This is Halloween!

 

First pumpkins in at least four years!  Mine's the gruesome evil one. Matt's is the jolly snowman face one.  

We finally got to go all out dressing up for Halloween this year, and in true She's Gone Rogue style, we chose to go the comedic route rather than horror or slutty (although slutty was a close second for Matt.  I had to reign him in).  Anyway, for our re-entrance into American Halloween culture, we worked diligently for days on our costumes, making sure every detail was perfect.  And then we scrapped it the night before when we came up with something better:  Allstate Mayhem Commercial Guy.  I'll attach links to the youtube clips so you get the idea, but even if you don't, I'm confident you'll still find our costumes rock so much harder than most.  Matt was the "hot babe out jogging":

 

 He's out making sure this a ten.  Click here for his commercial.

Pretty close, right?

Katie was the toddler:  

 

Click here for her commercial.

And I was the "raccoon hiding in your attic":

 

"I'm the smartest raccoon I know."  Click here for my commercial.  (It's de best one.)  

In any case, we were all very excited to dress up better than we have in previous years.  Case in point:

 

Halloween 2009 Dushanzi:  Matt is the character Apache played by the late Patrick Swayze.  So sad.  I am Brett Michaels of Poison fame.  

 

Halloween 2010 Baroda:  An Asian couple in love.  Maybe not the most politically correct costume, but we had nothing else.  

Halloween 2011 Chicago:  Allstate Mayhem.  A vast improvement.  

In other news, I signed up with a staffing agency today in hopes they'll be more successful at finding me a job.  I went to their office downtown today and spent about three hours taking tests and filling out papers.  I felt very urban and professional by the time I was finished.  Then I went to the restroom in McDonald's and immediately dropped my phone in the toilet.  A public toilet.  In McDonald's.  I was tempted to just leave it, but then I thought better of it, as I have no car and my phone is about the only thing that connects me with the outside world.  So I dove in there and plucked it from within the recesses of the septic system.  Not really.  It was just in the toilet bowl.  Still, it was pretty gross.  

Boom. Traveling.

Matt learned last night he had to go back to Texas City for the loading on Wednesday.  As in tomorrow.  Not excited about the prospect of facing another week plus alone in Evanston, we decided I'll just go with him!  I figure I've got to check Houston out at some point, considering we might choose to live there some day.  (Keep in mind, almost every city in America - with the obvious exception of Dumas, TX - is on our "we might choose to live there" list.)

In other news, I have not yet found a job, and my spirit just might be broken.  Not quite as broken as it was in India, but bending toward a breaking point, nonetheless.  Case in point:  the other day I was walking outside and I saw probably four or five piles of dog poop on the sidewalk, and my immediate reaction was "Oh this is a metaphor for my life."  Boom.  Defeated.  However, I will rise above this.  In the meantime, I will go to Texas.  Everything is better in Texas - isn't that how the saying goes?

Anyway, I don't really know anything about Texas City, except that it's in Texas.
Click here for a map.  Looks to be close to Galveston.  I don't know anything about Galveston either, but it is probably awesome.  Better take my cowboy boots.

That's about all I've got for the day, and probably the month of October.  Maybe I'll have something else to share in the next few days, as I'll be traveling once again!  Even if this job is the worst, at least I'll get to visit my favorite place, O'Hare International Airport, two more times.

Domestic Goddess

You know you've settled down when you get a membership to Sam's Club.  I don't really need to shop in bulk, but does anyone?  Plus, you've gotta support Arkansas' economy when you can. This is why I didn't go with Costco.  (Also, because Uncle John put me on his business account.  I've got mad connections.)  Also, I not sure there's a greater high than buying 36 double rolls of toilet paper, four sticks of deodorant, two giant bottles of coffee creamer, and double family pack of Honey Bunches of Oats (with Almonds!) at the same time.

In other news, I still don't have a job, nor have I even been seriously considered for one to the best of my knowledge.  On the contrary, I was rejected by a university in Chicago (I decline to name the specific university to protect my reputation - but the initials are U of C) in a record two hours and 45 minutes.  It took me three hours just to fill out the application and write myself up.  Boom.  Humbled.  Some people might be ashamed to admit that, but not me.  I look on the bright side.  I grab life by the horns and wrestle it into submission.  I take nasty, rotten, putrid lemons and turn them into sage-infused vodka lemonade.  On a related note, I am now proficient in both cover letter- and resume-writing, and more than proficient in researching for jobs.   Stick that in your careerbuilder pipe and smoke it.