Friday, December 7, 2007

Things I Bought at the Flea Market, Or: I'm a Failure, Or: Fuck You, Craigslist!

Today I am switching things up a notch, and posting photos of myself/posting on a more reflective and personal note. Right now I am depressed because I did not get that tutoring job, and I am sick of applying for jobs that don't sound that great and talking up my lack of experience which they are clearly not impressed by anyway. All the descriptions on craigslist are like, "Are you [buzzword]? Are you [buzzword]? Are you committed to helping the hottest, number fourteen marketing firm in the Bay Area? Do you want to design our website? Would you like to promote this vodka? How about finance, or web design? HOW ABOUT WE REQUIRE A YEAR OF EXPERIENCE FOR THIS UNPAID INTERNSHIP? DOES THAT SOUND FAIR TO YOU?" Ugh!

Anyway, looking for jobs post-graduation is hella depressing, particularly because I am sorting through all my old school papers because I have nothing else to do, and I feel like I'm not living up to the promise of my sixth grade self, who wrote a relatively historically accurate short story about Vikings with real Viking words in it, based on her favorite educational magazine, Kids Discover. (Also, in seventh grade we had to create our own themed magazines and my theme was books. The title? Bibliophile. No joke. Like, I wish I could travel back in time and be like, "Really, twelve year old Mary? Bibliophile? You're lucky you don't go to a school where dorks get beat up.")

So, in conclusion, here are some things I recently purchased at the De Anza Flea Market, where I watched my mom's booth for awhile and the buyers are so cheap I felt like stabbing a large amount of the customers. I really wanted to stab this old Russian or German or something lady wearing leopard print pants in particular, but they were numerous in amount.

Also, flea markets have really gone downhill! Most of the merchandise is the same stuff you get at dollar stores, like crap imported from China, and the booths full of truly old things are few and far between.

I spotted these heads at a booth, and they were $20, so I was like, "I'll think about them." Then I thought about them a lot and I decided I couldn't live without them and then I couldn't find the booth and I got kind of panicked but luckily I found it and now I have more useless decor for when I move out. They're from the 50's. The boy head looks gay, gay, gay. I think he's wearing lipstick.
I mostly rummaged through this box of stuff because this shaky old man was very insistent and I felt bad for him or something. He showed me this amazing Victorian pocket watch he had too but I didn't buy it because it was $50. Every time I looked at something for more than half a second, he'd shriek, "Set it aside!" I ended up putting all this random stuff aside, like the inside of a watch. Anyway, I did buy this from him for $4, which wasn't so cheap, but I do like it. I think it's a tie pin but I chose to wear it in my hair.

I know I should have edited out all the trash in this one, but whatevs. Also, let's pretend you can't see my bra through the dress. This was $8. It looks like a 40's knit dress but it's from the early 80's I think.
Here is my squirrel pin that I took from my Mom's store, Mary's Exchange. It was there to jazz up the dress. I did not buy it at the flea market. I always feel frumpy in my glasses so I took them off for this shot.

4 comments:

Simone said...

you are truly lucky you didn't go to public school. or, guess, any other school on earth. shockingly, when i was in elementary school, my love of mycology was not met with accolades from my peers. i am jealous you could do something like "bibliophile" and not get incessantly made fun of for the next year. god, did grade/middle school suck.

and i did intern for a year and i still can't get a job. so hooray for that.

Gaby said...

I also interned for most of a year and then had a job, and then when that job stopped, it took me like a whole other year to get a job. So my point is: you should probably just move out here and get rejected for jobs out here. We could get you some kind of pup tent to stay in in the living room! Doesn't that sound nice?

Anonymous said...

That sucks about the tutoring job.

I remember in my rich ass high school there were always kids who used buzzwords and said things like "The juxtaposition of modern and traditional values in Things Fall Apart...epiphany...catharsis etc." and I hated them and I thought "One day you will be rejected." But really, all of the well paying jobs in the world were made for people like that.

And anyway, I feel like most jobs are just glorified versions of that part in the Phantom Tollbooth where Milo has to move a mountain of salt from one place to another with a pair of tweezers.

It all adds up to a slippery slope leading back into the class room, first as a grad student and then as a teacher/some other vaguely academic job. That's how I feel and I haven't even graduated yet. If I ever become a teacher, the first thing I am going to do is fail hella kiss-ass morons.

Dan

Anonymous said...

pending clearance of my background check, i am now a substitute teacher in the bucks county school system. and i may get a full time position doing special ed with benefits and tuition reimbursement. of course i'm not sure how its gonna go, but you should look into it. i even got the "utah state substitute teaching institute handbook." it has awards you can photocopy that say things like "i was cooperative today!"

85-100 dollars a day and all the school supplies you can manage to steal.

do it mary.

gerard