5/12/12

So, I have a real, grown-up job.  Finally.  And it is just the best.

It dropped in my lap on March 1st, and I started it right away.  I haven't written about it because I'm still a little self-conscious of the flighty, deadbeat, one-thing-to-the-next way I've spent the last few years.  So I needed to settle in first, and make sure it stuck.

I absolutely adore the work (civil rights stuff); the people (it's a tiny non-profit, so hippies like me!); the location (downtown, I can even take the bus); and all the little extras (4 day work week, yay!)  Seriously, the Hubs set the job-satisfaction bar in our household so very high, I thought I'd never find something that was as good a fit for me as his job is for him, but this totally is.  The only drawback *was* that it was funded through a grant set to run out a year from now, and there was no guarantee for any funding beyond that.

But this week, my boss happily told me that the next grant came through, so my position is all set and funded for another year, which means I'm good to go until May of 2014, which means yay!  Having been unemployed for such an embarassingly long time, I'm less concerned than most would be at the prospect of my position eventually ending, but because this job is pretty much the shit, I'm very happy that I get to keep it for at least two whole years.

Speaking of the shit, have you READ the Hunger Games?!  Go ahead, I dare you to finish the trilogy without winding up majorly crushing on Katniss Everdeen.  What a rockstar; the anti-Bella, if you will.  It's about time adolescent girls had a ruthless, badass survivor to emulate.  I finally got out to see the movie this afternoon, and it pretty much rocked as well.

Love, J

Another change

I'm in yet another professional transition, and am seriously hoping that it is my situation, and not just an inborn restless, impossible-to-please-ness, causing me to move on. After angsting over the rough edges of my job for enough weeks in a row, I reached my breaking point and ended things by leaving myself without a job to angst over.

Which solves all the external yuckiness (or it will, once I am replaced and out of here), but I'm still plagued by a tiny but niggling voice suggesting that some of the dissatisfaction may be internal. Wouldn't that be unfortunate.

I feel like I should have everything figured out by now. That by 26 (almost 27), I ought to know what I'm doing. Or, at the very least, where I am headed. I think that by doing the college-then-law-school thing, I fooled myself into thinking I had a plan, and that I wasn't susceptible to this kind of drift. But school ended, and with no more marked trail to follow (freshman, sophomore... 2L, 3L), I've lost my momentum. And in the process learned that momentum is very key to my ability to get anywhere.

So now I drift. I'm just bobbing along, hoping to wash ashore of wherever I'm meant to be and thus avoid the scary (probably inevitable) fact that such washing does not happen. At some point, I'm actually going to have to choose.

Fortunately, thanks to this job, I know better what I am not willing to compromise. And while it would be hugely unwise for me to detail the ugliness of my short foray into legal assisting here (even understanding that I have at most 5 followers - Hi Aunt Sue!), I will at least defend my decision by declaring that the objective unpleasantness of this position justified my leaving. For reals. And this will always be true, even in the event that my life unfolds in a way that proves me to be a quitter at heart.

(But uuuuuhhhg, I hope that's not what happens.)

Stay tuned.

(Bye Aunt Sue!)

Love, J

"Committed" book review - Post edit

Yesterday I read "Committed," by Elizabeth Gilbert. I wasn't much taken with her "Eat, Pray, Love." I wanted so badly to love it, but I got bored and quit less than halfway through. "Committed," on the other hand, held my rapt attention all day and I was able to finish it in one sitting.

I didn't agree with everything Gilbert said, but a lot of it rang pretty true. At least as true as any generalization can ring with someone who's had a finite number of life experiences. It was fun to spend the day really thinking about the institution of marriage, which I don't think I've ever done. I think about my own marriage often enough, but not Marriage in the universal, everyone's-doing-it, how-does-it-work-and-also-why-not, sense. Plus now I have a nice little book to refer people to when they ask why I'm hesitating on the kids/no kids threshold. Because man, does she make the case for 'no kids.'

And in other 'couples' news, the bunnies seem to be settling into a truce-like area. There were a few knock-down, drag-out fights yesterday, but I also caught them doing this mid-afternoon:





Love, J

PS ~ Probably I should finally admit that the job I started last weekend lasted all of two days before I quit. I'm back to job-hunting/goofing off - basically having days like yesterday, where I spend 10 straight hours reading.

POST EDIT:

1. I just realized this isn't at all a 'book review,' it's just an endorsement. But you know what? I'm not in school anymore. If you want to know what it's about/like, you should read it. No more English papers for me.

2. I began my volunteer work with the local fair housing agency this afternoon and I LOVE it. So I've got something to fill my days after all.

Have a good weekend!

Let's talk about me

1.) I am done with the test, and I don't want to talk about it. I've learned my lesson about predicting the results of this particular beast. (Plus it was hard and stupid and I'm trying to push my not-very-hopeful feelings about it out of mind.)

2.) I've got THE greatest people in my life, period. Aunt Micky, who skipped work to travel across the state to deal with the black cloudiness of me this week just so I'd have company. My hunky husband, who cleaned the house (including the TUB-I can now take a BATH when I want to! Joy of joys!) while I was away. My friend Callie, who ensured there would be the sweetest card of encouragement waiting in my mailbox on my return today. Wow.

3.) Melissa Etheridge is making my day. She rocks.

4.) Happy part of the trip: the crapload of thrift shopping aunty and I did. I scored 2 cutting boards, a tart dish, cake decorating supplies, a couple smoke detectors, and 7 dresses, including the one I wore to a job interview this morning:



And the interview went well enough that I start training on Saturday morning, so that's cool. I'm quite ready for real life to get started already ; )

Love, J