J-j-j-job F-f-f-fair

It stinks not having a working vehicle. That fact made yesterday a more tiring day than it needed to be. But that's a story for another post.

The job fair I went to yesterday was at the Colonnade Hotel in downtown Boston, from 11:00-14:00. I hadn't had a reason to go to Boson in quite some time. Always interesting when you visit a big city.

I packed my book bag with my resumes, job fair info, bus schedules and some reading material for the trip the night before so I'd be all ready to go in the morning.

When I walked out of the house yesterday morning at about 08:15, the first thing I saw was six or seven squirrels on or around the bird feeder. They pretty much scattered to the surrounding trees when they saw and heard me coming.

It was very cold and windy yesterday morning, 19°F, and a great day for a walk (NOT!). I didn't want to wear a hat and mess up my carefully combed hair (yes, I need a haircut in the worst way), but I brought one with me. I certainly didn't want to give myself hat head before the fair, so my head and ears froze quite quickly during the mile walk to the bus stop. About halfway there I realized I forgot to bring a small packet of tissues. Cold induced runny noses suck.

The bus came after about ten minutes. I pumped my quarters into the fare counter and found a seat at the back of the bus. The bus driver must have driven like a madman because we arrived at the bus terminal/subway station about nine minutes ahead of schedule. After I bought a fare card for the subway, I had no problem changing lines and getting to my destination by 10:15. Good thing for me the entrance to the hotel was right in front of me as I exited the subway station. Man, when that wintery wind starts whippin' through those city streets, surrounded by all those tall buildings.... brrrrrr.
After about twenty minutes of waiting, we were told that a line was forming for entrance into the ball room where the exhibitors tables were set up. The line started in the cocktail room right outside the ball room, wrapped itself around the walls and out the door into the corridor. Good thing for me I got there early.

Waiting in line there was an above average looking woman standing in front of me, with her hair combed back into one large unbraided ponytail, who apparently was married and didn't speak English as her primary language. I believe it was French she was speaking but not quite sure. The woman behind me was even better looking, with just below shoulder length straight brown hair and large, penetrating blue eyes. I never spoke to her but made excuses to look behind me several times so I could check her out. She would have been about my height, if not for the black heels she wore. She seemed intent on texting someone from her cell phone keyboard. She looked to be 10 or more years younger than me, maybe more. Hard to tell sometimes.

When the doors finally opened and we were let in, the room filled up fast. I made two circuits around the room in about 45 minutes, talked to about ten people - some longer than others, gave out four or five copies of my resume, got some nice free pens, a mouse pad, water bottle and other free stuff exhibitors always bring to these events.

Most of the companies represented were looking for the dreaded sales people. Commission-only based sales, which I simply have not the personality or skill set for. One guy was even looking for cold-call telemarketers. Now that's a rough gig. Been there done that - briefly.

I would say that it was worthwhile to go to this job fair, even if the most promising conversation I had was with another staffing agency, one of whose areas of expertise is the career field I can't seem to get away from. Another company was a radio broadcasting group, whose two current stations play hip hop and dance music. I heard the guy I ended up speaking to tell another guy that they were going to convert another station they owned into a news/talk format. That interested me because back in the day I was the afternoon news guy for a small AM station.

I was out of there by 11:45, happily donning my warm, head and ear covering bunny fuzz hat, since now I didn't care if I messed up my hair or not. If I had looked at my outbound bus schedule I would have left about 10 minutes earlier. By the time I got through the subway and back to the bus terminal it was 12:25. The bus I needed left at 12:20 with the next bus not scheduled until 13:20.

Here I was thinking how nice it would be to have my car working, so I wouldn't have had to spend time waiting for the bus. I could have just gone up to where my car was parked and would have gotten home by 13:30 at the latest.

There was no wind in the semi protected bus terminal, but it was still cold sitting there on the bench. I'd have waited down below, back where it was a little warmer (closer to the subway train) if there had been any place to sit.

Good thing I had something to read while waiting. I had also brought some Powerade and granola bars and spent some time amusing myself by throwing some crumbs at the two dirty, fat pigeons walking the floor near where I was sitting. Why do pigeons have to move their heads back and forth every time they take a step? All that head bobbing was near to giving me a head ache.

The final bus ride was uneventful. I read for most of it but then found myself dozing off, enough for a 15 minute snooze. By the time I completed the mile walk home it was about 14:45.

Long day for all of 45 minutes. Longer than it should have been. Lousy car.