Buying a House

So I put in an offer on a house in Oak Park, Mi.

I know I already live in Oak Park but the house was perfect.

All it needs is a new roof, which hud will pay for and a new front door :) oh and refrigerator.

The inside is move in ready, just need some cleaning and painting. The windows are new, the basement is finished and there is a bathroom down there which is awesome, I may make that the "play room" eventually.

I'll know by Monday whether my bid makes it :) Pray for me!

politically speaking

This will likely be my only political blog until after they pick the democratic nominee so here it goes

First off some stuff is bothering me from reading comments on other sites like the Huff Post and Daily Kos and even CNN when they're discussing Obama and Clinton. Why is it that some clinton supports will not support barack because of his extreme supporters and vice versa and would rather vote republican?? What does his supporters and vice versa have to do with either candidate's positions on improving the economy....ending the war in iraq......improving our reputation with the rest of the world.....let me back track and through out there who I support and that is Obama.....

I think he is the right person for the job. I am more impressed by how he has ran his capaign compared to Clinton who has just turned desparate and nasty. I was the biggest supporter of Bill Clinton (though I was like 10 or 11 the first time he ran) though had no opinion either way of Hillary. Once his two terms were up thats when I took notice of her and became not necessarily a fan but I thought nothing but nice thoughts about her.

Then comes this campaign and her arrogance that turned into this retarded sense of entitlement that I have no idea why she has it. She was first lady not a member of his cabinet, why do you deserve to be president off that??

Ok she is a senator in her is it 6th year? Ok run off that, not what you did as first lady because you held no governmental position. Even being senator does not give you the right to be president, you have to work for it and prove yourself worthy like everyone else who throws their name in the hat.

Then the Bill Richardson he owed me his endorsment crap. He worked for BILL CLINTON not Hillary. He doesn't owe Hillary a thing. He could have done Bill a favor and endorsed his wife but it would be a catch 22, he would get called out for endorsing Clinton based on the fact that B Clinton helped jump start his political career or he would get called "Judas" as Carville referred to him for going with Barack. I believe every word that he said that he decided on Obama when the Clinton campaign became ovetly negative. I was disgusted myself so I can only imagine what kind of inside information he has on the Clintons.

Something else that bothers me is the recent flack Obama is getting over his bitter comments. He was asked a question and he answered it bottom line. He didn't lie, nothing was made up, he gave his opinion on what he encountered campaigning in Pennsylvania. Its amazing to me how the Mass Media has just continued to try and successfully try at that to shape this election. They have manufactured it from the time the last person said they wanted in. Every opinion and debate, every thought put out and then reiterated by the people have come straight from Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, WaPo, etc. I'll start listening to the opposition when they stop using the talking points from Fox News.

Well thats all I have for now. I know it was brief and I wanted to go deeper but I'm a little sleepy and its starting to go off topic and it will turn into rambling if I don't stop now.

Til Next Time!

Friends.....How many of us have them

So I'm 25 right and I have no friends. I talk to the same person everyday but he's more than a friend so he doesn't count. ALL but about 25-30 minutes out of my cell phone minutes are with him, the rest is my family. I had a lot of friends when I graduated but I don't talk to any of them anymore for no reason really. I long grew apart from my high school friends though we held on to each other as long as possible. Kids happened (not me though) and just taking different paths caused us not to keep in touch. One person lied on the other and that caused an unneccessary riff though not talking was bound to happen. I have my best friend who I love to death who I just don't spend any time with; she was really all I had when it all boiled down to discarding folks and we don't talk now. My hanging buddies moved so I haven't been out in I don't know how long where I really enjoyed myself, I mean really I haven't been out out in a year really. Thats kind of sad.

Then I had my college friends who have all moved out of the state and doing what they do, keeping in touch with who they keep in touch with but not me. I kinda secluded myself but lines of communication has always been open; hell I'm on facebook, it just takes a few seconds to drop a note and see whats up. I've tried that but rately get a response or it just widdles off and we go anothter couple of months not speaking. I wish I would have held on closer to a couple but what can I do now. I spend all my time at work and at home, I go to target sometimes or the grocery store and that is it. I used to go out a lot, go to the movies and out to a bar but I havne't done anything because I don't have anymore to hang with.

I know this is a little pathetic but I just had to get this out. Its a little lonely my way. I've hit the end of the internet too many times to count and I've read a lot of books. I need some human interaction, a call or text even.

Well I gotta go to bed

Til Next Time

What I'm Doing Now to Change

So its been a minute and I thought I'd give an update on what I'm doing now to change my position.

Well there is the job search though Michigan was #1 in the worst state to look for a job category but I am still looking here. I'm not going to give up on my statejust yet though I have wanted to. But I'm still applying to places all over different kind of jobs different areas. We'll see what happaens with that. I'm trying to make about $4-5k more so I can get my condo and move out the house. I could get one now I think but I'll have to see how this car payment and stuff thing goes see how much money I will actually have to spend on bills associated with a condo. But anywho back to the job search. My dream would be to work for the Pistons though I know that is highly competitive since they're a good team but I apply when they have spots open. Hopefully something will pan out. I'm looking out for the Lions and Tigers too, they don't seem to have spots opened as much though.

Right now I'm applying for any company I can think of and any position they have other than positions like I'm in now, I can't move to another company doing this shit anymore, has to be a forward move. I deserve better, I will get better and I will be better!

After I get my car situation situated I'm going to get back into preparing myself to go back to school, though I'm hearing similar stories to mine with people going through the same thing with their grad school degree I do think it will help some. I'm thinking about a MBA, I got the study books and everything I'm just lacking a little motivation. It'll happen though, one day lol.

Ok, thats enough on this.....a rant is coming next

What Went Wrong

So this is what I think went wrong with my college career.

1. Right Major/Wrong Time
I received my BA in Sports Management and Communications. Freshman year I wanted to be a sports agent, not really thinking about and not really abreast about how all of that works and what it means to be a sports agent. So I applied to the Division of Kinesiology which housed along with Sports Management, physical education, movement science, and athletic training. It may have dawn on those in charge that this particular concentration would serve better in the business school or maybe a joint hook up with sports management and the relevant b-school classes (which we had but the b-school did not want us taking classes with their students). It was painfully aware that this major was tailored made for athletes who either wouldn't make it to the pros or needed a back up plan. This was not set up for students who wanted to really do something business related in the sporting industry. We were the butt of many jokes because most of the football team were sports management majors and a lot of the classes weren't really dumbed down for the athletes but weren't really that hard

There was no clear way to have a concentration like advertising or marketing or economics because they only offered one class on each. If I took advertising and sports adveritsing and marketing and sports marketing does that make a good candidate for a marketing career??? I don't think so but I took all four of those classes as well as sport economics and racism and sports and sport psychology, and sport law, basically a hodgepodge of sporting topics. I don't believe anything prepared me for any kind of career path.

Fast forward to my junior year and a problem with b-school attitude with us taking their classes but our classes should be wide open for their students and the Kines directors decide well we'll shut them out and make our program more competitive. Too late for me to partake in this wonderful restructuring that allow for more specific track of study. They added more requirements that in my opinion provided a better background for the higher level classes. It was an all around great change that my class was not apart of. So I graduated with a B.A. in Sports Management and no clue on what to do next.

2. Not Being Active Enough
I didn't join any major groups, didn't participate in anything really. I was just there taking classes and going home every weekend. I look back at all the different programs I could have joined all the contacts I could have made and I lost out on a lot. I was too busy trying to keep up with the few friends I have at home to be worried about the people on campus and what they were doing. And now I don't even talk to those people I was coming home to see all the time. I could have had a great college life but chose to do otherwise. I hated college. But now that I think about it, it is all my own fault. I always say life is what you make it and I made Michigan a terrible experience.


Well when I first started this I had a longer list but I've forgotten most of it now so I'll leave it at these two and maybe a part two later.

So I'm out!

The Job Search, My Jobs, and Why It All Sucks

Like I stated in the previous post I was jobless for about a year. Everyday, Sunday-Saturday I would send out my resume, apply for jobs, look for jobs and play on the internet. I was on CareerBuilder, Monster, Hot Jobs, TeamWork Online (sports job database), Higher Ed jobs, looking through the local papers and every other job search database I could find. The only responses I got were from those fake sales/advertising/marketing jobs and insurance companies that don't care what your degree is in. I had already been warned about the fake sales jobs, they're all over the place, always hiring, always "opening up a new location." My sister went through the whole job search thing before I got there and gave me the scoop on those places. So a friend told me his job was hiring and I went on and applied not knowing what to expect and got hired.

The First Gig
My first job after college was with ABN Amro/LaSalle bank. I can't even tell you what my title was this job was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo insignificant soooooooo low on the corporate ladder. I'll just have to tell you what I did. You know when you go to the ATM and you deposit either money or checks in the ATM machine instead of actually going into the branch to handle your transaction with a teller??? Well I was one of the people who processed your deposit. It was located in this hidden building in a random city. It was just above janitor it was so low. The pay was terrible but it was better than not making anything annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd it was less than part time. I probably brought home after taxes maybe $100-50 every two weeks, maybe. It was one of those jobs you would get if you were straight out of high school, maybe living at home and needed extra pocket money while going to college. In my opinion it was not for someone with a degree, not even an associate degree!

The people I worked with all generally had kids early, not married, not really low expectation type of girls but really had no other options. Now, not all of them were like this and not all were part time. Some were actually full time and probably grossed about $18k a year. But, the job was wack. While there a position opened up at my sister's job and I interviewed for that....forgot about it til some weeks later until I got a call asking if I was still looking for a new job and that they wanted me if I was still willing. This job was full time and I didn't care how much they paid, it would have been more than I was making there and I was ready to go! So job #1 lasted all of 5 months.

Goodbye low paying part time terrible job. Hello still relatively low paying full time terrible job!

The New Gig
I started at the new spot in June of 2006. I'm always really hesitant to give my job title because I am so beyond ashamed of what I do that I just give a vague description. Like 'oh I basically do web tech stuff' when I really am a customer service representative. I started out answering the phones but was "promoted" to emails (whooppee!). Oh, I forgot to say where I work. I work for a magazine publishing company located in a relatively big city, I'll try to keep the company's name out of it so I won't lose my job for putting them on blast lol. We publish trade magazines that no one reads. I don't make enough to live on my own unless I wanted to starve or live in the hood but then my car insurance (on a car I can't even afford to get right now) would be ridiculously high! This is why I'm still at home :(

So the company is privately owned and could give a rats ass about diversity. So in other words us "darkies" are few and far between except in three departments: customer service (my department), fulfillment (they handle the incoming mail), and the mailroom. We're not the face of the company but we're definitely what keeps it running. So I get there and its a 5 story building, nothing on the first floor but elevators, a deli, and a small financial company of some sort, the 2nd floor was empty at first but was soon rented out, third floor holds two other " governmental agencies," and it held customer service and fulfillment for my company. The only two departments not on the 4th floor with the rest of the company outside of the big wigs who has the top floor. We were outcasts, or the black sheep of the company and they wanted us to know it and they wanted everyone else to treat us that way. We'd have meetings with other departments that rely on us and they'd be praising us to heaven's doors but as soon as that meeting is over and we're passing these same people in the hallway, in the bathroom or where ever they won't even look in our direction (with the exception of one person who always speaks).

Fast forward about 8 months after I got there, dealing with the racial tension that I'm sure a lot of minorities feel working for a white company and they had the audacity to move us up to the forth floor with the rest of the company, albeit we're in a back corner, isolated from just about everyone else but we're up there! lol and boy were they upset the niggers were coming! Since I have some people in other departments I knew what was being said about us and what they expected to happen once we got up there. You would think they thought we'd be bring a boombox blasting rap and barbequing in the hallway! The transition was cool nothing big happened, no boomboxes, no barbeque just regular business. But what gets me is if I'm in the elevator or bathroom and someone sees me that hasn't seen me before they automatically know what department I work for. They tried to get my sister with that "oh how do you like the 4th floor" and she works in the finance department been there for at least 4 years now, talk about working while black! Oh yeah it was about 6 months after being there when they "promoted" me to emails which I was so happy to do since I hate talking to people on the phone who just demand things they're not entitled to and like to vent to me like I'm the reason the post office sucks and stop asking about the damn weather!

Ok so that's work, lets tie this back into what I came here to blog about. So I am one of maybe three total who has a degree. With the new manager who came in about two years before I did she changed the requirements to you either needing to have a degree or relevant experience. So I got in with my degree, another person obtained her degree while there, and a third has a degree and a lot of customer service experience and is actually back in school to get another degree. BUT! I have an almighty Michigan degree! That was suppose to mean something. I was told by my manager and assistance manager that they didn't believe I'd be in this department 6 months and I'm working on two years.

I've continued my job search through the same avenues plus some more just not as aggressively. I've had two phone interviews, well no three phone interviews with other companies, and one in person interview and nothing. Maybe I interview bad :( I've even applied for other positions within the company and I got nothing. I've discussed the upward mobility, or rather the lack there of within the company with other people and the consensus is that other departments will not hire people from customer service. They think so low of our department that the glass ceiling isn't see through for us, its been painted black! Even within the department you can't move up and show any leadership skills to other potential employers or managers because the opportunities are not there. Another issue brought up is not only am I black and I work in customer service but maybe my degree is too fancy! Can you believe that, I apply for a position and because I graduated from a great school I'm a threat because of it! I didn't really think much of that thought the first few times I heard it but it has come up a lot so I'm starting to give some credence to that.

I'm not going to give up though. I have a boyfriend whom I love so much but lives in another state. He's ready to take it to the next level and he wants me to move in with him. I'm ready to do that but other issues are hindering that possibility, though its going to happen regardless of whats stopping me! But his location doesn't appear to be any better job search wise and his location can and will change (he's military). And that's a whole nother can of worms! I'll save that discussion for later.

I'm tired now

So til next time....

The Revelation

Hello Blog World

I'm kind of new to this so bare with me while I get started

I guess I will first let you all in on why I created this blog. I graduated from UMich- Ann Arbor 3 years ago. I was jobless for a year being turned down left and right from every single job I applied to. I then started working at the very bottom of the barrel for LaSalle Bank. I wasn't even in a branch, I worked in an off site location processing atm deposits. Me, arrogant me, arrogant Umich graduate. It was part time and barely paid my cell phone bill and I couldn't start paying back my student loan. That job lasted 5 months until I was offered another position. This one was full time and I am able to pay my bills and do some random Amazon.com shopping. But, its a terrible job, not worthy of a UMich graduate, definitely one who thinks so highly of her degree.

Fast forward a year and a half at this terrible job and I was having a conversation with another UMich grad who is having the same issues I am but she is jobless. We talked about life after UMich and how looking at our peers makes it even more frustrating that we're not excelling like we thought a Michigan grad should. Our peers have graduated grad school, just about to get out of law school, starting families and we're just barely getting by. Makes facebook really hard to login to as they post their accomplishments and I have nothing to post.

So I was in the shower and thought I'd start a blog about my after UMich life and how is sucks and maybe I'll find some more people out there who have graduated from schools that are suppose to produce great people and have not lived up to the hype.

Well it is Christmas so I'll end my first post here. I'm off to play my Nintendo DS since I have nothing else to do.

Til Next Time