Colorado, from a New Yorker's point of view

I went snowboarding yesterday.  I’ve had two lessons so far.  This was my first time going down the slopes without an instructor.  I’m a snow bunny.  I always thought snow bunnies were cute girls dressed for the slopes, but no.  I’m a snow bunny.  Why?  I spent a considerable amount of time  on all fours hopping through the flats towards the downhill slope portion.  I’d be buried in a snow pile  and I’d have to hop out.  My hip flexors are so sore.  So is my neck.  The neck pain was all muscle soreness.  I would tense up and tuck my head to my chest when I would fall.  Like a boxer taking a punch, tensing his neck to prevent the whiplash effect that comes from taking a straight right cross to the temple.

I stayed at an outrageous 5BD 3.5 BR house in the mountains.  It belongs to a friend of a friend.  After about 3 hours of sleep I woke up thinking it was morning.  My body was fully awake and cramping up.  I spent most of the next 3.5 hours tossing and turning.  Even when I was in this half-asleep dream state I was dreaming I was tossing and turning.  I couldn’t get comfortable.  I was going to move to the floor but my friend’s dog would have started licking me.  I spent hours awake muttering to myself “please fall asleep, just fall asleep, don’t move, just fall asleep, stop moving.”  My tossing and turning was so bad that around 6 am the person I was sharing the bed with had to move to the couch.  Luckily pity was bestowed on me and I got a handful of Advils.

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” – Charles Wentworth Dilke, but popularized by Mark Twain

Statistics lie, then again maybe they don’t.  You just need to fully understand what the statistics represent.

When I first decided to move I partially selected Denver because it had stronger than average job growth.  I really liked the idea of a living in a growing city with a strong economy.   I don’t remember where I read this information, but I assumed that it was standardized for population, as in job growth is x per 100,000 people.  Turns out it wasn’t or I had old information.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the US Census Bureau:

Colorado job growth in the 1990′s was 44% and the population grew 31%.  Jobs grew faster than the population in terms of percent.  In the 2000′s this switched.  Jobs grew at 3% and the population grew 20%.  Keep in mind that these are percent changes, not absolute numbers.  When you look at the absolute numbers the picture gets even worse.

In the 1990′s Colorado added 670,000 jobs, but the population grew by over 1,000,000 people.  In the 2000′s Colorado only added 58,000 jobs but 870,000 people moved here.  In the 2000′s the state added the fewest number of jobs since the 1930′s.

Denver still has a lower rate of unemployment than the National average, but according to a recent article in the Denver Post, it might take a while for robust hiring to occur.  Sooner or later I should probably get discouraged.  Luckily I’m keeping my spirits up.  I’m slowly realizing that my plan to buy a house in time to take advantage of the tax credit is slipping away.  It looks like I’m not going to be employed before the program ends, and I’m pissing away all my down payment money.  B’ah Hum Bug.

I went to the Western Stock Show & Rodeo yesterday.  I never would have thought of going to a rodeo, but I had a blast.  A friend of mine worked on a farm.  She made the perfect tour guide.  She actually has the ability to distinguish between the smell of cow, horse and pig shit.  I haven’t decided if that is impressive or scary.

Mutton Busting – This is one of the best things I’ve ever seen.  Take a 3 to 5 year old, put a helmet on him or her, and see how long the kid can ride on the back of a running sheep.  As the kid falls off there is a tendency for the sheep’s back legs to trample the child.  For the record the kids all seemed to enjoy it and they were wearing chest protectors.

It makes me wonder why I like seeing young kids doing dangerous things.  I was at Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn once for some white collar boxing.  One of the matches was between two girls.  One was 7 years old and the other was turning 7 the next day.  These two little girls clobbered each other with punches and kicks for three, two minute rounds.  It was one of the most exciting, action packed matches of the night.

Here are some of the pictures from the stock show & rodeo.  Considering the lighting I’m happy with how these pictures came out.  To keep a fast shutter speed I had to shoot wide open (f 2.8) at an ISO 800 or 1600, which is well past what I am typically comfortable with.  The pictures are noisy and grainy, but all things considered not bad.

Mutton Busting

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After two rounds of interviews I was rejected for a job which was identical to the position I held with my previous employer.  If anything the position would have had slightly less responsibility than my last role.  I find it very difficult to believe they found anyone more qualified.  My only assumption is that the hiring  manager just didn’t like me.  The only positive aspect is that the position was in a small regional office.  This means that except for the possibility of assuming my boss’s position there would be no advancement without moving to Michigan or New Jersey.

All along I’ve gone with the assumption that I won’t find a job until late Q1.  Based on my experience companies wait to see how they land the year before granting final permission to add headcount.  The human resources department gets the ads posted by mid-January, interviews take place in February and employees are added in March.  Assuming the new position was budgeted for the entire year adding a new employee in March eliminates two months of salary expense.

Over the last few weeks I’d like to think I’ve noticed more job openings.  At least that is what I tell myself.  While I’ve probably noticed more positions, there haven’t been as many finance jobs.  I’ve also stopped applying to positions unless I am very well qualified for the role.

I was recently turned down for an interview just because I don’t have Oracle experience.  I think it is better to hire someone with good business acumen.  You can always teach someone systems.  In this case the company has enough potential applicants that they can be as selective as they.  My recruiter also told me the company is considering making a full-time offer to the temporary worker who is currently in the role.  This is another example of how companies are using more temps and offering them full time positions.

The current job market is starting to scare me.  Over the last two weeks I’ve met a bunch of people who just became unemployed.  I’ve run into more unemployed people in the last two weeks, than in my first two months in town.

I want to avoid going back to the restaurant industry, but I think I might have to.  I didn’t want to get a restaurant job before heading home for Xmas.  I figured they would need the seasonal help and would frown upon me taking time off.

I’ve also been avoiding the hospitality industry because good jobs are scarce.  Restaurant revenues are down, and there is a glut of unemployed ready to fill what few jobs there are.  Could I get a job working a Monday lunch where I earn $25 bucks all day?  Sure, but I am beyond that.  Would I take that shift if it also came with a couple $150-200 shift each week?  Of course.  But even in a busy joint, those shifts and sections go to those with the most seniority.

A friend of a friend is a wine distributor.  He thinks he can get me some interviews in some high volume establishments.  I really need to contact him.  I also feel slightly guilty taking a job knowing that as soon as I get a “real” job I’d quit.  I’d love to stay on and work two jobs for a few months and rebuild my savings.  But it is usually impossible when you work in the corporate world.  Some days you might get to leave work at 5pm, other days it might be 8 or 9.  Restaurants will never tolerate that kind of unpredictability.  Even if you find a place that give you a late shift, it means you work until closing.  Working until closing time means you’ll be lucky to get 4-5 hours a sleep a night.

Another few weeks and I won’t have a choice.

One of the harder parts of dating is figuring out when you are exclusive.  I think back to years ago when you would ask a girl out it was kind of assumed that you were exclusive, at least once you started fooling around.  Now, especially with the proliferation of on-line dating, it is very difficult to figure when it becomes inappropriate to keep dating other women.

Relationship experts would advise that you need to have an open discussion with your partner.  I would tend to agree, unless you are fearful of the answer, in which case I think it is better to fly blind and avoid the topic.

You have ventured in the land of exclusivity when as the weekend rolls around you assume you are spending the weekend with the other person.  If you consult each other before making plans, you’re a couple.  But what about when you are both still doing your own thing for at least part of the weekend?

How many days or nights out of the week do you have to hang out before you are exclusive?  Does sex play a role in determining exclusivity?  How about un-protect sex?  Does that change anything?  For some people just having sex means you are in a committed relationship.

A few months ago I started dating (or were we hanging out?  I don’t know what word to use) this person.  At the same time I was doing on-line dating, which meant I was going out with a small group of women.  None of them made it past date two, but technically I was dating.  You could never tell your wife, “I met a woman on-line, we had coffee but it’s no big deal because we only hung out twice.”  However, this was early enough in the relationship that it was no big deal.  I even expected that she was dating a bunch of people.

But what happens after you’ve been seeing each other for a few weeks?  Throughout the initial courtship she always wore a claddagh ring (quick side note: I wasn’t sure how to spell it so I googled “stupid Irish ring” and it came right up.) She worn the ring facing out, indicating that she was single.    Then after a few weeks of hanging out the ring was turned the other way, indicating we were an item.  We probably should have had “the discussion” that weekend, but having a date or two lined up the following week I to wanted to avoid the subject.  I might have avoided the subject too long because after about two weeks the ring was turned around once again.  Which I gladly interpreted as a permission slip to do whatever I wanted to when I was home for Xmas.  For all the forecasters out there the change in direction also makes a great leading indicator that the relationship is over.

I have another friend facing a similar situation, except she had “the discussion” and yet she is still not sure if she is in an exclusive relationship with her boyfriend.  They’ve been seeing each other for a little over two months.  Her boyfriend said he wants to be exclusive, yet he only wants to see her about twice a week.  That’s not really fair for her.  She has a very part-time boyfriend and she’s expected not to date and meet other guys.  Any thoughts?

There are also bad times to have the conversation.   One time I was leaving a party and going back to a friend’s house with the assumption that we were going to hook-up.  The party we were at was pretty loud.  Later on the way to her place, I couldn’t hear her when she asked about our relationship.  She either said she wanted a relationship or she didn’t.  I knew it was one or the other, I just wasn’t sure which one.

At that point in the evening it is very easy to get pre-occupied with thoughts of what’s to come.  You don’t really want to say anything to jeopardize where the night is heading.  In those situations the words “that’s just what I was thinking” seem to work well.  For the record, I wouldn’t suggest misleading anyone, but at that moment relationship or not I didn’t really care.