Jacquie Phelan's Weblog

Frazzled

To toot horn, or not to toot horn?

In the last few months I did a couple of foolish moves to simplify my life: close a bank account that charges monthly fee, without remembering that there were a couple of checks out in the econosphere I’d written the previous week. Like me, the recipients probably didn’t just toss them in the bank the same day.
Hence, impressive overdraft fees, and a cascade of other  consequences like my  Visa card (I was the last person on earth to get one, since I’m aware how idiots like me end up spending a decade paying off the INTEREST ALONE on this predatory bit of plastic) being dunned for insufficient funds..

It’s like banking is a many-part math problem that I am paying insufficent attention to.

Tomorrow I’ll go to two banks and ask if they will consider waiving the punitive fee because I’ve never racked up an overdraft in 30 years there…it’s worth a try.

Speaking of frazzled, Jef Mallet’s cartoon a math problem that involves shopping, a bicycle, and velocity. Today I got a couple hundred bucks worth of food for CC (I don’t shop for me, remember? I forage like a rat, it’s so much more exciting) and wobbled home at about 3 mph….the picture of errand efficiency.
A random kid at the Good Earth gave me a spontaneous shoulder-pat, saying “You’re great!” as I bagged up the groceries, baby bok choi on the bottom, 10-lb sack of potatoes on top).

He said he was Patrick and no, he didn’t know me. Just a spontaneous outburst of esteem, the kind of thing that makes Fairfax so damn faire.

I had admired two different women’s outfits on my way into town: one was an Edward Gorey masterpiece in dark Victorian hues, topped with a grand black hat, and the other wore a Bo-Peep frilled pantalette –a vision in shepardess pulchritude, set off atop black and white striped Pippi longstockings.

Man, life is good.

But you do have to pay bills, not just swan around town admiring the well-dressed denizens, and grabbing clothes from free boxes for future (2015 A.D at the earliest) ‘projects’.

Here’s my resume for receptionist at the  slightly stuffy  San Francisco Bay Club Day Spa.  I figured that their ad in Craig’s List meant they would be hip enough to read between the lines in my resume.

Never heard back, so I called three times to follow up the paper resume I’d wowed them with , and the contents of which are set forth below:

Jacquie Phelan 540 Dogbark Drive Fairfax CA 94930 415-459-etc.

Key Skills

• Customer attunement
• Adept verbal/written skills in MS Office, Filemaker, WordPress
• Personable, attractive, impeccable memory for names, faces and voices.
• Telephonic talent, sales wizardry.
• Computer skills : Word, Excel, Power Point, Photoshop

Professional  Experience

Freelance writer, fitness topics Pacific Sun 1994-present
Professional Bicycle Racer 1983-1994

Women’s Fitness Center receptionist and trainer,  Fairfax CA 1984-1986

Solarius Fitness Center receptionist and trainer, San Francisco, CA 1980-1984

Adept first-point-of-contact person

Commended for ability to pacify the impossible, and solve member’s difficulties.

Understands the value of word-of-mouth membership referrals.

Able to create  reports, swab down machinery and locker rooms, attend to whirlpool details and always have a stack of fresh towels at the ready, with one hand tied behind my back.

”Jacquie’s role in cycling  bicycle culture assured that a much larger population (and more diverse, both age and gender-wise) enjoys the outdoors in Marin. She is sure to be an asset to the Bay Club as the  Sanctuary Spa receptionist.”
Marilyn Price

Trips For Kids

info@tripsforkids.org 415-454-1389

“You’d be good for the Bay Club”

Bonnie Phippen

Mill Valley, Bay Club Marin member

415-383-ETC&

And then, of course, the cover letter:

Bay Club Marin

220 Corte Madera Town Center

Corte Madera CA 94926

March 19, 2011

Dear Stacy

I’m interested in applying for the job listed in Craiglist for Sanctuary Spa receptionist.

Please let me know if there is anything more  you’d like to know about me and my employment history. I’ve been self-employed most of my life but as the ‘gate person’ for novice mountain biking women for the last twenty five years, I think I know a little bit about the role of receptionist.

I know a lot about healing mud.
Feel free to call if you are interested in interviewing me in person.
I’d really relish the chance to serve the legendary Bay Club in this vital capacity. Sincerely,    Jacquie Phelan

Dear reader/rider: if you have any expertise in job-procurement, or resume improve -i-fication, please let me know how I can fluff up the above rezzumay.

It might need a bit of tweaking.

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First, a word from our sponsor, American Cyclery, purveyors of fine bicycles since 1941

Bicycle Tent, Sidewalk and Archive sale

April 1^st, 2^nd 3^rd and 4th

Interesting bicycles, frames, parts and accessories from all over the world.  For this one weekend only they are on sale.  Road, Urban, Track, Fixed Gear Vintage, Classic lightweight, and tomorrow’s classics all on sale.  Many vintage bikes and stuff unearthed from our world famous basement.   Lots of fun Single speed equipment.

Many Track frames 10-50% off, SOMA frames, Pake and Cinelli framesets at fantastic prices.  Lots of great closeouts and one of a kind items.  Many great deals on closeouts, demos floor models and last year’s stuff.

Friday April 1st sale item Preview from 5-7pm (no early birds)
Sale Saturday April 2nd from 10-6pm (no early birds)
Sunday April 3rd from 10 to 5pm.
Monday April 4th let’s make a deal!   In store Sales only.  You must visit our location to buy

American Cyclery     510 Frederick St. San Francisco 94117

Located on the corner of Stanyan @  Frederick next to the Kezar Stadium, right by Golden Gate Bicycler Park.

Phone 415.664.4545    http://www.americancyclery.com

Three weeks of no real riding.

Charlie and I both feel ‘unshapely’, and attempted the world’s easiest ride: out the door, and into the woods.

He was being conservative, but I had to see what the past storms–the kind that turn our street into a chocolate torrent for half a day–had wrought on the Public Lands.
There were lizards darting around (3 of ’em). A cottontail rabbit.
He did a shortie (top of Bofax and back), and I undertook the lengthy, redoubtable Pine Mountain Loop: two and a half hours when I was fit… but those days are behind me.

The trick to riding a longish (20 mile dirt) ride is to go as slowly (read: gently) as possible, so as not to disturb the sleeping muscles.

Walk, if neccessary.
The past attempts at a ride failed because I loped up the hill at my usual pace instead of at Tired Person Tempo. Result: turn around before I even reach the Mildewclub Goof Course.

The day began well enough: 2 a.m. Kevin Vance’s KPFA show “Non-fiction Music” was on, and I trooped down the ladder to get a really good music education, starting with Ladysmith Black Mombazo’s “Watch” song, and ending the hour with my cherished Loudon Wainwright III’s re-mix of Motel Blues.

Then, a serendipitous conversation with Peter Young, my Vermont correspondent, who told me he’d captured the annual ice-breakup of the Great Brook behind his house. And he shared  the secret to a happier life: Be kind to yourself, and acknowledge that the human’s deepest need is to be ‘witnessed’ (not in the Christian sense necessarily). To be allowed to simply Be.

Both of us are from the generation where love, attention came with strings attatched. Conditions.

But Pete and his mate Nancy succeeded in raising three boys in a milieu of acceptance. All while they farmed fanatically, hewing to recently re-discovered ‘organic’ (ancient) tenets.

Er, well, reader, a good conversation with an old old friend who completely gets you can make you bust out of your rut.

I got permission to be irrational, and just ride half the day, checking out the pale green paths through the grass (they haven’t been trampled into dirt yet-so fresh!) and all the

Douglas iris

Sisyrinchium

Echscholzia (Calif poppy)

Lupine

Buttercup

oh, god, the sheer green noise of growth and floral grandeur.

Got home and even maintained the bike (with all the mud, and the downed trees, my route was a bit filthy) before plopping down and telling you all about it.

Spring made it.

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