(no subject)
The Update:
October: Decided w/ Kristin to work at starting our own business doing personal assistant services -- office help, errands, event planning/help, pet/house sitting, etc. -- based in Las Vegas. We've looked at it -- there are a ton of these in Los Angeles and other large cities, but very few in Las Vegas, especially for the locals, which for a rapidly growing city is a little strange. We were lucky enough to find a pet sitting service that was looking for someone else to take over their clients, and so for a very very reasonable price, we snagged that. Thus, we were to start with some built-in pet-sitting clients.
I put in my notice about halfway through October to finish my teaching job at the end of that month. I had a fantastic Halloween, because Halloween rocks. I also went to Disneyland for two and a half fantabulous days, and I now have an annual pass, so yay for that.
November: For three weeks, while I worked on packing and moving to Las Vegas, I also worked as a temp receptionist for Landry Design Group (landrydesigngroup.com), which is this fantastic little architecture firm in west los angeles. They *only* do upscale residential home projects, and the smallest they'll even consider is 5000 sq ft, though they prefer not to really work on anything under 10,000. The houses are like... gorgeous. Anyway, the receptionist part of the job was boring, but it was still an overall interesting and good experience.
In my attempt to move most of my belongings, U-Haul sucked by not attaching my trailer correctly to the hitch, which caused it to COME OFF WHILE I WAS DRIVING. Roadside assistance came to make sure things were fine, but they BROKE MY LIGHTS. Well, U-Haul has fixed the lights with no charge to me, but they have NOT DONE ANYTHING ELSE, even though my movers had to be postponed, and my then very late start meant I couldn't get into my storage space on time, which meant I also couldn't get back to work in time the next day, lost wages, lost time -- I'm pretty upset about their piss-poor customer service. I hate U-Haul with a passion.
After Thanksgiving, I went up to Santa Cruz with my sister for a few days. The cold killed my plants. But Santa Cruz is soo pretty. And definitely more hippie-ish than Berkeley could ever even pretend to be in this modern era. Then I went to SF. Then I watched my Cal Bears kick Standford's you-know-what in football. Le pleased.
December: Got to Las Vegas. It's been... off and on in all regards. Work is off and on, and financially, I'm freaking a little bit because aside from regular rent + utilities, I pay for my storage space, plus I have all of my bills. The money that I had planned on saving to "tide me over" went towards some car repairs and general moving costs, so I feel stretched thin. Thus, I'm currently looking for a night or part time job to supplement the income until Kristin and I have a much more steady influx of work. We're getting work, but it is an off and on thing -- though not at all surprising, considering we are still very new.
It's also hard not to have a lot of friends out here -- and I feel that I need to be very careful not to lean too much on Kristin/Jake & Jordan, as they do have their own lives and things to do. My sister came to visit for about a week, which helped a lot, and my little brother had a basketball tournament out here after xmas, so I got to see him, my dad, and cherie. We had visitors for New Years, and that was nice, too. I don't see anyone again until Feburary, when I go home to take my LSAT & go to Disneyland, unless Christa's out here for a day or two before then. Making friends when you're self-employed is ... well, I guess I'm stuck there. I've resorted to responding to one or two of the CL posts by people who are also new to the city and looking for friendship only (though I'm still amazed at the number of posts in the strictly platonic section that are obviously looking for dating/relationships. You'd think people would have the brains enough to figure out what "platonic" means. But I guess not.)
I know that, more than anything, I need to be busy. I don't do well with not being busy. Having a day or two of nothing works, but after that, I'm bored out of my mind. And pretty soon, I may start climbing the walls.
I am glad I'm not teaching anymore. It was time for me to go. From what I understand, too, it's a good thing I left when I did -- the school sounds like it has turned into where I worked last year, which would have made me extremely unhappy.
I AM glad for the move, for the new opportunities. I'm almost happy with everything, where that almost will be a moot point when a few things (more busy & a few friends) fall into place, which, I know, takes time and patience. Anyway. That's what the move entailed and why I'm here and what I'm doing.
--me
October: Decided w/ Kristin to work at starting our own business doing personal assistant services -- office help, errands, event planning/help, pet/house sitting, etc. -- based in Las Vegas. We've looked at it -- there are a ton of these in Los Angeles and other large cities, but very few in Las Vegas, especially for the locals, which for a rapidly growing city is a little strange. We were lucky enough to find a pet sitting service that was looking for someone else to take over their clients, and so for a very very reasonable price, we snagged that. Thus, we were to start with some built-in pet-sitting clients.
I put in my notice about halfway through October to finish my teaching job at the end of that month. I had a fantastic Halloween, because Halloween rocks. I also went to Disneyland for two and a half fantabulous days, and I now have an annual pass, so yay for that.
November: For three weeks, while I worked on packing and moving to Las Vegas, I also worked as a temp receptionist for Landry Design Group (landrydesigngroup.com), which is this fantastic little architecture firm in west los angeles. They *only* do upscale residential home projects, and the smallest they'll even consider is 5000 sq ft, though they prefer not to really work on anything under 10,000. The houses are like... gorgeous. Anyway, the receptionist part of the job was boring, but it was still an overall interesting and good experience.
In my attempt to move most of my belongings, U-Haul sucked by not attaching my trailer correctly to the hitch, which caused it to COME OFF WHILE I WAS DRIVING. Roadside assistance came to make sure things were fine, but they BROKE MY LIGHTS. Well, U-Haul has fixed the lights with no charge to me, but they have NOT DONE ANYTHING ELSE, even though my movers had to be postponed, and my then very late start meant I couldn't get into my storage space on time, which meant I also couldn't get back to work in time the next day, lost wages, lost time -- I'm pretty upset about their piss-poor customer service. I hate U-Haul with a passion.
After Thanksgiving, I went up to Santa Cruz with my sister for a few days. The cold killed my plants. But Santa Cruz is soo pretty. And definitely more hippie-ish than Berkeley could ever even pretend to be in this modern era. Then I went to SF. Then I watched my Cal Bears kick Standford's you-know-what in football. Le pleased.
December: Got to Las Vegas. It's been... off and on in all regards. Work is off and on, and financially, I'm freaking a little bit because aside from regular rent + utilities, I pay for my storage space, plus I have all of my bills. The money that I had planned on saving to "tide me over" went towards some car repairs and general moving costs, so I feel stretched thin. Thus, I'm currently looking for a night or part time job to supplement the income until Kristin and I have a much more steady influx of work. We're getting work, but it is an off and on thing -- though not at all surprising, considering we are still very new.
It's also hard not to have a lot of friends out here -- and I feel that I need to be very careful not to lean too much on Kristin/Jake & Jordan, as they do have their own lives and things to do. My sister came to visit for about a week, which helped a lot, and my little brother had a basketball tournament out here after xmas, so I got to see him, my dad, and cherie. We had visitors for New Years, and that was nice, too. I don't see anyone again until Feburary, when I go home to take my LSAT & go to Disneyland, unless Christa's out here for a day or two before then. Making friends when you're self-employed is ... well, I guess I'm stuck there. I've resorted to responding to one or two of the CL posts by people who are also new to the city and looking for friendship only (though I'm still amazed at the number of posts in the strictly platonic section that are obviously looking for dating/relationships. You'd think people would have the brains enough to figure out what "platonic" means. But I guess not.)
I know that, more than anything, I need to be busy. I don't do well with not being busy. Having a day or two of nothing works, but after that, I'm bored out of my mind. And pretty soon, I may start climbing the walls.
I am glad I'm not teaching anymore. It was time for me to go. From what I understand, too, it's a good thing I left when I did -- the school sounds like it has turned into where I worked last year, which would have made me extremely unhappy.
I AM glad for the move, for the new opportunities. I'm almost happy with everything, where that almost will be a moot point when a few things (more busy & a few friends) fall into place, which, I know, takes time and patience. Anyway. That's what the move entailed and why I'm here and what I'm doing.
--me