job-searching blues and other news

Recently I earned my Bachelor's degree from an "elite" college here in PA...yes I know, many folks have gone ahead and done this, but not many women of color in their mid-thirties! It was imperative for me to get my education, and even though it took a long time, my magic paper sits proudly by my side, a testament to several years of re-learning, rethinking, dealing with the bull of a world that still is shaped by and for White men, and questioning my very existence. My experience as a non-traditional student in a school where most students were "traditional" age was intense and difficult, something I will expound on in future posts. Now that my mind and soul has been enriched by philosophers and social scientists, radicals, women, and fantastic professors, I am ready to get back into the real world of working for some mullah. It should be much easier, right? Doesn't a college degree from a good school mean something to future employers? I hope so, cuz' my student loan payments are loomin' and my kid needs a new pair of shoes!

Speaking of job searches--these days I have been spending some serious time on job search sites, everywhere from Idealist to HigherEdJobs, local paper websites, my school's career office, and every non-profit or not a freakin' bullcrap business I care nothing about place on the Internet I can think of. I have been recruited via Monster and that was a total nightmare! Note to all those out there with a public resume on any website-be careful to whom you send information and know the types of jobs you are willing to do and STICK TO IT. Figuring out what you are willing to do is so important!

In other news, this past Tuesday I ran into the city (Philly) to join a couple thousand other locos in the cocos to try and break a world salsa dancing contest. This is what happens to you when you are a little lonely Latinita stuck in an area with a tiny percentage of other Latinos with no cultural stake on the landscape-you start imagining ways to sop up a bit of culture jugito wherever you can find it. Tuesday it was the Ben Franklin Parkway for the Goya Festival and Salsa dance extravaganza. Gorgeous weather, my people where out en force. You can't help but feel your blood moving when you smell familiar food, hear the colloquial sounds of your peeps', and hear the ta ta tatata! of the clave calling the crowd to move!
I'll soon be adding a Flickr segment to this blog so you can see more of my photos.

Hasta la pasta folks!