wouldn’t let us down to see the POTUS and FLOTUS for “security” reasons. Whatever. I went to a ball.

The next day we took in some sights and then went to *another* ball. This was the ball to end all balls, not because it was filled with politicos or cabinet secretaries or celebrities or anything – it wasn’t even an “official” ball and it wasn’t even on the day of the inauguration, but it was fine and you should be jealous. Yes, yes you should. POTUS showed up late, but whatever, he had to retake his oath just to put to rest the idea of any crazy lawsuits since the Chief Justice screwed up the original oath. There should be a literacy test to be CJ, but that’s just my idea. Whatevs, I guess it’s a bit overwhelming when you’re forced to swear in a guy who’s 180 degrees different from your own idealogical view points. Get over it, Johnny Roberts.

The Staff Ball was awesome. POTUS, VPOTUS, FLOTUS and DrVFLOTUS. She’s not really Vice FLOTUS, but it’ll do. You understand. They are all hot. VPOTUS totally reignites my older man fetish. I lurv me some Joe Biden. You can tell in this photo from the campaign, see how excited I am? Delirious, really.

Anyway, we had Arcade Fire and Jay Z as our entertainment that evening with Jay Z giving us a one time production of, “99 Problems but a Bush Ain’t One.” Yea, totally pretty cool.

And then the next day we went to the Supreme Court and got ourselves stuck in a Right to Life rally. Craziness.

And then I got sick and we came home and now I’m searching madly for a job. Hire me.

The End.