Last Hiking Meetup

It was at O.P. Schabel park, which is one we go to all the time in my family. I thought I knew the park pretty well, but we didn't go on the trails I knew. Anyway, I got there a little early because I didn't want them to leave without me. I brought Bucky, as he seemed to like it the last time I took him to that park. Other people brought their dogs, too, and Bucky wanted to bark at them, of course. I picked him up, and he got quieter. So I just held him until we were ready to leave. As it turns out, I was the only one who brought a small dog. All the others were golden retrievers or bigger, so he was really out of place! A few people were worried he wouldn't make it or that I'd end up carrying him part of the way. But really, they don't know him like I do!

We took off walking, and it was a nice day. It was warm and a few people wore shorts even. Yes, even in January. There was someone who said, "It feels like summer!" and I just wanted to laugh as there's no way it would be that cool in summer. It was only about 73 F at the warmest. But a lot of people in the meetups are new to San Antonio, so I didn't want to make them feel bad or scare them off before summer really hit. Anyway, so we walked about an hour and a half in one direction, until we reached the road down at the far end after you go down into the ravine. It seemed to take forever. I was stupid and forgot to bring water, so I was dying of thirst by that point. Someone was nice and let Bucky have a sip of the water she brought for her dog. That seemed to perk him up a bit. His ears were sort of drooping a little by that point. But then we had to walk back the other way. So it was another hour and a half back. My legs were a little tired, but the thing I noticed most was that my knees started killing me. Really, I didn't think to wear a brace on my bad knee. Not very smart of me. People were marveling by that point that Bucky was doing so well. Really we took a short breather to let some people catch up who'd fallen behind going up a hill. He was jumping up on me and wagging his tail. He was absolutely fine. One guy even made a comment, "he's making me look bad." Well, they shouldn't have assumed he was weak just because he was small, should they? When we got to the parking lot at the end, a lot of people were relieved. And I wanted to go straight home for a tall glass of water or two. Bucky was looking at me excitedly, like "What are we gonna do now?"

Some of the people there were going to this bar afterwards, but I couldn't as I had my dog with me. So I just went home. Bucky wanted to be walked immediately, but I wanted to go straight upstairs. My knees were so sore I could hardly move them. Then, I got upstairs and had a full glass of water. Bucky saw Snoopy getting walked and got upset at me because I wouldn't take him, too. Goofball. Like he hadn't been outside for 3 hours already. I stretched as much as possible, although my joints still hurt later that night. By morning they were fine, but I think I'll wear a brace next time. Don't let me forget. : )

Anyway, not much going on. N is still in Austin and I haven't heard from him. He said he might be able to come down this coming weekend, but we'll see. Again, I haven't heard from him. I haven't gotten any more job interviews and I'm obviously still not employed, or that would have been the first thing I wrote about. But a couple of people in the coffee meetup had some tips for me, so I'm looking forward to the next one of those. : )

First Hiking Meetup

This was the first one I attended anyway. It was a moonlight hike, which I'd never done before. We were all to bring flashlights, although there was a 90% full moon. Clear sky. Kinda cold, but really, it was warmer than the night before, and anyway this is San Antonio. Not exactly known for having real freezes in the wintertime. So we all bundled up and were fine. It was this park called Walker Ranch that I'd never been to before. We all met up in the parking lot of Incredible Pizza to carpool, as we'd been told there wasn't enough parking for everyone. There were supposed to be about 50 or 60 people. So a bunch of us crammed into a truck and I think there was another truck or two with us. When we got there, there were a couple of other vehicles there, but that was it. So as it turned out only about 16 people showed up! So there was plenty of parking after all. Still, we waited for a while, then decided to head out. There were a few trails, and we took one that would probably have some wildlife for us to see. A few deer, who didn't seem to be very afraid of us. They just kind of stared at us, like "What are you doing here so late?" or something. We kept following the trail and headed up on top of the dam, then, came down the side, where we ran into a barbed wire fence. We went through the fence for some reason, and kept going as there seemed to be a trail still. Ended up going through another fence. Kept following the trail. Then came to a sign that said "No Trespassing". Well, we were confused by that as we'd stayed on the trail. But then the other side of the fence said it was the park, so I guess we'd been trespassing before, so we crossed back into the park (?). Someone joked "Who said this wouldn't be a wild night?" in comment for our trespassing earlier. We were all pretty goofy by that point. We saw more deer and some thing that I thought looked like a cat, but someone else said looked like a squirrel (I thought it was too big to be a squirrel, though). Then, since we'd had a good time, we decided to head over to the Lion and Rose pub as the organizers had a room reserved for us. That sounded nice, so we all headed over there. When we got there the room wasn't ready as there were people in there that wouldn't leave. The staff were trying to persuade them, but they were really stubborn and were arguing, etc. It ended up being a half hour past our reservation before we were let in. And it wasn't even a room after all, but an "area". A bit of a let-down. Then we waited there for about 45 minutes for them to come take our drink order. Some people hadn't had a chance to eat before the hike and were hungry, but the staff wouldn't take food orders until later. That made some of us pretty mad. Then, we waited nearly an hour for the drinks to come. No explanation or apology or anything. Some people left. One guy complained, but got a story about the bartender being taken away by EMS. Well, if we'd known that we would have been a little more patient, but they didn't tell us anything. Then, waited another 30 minutes or so for them to come take food orders. It took so long to get the food orders, that some people were getting ready to leave right as the food arrived. By then, it was midnight, so I just ate a little and took the rest home. Really, it was disappointing. But that particular pub has more than one location, and someone said the other locations were better staffed. So maybe we'll go to a different one. Everyone said the food was good, though. I just got a dessert, but I'll admit it was good. I'd just rather go somewhere else, maybe the one off 1604 next time.

Anyway the next meetup is at O.P. Schnabel, which is a park we go to all the time in my family as it's nearby. It will be a daytime hike. They want to go to Hill's and Dale's afterward, which is not really my style. It's a place right by the UTSA campus, so everyone went there all the time, but it looked kinda like a biker bar, so I never wanted to go there. I still don't.

N got laid off from his job, so I'm hoping he finds something soon and something in SA. He's afraid he may have to move, as he hasn't found many jobs here and the ones he's been interviewed for are out of town. So I'm pretty bummed about that. But hopefully he'll be here long enough to go on the hike with me and we can spend some time together afterward. At least we could do something during the week maybe. Something. I hope he doesn't have to leave, though. I mean, it would just be my luck to meet someone and have this happen, wouldn't it? Maybe he'll just move back to Austin and we can still see each other. I don't know. I can hope.

Anyway, I guess that's it. I have a job interview tomorrow, but I'm not 100% sure about it. I'm really checking them out as much as they're checking me out. I just wonder about the place and if it's legit, you know? Plus, it's not a creative position, which is a drawback for me. But you never know. Really, I applied for other jobs that I'd rather get interviewed for and I'm hoping I hear from them this week. Please, please, please.

Coffee Meetup

There was a coffee meetup on Wednesday and I'm only just now writing about it. Lazy, I know. But it was a good meetup. I met up with C, who is my neighbor. She lives just a building down from me. She is now the assistant organizer of the group and her boyfriend is now the organizer. They decided to keep it going after Dunn Brother's closed, which is good as a lot of people wanted it to continue. We met this time at Da Vinci Gelato. It was soooo good. Now you know how addicted to Starbucks I am, right? Well, this was pretty darn good. I had an amaretto latte and it came in this pretty glass mug with a little design put in the foam with the espresso. They also gave me a little square of dark chocolate for the coffee. It was so pretty that the organizer, who is an amateur photographer, wanted to get photos of it. A lot of people tried the gelato, which I didn't try as it looked really fattening, although there were promised fat-free selections that I didn't check out. I mainly wanted coffee. I knew I would need to eat again later to take my Geodon, so I didn't want to eat there.

Anyway, there is this other coffee house that is downtown that everyone wanted to try. It's called Ruta Maya and it's one of the top 5 coffee houses in the country. But the meetup is on a Saturday and I can't go. : ( Then they tried to change the date to Sunday, but forgot that the place is closed on Sundays. Darn. So, they'll have to arrange for that another time as well, when other people can go. But I wanted to try the place. There are others coming up, so I'm hoping I can go to some of them. The next one is just at La Madeleine. Should be good as we can get dinner, too.

Not much else going on at present. Still waiting to hear back from the last job interview. They may or may not call me back, but I'm hoping I get called back. I will even beg if they want me to. Really. I'm not above it. But a couple of people at the coffee meetup said they knew people who might be hiring, so I hope that's true. The more leads the better. I gave one guy my business card to give to this other guy, but I think he might have had a crush on me as he kept telling C how cute I was and that I was "like a little doll". Then again, I am tiny, so maybe that's all it was. But C thought he was gonna ask me out at some point. Of course, I am still seeing N, so that probably won't happen.

Well, I guess that's it for now. I'll try to keep updating if stuff actually happens. Take care everyone.

I'm still in the running...

Despite my lack of experience in graphic design, I think the job interview went well. I think it didn't really matter as they said they'll train me, so I'm relieved. Plus, the graphic design stuff they do is all on templates and you basically just drag and drop most of the time. I can handle that easily enough. The other stuff the job entails is what I'd be doing most of the time, so they'd definitely have to train me for that and they said they would. I think my previous jobs have prepared me somewhat for the other duties, so hopefully I'll get a second interview. They're interviewing for the next couple of weeks, then they'll be calling a couple of people back for the second interview. Just PLEASE let me be one of them!

I was supposed to meet N yesterday, but he had plans with a friend for dinner and he was going to meet me after. He said he'd call and he never did. I'm assuming that he just got carried away at dinner and lost track of time. So we'll worry about that later, I guess. He hasn't called today. Anyway, got to hang out with H yesterday. Got our usual Starbucks fix and H gave me a Christmas present. Just a cute little scarf and a $5 Bucky's gift card. Then we did a little shopping. H had a gift card for Barnes and Noble and wanted to get a book. I got a calendar as they were half off. I really wanted this poodle one, but it wasn't marked down. It was the last one, so I couldn't check the other ones. I was disappointed at that, but I got this other one that's nice, too. So now I can keep track of my appointments.

I saw the most adorable Sketchers at Kohl's, but they didn't have a size small enough for me. I mean, the smallest they had was a size 7. Really, short people need shoes, too! Oh well. So then I looked them up on the Kohl's website, and they don't stock smaller than a size 6. I'm a size 5. : ( Then I looked on the Sketchers website, but they cost a lot more there. So I guess I won't be getting them, no matter how cute they are. : ( and : ( again.

But we had fun and promise to do it again soon. She has a birthday coming up, so I have yet another gift to buy. I was hoping I was done with that, but then I remembered the b-day thing, so I guess not. Anyway, will try to keep updating as I hear about the job situation. If I'm really lucky I'll get some more interviews and not have to feel like everything's staked on this one job.