Today was mostly spent searching for jobs (aside from my awesome 2 hour beach side bike ride). And even though I have emailed no less than 8 craigslist potential employers without receiving a single response, I am not at all feeling discouraged- desperate yes, discouraged no. Just now, I actually replied to a posting entitled "Brand Feedback Evaluators Required". I'm not sure if I did this out of curiosity- what products might I evaluate? will it burn?- or if I am satisfying a compulsion to DO SOMETHING. Don't get me wrong, being a bum, playing house and working on my tan are fantastic hobbies, but moving to a place where people sleep on the beach does not make me one of them. I'm bored, and the public library has the suckiest collection EVER. If I need to test out a lotion or get sick off of some newly canned product in order to feel like I'm moving forward so be it. At least I have some job applications to fill out tonight- ticket booth person at a real theater, Casual Living salesperson at the ACE home improvement center, and something at the zoo- the one that doesn't require 2 years experience in animal husbandry. Maybe I'll even hear back from the craigslist person that absolutely needs a haircut tonight. They don't know I'm a disaster with all things cosmetic.

So the cord that connects the camera to the computer has been located, and I can finally post a picture of the rapey mural at the entrance of our apartment house. 

What a lovely nature scene. Looks pretty innocent no? Lets take a closer look.

Note the fat man wearing...a gray sumo thong? What's he got in that boat? It appears to be a woman slumped over face down- catch of the day perhaps?

And this little boy- he saw it all go down, and he will never be the same. EVER.

Yes, this beautiful work of art really is the focal point of the entrance to our historic spanish mission style (or something) house. Somebody made it and our landlord let it happen- maybe even payed for it.

The faucet was just too far from the sink basin- thank goodness Ben 'Contraption' Gordon was there to fix it.

It’s Yom Kippur, and being raised catholic, this is usually a day that comes and goes without as much as a raised eyebrow. Ben, however, being Jewish is practicing various rituals of atonement and I am fascinated. As far as I can tell, these include fasting from sunset on Sunday to sunset tonight, when he will break fast with the amazing traditional Yom Kippur meal that I plan to make after I go to the library and find out what that is, and lighting what’s called a Yahrzeit candle. The Yahrzeit candle burns for 24 hours in remembrance of those who have died. I think it’s a really nice thing to do. My only problem is that I feel the need to stay home and babysit the fucking thing. It is just a tiny little candle, but who leaves candles burning unattended in their apartment all day? And in Santa Barbara for fuck sake this place is always on fire.

23:34 Sunday, September 27th 2009

So here it goes. I am starting my first blog ever, with encouragement from Steve Lang, former sort of co-worker and fantastic last-minute-packer, and I have no idea what the hell to put here or how. I know I'd like to somehow avoid writing every damn thing in the first person and to generally shy away from informing any potential readers of what I ate today or what I 'm doing now at this exact fucking moment. So, wish me luck on not giving up entirely on this after a week or two.