In regards to my current life dealio:
"Carrie, you can't SEIZE (life, the moment, etc.) all the time. Eventually you have to take a break to refuel."
-Mr. Tom Milteer (see his students' adorable blog here!)
Thursday, March 24, 2011
So What ARE You Doing Now?
It's a fair question. Here, I'll do a little Q&A with you.
What are you doing now?
To make money, I'm waiting tables at a Mexican restaurant. Believe it or not, I don't hate it. Does it provide me an extreme sense of fulfillment? Hah. No. But I like the people I work with, I like the food, I'm bringing home cold hard cash, and I don't mind going to work every day. So that's good enough for now.
Outside of work, I spend part of my time doing some volunteer envelope-stuffing and phone-a-thon calling at my high school, another portion of my time keeping up with stay-in-touch phone calls and emails to friends spread all across the country, and the rest of my time slowly trudging through a to-do list that constantly says "write more, blog more, and cough up the money to join the gym."
Soooo...why Louisville?
I have love love love love LOVED all the hopping and bopping around I've done since graduation. Seriously. LOVED every second of it. But, to be honest, the feeling of "just scraping by" financially has left me a little bit exhausted. As Guatemala neared an end, I wasn't quite sure I had the energy to enter another adventure dead broke.
In Louisville, I'm lucky enough to be living rent-free with the 'rents for now, so even though I still feel broke ("Bills, Bills, Bills" appears to have been my welcome-back to-the-USA theme song), I know I'm saving big.
Plus, I've also been lucky enough to have stayed in touch with a lot of my high school friends. Granted, they all have their own lives here now, but since my return they have been nothing but generous in inviting me to jump right into those lives.
But you're looking for a real job, right?
Sort of, but not really. That's the truth.
I am keeping my eyes open for communications/publishing jobs in Louisville. So far, nothing I'd love has come up. And that's actually fine, because I've never had plans to stay in Louisville. If something comes up, I'll obviously pursue it. But no, I'm not very concerned with finding the dream job in a city I know I want to leave. And I don't think that makes me crazy.
I'm also keeping my eyes and ears open for great jobs in other cities. I've found plenty of those already, but I'm just still too broke for any major moves right now. Just gimme a sec. :)
But then why don't you just take any old real job in Louisville -- even if you hate it? At least you'd make more money faster, right?
Probably. But there are already a lot of depressing things about my current life situation. Please don't make me add Job I Loathe to that list. And for what? A line on my resume that I'll just delete anyway when I apply for future jobs because of its total and utter irrelevance?
So, you really don't think you're crazy?
My parents think I am insane, my peers probably think I have turned super lazy, and my all-too-nice friend Nick makes me sound much cooler by describing me as doing the "starving artist" thing. I appreciate that, haha.
I guess I'm just shooting for "realistic, with minimal settling-for-things-I-hate just in order to say I'm doing the 9-5."
So who knows. Maybe that makes me crazy. But that's the life update!
What are you doing now?
To make money, I'm waiting tables at a Mexican restaurant. Believe it or not, I don't hate it. Does it provide me an extreme sense of fulfillment? Hah. No. But I like the people I work with, I like the food, I'm bringing home cold hard cash, and I don't mind going to work every day. So that's good enough for now.
Outside of work, I spend part of my time doing some volunteer envelope-stuffing and phone-a-thon calling at my high school, another portion of my time keeping up with stay-in-touch phone calls and emails to friends spread all across the country, and the rest of my time slowly trudging through a to-do list that constantly says "write more, blog more, and cough up the money to join the gym."
Soooo...why Louisville?
I have love love love love LOVED all the hopping and bopping around I've done since graduation. Seriously. LOVED every second of it. But, to be honest, the feeling of "just scraping by" financially has left me a little bit exhausted. As Guatemala neared an end, I wasn't quite sure I had the energy to enter another adventure dead broke.
In Louisville, I'm lucky enough to be living rent-free with the 'rents for now, so even though I still feel broke ("Bills, Bills, Bills" appears to have been my welcome-back to-the-USA theme song), I know I'm saving big.
Plus, I've also been lucky enough to have stayed in touch with a lot of my high school friends. Granted, they all have their own lives here now, but since my return they have been nothing but generous in inviting me to jump right into those lives.
But you're looking for a real job, right?
Sort of, but not really. That's the truth.
I am keeping my eyes open for communications/publishing jobs in Louisville. So far, nothing I'd love has come up. And that's actually fine, because I've never had plans to stay in Louisville. If something comes up, I'll obviously pursue it. But no, I'm not very concerned with finding the dream job in a city I know I want to leave. And I don't think that makes me crazy.
I'm also keeping my eyes and ears open for great jobs in other cities. I've found plenty of those already, but I'm just still too broke for any major moves right now. Just gimme a sec. :)
But then why don't you just take any old real job in Louisville -- even if you hate it? At least you'd make more money faster, right?
Probably. But there are already a lot of depressing things about my current life situation. Please don't make me add Job I Loathe to that list. And for what? A line on my resume that I'll just delete anyway when I apply for future jobs because of its total and utter irrelevance?
So, you really don't think you're crazy?
My parents think I am insane, my peers probably think I have turned super lazy, and my all-too-nice friend Nick makes me sound much cooler by describing me as doing the "starving artist" thing. I appreciate that, haha.
I guess I'm just shooting for "realistic, with minimal settling-for-things-I-hate just in order to say I'm doing the 9-5."
So who knows. Maybe that makes me crazy. But that's the life update!
Correction.
In the other day's post, I said that I was "friendless" in Louisville. I shouldn't have written that, because it's not what I meant. I should have written "social life-less," because that's what I really meant. The two are not the same.
So to my fellow margarita-drinkers from last night (I became friends with two of you 10 years ago and friends with another one of you 13 years ago -- whoa), I hope you knew what I meant. But just in case, here's an official correction. :)
So to my fellow margarita-drinkers from last night (I became friends with two of you 10 years ago and friends with another one of you 13 years ago -- whoa), I hope you knew what I meant. But just in case, here's an official correction. :)
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Reason #7 for Bringing Back the Blog
Reason #7: Blogging to stay positive.
For whatever reasons, I tried to make it a point to keep my blog positive during my time in Guatemala.
Maybe it was because I was representing a volunteer organization and wanted to keep my public trash-talking to a minimum. Maybe it was because nobody likes a whiner, in person or via blog. Or maybe it was because of that whole "when you look back, you won't remember the bad things -- only the good things" mentality that made me think twice about whether I really wanted the future 40 year-old me to have to look back on published rants I'd already long forgotten about.
But regardless of the why, my blogging philosophy became one of positives. It was a daily exercise in which I forced myself to either find something good about my crappy day or turn the something crappy into something lighthearted and publishable.
Challenging at times? Yes. Yet incredibly healthy on a mental level? Quadruple yes. Which brings me to Reason #7.
It's safe to say I'm at my whiniest life stage yet right now. (I'm living at home, broke, basically friendless, and without an exact plan with an exact time frame. You don't want to get me started...) I tend to answer most How are you? questions with one of those drawn-out Fiiiiiiiine's that's actually asking your permission to let me whine about how not fine I am, and I know you're all getting sick of it. I'm getting sick of it.
Well! Time to change that. Maybe. Right?
So with Reason #7, I propose a toast. To more blogging, and less whining. :)
For whatever reasons, I tried to make it a point to keep my blog positive during my time in Guatemala.
Maybe it was because I was representing a volunteer organization and wanted to keep my public trash-talking to a minimum. Maybe it was because nobody likes a whiner, in person or via blog. Or maybe it was because of that whole "when you look back, you won't remember the bad things -- only the good things" mentality that made me think twice about whether I really wanted the future 40 year-old me to have to look back on published rants I'd already long forgotten about.
But regardless of the why, my blogging philosophy became one of positives. It was a daily exercise in which I forced myself to either find something good about my crappy day or turn the something crappy into something lighthearted and publishable.
Challenging at times? Yes. Yet incredibly healthy on a mental level? Quadruple yes. Which brings me to Reason #7.
It's safe to say I'm at my whiniest life stage yet right now. (I'm living at home, broke, basically friendless, and without an exact plan with an exact time frame. You don't want to get me started...) I tend to answer most How are you? questions with one of those drawn-out Fiiiiiiiine's that's actually asking your permission to let me whine about how not fine I am, and I know you're all getting sick of it. I'm getting sick of it.
Well! Time to change that. Maybe. Right?
So with Reason #7, I propose a toast. To more blogging, and less whining. :)
Reasons #1 - #6 for Bringing Back the Blog
Reason #1: It's easier for you to stalk me this way.
Reason #2: I'd feel kind of guilty becoming only a fairweather blogger.
Reason #3: Something to make me wake up before 1 p.m. on mornings I don't work. (More on work later.)
Reason #4: An activity to keep me busy -- that's free!
Reason #5: Mental stimulation. It's refreshing dealing with words and phrases other than burrito, queso, cut tomatoes, deluxe enchilada, and frozen no salt. (Again, more on work later.)
Reason #6: I missed you, blog.
Reason #2: I'd feel kind of guilty becoming only a fairweather blogger.
Reason #3: Something to make me wake up before 1 p.m. on mornings I don't work. (More on work later.)
Reason #4: An activity to keep me busy -- that's free!
Reason #5: Mental stimulation. It's refreshing dealing with words and phrases other than burrito, queso, cut tomatoes, deluxe enchilada, and frozen no salt. (Again, more on work later.)
Reason #6: I missed you, blog.
Here We Go...Again
Hello to all my fans! (Wow, engasada much?)
Oh come on, you know I'm just kidding. Hi friends. :)
As you can see, after a short hiatus and a slight makeover (shout-outs go to HotBliggityBlog.com for another awesome background and to the folks at Blogger for adding new fonts -- woohoo!) the blog and I are back.
The theme this time around is exponentially less exciting, but exponentially more relatable, I think. I'm post-grad, post-awesome-Guatemalan-adventure, and post-all-life-plans-I-had-ever-lined-up-for-myself. In short, I've hit the phase of life that no obsessive compulsive planner like myself ever wants to hit. I call it:
Um, now what?
I'll keep this inaugural post short and sweet by ending here, but that's the gist of things for now, and I wanted you to know. So follow along with me, and watch this recent grad (wait, it will be two years in May), ok somewhat-recent grad, figure out what the heck to do with the now what.
And let's look on the bright side. I guess that with no exact plan, things could have the potential to get pretty unpredictable. :)
Oh come on, you know I'm just kidding. Hi friends. :)
As you can see, after a short hiatus and a slight makeover (shout-outs go to HotBliggityBlog.com for another awesome background and to the folks at Blogger for adding new fonts -- woohoo!) the blog and I are back.
The theme this time around is exponentially less exciting, but exponentially more relatable, I think. I'm post-grad, post-awesome-Guatemalan-adventure, and post-all-life-plans-I-had-ever-lined-up-for-myself. In short, I've hit the phase of life that no obsessive compulsive planner like myself ever wants to hit. I call it:
Um, now what?
I'll keep this inaugural post short and sweet by ending here, but that's the gist of things for now, and I wanted you to know. So follow along with me, and watch this recent grad (wait, it will be two years in May), ok somewhat-recent grad, figure out what the heck to do with the now what.
And let's look on the bright side. I guess that with no exact plan, things could have the potential to get pretty unpredictable. :)
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