A Night At the Museum

So the technical "Day 1" of my unemployment went surprisingly well! After Friday night being taken out by my friend to relax and have fun, I spent Saturday transfixed on all the tasks at hand...like lists...lots and lots of lists. I need to get so many things done around my house that I have a feeling that the list is going to keep growing by the day! An example would be how much I hate walking on my kitchen floor barefoot because it is dirty and nasty! NEED TO WASH FLOORS ASAP!!!!


After a full day of contemplating my next move, I had volunteered to help a friend at an art museum Gala. It was a great time, with the exception of all the rain and cold. I drove people around the grounds for 5 hours in the rain on this cool 6 person golf cart! I know you are all very jealous! Yes I was a chauffeur last night, but how many places can you drive "upper class" people around and listen to them talk about Napoleon's penis and how it was cut off and preserved?!?!!? Come on I even got a giggle out of this one. Which would explain why he always looked miserable in his pictures!


So after that event a hot shower and some food was in order! The hot shower most of all. Didn't have the energy to make dinner but had an ice cream bar and curled up in bed to watch "Sense and Sensibility" with Hugh Grant and Kate Winslet and fell asleep. I feel asleep...what the heck is wrong with me not being able to stay up until all hours of the day/night when I have no schedule in front of me.

Well I am off to some events...I will fill you all in on them later I am sure. Some more exciting than others. Plus maybe some extra good things...you never know.

Aaarrgghhh!!!!

So a few weeks ago I was to complete and pass the biggest challenge in my professional career-- I was to pass my Series 7 Broker/Dealer's License exam. I mean it isn't like this exam is hard or anything! I mean I was an English major and never dreamed of setting foot into a Finance or Economics class! I had prepared for months (unlike popular beliefs by some) and after the first failed attempt I started working with this amazing person that drilled Options & Bonds into my thick skull! Bless him for taking all of this time out of his life to sit with me and try to teach me what seemed to be the impossible! Well two weeks ago yesterday I took that hour and change drive out to the city and pulled into the parking lot of the testing center. I had prepared as much as I could and even had my little study notes in my hand reviewing them so I wouldn't forget the equations that were drilled in to me!

After waiting in the hallway for the testing center to open I was escorted in to the waiting area, given a rules and regulations sheet that I needed to read, finger and palm printed and photographed. Then I was made to empty my pockets, turn off my cell phone and stuff all my personal belongings (jacket included because freezing helps the blood flow to the brain) into a tiny locker before I was taken to the "Pergatory" of this testing center so I could get finger and palm scanned again before I was allowed into the testing room. I should say that I was given earplugs this time after requesting them 3 times!

The inside of the testing area was something out of a Mental Asylum/"Boiler Room-esque" type of movie. Camera's watching you from all sides, the lady staring at you through the two-sided window and the reminder that it is to remain perfectly silent through the whole exam. I did take C's advice, I will be not naming names or places for the safety and protection of those that are involced, and wrote his little helpful letters on top of my scratch paper. These 4 little letters will probably be with me until the day I die but I wrote them on the top of each page I used on the notepad....R.T.F.Q, Read the Fricken Question!!!! For all of you who like to use other words I am sure you will be quick to substitue the meanings of some of these letters!

After 4.5 hours of 260 questions those 15 seconds before my score was displayed everything seemed to happen! My heart was jumping out of my chest so bad that I thought I was having a heartattack! My palms were sweaty and I seemed to have this uncontrollable shaking in my leg, you know the one that Diane Keaton had in "Baby Boom". I swear that people in California could feel the shaking! Then the two numbers that I dreaded came up 59%. 59% on a test that I put everything into so I could prove myself in this job! I was so disappointed in myself and how I felt I let everyone down.

Time jump to today! I had been walking around work on eggshells! Waiting for someone to tell me my fate! Someone to tell me that I am no longer part of this company. I have been waiting for 2 weeks for someone to tell me my status and I heard NOTHING! I heard all the whispering from my co-worker...if you want to whisper, you may want to learn how to do it! Otherwise it is considered talking! Genuis people these young girls can be! So fast forward again to 4 pm ...called to the conference room and I am let go. The worst part of the whole thing...my direct supervisor says NOTHING! I am terminated, handed my things and I walk out the front door!

After a long drive home and a Blue Raspberry Coolata from DD I had spoken to numerous people, made plenty of plans and am looking forward to all of the possibilities that I will be sure to blog about! My life right now is so full of possibilities and I can't wait to see what road I am going to take. But since that journey won't start until tomorrow I will continue to watch "Alice and Wonderland" and "Brothers" tonight and sleep at a later time.


And in the words of the amazing Dolly Parton:

"9 to 5, what a way to make a livin
Barely gettin by
It's all taken and no given
They just use your mind
And you never get the credit
Its enough to drive you
Crazy if you let it"

Jane Austen and The Death of Every Man Since Mr. Darcy

In my opinion Jane Austen has ruined the way I, as a romantic, view men! Now this hasn't come across my mind all of a sudden, it has been floating in the back of my mind along with movie lines, names of favorite books and that very useful algebra formula that Mr. Kelly my freshman year high school algebra teacher told us we would need to use in our everyday life...by I digress! Now I am sure that I am not the only one out there that feels this way!

Jane, as I will refer to her because she seems like one of my best friends seeing that I have read her books every year, creates this character of Mr. Darcy and shows a man that is not only courteous but respectful. Now whether it is the love story between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth or just the character of Mr. Darcy himself I am not sure.

Where did this romance start with me and Mr. Darcy??? I am not sure exactly! I can't remember if it started when I first read the book Pride and Prejudice years ago while still in high school. Or maybe it started when I first saw the BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice" while babysitting one night for a local family who didn't have cable. Whenever it was I have fallen hard. Mr. Darcy is the epitome of a romantic, classic, regal man!

I can say with confidence that the other characters in the book (besides Mr. Darcy and Lizzie) are rather interesting and relatable to every ones life. While I sit here I wonder if my bff Jane has really had this "characters" in her life? If Mrs. Bennett is anything like her mother? Does she have that crazy family member like Mr. Collins? Did she really love a man like Mr. Darcy?

While I sit here thinking of these characters I am going through my head and matching them with my family members. I think some of them match up pretty close, but if not to my family members to those of people I know. Now I won't come straight out and say that character A is family member C...come on I know better than that; so instead I will just give my brief run down of the characters and how I would characterize them.

Mrs. Bennett: All I think of is the Mother from Hell! She speaks what is on her mind, she does what she wants, she walks all over her husband and she is a drama queen.

Jane Bennett: The sheepish and mild mannered girl. The "great beauty" according to many but in almost all castings of these movies the girls is . . .well not so much a beauty.

Lydia Bennett: the easy sister!

Mr. Bennett: a man that was meant to have sons, but was stuck with all these women. Oh and dealing with the nightmare that is his wife... I am surprised that he didn't kill himself off in the first 20 pages of the book or volunteered to go off to war...because Jane is very fond of English war.

Mr. Collins: O think he is a preacher or something but he kind of reminds me of a person who should be starring in the play "Just Jack" (yes I am referencing Will & Grace)!

now the next two characters are what all women tend to look at:

Mr. Bingley: The nice guy, the one that you are just friends with. The one that is very nice. He could be your gay best friend. While you enjoy his company you really don't find him attractive in "that way" and he may not be attracted to you.

and last but not least

Mr. Wickham: The bad boy of the group. The one that your parents warn you about. The one that you would take into the supply closet and fool around with. Now he is dangerous and everyone wants him, but you shouldn't have him.

OK so now that I have gone over the characters I find that a lot of women are looking for their Mr. Darcy's. I mean who wouldn't want him. Strong, self-sufficient, honest, wealthy, and the hero in the end. No matter who you are looking for do you always compare him to "the one"? I know I do. While I don't do it on a great scale I look into the person and wonder if they have some of the characteristics that I am looking for. 9 times out of 10 they DON'T! Oh well keep looking for my Mr. Darcy.

You know that I am right about this. That Jane did ruin the way women look at men and the way we try to have both our Mr. Wickhams and our Mr. Darcy's in the same line. Jane has become such a powerful source of love and romance that I can't even count how many versions of "Pride and Prejudice" have been made.

Did you know that Bridget Jone's Diary is based on Pride and Prejudice? It is Mark Darcy...Daniel Cleaver (aka Mr. Wickham). Who gets the girl??? That's right....Mark Darcy. Even Bollywood has their version called "Bride and Prejudice". The guy from Lost, I can't remember his name, plays the Mr. Bingley character. Then in that version too Mr. Darcy gets the girl.

Well thanks to Jane Austen all of us hopeful romantics will be searching for our very own Mr. Darcy's. So a hint for all you guys that date or want to date a romantic woman...maybe try picking up a Jane Austen book. Give a look into Mr. Darcy and see why Lizzie loves him so. But I still think that Jane Austen was the reason for the "ideal" of a msn since the creation of Mr. Darcy.