acmnp

Stumbled upon the website for A Christian Ministry in the National Parks (the name's a bit of a clunker) today and found myself applying for a staff position for this summer/fall. ACMNP is an organization that sends people to U.S. national parks to serve as ministers for park employees, organizing church services and community events. What's cool about it is that though it's a volunteer position, the organization connects you with paid jobs in the park so that you can support yourself and get connected with other park staff. I spent my evening at church making lists of the places we'd most like to work - Bryce Canyon (Utah), Zion (Utah), and Acadia (Maine) are currently at the top. Cool, huh?

-Rachel

picture: bryce canyon

proof that being cheap isn't always cheaper.

disclaimer: those of you who value oral hygiene may wish to skip this one.

i'll be honest - i've never been very keen on flossing, so dental floss was one item that didn't make it into our packs when we left for new zealand. much too cumbersome. but a week or two ago i decided to make good on some new year's resolutions and, being too cheap to spend $6 on dental floss, chose instead to use the thread that was stored in our repair kit. it was a bit dusty from our months in the wilderness, so i gave it a good rinse and used it anyway. bad idea.

earlier this week i began experiencing a pain on the left side of my mouth which escalated until i could no longer sleep through the night. though i'm usually the last person to voluntarily visit the dentist, i scheduled an appointment for the first slot available as we were running out of the ice and pain reliever that i had been relying on. at 4 am as i lay awake with a lukewarm icepack on my face i realized that i was actually looking forward to my visit to the clinic as it potentially meant some relief and the ability to chew my food instead of slurping it through the small opening that my jaw now permitted.

it took the dentist no more than 5 minutes to evaluate my condition, write me a prescription, and usher me towards the credit card machine. i have, as suspected, an infected wisdom tooth that will eventually need removing. fantastic.

saved:
$6 dental floss

spent:
$40 dental evaluation
$29 antibiotics and painkillers
$70 x-rays
$? extraction of tooth
$6 dental floss

proof that being cheap isn't always cheaper.

-rachel

movies. and typing tests.

it should come as no surprise for most of you that bryan and i are actively engaging in oscar season, even from afar. as usual, we eagerly scanned the internet on nomination day to see how our best picture guesses compared to the actual list and have been dutifully (oh, what a chore!) keeping up our tuesday movie date, trying to see as many highly-nominated movies as possible before the event. we do, of course, have a color-coded listing of all the nominees, ranked by number and quality of nominations and containing detailed notes on the theatrical and DVD release dates for new zealand wherever possible. we've been waiting for some recent releases to become available on fatso (a netflix equivalent), but when bryan excitedly threw open the bedroom door this morning to tell me that we'd soon be getting "up" and "inglourious basterds", i just heard him yelling the titles and thought he was telling me to get out of bed already with the unexpected use of a rather rude expletive.

this year we've been pleased to find most of the animated shorts available on youtube, and recommend both french roast and the lady and the reaper for your viewing pleasure. among the feature-length films there are a couple of movies that seem to appeal especially strongly to an american audience and so aren't available here, notably "the hurt locker" (tied with avatar for most nominations), "the blind side" (surprise best picture nominee), and "a serious man" (another coen effort with a minnesota connection); i suppose this just gives us more to look forward to on our return. saw "precious" this week, which we both enjoyed despite a number of scenes that are physically uncomfortable to watch.

in other news, i've discovered that i have a typing speed of around 105 wpm, as measured by typingtest.com for my application with a temp agency. i tested myself on two different websites, five times each, so i think i can be fairly confident with the results, which allow me to check the highest box in the "typing speed" category on my application - and we know i can use all the help i can get. from the "no, thanks" emails littering my inbox, it looks like i won't be a salad maker or a fish shop assistant or a receptionist for an autoglass company. i'm starting to appreciate the way that these rejection emails are worded...my favorite so far is the one from apex car rentals, which regrets to advise me that my application was not successful, as "a large number of applications were received and the overall standard was very high". what i appreciate is the subtle insinuation that my low quality might get me a job at some other time, but my wily trickery won't work now that the company is hearing from so many other applicants. i also like the one that informs me that they have shortlisted others with "more appropriate experience than yourself", as if i got caught trying to sneak in my inappropriate experience. thanks for that.

-rachel

and the unemployment continues.

i forced myself to leave the apartment today to distribute copies of my resume around town, having finally gotten a power cord for the printer which has been sitting, misleadingly, on the desk since we moved in. i headed down to the south city mall, which can barely be accurately called a mall (especially compared to the mall of america), where i got used to hearing "not hiring" from gum-chewing 16-year-olds. part of the frustration with this failed job search is not even being considered for jobs that i'd formerly considered to be "beneath me". even burger king isn't hiring. this is quite an exercise in humility.

bryan's job at subway is barely a step up from unemployment. his manager is the king of all cheapskates: neither orientation nor his training day were paid, the employees don't get paid if they have to stay later than 10 pm to finish cleaning, and the expectation is that after one day of training, new employees will have mastered their new job to perfection. apparently no one has ever heard positive feedback from the manager, but all have been subjected to his scathing reprimands. sounds like fun. it's good that bryan's working there and not me, though it seems like even his calm personality may be threatened by this job.

on the upside, we're both becoming skilled painters, having just completed our third painting project at the church. it's incredibly satisfying to remove the painter's tape and roll up the tarps to reveal a clean new look. yesterday i was even able to exercise some administrative skills in helping the youth pastor with a Publisher project that had been frustrating him. i've been pretty cautious about involving myself with youth ministry projects at the church, as the youth pastor just started working at the church the week that we arrived and i want to give him some space. bryan and i will probably end up working with the family ministry that the senior pastor wants to start in the next month or two, which is closer to what we want to do long-term anyway. bryan even wrote his senior project on family ministry, which just means involving families with young kids in the church in a way that makes them feel welcome and not burdensome.

on monday we've been invited to the pastor's house to watch the superbowl, though it starts at noon here, and have promised to bring a classic american football snack. any suggestions? we were thinking about a classic layered dip, but haven't seen fritos or refried beans here, and these seem to be staples. we were then asked if we'd like to stay for tea afterwards, leading us to envision cucumber sandwiches and petits fours before realizing that we were really being invited to dinner. it should be an altogether enjoyable superbowl party, at which i may be (for once) among the most knowledgeable football minds, though i'm guessing we'll miss the commericals that make a lackluster game so much more watchable...

sorry no pictures this week...as you can tell, we've been really boring :)

-rachel