Accepting the Impossible

After 11 job applications and MANY nervous breakdowns over my worries that we may never a.) move back into a place of our own, b.) be able to live in the area we want, and c.) get jobs with decent salaires/benefits, the impossible has happened.

I got a job with a decent salary and benefits. One I'm nearly certain I will enjoy! That starts 2 months after I quit my last job! Plus we signed a lease on an awesome apartment right in the area we wanted to live and move in less than 2 weeks.

In addition to all of THIS, and on a more personal note, my period started. On it's own, without drugs. For the first time in 4 years. This is nearly a miracle, even if it isn't sustained.

I'm having a hard time accepting all of this. It seems too good to be true, really. I mean...a job I like? One that offered me the position 5 hours after meeting me and raved about how much they were impressed by me? (What person did THEY meet??) One that lets us live 5 minutes (walking) from the Byzantine Catholic parish Brian loves, not to mention every store we might want to frequent? That's 30 minutes from one of my best friends and 2.5 hours from the other AND is oft visited by Brian's best friend?

I seriously expect to wake up tomorrow and realize none of this has actually occurred. Not even in my wildest dreams did I expect things to work out this quickly and this ideally.

So, for those of you reading this that offered up a prayer or a thought for us, thank you. For those of you that might be reading this by chance, this isn't how things usually work out for me (see previous posts).  Hopefully a change is in the air!

More to come as we transition back to our independent lives.

We're back, baby!

Beaufort Waterfront

I've been meaning to write a post on how glad I am to be back in NC for a while, and I think the car accident I was involved in today (I wasn't driving, and I'm fine) manages to roll all those reasons into one:

Immediately after, while we were both sitting in the intersection blinking:

• A Marine jumped out of one car and ran to the other car involved in the wreck (it was upside down)
• One lady came up, made sure we were both ok, and escorted us to the side of the road
• Two more ladies ran up to tell us they were praying and it was going to be ok
• All the cops/firemen/EMS techs involved were courteous and came up multiple times to make sure we were ok

Also, last week while I was standing in the middle of the aisle in a bookstore, three teenage girls wanted to get past me AND ALL THREE OF THEM SAID 'Excuse me".

That would never have happened in Florida, no matter what age they were. I am so glad to be back in the South!! I know NC has its problems...but man. Feels like home!

Job count:
Applications: 11
Rejections: 4
Phone interviews:1
In-person interviews: 1 (next week!!)

Goodbye Florida

On the eve of our departure from Florida, I've just been reflecting on what I'll miss about Florida (and what I WON'T).

I'll miss:

• The grad students. We really had a phenomenal community of friends here, and I hope we'll be able to keep up with them for years to come.
• The winters. Sometimes I miss seasons, but the weather really is spectacular during the winter. 
• Being able to only have one wardrobe (summer).
• Disney World. We didn't actually make it to Disney World...but just knowing it was there...
• The Silverspot...leather armchairs while watching a movie=bliss.

I WON'T miss:

• Tourist season, which unfortunately coincides directly with the only time the weather is nice.
• The tourist culture--mostly meaning that there IS no culture, and what there is, is only available during tourist season and then shuts down.
• The weather outside of the winter (late March-November), which is scorching hot with burning sunlight that gives you skin cancer and damages your eyesight. I am not exaggerating. 
• The lack of affordable recreation opportunities, including dining options.
• Being an hour from the bank/Target/aforementioned limited dining options.

So, it's back to North Carolina...home for now but hopefully on to our own place soon.

Job application count: 8
Rejections: 1
Interviews: 0.

Confessions

• I had never changed a diaper until this past week, when my niece came to visit. (It's not that hard. What a relief).

• I love cookie dough. Seriously love it. Love it like it should be its own food group.  

•   As much as I've whined and complained about living in Florida, I will miss the house we've been living in. And our neighbors. But not Florida. 

• I am getting stressed about finding a new job...I love our family, but I don't think I can live with them long-term. I need a space of my own. Plus, not working kind of drives me nuts. (I know...commit me to the insane asylum now).

•  I don't know what kind of work I want to do. "Something I enjoy". But what on earth is that?? Help.

• I love Brian being at home. I love spending time with him. But I am already really tired of Star Trek.

That's it for now...further post on Florida to come. Less than 2 weeks to go in the Sunshine State!

What Recruiting Has Taught Me

Having made the decision to leave my job at the end of May in favor of what's next in our lives, my boss tasked me with writing my job description and managing the hiring process.

It has been very enlightening.

• You should do what the job description says (what documents they want, where they want you to send it, etc.) It may be clever of you to track down the head of the department (in this case, my boss) but odds are that, even though they make the ultimate hiring decisions, they aren't the one coordinating the details. So it makes you look stupid to send your application to him, instead of the e-mail listed.
• It is very, very easy to make snap judgements on resumes. I had my top candidates ranked after a very brief scan; a lot of this is from poor formatting (huge blocks of text, etc.).
• Say why you'd be good at the job you applied for, specifically, not why you'd make a great employee in general. It's really obnoxious to have to dig.
• The company may already have an idea in mind of what type of person they want to hire, and will rule out others accordingly, even if there's nothing inherently wrong with their application or experience. (I need to remember this when applying for my next job...)
• Don't (PLEASE) track down the person who sent you an e-mail of receipt on LinkedIn and attempt to contact them through a chain of connections. This puts that person (again, the person coordinating the details, not the person responsible for hiring) in an awkward situation.
• E-mails matter. Make yours something that is just your name, simply, not something that involves lots of random letters or numbers. 
• Pictures on resumes = awkward. 
• When it says "do not call" that really means "do not pester". This includes e-mails.

Overall, it's been an interesting experience being on this side of the fence. It turns out that phone interviews are just as nerve-wracking for the interviewer as the interviewee.  Who knew.

So close, yet so far away

AMU Graduation, a few years ago. Photo by Deacon Wallace

This is how I feel right now--graduation is SO. CLOSE. Yet there's so much more to do before it's here. For Brian, his thesis defense (Friday) and finishing a final project for his independent study; for me, Senior Awards (tonight), interviewing replacements for my job, proctoring exams (starting Saturday), an always laborious and seemingly-endless process, and cleaning the entire house before his family arrives next Thursday.

And then...I just don't know.  Brian got accepted to SLU but as yet hasn't been offered any money and we're reluctant to go any further into debt, especially in this economy. We're pondering a deferment and a move back to Raleigh (a prospect that excites me to no end; 2 years away has taught me just how much I miss it). In the meantime, we're going to visit family and figure things out from there. Which means that being settled and figuring things out is so close...yet so far away.

Gators'll getcha

It's springtime in Florida, which means...

I see you trying to break your Lenten fast

Sometimes I wake up and think..."how am I living in southwest Florida???". We have gators, owls (a coworker had a nest of baby owls on her window sill last week), wild boar, bears, hawks, eagles, vultures, and ENORMOUS locust-like grasshoppers, and panthers. If I'd had to think about it, I probably would have assumed we would live in NC, pretty much for ever, if not in our hometown. Southwest Florida was never on my mind. As we wrap up our time here (the ad for my job went up today), I'm trying to appreciate the very unique (if dangerous and frequently frustrating) experience of living in the Everglades. Not every neighborhood has its own resident gator. Plus, you can't beat the views from our windows:

I suppose that's always the way: appreciating something just as it's ending. I'm looking forward to the next chapter in our lives, whatever that may hold (even as I'm frustrated by not knowing), but I'm trying to spend these last 2 months be grateful for what we've been granted while we've been here. A great community of grad students, egrets flying outside our bedroom window, and the excellent icebreaker of "I used to live in the Everglades. No really, IN the Everglades."

Happy Holy Week...I'm looking forward to Easter and being able to eat chocolate again like nobody's business.