Broke and Jobless
Yeah, I've been blabbering non-stop about my financial and "occupational" woes, but let me just whine about it a bit more so I can have one less pesky voice screaming in my head.
After waking up late and grabbing some Quaker oats and milk for breakfast, I went to Centre for the Arts office, temporarily situated at the UCC, to get the key to the costume room so I can dig up the original scores for Credo and Ashita. I didn't have the key to the barricade (the real CFA building is under intensive renovation see), so I had to wait until 2PM for this guy Kevin, another undergrad from some other culture group, who happened to hold the key. So I decided to grab some lunch to kill some time, although that meant I'd have to eat ahead of scheduled lunchmate Karen.
And since the ATM was along the way to the Arts Canteen, I decided to quantify how broke I really am. And to withdraw too, since I had barely enough cash to last me two meals.
S$31 dollars, the ATM dutifully flashed on the screen.
I had to withdraw lest I starve by Friday, and so I did. The minimum withdrawal was 20 bucks, and now, ka-ching! S$11 dollars in my bank account.
And trivia: I haven't called Mama to greet her Happy Mother's Day yet! And the phonecard I usually buy is 20 bucks! Wooooooooooo. (But if it's any consolation Ma, I greeted Lola Doding with my remaining $1 Worldcard credit. I don't think I can contact you at lunchtime, see.. but really, I promise to call tomorrow)
After a cheap lunch, I finally met Kevin at the barricade of the CFA. The Costume Room apparently is a mess of a room, and the NUS Choir shelves were stacked with boxes and plastic bags and miscellaneous junk. I dug into the boxes for a good 45 minutes, before finally unearthing the scores. Carried the bulk to hall, rushing in time for American Idol's direct off satellite broadcast at 3PM.
As I was watching AI through NUScast back in my room, late by two performances, my phone rang and it's from the lady at CFA, asking about the barricade key, because someone had to urgently access the rooms. Great. So I reluctantly turned off my laptop after seeing only Vonzell and Anthony's first performances, and headed back to CFA.
I headed back to KR and had to ready myself to go to Siglap South Community Centre for the scheduled combined choir practice with our conductor Nelson. For those who don't know, Siglap South CC is this place that's virtually at the opposite end of Singapore. It's at the East end, and NUS is at the west. It takes only one bus to get there from KR, Bus 10, but walau, the bus ride takes a little more than an hour! So for practice at 6, I had to leave at 5. I went there yesterday too, for the Choir Exco meeting with Nelson, and yeah, bus ride was so long I was beginning to get bored.
Practice was until 10pm. It was quite productive actually, as we've managed to sing all 3 songs that we are to sing in the competition. Kucinta is a crazy song. It's Malay, and the translation as written in the score is "Singapore's Love Cat". Right. My Malaysian friends in the basses say the translation's incorrect, as Kucinta isn't even a valid Malay word. Kucinta directly means "I love" according to Wei Zheng, and it's not a full sentence even. Keng Khoon clarified that it's a corruption/combination of Malay words, kucing (love) + cinta (cat). Umm.. all right. "Singapore's Love Cat" is still quite an off translation for me. In any case, it was a funny song with a jacked-up level of difficulty. The lyrics are 90% just one word: Miao. And we sing it over and over again in various ways, painting a story of well, cats and carfights and purring and whatever else. Ugh, digression.
Anyway, I finally distributed the scores I brought, and there, another job partially done. Went back home aboard another Bust 10 bus, but thanks to TV mobile, return trip wasn't too disappointing, as they showed Eye for a Guy (featuring Denise Keller!) at 10 and American Idol at 10:30. It was strange because I was expecting to watch The Amazing Race Finale at 10:30, according to Channel 5's schedule, but it was okay, since I got to watch Carrie and Bo.
I arrived KR at 10:45 and dashed to the laptop to watch The Amazing Race. Wheeeeew, exciting finale! This is definitely much better than last season's. And yey, congrats to Uchenna & Joyce. You deserved it. Bleah to you Rob & Amber. If it's any consolation, you're very rich now anyway. At the very least, hopefully the experience will somehow humble you a bit. Just a bit.
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WOW. The digressions I make fascinate me. I haven't even got to talk about the Jobless part yet.
Okay, I'm gonna keep it short and sweet. I may not have to find a job after all. Maybe because I'm tired and exhausted from all the job-hunting and I need to nurse a battered self-esteem, but maybe it's because I'm already busy with choir. Really, yesterday was Exco meeting at Siglap at noon, today I had to settle some tasks as Records Sec and had practice at 6-10, tomorrow I have to produce 50 photocopies of the NUS Centennial Song and attend a tour of UCC with Choir people + practices 6-10PM again. Four weeks of intensive practices for the competition has begun, consisting of thrice a week practices (6-10PM M-W-Th), and in the final week, maybe every day practices in the final week before we take off.
In any case, what job will I get anyway? It's part-time of course, but walau, I cannot impose on them the several restrictions my schedule entails!
I'm glad Ferron has found several job offers now.. the fruits of his long and exhausting jobhunt. He's recommending Kingfisher at NUS Guild House for me.. wait tables during weekends. Tempting really, but sigh. Choir Exco meeting on Saturday at City Hall. Clash clash.
Anyway, we'll see what happens. I'm not dying of hunger yet and I'm not desperate to find a job and get the dough. I still have a few US bucks hidden, and I might unearth them in the very near future (like tomorrow) so I can survive. Catch is, I'm gonna be slowly eating away my money for the overseas trip.
Maybe I should call Dad and Ma and ask for help. Hmm.. there's Dad's VISA, actually, but due to my still-existent conscience, I can't quite spend too lavishly (been using it lately to pay debts or to convert "credit money" to cash).
Whew. Another incredibly long post. Again, I hope all those who just read my blog for fun or just to kill the time will be bored in the middle and flee and never come back. I didn't mean that exactly, but you know what I mean. Just to clarify though, this also isn't a desperate attempt to make visitors read. In fact, I've been wanting a bit of privacy lately. Umm.. yeah.
Incoherence, again and again. Gibberish now, time to shut this PC off and begin to move out my stuff to my new room at A205.
Goodnight.
Music of the Moment: P.Diddy, Mase, & Notorious BIG's Mo' Money Mo' Problems
Currently feeling umm.. broke.
