Thursday, March 8, 2007

Life, by the way of Denver

About 6 weeks ago my wife and I finished packing and left Portland early in the morning, with the nose of our car pointed for Denver. Three days, bad weather, terrible road food, $100 in gas, hazardous roads, blowing snow, and a gallon of wiper fluid was all the stood between us and Denver. After arriving and getting into a hotel, we checked in with our new apartment, and it was to be ready on Saturday, we thought everything was alright. Saturday comes, we go to the apartment complex, sign papers and check out our new apartment, it’s not very nice at all, but we’ll deal. Then we go shopping for some food and supplies, and arrive back at the apartment, walk in, and turn on the lights. Cockroaches are everywhere, hundreds of them, an absolute deal breaker. I call the emergency maintenance line and leave a message, back to the hotel we go, unfortunately nobody calls. This had to been an omen.

Fast forward a week and we’re in a nice new apartment about a mile away from the cockroach filled one.

That is one of the few good things that has happened to us while in Denver, to be as polite as humanly possible. (The only two other things that come to mind are NOVO coffee, and Third Thursdays) I went back to Portland for two weeks to cover a few of my friends’ shifts while she is in Guatemala. That was rather cool, she has good employees, and her customers expect high quality, so I was able actually work the bar, not watering myself down. This is the last time I have worked since the move, and now it’s a month later.

Right now, according to my count, I have had 23 interviews, 0 returned calls, 2 people who said I was hired and then avoid me like the plague, 2 coffee shop owners that hide whenever I enter the building, over 100 phone calls to the above interviewers made, and 0 dollars added to my bank account. At this point I am actually looking at moving back to Portland just to get work, which is sad, there are quite a few people who will hire me, or hire me back in the Portland area.

Now I will wait until the end of the month, and by then I will make my decision. Is it really too much to ask for a few hours here and there, and I want to compete for whatever coffee shop picks me up. I really want to do well, expand my skill base, and elevate the knowledgebase of my customers and educate their palette, making them as happy as possible while making sure the coffee I’m serving is socially and environmentally responsible where possible.

I am going to cut myself short, see that I am rather upset at these circumstances that I find myself in, as I don’t think it is deserved, nor do I think it’s fair either. Now I will go and pick up my wife at work, and drive to Colorado Springs, to drop off film that one of her drivers forgot to drop off, woo hoo……..

Wish me luck (or give me a job, whatever works)!!


Ryan

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