Most insane week ever

So last week was pretty much the most insane week I've had so far as far as projects, papers and quizzes go. Luckily, I did survive the week and got everything turned in on time. I spent just about every spare moment I had in the Mac lab on campus working on getting my video project finished and looking good... well, decent anyway. The link is below if anyone is interested in checking it out.

Michelle's video project

The epic battle between girl and nature

My parents have a couple of pear trees in their yard and ever since I was a kid, it has been my job to climb the trees and pick the pears that cannot be reached by the ladder alone. It's always been my favorite chore around the yard. I missed out on this joy the past three years, what with traveling around the world and all, and so since I'm around again, I was NOT planning on missing out on the pear harvest this year.

After over two weeks of straight rain, I was beginning to despair of being able to go out and pick them before they got overripe or simply floated away. But finally, the rains let up a bit this weekend, and Mom and I were able to go out to see if there was any good fruit left on the trees.

Luckily, there was and we were able to get a few bags of pears that looked edible. Now, there is a slight amount of hazard to being up in the top of a tree. For example, there are all kinds of insects buzzing around and inside the pears, there are the inevitable twigs that don't like for you to invade their territory and take payment out of your skin, there are the odd pears still above you that take offense to you moving the branches to which they are attached and show their anger by falling on your head, but usually, these hazards are slight enough and I come away with only a few bug bites, a bruise or two and a few scratches on my arms. Unfortunately, this year, I failed to take into account the added hazard of the tree (especially the bark) being waterlogged. It was just a little bit harder to actually stay in the tree as the tree fought back at me. Don't worry, I still won the war and brought home the spoils, but the battle wounds were a little more fierce.

A taste of India

One of the things I love about Dallas is how crazy international it is. I was able to have a total Indian weekend and didn't even have to go very far to get it. An organization in the area hosted a  concert for international students (specifically from India). The group was Aradhana, which plays Yeshu Bhaktis (Indian-style music about Jesus).

A couple former South Asia journeygirls and I made a night of it, going out for Indian food and then catching the concert. Here's a pic from the concert. It was absolutely amazing!

They're also on youtube here: Aradhana in India

Lessons learned in interviewing in the big city

Alright, I've been falling behind in my blogging lately ... WAY TOO MUCH HOMEWORK!! Seriously, I feel like I spend all my time these days either reading, driving, or sitting in class (pretty much in that order from most time to least). I've also been looking for a job. In fact, I had an interview this morning. It was quite an experience.

I got up bright and early this morning and got all dressed up in my business best (yeah, that's pretty much khakis for me) and headed up to north Dallas. About fifteen minutes before the interview time, I pulled into the parking garage, got out, and headed toward a cluster of very official-looking buildings. I was a bit overwhelmed by the poshness of it all (excuse the Bitishism, but it really seems the only term that would work for this situation) and immediately felt out of place and under dressed. Luckily, I did remember at the last minute to change from my Old Navy flip flops into some of my nicer Indian sandals that I keep in my car (yes, I keep two pairs of my nice shoes in my car and wear my flip flops to drive and walk around in so that I can change shoes whenever I need to be all professional-looking ... or at least less slobbish).

As I exited the parking garage heading toward the office buildings, I passed a couple of women immaculately groomed and dressed in business suits. They gave me one of those 'are you lost or just stupid' looks. So that was a nice self-esteem booster before heading to my interview. It also made me aware that my hair had never completely dried after my shower this morning because I'm not patient enough to dry it all the way and the weather is so ridiculously wet that the hour + in the car didn't dry it either.

The building cluster was a corporate maze and it took me a little while to find the right building, the right door to that building, and make it up to the right floor. Luckily, I was still a good ten minutes early. I was invited to a seat beside the receptionist where I sat for the next 30 to 40 minutes waiting on the person conducting my interview to finish up with her meeting/whatever else important work she had going on. During this time, I got to know the receptionist pretty well and heard all about her brother in the hospital with lung-transplant complications and her daughter-in-law who was also in the hospital at the same time waiting to get her gallbladder taken out. I was very relieved, however, to notice that the atmosphere in the office was much more casual than that of others that I had passed on the way. Everyone in the office was in jeans (it was casual Friday, I was informed, where everyone gets to wear jeans and they make popcorn, some of which I was offered no less than five times by the receptionist who was so sorry that I had to wait so long).

Finally, my interviewer came out, introduced herself and ushered me back to her office. The interview lasted all of ten minutes. She told me a little bit about the company and the job and asked me all the stupid but mandatory interview questions (i.e. If we contacted your references, what would they say are your strongest and weakest qualities? To which I couldn't help but wonder, if you really want to know the answer to that question, why don't you ask THEM. But I kept that to myself and answered as best I could.) As far as interviews go, it wasn't bad. The job sounds interesting, but a lot of it would include calling supporters and asking for money, which would certainly stretch me a bit as a person. At the conclusion of the ten minutes, I was told that they had some others applicants that they were also considering for the position, but that they would be discussing their options soon and would give me a call Monday.

So that's the story on the job front. More waiting, but in the mean time, I've got another company I think I'm going to call and get information on.

I'm really eager to get a job  that will allow me to get an apartment in the Dallas area and not have to spend half of my life driving! It's been crazy the past two weeks especially. Seriously, there hasn't been one drive (neither to nor from Dallas) that I haven't gotten rained on at some point, and really, not just rained on ... poured on! In fact, I was very nearly late for class last night because it was raining most of the way and apparently Dallas drivers think that you must not drive over 45 mph in the rain. God did give me a great promise, however, that it will have to stop sometime. I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but there are actually two rainbows. It was pouring down rain on me and to my left, but to the right of me the sun was shining.

Praying for sunshine and an income!!

Near-death experience

I learned first-hand tonight that lightning storms are MUCH cooler to watch from the safety of one's own home than to drive through ... for an hour and a half! Funny how vulnerable you can feel when all that is between you and a gazillion volts of electricity is a small metal vehicle doused in unceasing torrents of water.

I drove through an epic storm tonight, seriously, the kind ballads are sung about! The ironic part is that as I walked  to my car after class tonight, I was enjoying the feel of the sprinkles of rain on my face. I was thinking of how much I had missed the rain and how cool it was to see the lightning in the distance behind the buildings of the city.



Unfortunately, the lightning did not stay distant for very long as I drove toward home. Rather quickly, the coolness effect wore off and lightning seemed to be striking all around me. I kept thinking that I'd drive beyond it sooner or later, but it just kept getting worse. Luckily, the rain remained at a minimum most of the way, but the lightning was just crazy! It quite literally shredded the sky every few seconds.

I drove an average of 55 mph the whole way turning an hour's drive into at least an hour and a half of sheer barely-contained panic and terror. I just knew at any second that I was either going to be hit by lightning, or watch something explode in front of me, or get hit by a car blinded by one of the lightning strikes just ahead of us.

In spite of this, I did manage to pull out my camera phone and get a couple pictures and some video. You REALLY can't tell how crazy it is from the pics or vid, but here they are regardless... and I don't think I have any audio of me cussing... but I was rather tense, you must understand ... leeway must be granted under life and death circumstances.

And, I didn't capture any of the worst of it, which hit full force about 20 miles from home and lasted the rest of the way. I swear, as I exited the interstate and turned into town a bolt of lightning hit the ground not a dozen yards from my vehicle. And it is not impossible that I let out a ridiculously girlish scream and ducked. Most of my prayer went up in the last few blocks through town as it poured down rain around me and lightning still lit the entire night sky like a gigantic strobe light.

You will be glad to know, however that I did survive, and it only took me about an hour to stop shaking uncontrollably after I had made it to safety.

Lightning vid

Here's a link for the vid, I couldn't figure out how to embed it and I'm too tired to research it right now. You may also notice that Metallica is playing in the background. I thought it very apropos