Sunday, December 18, 2011

Tiny Tips in the Kitchen

1.  After eating anything that sticks or hardens for example cereal, rice, cheese or any kind of sauce fill it with water to the top of the bowl or soak in sink if a plate.  Then you can wash it easier the next day, or if you don't have a dish washer.  Or if you only have one dish and don't need to start the dish washer yet.

2.  At the bottom of every sink there is food particles that fill the drain filter cup.  Clear it out each moment you see its full to the very last particle for example the tiniest onion slice, noodle, or piece of lettuce.  Doing this will solve the problems of a clogged, dirty or smelly sink.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Every Step a Battle: Finding a Job

Looking for work.  There is gas, the clothes, the time it will take to get a job, have the skills, and right attitude. And to be ready to fill out tax forms, application, interview, and to wait for a call back.  Then there is the moment of truth, answering the question,  "Why do you want this job?"  This is the ice breaker of all interview questions because it is the only time your heart rings and the colors of your personality flair in the response to this one question.

The clock is ticking, minds are churning, and you the job candidates heart is burning.  You start to wonder by the second the idea of the position comes to mind and you see that the resources are all right in front of you from the advertisement to the contact information.  You begin to research the company first and notice that there isn't that much on the web site that you feel you can grasp and your palms begin to sweat.  You make the telephone call to the general company and the switch board operator transfers your call a few times as it bumps back to her before you get a voice mail of the human resources office.  Then for the companies or agencies that don't have such a department as human resources, you ask to speak to the hiring manager.

You begin to feel the tension when they tell you that they are busy or not in right now and you ask them what a better time to call would be as you refrain from giving a message for them to relay to the hiring manager.  While the employee on duty asked you for a message you keep if brief as a little goes a long way as you know and put a little check mark or notation near the company for your files.

Moving on to the next company you will notice that the same thing occurs and its risky since the hour you call is suggested which is near opening, and calling around noon as you may have noticed from the time you graduated school is lunch time and you'll most likely get a voice mail box in which may be full and you have better luck then to call back without the pressure of thinking if you should wait for them to return your voice mail or call back in an hour.  Either way you want to follow up on your application, or ask for an informational interview, and keep plugging away after hearing from several companies in two days that they are not hiring. 

Maybe all this is just the articles and research you have been reading about mixed with the news of the economy.  You know from experience that every company is different in handling their hiring procedures and the one that is a good match for you is the one that works for you. 

Friday, December 16, 2011

Mr. K The Inventor

The sun and rain hit the pavement hard right through the neighborhood trees.  It was the month of March and summer was just a long stretch of warmth coming to the door steps of rigid side walk on the north side of Chicago.  A quick charm twinkled behind broken bifocals taped up to the side of an elderly worker whose voice and experience for a sale were 8 decades in the making.

Mr. K wanted more, he enjoyed the lifestyle.  His busy mind was storming with ideas and with calm hands and a keen sense for negotiation. He was 2-4 business deals in with elevator contracts signed and hired contractors 2 months into implementation.  Two Chicago churches, one on the south side of Comiskey Park and one on east side of Skokie, Illinois is where these transportation devices were being built.  Day after day he spent at the sites keeping an eye on the progress of the elevator sales.

There wasn't a single day that went by that he would not think of his daughter who lived on out west, and his dreams of one day uniting in harmony away from the seeming estrangement from the long cold winters of Chicago and the difficult years of illness and old age.  There was no sign of sorrow or despair in the twinkling eyes of Mr. Kent.  His long life is spent building houses and some years instructing real estate courses.   He enjoyed the casinos in northwest shores of Lake Michigan.

His dinner buffet card at the casino was redeemed by VIP qualifications and Mr. Kent enjoys reading his horoscope and buying a lotto ticket.  It was the little things that counted most and often challenged young Geraldine and her ambitious and competitive spirit full of eagerness. Mr. Kent focused on sharpening her weaknesses and building her character as she floundered aimlessly into his office day after day.  There was a certain angle that his chairs needed to be facing, and nothing in his office could be touched with out his conscent.  It was office boot camp if there was one, and Geraldine found no solace in the other secretary. Then there was the one day Geraldine took the water container and watered the artificial plant just to see if Mr. Kent would notice her.  She knew the plant wasn't real and wanted to see if he knew that she knew and was doing it to show him that she wasn't the thing he expected her to be.  In other words she just wanted to show him to cool it, chill out, relax, and she began giggling to herself quietly.



"Stop on the way to buying my sandwich to the post office to drop off this my mail."  Mr. Kent instructed softly.

"Ok, " answered Geraldine.

Often Mr. Kent would have Geraldine repeat his instructions such as how he liked his coffee and sandwich and then made Geraldine repeat it every day back to him.  Most of the time he would let her go without a word and she would come back with the wrong coffee or sandwich order blaming the fast food restaurant servers.  She was very certain that she asked for the right instructions and eventually learned not to blame anyone and just to check the orders twice her self.

She often was instructed to hull around a big vacuum cleaner and vacuum the 1000 square foot office.  Then in between her confidence and certainty that this task was something she could complete on her own, Mr. Kent would interrupt her and tell her that she missed the spot over there and that she needed to move the vacuum in the manner and style he was moving it.  This often blew Geraldine's patience and over time adapted to strengthening her temper and moodiness from the little things that Mr. Kent spent time with her on during her time at his office.

The "Message to Garcia,"  was instructed for young Geraldine to read at home the first day she began working and learned not to speak about out of work stuff or ask questions about anything.  She was trained to write neater, pay attention to detail, and focus when she struggled so hard not to day dream while in Mr. Kent's presence.  She was quick to follow advice and choose her battles wisely when international phone services would keep her on hold or send her across the world while she was waiting to pay a bill for Mr. Kent.

When the fax machine had a paper jam or the computer internet was slow, she found it miserable to be accused of its problems week after week and yet responded gracefully most of the time to Mr. Kent's trusty remarks toward her.  When he would spend long moments on the telephone Geraldine would either step out of the office or finish up on a task such as creating business cards.  Mr. Kent sometimes sensed falsely that young Geraldine wasn't paying attention and would send her home without pay for the day until she put her foot down.

"You Mr. Kent will pay me for the day!"  She said assertively.

"I'm lowering your pay to $6.00. "  He stated.

Mr. Kent was a tall strong elderly in his early 80's with old fashion logic.  He was valued not for his personality, charm, or conduct but for his experience, patience, knowledge, wisdom, stability, kindness, loyalty, honesty, and wealth of integrity.  It was imaginable to know unless you were in his shoes what it was like to be Mr. Kent.  Geraldine was valued for her determination, diligence, loyalty, commitment, kindness, grace, charm, maturity, and for her sense of humor and good personality.  She was likeable in every way and that was why Mr. Kent enjoyed her company and tolerated her so easily.

Today My. K is snug away scurrying to get from point A to make point B in his fashion.  The underlying feelings of how to spell out what to say here are rocky.