Phone Interviews are Tiring

First of all I had 3 phone interviews today so I apologize for the short post. It's just that I am so totally tired of talking about myself and summing up my resume/my past 6.5 years in DC. 

So my severance pay ends at the end of this month so I've been looking at ways to cut costs in my life. I live in DC which isn't the cheapest place around and some things are just necessary (coffee is one of those things I'm sorry. I know every person is probably like well stop paying for coffee but hey I don't smoke or do crack so I think I'm allowed to get coffee. Besides I've started going to Dunkin Donuts which is cheaper) Below are some of the things I've done that have helped me save some cash.

My kind relatives: My cousin Colleen just called me. Apparently I had left my sunglasses in her room during her wedding and she mailed them back to me like a week ago. During our conversation she was like "so have you used the chipotle and starbucks gift card yet?" I had no idea what she was talking about until she informed me that they had been in the box that she had sent the sunglasses in and apparently I had just totally missed them. Now coffee and burritos are two things that make me happy. And with the end of my severance pay on the horizon and with the cost of peanut butter going up I need to watch my funds. Therefore if you add the word free into the front of those two words, I begin to do a tap of glee. So I tore apart my room, found the box and then the giftcards! That's a win for Kelly! It's a good thing I never throw anything away.  A burrito from Chipotle is like two meals!

Cab Drivers: I don’t know what it is, but cab drivers love me, and  most of the time I love them. I can’t even begin to recount the number of meaningful heart-to-hearts I’ve had with cab drivers. Why pay a therapist something like $300 a session and have most of the session be spent with me awkwardly looking around the office desperately trying to think of something to talk about. However get me in the back of a cab and I open up like I’ve just taken a truth serum (Harry Potter Shout -Out!). I think part of it is I feel uncomfortable sitting in the back of a cab with the driver up front, it is a little to much like "Driving Miss Daisy for Me." So the second I sit in the back of the cab, I start rambling "Hey! How is your night going?" and the conversation just takes off from there. Some of the times it ends with driver telling me about his nephew who really wants to come to the states and is looking for a  nice wife just like me which is when I just start nodding and smiling. But most of the time I end up having a really good conversation. A lot of the cab drivers in DC are from Ethiopia and have some great stories.   

The first weekend after I got laid off I was pretty busy having a pity party for one. But my friend Alli invited me to go out so I went and I'm glad I did. I ended up cabbing it home that night because the bar we were at wasn't near a metro station and I pretty much got the best cabbie EVER. He was from Ethiopia and when I sat in the cab he asked me how my night was going and I just started word vomiting out my life story like this was Taxi Cab confessions. After telling him that I had been laid off and was never  going to find a job, he paused held up one hand and said "What will happen will happen. Just enjoy the now" I can't even explain to you why that hit the spot. He then told me that he had just the song for me. He then plugged in his iPod to the stereo, rolled down all of the windows, and blasted Toto's "Africa". And began to sing along forcing me to as well. I'm not going to lie it was one of the best times I've had this fall. Nothing like driving around downtown DC at 2am with the windows rolled down screaming " I bless the rains down in Africa." When I got of the cab the driver told me to "take care and that it will all work out" I don’t know why I adopt this open-book persona with cabbies, but I appreciate our time together. It’s less expensive than therapy and pine-scented. And they don't care if you have insurance or not so there is no co-pay (other then the cab fee)

The Dunkin Donuts cashier: I don’t mean for things to take a weird turn here, but the kid who makes my morning cafe misto at Dunkin Donuts is a-freaking-dorable and I want to thank him for brightening my day. Since the majority of my day is spent staring at a computer screen applying for jobs I appreciate any form of human interaction I can get.  He is super short, Indian (I think), and barely speaks English. But he recognizes me and gives me free donut holes, big smiles and the other day I got a free coffee. He went to hand it to me and I was like oh thanks how much? And he went: "No it's free, it's on me today" and then wiggled his eyebrows. I accepted the coffee so depending on his culture I may or may not be engaged to him right now. But any man who can keep me in carbs and caffeine is a good one. 

Instead of fighting over health-care reform I think everyone just needs to watch this video.