Long Time No Post
Hi Dreamwidth/Livejournal!
Been a while. Like, all year. Whoops.
Well, I've been busy. I got a job in December taking inventory for stores and whatnot that outsource that. The pay was slightly above minimum wage and the hours were highly variable both in terms of hours/week and time of day to be scheduled BUT it was a job. I went into the job hunt telling myself that this time I wouldn't take the first crap job that came along and then went ahead and did exactly that but, really, it was fine. Kind of good for me to push myself to keep weird hours that were sometimes long, and while it wasn't strenuous it did mean being on my feet and moving around for whatever hours I worked which was kind of nice, really. The variety was nice - every day a different location to go to; dollar stores, high end retail, all kinds of clothing shops; sometimes early morning, sometimes overnight. Not a lot of time standing around with nothing to do, either - when you were on the clock you were counting and when everything was counted you could go home. And, you know, counting, sort of using the old math degree. Sort of.
It wasn't enough income to pay my mortgage, but it was income and if I never found anything better before my savings ran out I'd be able to sell the house and the majority of my stuff and work up a new life within those means. So that would have been a certain amount of decisions made for me, which wouldn't have been all bad.
But things didn't go that way - I signed up with a temp agency for accounting jobs in March, and when I interviewed agreed I wouldn't mind general office jobs, and tested really well in Excel. Almost immediately got asked to temp at Meyer, which was exciting because I've been going to their outlet sales for years, love them, and the Fairfield location (where I was going to be working) is 2 miles from my house. So that was cool.
Because all that happened so quickly I ended up working both jobs for all of March which meant not nearly enough sleep and was a very surreal experience, super disconnected from reality. But I managed to maintain competence well enough, I guess - my inventory boss was bummed that I left and everyone I worked with at Meyer was happy with my work. In April I got a little extra training and took on some of the duties of one of the permanent employees when she was on vacation and did fine with that, and on the advice of my immediate supervisor I applied for a couple of permanent positions. Long story short - I eventually was hired and started in June as a Business Analyst.
And pretty much immediately went on vacation. My sister had mentioned some time last year that she and her daughter and our mom and me should rent a cabin for a long weekend for a sort of retreat, so we did that. Found a really great dog-friendly place up by Mt. Lassen with a creek running through the backyard and hammocks and just had a really great and relaxing few days.
So I've been at the new job for a couple months in earnest, I guess, and I am doing okay at it, as far as I can tell. I put in a lot of effort, and I am a pretty sharp cookie, and that combination seems to be working for me. I do remind myself fairly frequently that if I get fired tomorrow that's not so much a disaster as it is a problem, which helps a lot with job-related stress. It's interesting enough work, which is good.
I'm eligible for the 401k plan starting in October, so once I get that sorted out and my paycheck deductions stabilize I'll have to take a good hard look at my budget, but getting my expenses in line with my income won't take anything too drastic, I don't think. And I've got more than 6 months of gross income still in my savings, and only the mortgage and a student loan for debt, so in general my finances look to be in pretty good shape.
I've lost about 70 pounds in the last almost a year. I'll probably go into more detail about all that when it's been exactly a year, since that's pretty soon. It's weird, I look in the mirror and - I look pretty much the same to me. But the clothes I bought to start job hunting last fall I swim in, now, so there is a significant difference. So clothes I packed away years ago because they were too tight fit me (some of them, at least) which is great, but I also keep needing to buy basic but expensive things like bras and jeans so it's a mixed bag.
Everything else in my life has been kind of, I don't know, on hold? I've been feeling like I need to just contract my horizons so my world is manageable, so that's what I've done. Everything stills eems to get away from me, but maybe that will eventually work out and I'll be able to think about expanding again. I hope so.
I still feel like any day where I manage to feed myself adequately is a win, and I do succeed with that almost all the time lately. So that's something.
I don't know, compared to where I was a year ago, I'm probably objectively much better in just about every way, but better than I was is still not good, or even okay, really. Some days this bothers me more than others. Today I am bothered. Sorry.
So, anyway, I hope to be able to post more often. I know I'll be able to read more often, so that's something - I feel like I missed out on a lot that I can't figure out how to make my "Reading Page" or whatever go back far enough to get, but I'm here now!
This entry was originally posted at http://multipurposegoddess.dreamwidth.org/216312.html. Please comment there using OpenID. Or comment here, it doesn't matter, I will see it regardless.
Been a while. Like, all year. Whoops.
Well, I've been busy. I got a job in December taking inventory for stores and whatnot that outsource that. The pay was slightly above minimum wage and the hours were highly variable both in terms of hours/week and time of day to be scheduled BUT it was a job. I went into the job hunt telling myself that this time I wouldn't take the first crap job that came along and then went ahead and did exactly that but, really, it was fine. Kind of good for me to push myself to keep weird hours that were sometimes long, and while it wasn't strenuous it did mean being on my feet and moving around for whatever hours I worked which was kind of nice, really. The variety was nice - every day a different location to go to; dollar stores, high end retail, all kinds of clothing shops; sometimes early morning, sometimes overnight. Not a lot of time standing around with nothing to do, either - when you were on the clock you were counting and when everything was counted you could go home. And, you know, counting, sort of using the old math degree. Sort of.
It wasn't enough income to pay my mortgage, but it was income and if I never found anything better before my savings ran out I'd be able to sell the house and the majority of my stuff and work up a new life within those means. So that would have been a certain amount of decisions made for me, which wouldn't have been all bad.
But things didn't go that way - I signed up with a temp agency for accounting jobs in March, and when I interviewed agreed I wouldn't mind general office jobs, and tested really well in Excel. Almost immediately got asked to temp at Meyer, which was exciting because I've been going to their outlet sales for years, love them, and the Fairfield location (where I was going to be working) is 2 miles from my house. So that was cool.
Because all that happened so quickly I ended up working both jobs for all of March which meant not nearly enough sleep and was a very surreal experience, super disconnected from reality. But I managed to maintain competence well enough, I guess - my inventory boss was bummed that I left and everyone I worked with at Meyer was happy with my work. In April I got a little extra training and took on some of the duties of one of the permanent employees when she was on vacation and did fine with that, and on the advice of my immediate supervisor I applied for a couple of permanent positions. Long story short - I eventually was hired and started in June as a Business Analyst.
And pretty much immediately went on vacation. My sister had mentioned some time last year that she and her daughter and our mom and me should rent a cabin for a long weekend for a sort of retreat, so we did that. Found a really great dog-friendly place up by Mt. Lassen with a creek running through the backyard and hammocks and just had a really great and relaxing few days.
So I've been at the new job for a couple months in earnest, I guess, and I am doing okay at it, as far as I can tell. I put in a lot of effort, and I am a pretty sharp cookie, and that combination seems to be working for me. I do remind myself fairly frequently that if I get fired tomorrow that's not so much a disaster as it is a problem, which helps a lot with job-related stress. It's interesting enough work, which is good.
I'm eligible for the 401k plan starting in October, so once I get that sorted out and my paycheck deductions stabilize I'll have to take a good hard look at my budget, but getting my expenses in line with my income won't take anything too drastic, I don't think. And I've got more than 6 months of gross income still in my savings, and only the mortgage and a student loan for debt, so in general my finances look to be in pretty good shape.
I've lost about 70 pounds in the last almost a year. I'll probably go into more detail about all that when it's been exactly a year, since that's pretty soon. It's weird, I look in the mirror and - I look pretty much the same to me. But the clothes I bought to start job hunting last fall I swim in, now, so there is a significant difference. So clothes I packed away years ago because they were too tight fit me (some of them, at least) which is great, but I also keep needing to buy basic but expensive things like bras and jeans so it's a mixed bag.
Everything else in my life has been kind of, I don't know, on hold? I've been feeling like I need to just contract my horizons so my world is manageable, so that's what I've done. Everything stills eems to get away from me, but maybe that will eventually work out and I'll be able to think about expanding again. I hope so.
I still feel like any day where I manage to feed myself adequately is a win, and I do succeed with that almost all the time lately. So that's something.
I don't know, compared to where I was a year ago, I'm probably objectively much better in just about every way, but better than I was is still not good, or even okay, really. Some days this bothers me more than others. Today I am bothered. Sorry.
So, anyway, I hope to be able to post more often. I know I'll be able to read more often, so that's something - I feel like I missed out on a lot that I can't figure out how to make my "Reading Page" or whatever go back far enough to get, but I'm here now!
This entry was originally posted at http://multipurposegoddess.dreamwidth.org/216312.html. Please comment there using OpenID. Or comment here, it doesn't matter, I will see it regardless.