Job Interviews, Cheesie's and Skinny Jeans

Hello from the free wifi courtesy of the Chicago Public Library -- West Town. Today has already been a busy day and it isn't even over yet!

Instead of spending another day on hold with IKEA, I had/have two job interviews today! The only thing more exciting than that is the fact that I got my first measly paycheck from my first measly temp gig this morning. The check barely covers the cost of anything, but it's a start.

My first interview was about 35-40 minutes away, with the bus/red line train combo that I'm becoming quite familiar with. I have also started noticing that the bus has been hitting traffic in the exact same place every time I have taken it since I got here and that it has caused me to be late on more than one occasion. Not wanting to miss out on something as important as a job interview and knowing that I could easily run into rush hour problems, I decided that I would leave at 8:30 for my 10 o'clock interview. Lo and behold, no traffic today, so I arrived roughly 45 minutes early with nothing to do!

Having checked Google Maps the night before, I knew that there was a coffee shop -- Osmium Coffee Bar -- right next door. At this point, I didn't want anything except a restroom but since I knew I was going to be sitting at this place for at least a half hour, I ordered a blueberry muffin. For some reason, I was more nervous for this interview than usual so this was dangerous because I came very close to vomiting it back up.

One thing I already knew about Osmium is that my writer's group is planning on meeting there in a few weeks, so now, if I can't make it to group for some reason, I will have already been there, or if I get to go back, I will be able to try something new. A quick Google search also taught me that they are a part of the "Dark Matter Coffee" family. Dark Matter Coffee is another coffee roaster here and according to their website they want to deliver "the most intellectually honest coffee you will experience." I'm not sure I had an intellectual experience there -- the blueberry muffin tasted strangely like cookie dough, which doesn't mean it tasted bad but also doesn't mean that it tasted like a real muffin, which is what I wanted when I paid for a muffin. From looking at pictures on their website, it looks like Osmium really takes the "dark" in "dark matter" more seriously than their other locations. The whole place was done in shades of blue and purple with graffiti/airbrush art on the walls. The bathroom was also covered in graffiti, but not the type that they paid an artist to do -- the type you're likely to see if you send an eighth grader into a restroom with a couple of Sharpie markers. I might be mistaken about Osmium being darker than its sisters; I guess I'll just have to investigate and if I'm proven wrong, I shall apologize profusely to the insulted coffee parties.

To make me just a smidge more nervous, I could see a flyer for the job I was about to interview for directly under the blaring neon Dark Matter logo on the wall...

With 15 minutes to go before the interview, I went for a walk around the block. I wanted to be a respectable 10 minutes early and not creepily hanging by the door like some theatre stalker. Except when I came back, the door was locked, so I stood there in my button down with my trademark pink backpack (no blue shoes this time), looking like a creepy theatre stalker. Time kept ticking by. I hoped that every person who passed me would be the one I was looking for, but as far as I could tell, no one was ever coming to unlock those theatre doors. At 10:15, I checked my email and found the cell phone number of the guy I was supposed to be talking with and gave him a call -- there was another entrance to the building and he'd been waiting for me.

Actually, he and about half of the people in the theatre had walked right past me on their way in and thought that I worked at the hair salon next door since apparently people typically smoke in the exact spot I was standing in. I don't know why none of them questioned my lack of cigarette, but I was there for an interview and needed to turn up the charm and turn down the snark (which is clearly not an easy thing for me to do, I mean, have you read these parentheticals? It basically takes all of my brain power to say something genuine). Despite the late start, I'd say it went as well as I could have hoped. But that's all I'm going to say because I don't want to jinx myself!

After that, I walked around the neighborhood a bit. This job interview happened to be two blocks from Cheesie's, a grilled cheese restaurant I visited last weekend, so I obviously had to reward myself with some of that amazingness! (I also found $20 in my pocket this morning, so I took that as a sign). But Cheesie's didn't open until 11 and my interview had finished at 10:45, so I walked. Which was nice except that it was starting to get hot. The black skinny jeans that had provided me with money fairy money in the early morning were also causing me to overheat before I'd even made it to the afternoon. I was the first person in Cheesie's when they opened their doors and I hung my button down top over the back of my chair so that we could both air out.

I enjoyed the Frenchie the last time I visited Cheesie's, but I obviously needed to try something new! I went with The Popper (I feel like I'm saving their grilled mac and cheese for a special occasion but who really knows).The Popper is essentially the jalapeno popper mac and cheese I make, sans mac and cheese. It has cheddar cheese, cream cheese, cheddar sauce and jalapeno slices in between two thick slices of sour dough bread. It comes with a chipotle mayo sauce. It also comes with bacon on it, but I ordered the vegetarian version for obvious I'm-a-vegetarian reasons.

First off, the chipotle mayo was fine BUT it should have been ranch. I don't know if they have ranch dipping sauce at Cheesie's but they should. The chipotle and the jalapenos were two different levels of spicy that kind of meshed, I guess, but it felt wrong. Also, they were not skimpy with the jalapenos. They weren't too insanely spicy for me (after the lava shots of ghost peppers and rum, I don't think anything will truly be too spicy for me) but it was still a lot of jalapeno. I ended up picking most of them off the second half of my sandwich, but Cheesie's is still going to be a favorite restaurant of mine.

I'm not sure I can accept this job if I get it because being that close to Cheesie's on a regular basis would put my waistline in considerable danger.

I texted Mandy that I was going to Cheesie's and she told me to bring her one, but I couldn't, because I needed to head to my next interview! (To be honest, I probably could have squeezed in the time to bring her one but it would have been extremely complicated and probably soggy by the time I made it to her -- both me and the sandwich).

Not going to lie, I dragged out my time at Cheesie's because my other interview wasn't for a few hours, but at noon, I decided it was time to go. Again, I had another 35-40 minutes of expected travel time and three hours until my scheduled interview. I got on the red line again and then took a new bus that I'd never taken before. I got off at the correct stop but since I had zero plans of what I was going to do, I went looking for a library. Luckily for me, it was less than a mile away. Unluckily for me, the bus would have taken me straight there if I hadn't already gotten off.

So, I walked. You'll be as delighted as I was that my jeans hadn't become any more breathable since the morning and I was a hideous sweat monster by the time I had walked past the library and had to turn around to walk back.

I went on the library with more than just a mission of killing an hour or two; I brought Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with me when I moved here. It has always been my favorite book in the HP series and that decision proved to be both a great triumph and utter agony. I LOVED rereading the book again. It was a brilliant decision, except now, I have completed it and despite my handy library card, the Logan Square branch of the library doesn't have any of the other HP books! I thought maybe the West Town branch would have it so after going to the bathroom to rid myself of any signs of my recent physical exertion as best as I could, I went looking through the shelves, but nope. I had to settle for blogging instead of getting to relive my 10-year-old amazement at Harry's performance fighting a dragon and the sheer terror of Voldemort's return that haunted my nightmares until college.

I guess you, lucky reader, have benefited from this suffering -- the same way we all benefited from JK Rowling using her crippling depression as inspiration for dementors. Yup, I'm the Rowling of snarky Chicago bloggers and I'm out for now because I have another .7 miles to walk back to my interview.

P.S. I have two more interviews in the next two days, so I'm killing the game over here!