Wilmette

My School chum Bart invited me to stay with him and his wonderfully hospitable parents in Wilmette for three weeks. During these three weeks Bart and I intended to seek out jobs and housing, then move out. We didn't realize how stiff the market would be, however, so we pretty much got nowhere. Bart's parents couldn't have been more encouraging and assured us that we could stay as long as we needed to.
Wilmette is a nice place and home of several unique things. First is the Baha'i Temple. A one hundred thirty foot tall dome that took 41 years to construct. It is the only one of its kind in North America and in a hundred years it will open up and a spaceship will come out to take the North American Baha'i's to Mars. That isn't true, actually, but it is a strange sight to see the temple rising out of the trees when viewed from the harbor. More on the harbor: Bart's friend's dad owned a boat at a yacht club and at night we'd go there to drink. The swaying the the boat made us feel extra drunk.
Another thing Wilmette is home to, New Trier High School, is the best in the nation. With a graduation rate of 99%, with almost all of those people going on to college, New Trier is the best high school in the nation. There's a book written about it called 'Another Planet' that will tell you all about it.
Wilmette also has the mansion from Ferris Beuler's day off. You know, the one his buddy lived in that pushed the Ferrari through the window.
The down side of an affluent and adorable little suburb like Wilmette is that the conservative mentallity makes late night fun a rare comodity. There is only one bar. The gas stations don't sell booze and the liqour store closes at 10, sometimes 9. There are miles of beaches but it is illegal to swim at any beach other than the one with life guards (and a $2 fee), punishible by a $50 fine. If your caught on a beach or park after sunset you can also get fined.
Another downside is that the train stops running at 12pm, and if a cab goes to Wilmette they double their rate. This eliminates most opportunites for late night fun unless you're willing to spend $40 or more for even the most meager night on the town, a difficult amount to part with when you're broke and jobless.
My next post will get into some of my adventures in the City. Though Wilmette is nice, it's boring and finding a job is difficult when you live an hour away from the city.

Things that I assume bosses like

I'm not employed so I don't know how accurate this list is. I'm basing it off of former jobs.
Bosses like when I:
1. Show up on time
2. Not drink on the job unless boss is invited
3. Bring girls into the shop
4. Let bosses do whatever they want
5. Do things without boss knowing that could potentially hurt the company and make my co-workers laugh.
I'll put in some more when I think of it.

Des Moines

I was born and raised in Des Moines and don't feel like staying there any longer if I don't have to. But sometimes I go back when I have nowhere else to live or to visit my parents and friends. I will be visiting Des Moines a lot, and maybe I'll look for a job there, but I really just don't want to live there.

post Ragbrai

With all my camping gear, bike, and clothes, but no place to live (my lease had just ended) I moved back to Iowa City with the intent of camping in people's back yards until it was time for my girlfriend to leave for India. At that time I would see her off at O'hare airport then go to live with my friend Bart in Wilmette, Il. Iowa City is a kick-ass town. In the summer there is a ratio of one bar/liquor for every three people, binge drinking is just called regular drinking, and beautiful women...well I'm taken so lets not talk about that. The downside is that at age 22 I am nearly a senior citizen. This, and the fact that I didn't have a lease, was not the reason I left, though. For the last summer I spent in Iowa City the gods decreed that a great flood would hit the eastern Iowa area. I hate water, therefore I escaped the flood and left the city for dead.

Ragbrai

Ragbrai, Register's Annual Bike Ride Across Iowa, is a 480 mile trek across my home state. I did it for the first time this summer as kind of a "goodbye" sort of thing. Travel the whole state, see what I'll miss when I leave, see what I never had before, meet middle age bikers, eat whatever, and poop in a cornfield; all that junk. And it was fun. I saw all sorts of hills...and fields...and...you know, Iowa stuff.
Funny story: After the first Ragbrai, they decided to name the second, Sagbrai. After that they decided to name the third, Tagbrai. Then the fourth would be, Fa... hmm, maybe not. That's a real story, copyright and everything.
Anyway, one of the good things about Ragbrai for me is that I got to go camping and riding bikes around with my girlfriend who, if you've read the last blog, was about to move it India for half a year. I won't go into any lame details, but it was nice.
So, with my bike, tent, some clothes, and my girlfriend, we jammed into her dad's car and went back to Iowa City where I will spend a couple weeks moving Tori and camping in my friends' apartments. More on that later.
As far as work goes: Ragbrai is money central. If it went on all year I'd be rich. For example, the mechanics I talked to made about $1000 a day. At one of the towns some joker laid some tacks on the road and popped a bunch of tires. I got popped and walked to the nearest mechanic, who luckily happened to be my friend the Iowa City bike shop. He told me that he'd been changing tires nonstop since eight in the morning, it was noon when I saw him and he had a mile long line waiting for his services. At $10 a tube change, he made enough to buy a bank.
P.s. One of those pictures above is of a goose herder. He dresses his geese up in vests and feeds them Pepsi while they follow him around and honk.

Austin

This story begins in a few days prior to the fourth of July, 2008. My roommate Jeremy and his fiance had plans of moving to Austin, Texas. Having no friends and little family in the area, but eager to live in the land without winter, Jeremy worked his hardest all year to convince me that Austin was the land of magic. Beautiful women, cars that run on good intentions, and friendly bicyclists that wheelie through loop-d-loops built right into the sidewalk mingle with videogame testers who are always in high demand at great pay; Jeremy had me going that Austin was the hippest town on earth.
My review: Austin is like the head shop district of San Fransisco spread out over about 50 square miles of the plainest Texas terrain imaginable, then filled in with chain stores at all the blank spots. It was also about 190 degrees in the shade, everybody drove SUVs, and people stared at me when they heard my northern accent. Not my kind of place.
I sent out a few resumes and looked at apartments with Jeremy and his ilk, but nothing too serious. I might change my mind once I get a car, Texan accent, and an immunity to being baked alive.
And the search continues.

The Plan

I don't have a real plan. That's not true. I have a great plan: I'm going to travel the country looking for work. If I can't find it by October, I'm going to India. When I come back, if there still is no work for me, then I will probably move back in with my parents or be homeless or whatever, I don't know. Anyways, here's my resume:

Scott B. Wilson

OBJECTIVE To obtain a position

SUMMARY
• Experienced writer
• Helped devise a rape awareness campaign and other public awareness programs
• English major – graduated with distinction
• Proficient with MS Office, MS PageMaker, Windows XP, Mac OSX and Classic, Adobe Photoshop, communication skills, crisis management, and SE optimization

EDUCATION University of Iowa – Iowa City, IA
B.A. in English, May 2008 – Emphasis in Writing
• Cumulative GPA 3.80
• Dean’s List – fall 2004 through spring 2008
• Graduated with Distinction

Des Moines Area Community College Credit – Des Moines, IA
• Studio Photography I & II: 2001-2003
• Radio Broadcasting: 2003-2004 (voted best KDPS A.M. show)

EXPERIENCE Demand Studios.com – world wide web
Writer May 2008 to current
• Wrote how-to articles on a variety of subjects from an expert’s standpoint
• Met deadlines
• Transferred MS Word and jpg documents to web pages

Domestic Violence Intervention Program – Iowa City, IA
Women’s Advocate, Youth Advocate October 2004 to May 2008
• Handled crisis calls and emergencies, counseled in-shelter clients, found resources like housing and food stamps
• Trained new staff and Volunteers
• Supported the needs of children and helped them adjust to shelter life
• Performed minor maintenance, cleaning operations, and other tasks to keep the shelter running as smoothly as possible

Rape Victim Advocacy Program (RVAP) – Iowa City, IA
WhistleSAFE™ Program Assistant November 2006 to April 2007
• Edited press releases, created advertising opportunities, created posters and flyers, talked with local businesses, libraries, hospitals and schools for support of various RVAP programs
• Distributed over 10,000 safety whistles to university students and people in the community

PUBLICATIONS AND AWARDS • 2008 Instructional writer for eHow.com
• 2008 June/July Creative Crossroads Magazine
• 2008 May/June FarmHouse Magazine
• 2008 EarthWords Undergrad Literary Magazine
• 2007 created own zine, distributed through the University Library Zinemachine
• 2005 Content Magazine “Explicit” writing contest, 2nd place for short story
• 2005 Columnist for The Daily Iowan newspaper