formulae: hop + e
About The Author
Peter Spencer
Born and Bred in Blighty
Dragged over to the US by my American Wife, Ashley
Currently residing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with the In-Laws, Joe and Dianne
A hard working (or should that be hardly working) mechendiser for 7up
Pretend to play guitar, and love music




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Welcome to Ramblings Of An Englishman And His American Bird (And Baby Toby) Hover your cursor over the little circles for a pleasant surprise! =D

In Which My Wife Whisks Me Away To Washington DC / Tuesday, November 23, 2004


Whoah! What happened there? One minute I was sitting contemplating a weekend of packing in Baton Rouge, the next I'm sitting on a plane to Washington DC! I knew I was going at about twelve(ish), and my flight left at three! I got to the gate just as they were calling out my seat number to board. Talk about close!

So there I was in DC. Ash was on a seperate flight, she left two hours after me but landed at the same time (I had a stop-over in Chicago). It was a bit of a first for me, my journey on a plane ending in the same country I took off from (and boarding a plane with just my drivers licence - no passport required). We got a rental car (Chevy Malibu - it's a rubbish car) and drove to Richmond. We got there at Midnight, talked to Heather (one of Ash's college buddies) for a couple of hours and fell asleep on her floor. She had two cats who were very cute, well at least one of them was and the other was very shy so we didn't really see much of her. She seemed cute anyhow though!

In the morning (oh, that was Saturday by the way - this is Sunday) we woke up and I actually saw Richmond in daylight for the first time. It's a very pretty city, lots of nice old houses and the leaves are changing colours. It kind of reminds me of good old Blighty. All the houses were more than one story, there was pavements all over the place, and hills. None of those things really exist in Louisiana.

Then we drove to Washington DC (the star is Falls Church). We had a look at where Ash was going to have her interview on Monday. It's a nice place, it's alot like Glasgow I think, at least the bit we were in (Fairfax) is. Like London, but not as squished together. It's a very busy place though, not really very easy to drive round, and awfully expensive compared to Baton Rouge, but then again pretty cheap compared to London!

We then went to Tammie's, Ash's old roommate at college. She lives with Angela who also went to RMWC. Angela was cooking a Thanksgiving meal for everyone so some friends of theirs turned up, (another couple of RMWCens and a guy called Mark) and we had a delicious meal of Cornish game hens and other stuff. Then we fell asleep on their futon.

Monday we went to Old Town, which is kind of on the outskirts of DC where there is an Episcopal church that I applied for a job as a admin assistant at. It was ALOT bigger that our church. Just one of the office buildings was bigger, and there was lots of other buildings about! Their car park was bigger than all of the ground at St. M's! I tried to catch up with the guy, but he was off being busy somewhere ( it was kind of a small chance of me catching up with him but it was worth a try).

Then it was time for Ash's interview. I dropped her off at the Virgina Tech, and went to look around Falls Church, which is the area around where Ash's interview was. I applied for a few jobs in some shops that had help wanted signs in their windows, Ash gave me a call and I went to pick her up. They offered her the job! Woohoo! So we're moving to Washington DC!

We got home last night very tired, so we went stright to bed. Today has been relitively uneventful really. I've just been looking at apartments, and trying to work out the logics of moving 1600 miles across the country. I've got some cardboard boxes so I'm going to start packing tomorrow. Ash handed in her notice today, so it's really happening! Please pray for us to be able to deal with the stress. Any advice would be gratefully recieved!

So that's it. probably the most exciting bit of news that I've ever written on this blog! Woohoo!



/Hopped!
8:29 PM

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In Which I Do Lots Of Applying For Jobs / Wednesday, November 17, 2004


I must've applied for a gazillion jobs by now. Well that's probably a bit of an over-exaggeration but still, I've applied for lots of jobs anyhow.

Ash has a job! She went up to Richmond last weekend, and she got a call today saying that they're going to offer her the job. Woohoo! She's going back up to Virginia this weekend for another interview just outside Washington DC. So It looks like we're going to be moving pretty soon! If not to Richmond then to Washington DC. So I need to find a job up there pretty sharpish so we can afford to get an apartment.

Well that's the exciting news, now as far as the boring stuff that I've been doing apart from applying for jobs, I've been going over to Gordons and playing on his PS2. We've mainly been playing Burnout 3 which is great fun. The object of the game is to crash! Today we rented out Fifa 2005, so I spent some of this afternoon beating the pants off him in that!

I've also watched some films recently. Lost In Translation is the best one, then Die Hard With A vengeance, then Underworld. Oh, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure, and Waynes World 2.

That's about it really.



/Hopped!
8:20 PM

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In Which I write A Long-Overdue Post / Friday, November 12, 2004


Hey dudes and dudettes!

I know, It's been a while again. Me being unemployed having nothing to do as well. What excuse can I give... Umm... Tony Hawks Underground 2... Church Retreat... Wife... All of which are great fun! I'll tell you all about each of them!

That's right, THUG2. Gordon (my bro-in-law) rented it out, so if I ever get some spare time I go over there and play it. I've only played it for two days and I've got up to the last level. Gordon just watches me play it, he's not had the years of training since the very first one that I have!

The church retreat was mavellous, just what I needed. It's strengthened my faith and my mental outlook on life. I'd like to tell you all about it, but I'm not supposed to. All the things that happen on it are supposed to be surprises. I guess I'll just tell you that it was an answer to my prayers.

My darling wife is the final one. We went to get our eyes tested on Thursday. My eyesite is perfect. Ash, however, can't see more than ten feet in front of her nose. May be I should say couldn't! Now she's got funky new glasses, and she can see everything a normal person (like me) can see! Woohoo! And she looks very cute wearing them as well! Alright!

It was veterans day yesterday, so Ash got a day off. We went to test out he new glasses at the movies. We saw The Incredibles, it's very funny!

Ash has an interview in Richmond, Virginia on Monday. So keep her in your prayers/thoughts.



/Hopped!
2:34 PM

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In Which I Quit / Monday, November 01, 2004


Yup, that's it. I can't do this damn job anymore. I'm too close to a complete fucking mental breakdown. I tried, it's just not for me. I can't put up with the lies. Lies from the people I work with, lies from the people I see.... When they say they'll call you back they're trying to be nice? How the fuck did they work that one out? It's just a way of kidding me to get out of their house.

So I have a little bit of business to finish up (i.e. call some people up so the can say that they're not interested yet.... Try calling back in a couple of weeks). Mother, before you say "You shouldn't quit this job until you find another one!" I'll just got through the pros and cons of it:
Cons:
1. I'm not making any money with this job, in fact I am loosing money,
2. It is driving me insane. I'm so low that the only way is down.
3. See 2. I think that deserves an extra point as well, because IT'S A SERIOUS PROBLEM.
4. Everyone I work with is very shallow (only care about money), yet better than me.
5. I have actual time to look for another job
6 - 10,000. Lots of other ones I can't think of right now.
Pros:
1. Ummm.....

So as you can see it's definitely in my best interest to stop now. I know I'm a failure, maybe I should stick it out until I actually do kill myself/somebody else, rather than just wanting to.

Apart from that everything is peachy (who am I kidding? Not even myself!) I don't know if I'll be able to come home for Christmas (although I really want to... No make that need to), I have to start a new job, and in this country it's not a good idea to say to a prospective employer (especially if it's in retail, which let's face it I'm probably going to be stuck with for the rest of my life) "Oh, I'm going to need a couple of weeks of in a month and a half."

I'm going to Cursillo (it's a church retreat) on Thursday to Saturday night, which to be honest can't come soon enough. I need some spiritual healing. I'm also going to see the doctor on Wednesday, which is good because I need some mental healing. All I need now is a million dollars to give me some fiscal healing!

Although it may seem that I'm near suicidal, I'm really far too intelligent (and too much of a coward for that matter) for that line of thought (I just wish I was intelligent in a useful way!) so don't worry about it. I'm still going to be alive tomorrow and the day after etc.. Well if I do die it won't be my doing. So don't worry about me. What can I say to stop you from worrying about me? God knows. Ask Him. While you're there you can ask Him to help me out as well.

Take care everyone. I guess as I'm unemployed (pretty much) now I'll probably be doing my posts daily until I get a job, so I'll type to y'all tomorrow.



/Hopped!
5:46 PM

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