I've been recruiting campers like crazy, and we now have an abundance of campers and a shortage of counselors for our fabulous business camp for women.

Camp $tart Up Hawaii will be run through the YWCA of Oahu. It's an 8-day residential program located along beautiful Kaneohe Bay on the island of Oahu. Counselors will work with teen women ages 13 - 19, leading them in lessons and activities designed to build business skills and self-confidence. Each counselor is also responsible for guiding a team to develop its own business plan. The curriculum is already written and is easy to facilitate. Each day, there will be arts and crafts and outdoor activities. A 5-day training session takes place prior to the start of the camp. A counselor's time commitment would be from July 9 - 22, with the camp running from July 14 - 22.

The ideal candidate for this position will be an outgoing woman who has completed her undergraduate studies and has had at least 3 years of professional work experience. A background of working with teenagers from a variety of backgrounds is a plus. Enthusiasm and a willingness to learn are more important than directly related business experience.

Monetary compensation is limited, though the experience is incredibly rewarding. We are giving each counselor a stipend (tax free!) of $350. In addition, each counselor will receive a travel budget of $500. The YWCA will supply room and board during training and the camp.

If you are or someone you know is interested in applying to be a counselor, please send a cover letter describing your background and why you're suitable for the position to oahucamp@yahoo.com. Please don't send attachments - they take up a lot of space, and they won't be read. We are looking to fill this position immediately, so please don't delay in applying!

It used to be that Sunday was considered a day of rest. It was once a 24 hour period of time to recover from Saturday's activities and the lingering results of Friday night sins.

This past Sunday was no day of rest for me, though it was supposed to be. I slept in, after spending an evening out with Stephanie. I happened to check email, thankfully, for there in my inbox was a message from a potential employer wanting to know whether I would be available to have a more casual conversation about the job over Sunday lunch. Yikes! Of course I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity, but I was reminded of my stressful preparations some months back to get to an interview with little advance warning. Nonetheless, I agreed to meet, trying to sound breezy about the whole thing. I was scheduled to attend a wedding in the South Bay later in the day, so I would need to be wedding appropriate, a look that requires a bit more preparation than simply interview appropriate.

As I was throwing things into a purse to run out the door, my phone rang. It was a call from another (at the time potential) employer. He wanted to chat for a few minutes, but I had none to spare, since my car was on empty and I would need to stop for gas if I stood any chance of making it downtown for lunch.

In all, the day went well. I bought gas, found street parking in Nob Hill, and had a lovely lunch. I eventually found my way to the wedding, having just missed the ceremony - priorities! And, I got a part-time job as a Program Director for a non-profit mentoring organization.

And through it all, my biggest supporter, who cheered me on while I whipped up 4 minute Pad Thai, accompanied me to Payless Shoe Source (the company I've been assigned to research as the next step in the job evaluation process), and listens to me talk about all my activities while patiently rubbing my feet at the end of the day, is the not so secret admirer Kevin.

For an unemployed person, I feel incredibly stressed out. In the past week, my weight has fluctuated by 4 pounds. That's odd and indicative of a screwed up lifestyle...and a noticeable obsession with keeping track of my weight.

I'm finally concluding my equity research project on ANN, actively trying to recruit campers and sponsors for my summer camp (www.dollardiva.com), preparing for an equity research interview next week, developing a strategy for the import business I am attempting to launch with a friend, preparing for my final interview for a part time non-profit job, trying to solidify my non-profit idea, trying to host out of town friends this week and next, attempting to find a reasonable airfare to Hawaii while orchestrating my schedule around my parents' travel, which I am also organizing, attempting to rid my house of some crap so my parents can fill the space with more crap, dealing with extending my unemployment, paying bills, forwarding mail to my parents and planning a business meeting road trip to Southern California, all the while trying not to maintain some semblance of humor and perspective. When I was younger, I was better able to multi-task. I attended a social and networking function the other evening, and as I got to know people and answered their questions about who I am and how I spend my time, I was struck by how damn busy, and frankly overwhelmed, I feel. So I may be a little cranky as I type this while waiting for plane fares to slowly transmit across this dial up connection at 2AM.

This morning, after a hyper evening phone conversation, fueled by an amazing red wine, ahi tartar appetizer, filet mignon, and chocolate cake at Boulevard, I tried to focus on my goal for the day. I must be a winner. I woke up early, still drowsy, and went through a dry run of preparing my pad thai dish in preparation for the contest. I was confident my dish would be one of the faster ones to prepare, since two of my competitors had to boil rice. And I was relieved that my slight alterations to the recipe to make it cook more quickly and with fewer ingredients didn't alter the taste too much.

One of my best friends for the past 10 years, I-Fang, was in town from New York, where she does an amazing job as a clothing designer. I picked her up, and we headed to Saratoga to show off my skills...make that skilz.

We arrived in plenty of time, and after a quick lesson on how to use our camp stoves, the cook off began. I chose the cooking station in the center. To my right was a woman who prepared a dessert dish. Her strategy was to try to psych us out, stating that her dish cooks in a mere 5 minutes and asking whether she should just hang out during the first 25 minutes of the cook off. Game on. In the very least, I had to prepare my entree in less time than it took to flame some bananas. To my left was a woman who named her rice dish after dirt and kept saying that her dish would take some time because she had to cook rice. So she said you should start the dish then leave it while you set up your tent. I guess she doesn't camp in bear territory, despite looking like she may have lived in Berkeley. You see, the contest was all about being able to prepare a dish in less than 30 minutes. So, dirt dish lady, enough with the excuses.

I was the first to complete my meal, having cooked it in about 4 minutes. Unforunately, I used a bit too much water, as I am used to cooking with a frying pan and not a mess kit. Thankfully, I used my Handy Chef and fished the noodles out of the broth so the judges might not notice. I also very quickly wanted to put everything away to demonstrate the low maintenance nature of my dish and to avoid having to distribute samples to the crowd, since what was left would surely be a goopy mess, given the water issue. I contemplated, for just a moment, letting some water burn off, but I had to beat banana lady.

At the end of the contest, the judges took quite a while to make a decision. In third place was a green curry dish. Before announcing second place, they said they had a really tough time deciding between first and second place. I was awarded the second prize, and the lettuce wraps earned the victory. I'm happy that my camp will benefit from a $500 donation, that hyper competitive nature of mine, well, you can guess my level of disappointment, but I am personally satisfied that smack talking banana lady and excuse making dirt dish lady weren't in the running. Gosh, that's kind of mean.

The MUNI metro system is bad. Hong Kong, Boston, New York, and Atlanta have done a good job of providing public transportation. Even within the Bay Area, BART and CalTrain are great. Why is MUNI so bad?

I know I've mentioned how horrible MUNI is in the past, and I was reminded of it once again yesterday. I boarded the front car to realize that it was full and the second car was relatively empty. At the next stop, I got off the first car to enter the second, only the door of the second car wouldn't open. I was standing at the door, pushing the stupid button as hard as I could. All the while, the MUNI driver started pulling away. Do they not look in their mirrors before pulling away? What if my toes had been in line with the track? It's no damn wonder why in the last few months I've seen reports of murder by MUNI.

I hate MUNI.

Loyal readers will recall the joy I received from my Thai cooking classes. I was surprised how easy it was to cook marvelous meals.

Last weekend, I was browsing REI and saw a posting for their cooking contest. At the last moment, I logged on to rei.com/cooking to enter my modified "One Pot Pad Thai" recipe. To my surprise, I learned today that I am a finalist. I will get to demonstrate the preparation of my dish at the Saratoga REI on June 14th (damn, I was hoping to be lounging on vacation somewhere that weekend), and the panel of judges will taste my creation and compare it to 4 others. If I win, I get a cool kitchen set up, a stove, a mess kit, and a $1000 donation to the "outdoor recreation or conservation group" of my choice. The second place winner gets the stove, mess kit, and a $500 donation.

On the off chance that I win, where should I donate the money? Any thoughts? I'm hoping they'll be somewhat lenient on the definition of outdoor recreation and allow a donation to either Cal athletics (they play football outside, right?), Big Brothers Big Sisters of Santa Clara County (I bowled for them, afterall), or the YWCA Oahu (I'm directing their entrepreneurial summer camp - by the way, let me know of any 13 - 19 year old women who want to have a great time in Hawaii while learning how to start and run a business). Harvard Business School is a beautiful place for outdoor recreation, and then I could be listed in that damn book on donations by class they distribute with the sole intention of making some feel proud of their public generosity and most feel guilty for not giving or not giving enough. Too bad I don't have enough time to establish my 501c3 non-profit that I'm planning. More on that in future postings.

Anyway, I really do feel like a winner just for being nominated. My recipe will be posted on REI's website. Given my "achieve, achieve, achieve" type-A personality, the satisfaction of being a finalist will no doubt fade, and I will be focused on winning. Should that be the case, I'm soliciting from the 2 or so people who still read my postings ideas for organizations that would fit the description of "outdoor recreation or conservation group" and why they should receive the donation. Thanks for your 2 cents!

And I'm serious about shamelessly advertising for the camp - I've been plugging it on TV, in newspapers, and with friends. The camp will be run out of YWCA Oahu's Camp Kokokahi location on Kaneohe Bay from July 14 - 22. It's going to be an awesome experience for 20 lucky women, and at last check, there were a few spots left. Check out www.dollardiva.com for further information.

Last night, I made a huge mistake. My landline phone, usually reserved for painfully slow dial up Internet access, rang at 7PM, and I answered. I will often just let the landline phone ring, believing that if the call is urgent, the caller will know to ring my cell where I can screen out unwanted interruptions without having to pay extra for caller ID. To my credit, I did hesitate when the phone rang, but I took the chance and answered. I was killing time while waiting for my pasta water to boil.

The caller was quite aggressive, stating that he was conducting research from registered voters. My remote interest in political science (how in the world did I end up studying it in undergrad?) kicked in, and it intrigued me that my libertarian influences may play a role in politics. The political content of the questions the interviewer asked escapes me. I was busy scrubbing my kitchen sink and making pasta, so I was half listening and kept asking how many more questions there were.

What struck me were the introductory and ending questions to the survey. The interviewer asked to speak with the "male registered voter of the house." I thought, "Excellent, now I don't have to talk to this guy." I informed him no such person existed. Apparently, I was a good enough substitute. So, how important was it that the man of the house answered the questions? If not important, why specify the preferred gender of the respondent at the beginning of the survey? If important, why torture me?

At the end of the interview, I was asked a number of questions for statistical purposes. He wanted to know my marital status, and not just whether I was single, but whether I was "single - divorced" or "single - never married." After asking for my income category for last year, he wanted to know, as if his question covered the universe of all possibilities when it comes to work, "Do you work outside the home or are you a homemaker?" My answer, "Neither."

This past week has been full of lessons. Buy cheap vacations when you see them, and never answer the landline phone during dinner hours. At least it got me to scrub the kitchen sink - I had to find something productive to do while the guy asked his lame questions.

Last week was full of elation and deflation as exotic trips began to take shape then fell apart at the last moment. I found an amazing deal to Bali - 5 nights at a five star resort with roundtrip airfare was $599. Elation. I checked multiple possible dates, and the packages were available. When I finally decided when to go, the packages were sold out and July dates were available for $300 more. Deflation.

As an alternative, I began researching trips back to Thialand, the home of the most delicious coconut shakes in the world. I found a great airfare to BKK on United and started piecing together trips to Phuket and Chiang Mai. I checked the airfare on Friday night at 9:30PM. Still there. Elation. Armed with credit card and calendar, I went to book my ticket the following morning, and the airfare was gone. I could fly on China Air (no thanks!) or pay twice the price. Deflation.

I'd like to claim I learned some lessons from last week, but my actions don't seem to mirror my thoughts. Just today, I found an ultra cheap ticket to Washington DC to visit my friend Peter. I'm working through my schedule, still hoping to score a last minute 8-day trip to Maui for $399, so I'm delaying making a decision on DC. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that bad travel karma has moved on to some other unsuspecting unemployed person with a tiny budget yet a big desire to see the world...and to qualify for Premier status again.