Road Trip

Woo hooo-  a road trip with three other women. The Dinosaur, two other friends and I are traveling East. 

It's been Many years since I've done this. 

I remember the one road trip we took to Illinois  somewhere for a 4-H competition. 

It was my mom, our 4-H leader and 3 teenagers; myself and the twins. I'm pretty sure that I drove part of the trip. We went past Chicago on that trip. 

I have to admit that the trip between Detroit to Chicago is pretty boring. Especially when you've done it more than 5 times. 

Anyway- 5 women in one hotel room is stretching the limit on anyone. 

I think it was more taxing on my mom as the other two girls were terrible sleepers and slow to get ready. In my head when I think of it - I imagine my high school French teacher yelling "Veit, Veit" at students to hurry up. I heard that story from students who went to Europe with her. 

( I just spent 10 minutes trying to get the right spelling for "Veit" and proper translation.  Well- can't find one that works. I tried hurry up, rush, faster, & something else- nothing works.  Maybe one of my Canadian friends can help me - as my teacher was from Quebec and the word might be slang from there. )

Road trips- that was the point of this post.  

Today we are driving from Detroit to Niagara  Falls, NY.  Thru Ohio - yup one person does not have a passport or enhanced license.  Although people on this trip have said other people have told them that going thru Canada is slower due to Construction and the boarder crossings. 

Ohio is just the turn pike and the cops.  We have seen lots if Po-Po in Ohio today. They were totally nailing everyone today. We saw them out with radar guns and friends. 

We just got to Pennsylvania and saw this Casino race track when we stopped for gas. We hit a Sheets gas station. It was pretty fabulous. Think like 7-eleven and huge gas station. It was new and clean. Just what I like.  :-). 

Off and on we can see Lake Erie out the driver side of the car and the weather is beautiful today. I'm glad we decided to drive to the falls today and not on the way back.  I'm sure it will rain on the way home. You just know it. 

Well off to watch out the windows to Buffalo. 

We'll be on the mountains of Massachusetts for most of the weekend with no phone or Internet service. See us when we emerge. 

Job Applications

It occurs to me that job applications now are much more difficult to deal with.

My case being today, I spent 5+ hours working on ONE job application.
First because they asked a question that I really had to think about and go searching for the proper words to express my thoughts in the answer.
Second because they asked for 15 years of job info.  Yes - 15 years.
I had to dig around in papers that I thought were long gone to get the rest of the info.  Thank goodness for Google, otherwise I would not have had addresses to go with some of those 15 years.  Heck, I don't have address for at least 1 or 2 because the business is no longer around.

The funny thing is - this is not the first day I have worked on that application.  I was just very determined today to finish it.

I don't feel to terrible about the really hard question, even though I know I asked about 5 people for help.  I got some and got some better ideas of where to find the right words, but it was tough.

I just sort of felt 15 years was a little too much to ask for.  In this world of I only had that job to tide me over, or that business closed down and that's why I'm looking, to the poor teachers who keep getting laid off (You know who you are). 15 years could take a couple pages.  I even left out the substitute teaching I did this past year, because I have NO idea what address to put down for those weird companies.

I have tried to keep some of the more difficult information stored in my contacts now, but I still have to hit google almost every time I do an application, because I just don't have a list of ALL the jobs I had in one place.

So, MY suggestion to all of you- is to start that list now.  Sure you'll be dropping those wonderful years at Taco Bell off your Resume real soon, but who knows how far back your next employer will ask you to take your list.
Make sure you have a company name, address, phone number - the actual dates you worked there and probably someone you liked to keep on a list with their own email and phone number - just in case the company goes down.
I do have info on a couple people who I worked with from companies that are no longer around. I put their name and number down in case they want to just talk to someone who worked with me.

Good luck in Your Job searching.  I know mine is going very slow.

Best items ever

Traveling

We have been on the road for a week. 

Sleeping is always a worry on the road.  It's not your bed, it doesn't have the same sounds, or your pets aren't in the same place.  

Well, I give you the next best thing. 

And this worked even on my mothers hardest bed of the universe. ( I woke up in pain but I did sleep). 

There are two items here and the only thing missing is iPhone ( which I used to take the picture). 

First is the double USB plug from Costco- although I know they are at Kmart, meijers and probably Walmart. I have an iPhone 5 so it uses the bottom plug- to the white cord. 

The second item is the speaker. Mine is a rechargeable USB powered speaker. There are two kinds of these. Mine is the kind you can daisy chain a few together to maximize sound. The Dinosaur has one that changes color while it plays. 

I use this for sleeping so the lights don't help me. 

With the 2 USB plug both items have power and are close enough to each other to work just fine.  I like it on a bedside table. 

WHY?? You ask.  

Well I found an app called Sleep Machine lite. 

It plays different white noise sounds. Like wind, waves and stuff like that. You can take a few sounds and mix them to get your blend. 

It also has a timer and you can add an alarm at the end or not. 

These items have made it so that I can get at least 5-7 good hours of sleep even in the worst situations. Plus- I only have to carry ONE small bag with me. Not my whole computer. Or blow out the tiny speakers on the phone. 

(Which I did last summer to my old phone after 2 weeks on the road.)

Hey - it also works great for a instant hotel room party.  Or sharing music with a small group. 

The speaker does work with its rechargeable battery, but I have not tested out its battery life yet. I'll probably do that later this month. 

Well- sweet dreams. Off to plug in and pass out.