By Andrea Menzies
I am hunting for extra summer work, and the resume rules on what employers want seems pretty wild sometimes. They want you to be perfectly well dressed, healthy, educated, mistake free, and experienced, and yet willing to work for minimum wage at some jobs.
By Andrea Menzies
I am from the Austin, TX area and Round Rock is where many of my high school friends lived. I was very sad to read about the shootings near the area this week. One of the reasons I went downtown more often in Texas and Louisiana was that it was so much less violent there than the violent and disgusting nightlife in Virginia. Normally music festivals in Round Rock are peaceful, but it goes to show we are living in violent times everywhere.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/round-rock-shooting-texas-six-injured-police-say/story?id=111162500
By Andrea Menzies
I got sick with the flu and cannot return messages today. Try me back on Wednesday.
By: Andrea Menzies
Epic Bike Raid Day – Today was raid day for my video game group that meets in the park. In addition I just got my folding mountain bike fixed, my transition lens sunglasses on, and my Bauhaus band shirt washed. Since I am single and have not had a date in months I have no choice but to get so fit from bike riding men from other towns find me attractive. I have not been to DC or Maryland since the VNV show in April, but I have future plans to go. I am now super sore from a full day of many miles of bike riding. It is no longer National Bike Month, but bike riding remains my daily hobby. In addition I hit a new record on Jacfit Fitness App for miles biked in one month, and I started in April and hit 200 miles this week. I wish-listed an electric bike yet never bought it, and so I had to do all the miles with natural human power.
By Andrea Menzies
No life has no problems as when we fall we get back up again yearly. Many thanks to my out of state friends in Texas, Louisiana, Washington, and Maryland that showered me with phone and Internet messages of help and support when I was going through a rough time last month. I was not wanting June to have bad budget problems. Interviews, jobs, and returned calls have been the welcomed activity for this month. Sometimes change has to happen to bring improvements, and a better job that uses my University degree is in the works.
By Andrea Menzies
No Texas and New Orleans friend and family reunions this summer. I was planning a road trip for May or June of this year. As a teacher summer off is one of the perks of the job, and many teachers have RV travel plans. Unfortunately major work melodrama hit like a sledge hammer, and I am stuck in town a while longer. Oh well fall has good travel fun as well.
By Andrea Menzies
For Memorial Day weekend I usually post pictures of my Lieutenant Colonel father Neil Menzies before his death from military service wounds when I was a child. I am the baby in these photos. I still use USAA for some of my banking because he created my account. An extreme reminder how many families have been touched by war in the United States.
05/24/24
By Andrea Menzies
Life may be rough right now but at least I have a good bike to ride. Life was easy when going outside to play was the only goal. #Nationalbikemonth #Bikelife
05/23/2024
By Andrea Menzies
If a starving man was kept next to a gourmet dinner his hunger would be that much more painful. I recently got another letter from the club called The Mercury in Seattle, WA I used to belong to when visiting. Oddly I have had less problems meeting guys at dance clubs than jobs. If you don’t like a guy at a coffee shop or dance club you can just walk away. If they annoy you at work you are just stuck there non-stop day in and out.
It is nice to know some parts of the world like Seattle, WA, New Orleans, LA, and Austin, TX remember me fondly, and want me to visit and be a friend. Virginia is an unfriendly nightmare to live in. Unfortunately, Seattle is not a “little road trip” away it is a huge expensive visit, and move I can’t afford. It is more a bit of torture to know how surrounded by a metaphorical gourmet feast of friends and good times I could be in right now without living in the unfriendly crime pit that is Virginia. It is causing emotional agony at this point. Virginia is more of a Hell when I see other places are a Heaven.
05/23/2024
By Andrea Menzies
Many people do not realize most school buses are rust buckets that are falling apart. This month they tried to switch me from teaching to bus driving, and when I could not pass the bus driving tests on rust bucket buses they fired me from both bus driving and teaching. Applying for bus work if you are already employed in Virginia means you will be fired from teaching. They did not inform me of this until after I applied for bus work, and would not let me work teaching hours I tried to work.
Bus replacement and repair is expensive so dangerous buses are kept in service. Bus drivers are blamed for bus wrecks when bus maintenance is to blame. Working conditions and not pay are to blame for the shortage. Bus drivers used to have a written test one page long, and now it is 4 tests of thousands of pages on hot and snow-weather driving. It is almost impossible to pass even if you are great at doing job tasks. I could not do many job tasks in April and May of this year that involved going into a room full of men with military shirts and tattoos for bus training. I was assaulted at Fort Lee military base in 2005, and had to go to rape therapy for PTSD, night terrors, insomnia, and nightmares for years afterwards until 2017. If you don’t like a guy at a coffee shop or dance club you can just leave. At a military job you are stuck day and night with them for months. Since then many employers have tried to make me work alone, unchaperoned, with men with military logos on their clothes, desk, arm tattoos, and walls. I hate them for doing this with all my soul. I got punished this month for not doing tests well under these conditions.
I find it interesting in a morbid way how many men and women that were never attacked tell me how I “should” feel about it and “get over” it. PTSD means you cannot do that at all. Medication and therapy has horrible side effects, and helps almost nothing at all. Donald Trump was a 13 times accused rapist that massively cut funding to rape programs across America in his presidency so I cannot go back to therapy without huge personal expense. My insurance does not cover it. I now cannot pay for treatment at all. If you were wondering how lack of therapy can reduce employment remember I was an honors student in High School, and a University graduate before rape greatly hurt my earning power. Lily Duran dragged me to a military dominated area called Virginia at a horrible time.
Frozen History 7 Publishing Book Review Podcast 