I Suck At Taking The Census Test

today, my friend (hot amy) and i took our first steps in performing our civic duty... we took the census test. too bad i suck at taking the census test.

the census test was to be administered at the thomas crane public library in quincy. ever since the library was renovated, i love going there. i never knew that the library even had a "meeting room" on the first floor.

the meeting room was nice. there is a big mural of quincy and all quincy-related items on the back wall. the only reason why i know this is because i sat at the very back of the room and had ample time to look at the mural during the census appointment. and yes, i chose to sit at the very back of the room because that is where all the "cool" kids sit... as i told hot amy, only intellectuals sit in the front of the class. (i actually like to watch people, so sitting in the back provides me a great view of everyone.)

anyway, hot amy and i had signed up to take the census test at the same time. so the both of us were at the back of the meeting room. i did my darnest to get hot amy to place a wager on who would get the better score on the test today. unfortunately, she would not agree to it. nonetheless, i think i was in her head because she did seem a little nervous... with her foot nervously tapping under the table and all.

it was probably just as well that hot amy did not wager anything. when the test was over, the person giving the test called me up to the front so that i could get my score. i looked at the score and shrugged. curious, hot amy asked what i had scored. the stinker that i am, i obviously didn't tell her. i said i'd tell her after she got her score. soon after, hot amy received her score. hot amy did very well. she only got one question incorrect. even though that was a very good score, i simply grinned... and she knew that i had beaten her score.

if only i could have gotten her to put a wager on the test... perhaps next time. so needless to say, hot amy and i have a good chance to work for the 2010 census. to celebrate our achievement, we went out for lunch... (naturally, because all i do now is go out to eat...)

the destination for our lunch: rock bottom located in braintree. it actually took us awhile to get there because 1) i did not know nordstrom was being built behind macy's so i had to loop all around the mall parking lot; 2) the parking lot for rock bottom was hard to get into; and 3) when i figured out how to get into the rock bottom parking lot, the lot was full because the lot only holds like 7 cars.

(pictured below is hot amy at rock bottom.)


as it turns out, rock bottom... has hit rock bottom... at least the one in braintree. while we were having lunch, the waitperson told us that the braintree location of rock bottom was closing. not only was the location closing, it was closing this weekend. so, i guess it's good that we ate there just in time before it closed.

for anyone curious, the food there is pretty good. hot amy and i had this huge pretzel to start... (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound) and then i had a burger. it's too bad that the rock bottom is closing. that pretzel thing was good... as were the raspberry apple martinis...

needless to say, i had a good time. i don't think i've had lunch with hot amy in quite some time. it almost reminded me of those days when i used to work in town and have the occasional lunch with her. sadly, i have now been replaced by my old coworkers during her work lunch hours.

I Suck At Scheduling A Census Employment Test

a few days ago, my friend (hot amy) first notified me about a possible part-time gig for the upcoming 2010 census. basically, the gig is a census taker. according to the job description, the community serving census taker visits residences with a small hand held computing device to verify address lists. the job sounds easy, right?

now, i was not looking for a part-time job or anything. hot amy seemed to be promoting the opportunity and naturally i humored her by agreeing to partake in the census fun. plus, i figured the census would be something similar to the time hot amy and i trekked all over boston taking pictures of cows during the cow parade for my friend (andrea)... because at the time, hot amy and i both worked in town.

needless to say, the cow parade excursion was fun. hot amy and i did not kill each other after the excursion, so i would say it was a success. incidentally, the cow parade was the first time i really got to know hot amy. before then, i simply knew her as karen's "fringe oddball friend" who i would occasionally see and who would not say much to me at all. i think her boyfriend at the time said more to me than she did. interestingly enough, i believe she had the "hot" moniker back then because i think my friend (garv) had already met her by then.

for anyone curious, the cow parade is an event whereby local artists create cow statues and randomly scatter them throughout boston. afterwards, the cows are auctioned off for charity. andrea simply wanted pictures of all the cows.

regardless, i figured this census gig would be like the cow parade... except this time we'd get paid for keeping each other company and hanging out. the first step, however, in the application process was to schedule a census employment test.

now, i suck at scheduling a census employment test. apparently, the test is supposed to make sure you have the mad skills to be a census taker. (i am already sensing another possible wagered competition on who gets the better score on the test.) as hot amy and i wanted to take the test at the same time, i contacted the census to set it up so that we could take the employment test together.

the exam scheduler (lydell) at the census office in new bedford must have thought i was crazy because i kept having to call him back to tell him if a particular date for the exam he suggested worked for both hot amy and i. lydell even gave me some ribbing about how many women's phone numbers i have in my cell phone because i took quite a while to scroll through my cell phone's address book to get hot amy's phone number. (i needed to provide lydell with her phone number for scheduling purposes.) for anyone curious, hot amy is under "h" in my cell phone... which i had forgotten when i was scrolling down the list.

when all was said and done, lydell was kind enough to schedule the exam for both hot amy and i in quincy... at the thomas crane public library. so finally... 2010 census... here we come!