somebody brought chipotle

I went to sing karaoke tonight and noticed when I sat down there was an adjacent table with paper bags from chipotle on it. surprised since I figured most bars did not allow outside food. one bag had some chips in it so I ate them. it helped fill the void from seeing no popcorn at this venue. I sang 'here' by Alessia cara. it was nice to see friends there, one of them sent a message on facebook in advance to ask if I would be there. I said I tend to arrive after watching the 10pm news. I saw one group of young men sing, 9 in all, had to be the largest group I had ever seen do a karaoke song.
   the main thing from job searching today was a phone interview in the afternoon. except I called them as they were late on calling. the interviewer said she had just gotten out of a meeting. but I still waited until 7 minutes after the scheduled start time to call. I did some fact finding for travel plans but no reservations made just yet. when I was at Walgreen around midday I saw an employee there that I knew. it was the first time I had noticed tattoos, in his arms. I had to ask what they were for, as one said 'azalea' but it is not after the musician. he said he had two kids, one of them has that name.

behind the fuddruckers

I went to an appointment with an agency in the afternoon and as I was leaving to go back to the parking ramp I noticed an insurance sales office. I asked if the company was hiring for other things and was told to try across the street, behind the Fuddruckers burger place. I rang the bell once I got to that floor, then called a number given on a framed flyer. eventually I got to speak with a secretary who informed me of what the insurance company was hiring for. I liked how somebody met with me without an appointment. then my next stop was the library, where I did apply for 3 jobs with this company. there was also a job fair in another town just before midday, but not much there in my chosen field. near the end of the job fair I was called by another agency, hadn't heard from them lately. and it was annoying when they waited only 10 minutes before calling again. I had to let them know I wasn't home yet, so if there was an email sent to me I would see it when I got home. in both cases, they hung up right away, didn't give me a chance to respond. and then would call right after that. so I decided it was best to let them wait a little while, on my response to their email.
    it meant something to me when I was watching the 'young sheldon' episode tonight. it was about Sheldon's first ever plane ride, to California to see steve hawking speak. I recall my first plane ride, it was to Tucson, Arizona with my old man to visit his aunt when I was a teenager. and of course I understood the tie-in to the original series, 'big bang theory', as they show the breakroom from it once Sheldon arrives at Caltech with his dad. this show does help fill the void left by 'theory' going off the air, along with syndicated reruns of 'theory'. eventually I went out to sing at the karaoke bar, it was 'give it away' by the red hot chili peppers. I decided to put some things away before venturing out, including coin albums. I had to check them after getting a French coin the previous day. I found out I had one already, but it was 5 francs and the one I just acquired is 1 franc. this was a rare time when  paid for coins, it was at a festival in south st. paul I think. the price, under a dollar, is written on the cardboard it is stapled into.

french coin

I went to have change counted and turned in at the bank, but the first one was broken so I had to go to an alternate one. I checked the rejected coin chute and noticed five coins in it. one of them was an American quarter, odd that it would get rejected. three were 'euros', and one was a French franc from the 1970s. I recall living in suburban Chicago and refusing one as change in a grocery store, not sure why. so I am thankful I have one, as far as I know it is the first for me. I think the only other one I have is actually Indochina, which is now Vietnam. since France no longer uses the franc, I know these are harder to find than when I refused one. also not the first time I found euros, but unsure when I will get to use them as I have yet to visit a nation that uses them. I have been to Great Britain, but of course they still have their own currency. I am pleased with how many foreign coins I have found just by being out and about, not having to buy them. I guess it helps to live near a major airport, where there are some international flights. the ones I found went into a candy tin with the others. some are in collector albums, but the ones I have are full and I haven't bought another one yet. I already have three albums. most memorable would be the first one I found, more than likely, in a barber shop when I was young. it was a Canadian penny.
    after the bank I went to a job fair, hard to say if it yielded any good leads. one of them said it cost a lot of money to get the commercial driver license needed. another said a teaching license didn't cost near as much. I did see an advisor there, who called a referral in for me. this led to a weird interaction. a man saw me writing down my contact information on a post-it, and said he was left-handed. then it took a while to find out he was looking for work as well, before that he wanted to talk about a wide variety of subjects, including his kids and his own time playing sports. I didn't talk much, mostly listened to him. a man at the desk asked us to move to another area, and we did. then he must have thought we were still being too loud, and when this happened I said 'gotta go' and left right away. this is still my achilles heel, wanting to just react to what others are doing instead of 'owning' the situation. I learn more when I listen more. I guess I just want to be polite, but some people are time wasters like this man seemed to be. why did I listen to him for so long? because he was from iowa like me? I need more than that. he didn't even look like he was looking for work, no formal outfit on, was wearing a ford ball-cap. usually what happens is when I see the same person again, I am tight-lipped and I take pride in how they get away with it only once. I learn my lessons quick.
   after having lunch back at home, I made some calls based on the business cards I hadn't looked at in a while. it led to me sending updated resumes to two of them. then it was on to the library to do more things there. tried to do a video interview but it didn't work there either. and still trying to get around an I.T. issue with redeeming survey points for airline miles. while at the library I fielded two calls, three if you count the one that went to voicemail that came in at the same time I was on another call. one of the two aforementioned resume sends were due to these library calls. they were responding to a voicemail I left when I was still at home. for one call I went to a quieter area near the entrance, and I have an appointment with an agency on Thursday. it was in response to an application on indeed.
    in the evening I performed near the end of the show, the fancy comic was the closing act. we had a fill-in show runner who asked that the fireplace be turned off, said he was too warm with it on. although where I was sitting I was right under a ceiling fan, which wasn't making it any warmer.
   on facebook there was a posting on my class's page saying that a classmate had died of cancer. but then later on it was said this posting referring to it and forwarded there wasn't accurate. I had been following his caring bridge site and the most recent posting there said he was stopping treatment and coming home. some took this as 'going into hospice' although that word wasn't used at all. and when I pointed this out I was accused of being wrong, even though I wasn't, so I deleted my comment. I just didn't think it was right to try to get into a shouting match with someone in this forum, and definitely not over this subject. this is why I sometimes clash with others, as I go by fact and not emotion or rumor. I had hoped that this particular facebook group would be different, but it doesn't appear to be. and to be honest, there is a reason why I have very little or nothing to do with most of my classmates. I prefer to move on as most as possible from that part of my life. especially when that time of my life was 'awful' and I have evolved a lot since then, made plenty of friends since then. even though I have been to all of my reunions so far, if I want to see somebody bad enough I don't wait for a reunion. I go see them in person. and with the classmate that has cancer, he is not on facebook due to his line of work. but we had other ways to stay connected. since he lives in des moines, I would try to schedule a meeting when I was in town for something like an iowa cubs baseball game. I last saw him on labor day weekend. he knew I was in the area for my uncle's funeral in November, but I think our schedules didn't quite match up. 

ducks unlimited word find

i have completed two word finds in the past week. one was from the loft literary center event I had just attended. the other was from ducks unlimited. not sure when or where I got that one, although it does say to find the solution online- under 'august 2018 answer'. one side of the page has the word find, the other says 'so many species all under one protective wing'. I don't know ducks that well, but I recognized how one of them shown here is the Canada goose.
   I had a job interview this morning, with a mortgage company. I have to hope for the best. it was nice to discuss more than just the work, as I said I do enjoy attending baseball games. I had applied for more than one role with this company. I am told there might be another interview later on. in the afternoon I eventually got up and went to the library to print some things. I also applied directly for some jobs, instead of going through indeed. these were companies I had heard about at a job fair last week. considering that there is a history of indeed yielding very little, it might be a good idea to continue this although it takes longer to submit the application. there are some more job fairs to attend later this week.
    in the evening I went to perform, and I arrived a little earlier than typical. there was a fill in show runner, not a big deal. a performer after me said I made his night. on facebook there was mention of a classmate that has cancer. by pure coincidence, this was also the day of the funeral for the former high school football coach, john Jenkins.

a simple favor movie

i watched a DVD movie on loan from the library this afternoon, 'a simple favor'. I recognized anna Kendrick in it, as well as linda cardellini. although linda has a small role. I like thrillers, it is why I chose this one. if I was to compare it to ones I have seen before, probably 'deceived' comes close. goldie hawn was in it, and it also had a faked death as part of the storyline. I also learned the term 'vlogger' from it, since anna plays one. this would be a 'video blogger'. I liked how it kept me guessing until the end, with some double crossing along the way. the other leading lady, blake lively, played a fashion company employee. she of course had plenty of stylish outfits on, but it was hard to like her based upon her conniving and constant swearing. but I guess this makes her a better villain as well. or is conniving a correct term, where at one point she is called a con artist? I like how anna's character evolves over the course of the movie, starting out as naïve and wanting a friendship in the worst way, then getting into the investigation after a while. it was worth seeing, but I did not watch all of the special features as there were too many.
    I went to perform in the evening, deciding on  a different parking space as I was paranoid about the chance of a snow emergency being declared and seeing no cars on my customary street for parking. before then I was a 'seat filler' for brawler while he was holding court.

re-used shoe boxes

i did some cleanup this afternoon that was long overdue. I decided to go through a loose pile of papers and put the contents into some re-used shoe boxes. some of it ended up in my pile of things to shred as well. and I went through the refrigerator drawer to do the count of what I ate based on things like candy bar and potato chip wrappers for the past few months. so my trash can was no doubt full by the time I was done. and it meant using some duct tape to plug the holes in the trash bag. this morning I also went through my binders and found some sheet protectors I could re-deploy, stressing quality. I decided to use them on getting an article by moe berg about baseball into the binder.
    around midday I turned on the radio, something I rarely use at home now, and listened to the iowa-minnesota basketball game. iowa won 58-55. Garza was no doubt a factor for iowa, scoring many of their points, fouling out in the final minute but of course the iowa hawkeyes still found a way to win. I got the dishes done earlier in the evening than typical, then laid down before the 10pm news began, and fell asleep during the news. no big deal that I didn't go anywhere by car today. I went out once, it was to get some toilet paper at the dollar store. I got a look at the discount section, where I had bought all seven of the single- serving cereal tubs recently, no more than two at a time. some canned items there are of interest to me. this includes beef stew, chili, and apple pie filling. so even if I am not getting my customary can of spaghetti there, I still find things of use to me. my guess is if  I go back to this store in the next few days, that some of these canned items will still be available.

sgt. pepper movie

I watched a DVD movie on loan from the library this morning, 'Sgt. pepper'. the Beatles were not in it but plenty of their songs were. the main band had peter frampton and the bee gees. there was also Alice Cooper, earth wind and fire, as well as aerosmith. and Donald pleasance played a record executive. there was a cartoonish villain in it, but I didn't recognize who played him. George burns played the mayor, and narrator. I also liked seeing Steve Martin in it. seeing this movie led to me looking up the bee gees, as I was confused about their lineup. I recall the death of Andy Gibb, then I found out he was the little brother that wasn't in the band. it does make more sense about the origin of hearing 'come together' by aerosmith more often than the beatles version. and it is evidence of alice cooper, as well as aeroamith, being in movies before 'wayne's world' and its sequel. I had seen earlier Beatles movies, 'Yellow Submarine', and 'Hard Day's Night', and this one compares well with the other two.
   this was an active day, and I like it that way. went to the annual meeting of a credit union, and got a print of the chalkboard art depicted there. also was recognuzed by a cop, who is married to a comic. this was when I was leaving. when I got home I did grocery shopping, watched the 6pm news, then went to a hockey game in downtown st. paul. no, not the minnesota wild. it was at TRIA rink, first event I have attended there. it was a college game, hamline vs. st. thomas. hamline made it 1-0 at the end of the first, then st. thomas tied it 1-1 early in the second. both were on power plays. st. thomas went ahead 2-1 early in the 3rd, and it was tied 2-2 with about 5 minutes left in regulation. it went into overtime and hamline won 3-2, the goal was about halfway through the first 5-minute overtime session. it was senior day/ no concession stand was open, but there was vending machines. so i got some peanut butter crackers, and peanuts.
   I went home again, watched the 10pm news, and went out again, this time to sing karaoke. I did 'school's out' by alice cooper. it was nice to see familiar people from another venue, sounds like some of them also got poor customer service like I did. at one point we played 'never have I ever; first time playing this game, it petered out after  awhile. only familiar with how it was depicted in an episode of 'big bang theory'.