Some Updates

I guess it is time for a bit of an update here.

As far as I know, it is neither a yes or no if I'm hired -more of a 'wait and see- with The Paw Wash, where I had an interview at a while ago.

As for Star City Bark Ave, my work hours decreases from two days a week into once a week. Instead of working on Fridays and Saturdays, I only work on Thursdays.

I'm very lucky to be living with my sister instead of living in an apartment during that situation. I still needed money nevertheless to make a living in paying the bills, gas, food and rent. Thankfully, I have enough birthday money to last a month or so, I hope.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
On a side note, life in Virginia isn't too bad. Some ups and downs as usual. Some days were productive and some days were a humbug. A bi-polar life indeed. I continue to enjoy using DeviantART site. Though I haven't posted more writings yet in the past week.

I recently explored many Deaf websites and decided to signed up into All Deaf Forums site. I like it so far because it is so full of interesting information to read and share with others. I also discovered that there is a Deaf Authors Forum but I did not signed up for it because many of my writings are all in DeviantART. However, I am very pleased to know that there are many deaf people who enjoys writing as much as I do.

Eventful Saturday

A small muzzle nuzzling my face at five in the morning, a puppy refused to let me sleep. I managed to get up and let two of the small dogs outside. When they're done, we returned to bed together. A hand patting my leg, a sister motioned me to get up. She tapped her wrist with a worry frown. It was 8:30 in the morning. I sort of overslept. I set my sidekick cellphone alarm at 7 am but forgotten to turned on the vibration-mode. Go figures. I got up and got dressed and ready for work with a lazy attitude.

Because it appeared that all the cereals boxes are empty, I instead had two set of flour soft tortillas, spread with sour cream, a slice of ham and melted cheese for breakfast. I ate them all absentmindedly as I drove down the road. I merge into I581 from I81 highway, driving along on the fast lane, as usual. A white car behind me followed me for a bit, before he decided to turn on the flashing lights.

I smirked at myself and eventually pulled over to a stop at the shoulder of the highway. I rolled down the window and grab the blue wallet from my tan purse. I discovered that my driver license are nowhere to be found. I chuckled nervously at a cute young man cop and explained the situation. I have no driver license, no proof of auto-insurance, no registration papers, and that I moved into VA in July, bought this car in June. I handed him the military card instead. He muttered something about checking to see if this car wasn't stolen.

He returned and muttering something about license. This cute man are hard for me to understand. After several unsuccessful tries, he motioned me to get out of the car, to the back of the car, and pointed at the license plate. I finally got the pieces together. I was suppose to get a new license plate because the one I have is like a tag to the previous owner. So I needed to get a new 'tag' for my car to claim it mine. Once I understand what's going on, he motioned me to go. I quickly apologized and thanked him and returned to my car and hit the road. Yes, that's right. I got NO TICKET from him. Couldn't you believe how LUCKY I was?!

I arrived to work 25 minutes late and told the tale to the workers. I was pleased with the work today. I groomed three dogs (a Cocker and two mix-mutts) and managed to get them done at around expected due time. The last dog was completed on time at 3 pm. I thought I will get $110 but I got $152 paycheck. Just the right amount to pay 'rent' at my sister's house.

Job Interveiw

Good evening family and friends.

I managed to hit the sack at midnight instead of 2 or 3 am. I got up around 6:30 am to prepare myself for the job interview. I flipped open my laptop. While it is warming up I got dressed and then I opened up information and varies of sites as usual. I studied the directions to work. I was about ready to jot down the information, the laptop restart itself: updating whatever into my laptop. Grrr. So, while I wait for my laptop to be done with, I ate breakfast: just a bowl of cereal and a cup of orange juice. Then I got the information down. After searching for my other pair of shoes and realizing that I left my keys in the car, I finally hit the road to work about 8:15 am.

According to the map on the internet, it is about 45 - 50 minutes drive from home to Bedford, where the job interview located. I blasted on the music and enjoyed cruising down the road. The grooming shop is called The Paw Wash, that snuggled in the cute little downtown, just right off the highway 460. I arrived and parked 20 minutes early. (Suppose to be at 9:30 am.) The shop are colorful simple clean and manageable.  I bathed & dried the dog, then I groomed her. It was a black toy poodle. Not too difficult to groom, except for her being snappy at the clipper whenever we --yes we, me and the groomer named Jennifer-- tried to shave her face. We gave up and settled for scissoring the face the best we can. [chuckled] She was adorable SMALL thing and we don't want to risk hurting her for trying to shave her face whenever she kept moving and opening her mouth.

Job interview are usually done by grooming one dog, but I ended up doing two and half dogs. It turned out that the two bathers turned up sick with flu. So I helped Jennifer with her work. Because I end up staying longer than I assume, I had to get my car out of the 3-hour parking lot. Luckily no parking ticket, but the battery died. Oops, I left the light on. I informed Jennifer and she got a man from the next door shop to come jump the car. He was a nice fellow. I parked my car in the correct place. Then resume the work.

I finished with work sometime after 4pm, and drove home, feeling pleased and tired. I had a can of sprite that Jennifer got for me because I did not have lunch. I got cash of money I earned from doing the work today: $50.

Am I hired? Not yet. Jennifer will talk with her husband first, to see if they can afford having bather AND a groomer. And she have someone to interview with next. I will find out for sure within a couple days.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention. I was walking down the sidewalk on the way to The Paw Wash, when I heard a yell. I turned and saw a well-dressed lady waving at me. She cross the narrow road and said hi to Yoda. Oh brother. She was simply trying to get my attention so she can meet and play with Yoda. He have way too much charm in him.

♥

Dogs At Work

[sigh] I tried creating a 'movie' clip with the photos of the dogs I took at work from the one program, but it doesn't work for some reason. So I decided to use this slide show. But I am disappointed with it because it is missing few photos. [frustrated]

Birthday Time

I created a video with the photos I took at work and for some reason it did not work on the blog. I will keep working on that and get it posted here.

In the meantime, I decided to type out the fun I had today on my 26th birthday. I got up early in the morning because I have work. I went downstairs and sorta ruin the surprised. The family planned to give me breakfast in bed. But it was alright. The breakfast was yummy and fun: strawberry smoothie, bacon, orange-icing rolls & regular rolls, and the fresh strawberries. I had my sister to make a call at work to check if I have dogs for me: I have two dogs and they needed me nevertheless.

I groomed two West Highland Terriers: young & old. It is very fun to see the difference with them side by side. The elderly one named Misty were dirty, especially around the face. The young one named Tatter (I think) were high-spirited type of personality. I arrived to work around 9:30 and left around 12:30. West Highland Terriers are fairly easy to groom.

I returned home and found the family hiding in my bedroom. They created a Happy Birthday banner and hang on the wall above my bed. The drawings from the kids are adorable. The bedroom were extra cleaned up (mostly vacuumed which was needed to be done badly because the dogs chewed up the dead flowers).

We had a fun silly lunch: hash, banana, cheese garlic bread, and ham. Then we painted the mailbox covered, green as mountains and blue as sky. My hands got green from the painting. Then I relaxed with my precious laptop for rest of the evening, till dinner time that is.

Dinner was fun because while eating a plate full of rice and black beans, the family were to ask me 26 questions about myself. What's your favorite cookie? What's your favorite animal: both in fantasy and real life? Etc Etc. It was fun. As soon as we're done eating and asking/answering the 26 questions, we headed over to a large back room of the house where the presents were kept.

It turned out that they got a fun small net thing to play volleyball game with the balloon. We played for a while. I love that game. Then we played a new game: something to do with balancing the boat and the challenge of putting little things on it without getting out of balance or get knocked off.

Then finally it was opening the presents time. The presents are delightful and humorous. I got two colorful dog printed scrubs (cute cute), Celtic necklace from Ireland (love it!), scrubbing brush and sponge for dish-washing (inside joke), two bottles of car-care-stuff (they cleaned my car), sugar cookies (YUM) and my favorite of all..... BODY PILLOW!!!!! YAYAYAYAY