Thursday, February 18, 2010

With glowing hearts

You know, when the Winter Olympics start, I always make a point to myself how much less interesting they are than the Summer Olympics. The Summer Olympics, after all, have so many delightful fringe sports like badminton and sailing...how could the far smaller competition schedule of the Winter Olympics even compete?

However, for whatever reason, I have been watching this year's Winter Olympics religiously. I've never taken the time to watch any other Olympics this much, although I do admit I've kinda kept it to two sports: hockey and curling.

Hockey is a kind of a no-brainer for me to watch. It was the first sport I ever got into when I was very little, and I'm really starting to follow and appreciate it more and more. I think any fan of soccer can appreciate hockey and vice versa. There are a lot of tactical similarities and the low scoring is definitely an acquired taste. But I'll stand by it. The euphoria from one soccer/hockey goal is completely unmatched by most touchdowns, home runs and...three pointers?

I confess that the appeal of basketball is really starting to be lost on me. Sorry Badgers. I'll probably get back into it during march madness.

Heck, right now the reason I'm up this late for blogging is that I'm watching the Czech Republic take on Slovakia in hockey. The west-coastery of Vancouver makes for some pretty late live hockey, but this has been quite a good game. Not to mention the added storyline of former countrymen. It's like if the South had won and the Confederacy was playing the Union. Czechoslovakia didn't break up all that long ago.

But the Czechs are taking it right now, 3-1. Surely it is due to Jaromir Jagr, who at 38 years old is still sorta the man. He was the best in the league when I was little. It's hard to cheer against the Czechs when they have the nostalgia points. Of course the USA is my first choice though.

The other sport, curling, is more of a surprise. Yes, a lot of people watch curling ironically, because it is admittedly pretty funny that such a non-physically demanding competition can be considered an olympic sport. However, the strategy is actually pretty interesting once you give it a chance. It's like a weird oversized game of chess on ice.

The thing that draws me to it is the makeup of the teams. The American team (which actually ended up being pretty terrible this year) is from Duluth, Minnesota, and it's made up of 4 regular joes who curl and drink beer together with their free nights. That's it. It's basically a glorified suburban bowling team, competing for medals on international TV.

And that's really appealing to me. I think it would be really fun to take up curling with some friends. I know that Madison has a curling club with leagues and tournaments, and I envision it basically being like a tighter-knit version of a bowling league. Sure, we'd be competing, but the idea is to go out with the guys and just hang out, shoot the bull. All the while rolling a stone down a sheet of ice and sweeping in front of it. We could wear flannel, and have a cigar outside afterward. It just strikes me as a great northwoods man-bonding experience.

I think I'll make my way over to the Madison Curling Club some time and figure out how feasible it is to pick up curling as a hobby. So thanks, Winter Olympics. Every time you come around, I doubt you. But you find a way to set me straight. You're a cool customer, Vancouver.

Friday, February 05, 2010

It's not too late!

I am entirely incapable of accomplishing anything worthwhile once classes are done on Friday. It probably would have been good to send some resumes out today, but I had classes and a meeting and I need to write like 5 cover letters. Boo. I need to acquire some consistent motivation.

The resumes I need to send are as a result of last night's UW career fair, which was a chance for me to return to my ambitious, career-minded, tie-wearing self that I had more or less abandoned during last summer. Last summer I went from juggling corporate interviews to begging for hourly work, and the tease of the whole thing ended up being pretty demoralizing. It wasn't something I even wanted to think about until recently, and now I'm getting right back into resume mode. I'm one year older, have more experience, and go to a Big Ten school. The chance is there now.

I'm still up against it though. While I'm sure there were other people my age at the career fair, nearly everyone I encountered was graduating a lot sooner than I am. Heck, for one of my more promising leads from the fair I stood and waited behind a guy with a marketing degree and 5 years of post-college experience.

I would argue that I looked better in a sweatervest though.

When I consider my disappointment last year at not getting ultra-impressive work, it almost seems delusional. In such a tight job market, who in Madison would want to hire some 18 year old kid from the University of South Florida? But the search started off with so much promise. The part of spring break I was most excited for was a job interview on one of my first days back in Wisconsin. That interview went pretty well, but I ended up turning them down because I had two other interviews that I was more excited about. One of those interviews was my only one with the company (I was competing with college graduates), but the other one led to another interview, which they were willing to postpone until I came home from school.

The feeling was pretty good. I had made myself marketable enough to appeal to an established company from far away. My hopes were so high when I came in for the second interview, which I figured was to seal the deal. With my finest (only) suit and some tips from the parents, I had what I thought was a really good interview. The HR rep even started off by describing the job, payment, and schedule. Then the interview. Then she told me that they had filled the position and they might be interested for the fall.

Hey, thanks for bringing me in, though.

It must have been HR training week or something. It was good interview experience, I guess, but man. The feeling was deflating.

And the rest is history. I didn't get so much as a second glance from then (early May) until late July. I would have understood if no interest had ever come my way, but to be in demand early on and then have all leads go completely cold was brutal.

It was probably good for me, though. At USF, with the grades and the test scores and the scholarship perks, I was able to convince myself pretty well that I was hot stuff. The early job search success confirmed that to me, but God finds a way to bring you down a peg if you get a little too high on yourself.

And that humbling has been ongoing for a little while. Thanks to working long hours and relapsing into my diffident self (something that I had avoided for a few years), I've been the definition of a wallflower at UW.

But I've been feeling good, getting back into the groove of things. This week has seemed like a rebound from the crummy end of last year. I got to throw on a tie and a vest and promote myself as a potential employee and it felt good. I had to write a big 'ol paper for the base class of my new major and it felt good. I had a meeting with a sales subcommittee of the student org I just joined and it felt good. Feels good, man.

This is going to sound weird but...at certain points of my life, my left eyelid will twitch periodically throughout the day. I only remember it happening twice before - in the weeks leading up to high school graduation, and the first couple of weeks in Tampa. Those were both times of incredible excitement and anticipation. The months after the twitching, in both cases, were phenomenal.

Well, my left eyelid is twitching again. I noticed it at the start of this week. Now, either I'm just enjoying everything more because I feel like I should be (what a strange response to an involuntary twitch!), or the tic is a delightful little indicator. Either way, though, I'm feeling positive. There are still a lot of things I could be happier with, but I'm on my way.

I'm heading out tonight. The job search is beginning. School is going well. I've got a place to live next year. Watch out, Madison. I'm comin' back.