January
I got an iPad 2 for my birthday
I was promoted to a new position at work
February
My Betta fish, Bonzai, passed away
April
We helped my sister-in-law move back to Illinois
May
We took a mini-vacation to Wisconsin
July
We had to get a new HVAC system installed
August
We organized the garage
September/October
We took a 10-day road trip to the East Coast
November
I had a kidney stone attack
December
I decide to resign from the place where I’ve worked for the past ten years
I didn’t get the job. :(
I heard back from the hiring manager via email yesterday. It was very nice of him to send me a personal email warning me of the impending rejection letter and also explaining why I didn’t get the job. Basically he liked me but someone else has more experience. I get it, but I’m really sad even though the job was part-time, and while I don’t know what the pay was, I’m certain it wasn’t what I currently make. However, I was alright with that because I would have been working at a local library in the computer services department. If that isn’t the perfect role for me, I don’t know what is! I adore technology, I understand it and serve as the unofficial tech support for my colleagues, and I’m happiest at my current job when writing process/technical documentation or helping someone with their computer. Not to mention the fact that I have always loved the library. While I haven’t spent as much time in the library lately due to my work schedule, I love going there and always have. Even as a kid I would get so excited when we visited the library on weekly basis. As I got older I would still visit the library frequently, sometimes just to sit and enjoy the quiet, relaxed atmosphere.
So yeah, I’m extremely disappointed not to have gotten the job. It has brought to light how much I want to work in a role that serves the community while utilizing my talents. I want to have a job I look forward to going to every day; not just something that pays the bills and/or pads someone’s bottom line. Plus it would be nice if the job wasn’t go-go-go all day every day with lots of meetings and conference calls thrown in.
I’m trying to stay optimistic about my employment future but at this very moment I feel quite down. I guess it’s better to end the year feeling this way than starting it off depressed, right? Tomorrow I will pull myself together, work at my current job until my last day on Friday, celebrate my birthday on Monday, and then get to finding a job that gives me a sense of fulfillment. That’s the 2013 plan because life is too short to spend it unhappy 8+ hours a day.
Ugh. Our staycation is over and I’m a sad panda.
Our morning started like every other typical Sunday – a trip to Target where we always seem to travel through a time warp; we were in the store for nearly two hours. Luckily we didn’t spend all that much – only $60 which included groceries, a new sweater (on clearance) for yours truly, and some cool LED Christmas lights they had on sale for $8 which we strung across the top of our blinds on our patio door. All our Fall decorations are still on display along with the new Christmas lights. Classy.
After dropping off the groceries at home we decided to grab lunch at Red Lobster. They have a 4-course meal that is pretty good, although I swear it was $14.99 last time we had it and now it’s $16.99. Either way you get soup, salad, a full entree, and a mini dessert. The dessert is perfectly sized, though, in my opinion. I got the brownie ala mode which was awesome. The warm chocolate mixed with the creamy vanilla is the perfect combination. My soup was the creamy potato which was just ok but I loved my entree which included a skewer of pineapple grilled shrimp, four jumbo coconut breaded shrimp, rice and broccoli. Yummy! Between a $4 coupon and $26 left on a gift card our out of pocket cost was under $10. Gotta love that!
After lunch we stopped at a place called Savers. It’s like Goodwill except better organized. I actually found two shirts I liked which only cost me $10 total. Gotta love cheap clothing! Why pay full price when your money can go further on previously worn clothes? As long as they are in good shape I don’t mind that they aren’t new. I always wash them thoroughly before wearing them anyway.
Tomorrow begins what I’m anticipating will be the single most stressful three weeks of my career. Suffice it to say I’m dreading it. My apologies to anyone whom I work with who may stumble upon this blog but it’s the truth. I’m looking forward to a more laid back 2013 and will do whatever it takes to make that happen…
Today I was finally productive. The day still flew by but at least I have something to show for it, including finally figuring out how to get my computer to display thumbnails and previews for the RAW image files on my camera (I just had to download and install a codec from Microsoft). I haven’t backed up in a long time (bad, bad, bad I know) so I’ll be doing that tomorrow as I still need to rearrange and go through a few more things first, but at least I’ve made progress. I also signed up for a stock photo site, although I have a feeling I’m not going to make much, if anything, because the list of rules is ridiculous and I don’t think the majority of my photos fit within their requirements. I had to upload a sample of my photos as part of my application so I should know more soon.
I’m really really really stressed out about work this holiday season and it sucks because it’s essentially ruining the holidays for me. I don’t know how to turn off my mind. I wake up thinking about problems I need to tackle when I go back to work and worrying about how there’s too much to do in too little time to meet these very tight deadlines for a project I’m working on. It sucks and I literally feel sick so I’m going to end this now.
This morning we checked out a newer neighborhood place called Brunch Cafe. It was pretty good but not quite as good as other restaurants which are closer. Later on we saw Pitch Perfect (so funny and good!) at the second-run theater since tickets are only $1 on Tuesdays. Didn’t do much else the rest of the day.
There’s a list of things I want to get done during our time off and I’ve barely made a dent. It’s hard to motivate myself to be productive when I’ve been working so hard lately and I’ll be going back to more of the same on Monday. I’m going to bed shortly, however, so I can hit the ground running tomorrow.