I Need a Job.

Welcome to the world of unemployment. It's not that bad of a world, minus the whole losing money every second of the day sort of thing.

The good news is that while I'm officially unemployed (sans unemployment insurance, since I resigned), I've picked up a few random freelance gigs here and there. My uncle always needs random work done for his e-marketing firm, and he seems really happy with the work I've done for him thus far, which makes me feel really good. Yea, he's my uncle, but he's also a really talented marketing entrepreneur and I know he wouldn't be hiring me for more jobs if he felt like I didn't have the chops.

I have a steady income (1/3rd my rent) each month from ongoing writing assignments from him, with occasional extra work for the firm. This month, in addition to my normal copywriting, I did my first official web page design assignment for him. I guess he liked how the design looked but wasn't thrilled that I turned a pure HTML document into one with CSS. Oops. I was so confused by the original HTML document, given that it was causing Dreamweaver to have a hernia or something. Half the code turned GREY and I couldn't edit it. Now, maybe that was a template that I was supposed to work in, but there was still some weird code that was making the layout all wonky. I kept the layout exactly the same, except I revamped it in CSS. Hopefully that's not too awful. He wasn't exactly clear on the directions, I was just told to take a pre-existing site and make it look better, and that I did. Oh well.

I'm also writing a bunch of copy for a start-up social networking-esque company. It's all contract work, but who knows, it could lead to something more. So this week is booked solid with contract work. Next week, my sister comes to visit and I'm "taking the week off" to show her around town. Then I'm going to start focusing on my job applications. Well, I've been applying for jobs left and right, but am not sure anyone is going to consider hiring me full time since I was only at my last job for 4 months. That looks really bad in the eyes of a potential employer, and I can't blame them for doubting me. It's just frustrating because I know I have so much to give, it's just my last job wasn't right for me. I'm not a newshound. I'm somewhat socially anxious, which doesn't really align with a career in journalism. But how do I explain that to potential employers? "I quit my last job because talking to strangers makes my heart explode." Yea, that's going to help me land a great job, for sure. :(

In any case, I'm hopeful that something good will come along if i'm patient and bide my time with contract work. If I can manage to turn the contract work into a full-time profession, all the better. But for now, I'm crossing my fingers that I can manage to pay for my rent, basic bills, health insurance cobra, and food until something full-time comes along.

Meanwhile, i've decided to focus my free time on getting into shape and figuring out how to be healthy inside and out. I've stopped taking the anti-depressents (wow, I took them for a whole 25 days, and now, I'm done) and am looking into herbal stuff instead. (Yup, I bought some St. John's Wort.) I can't figure out if all of the nutritional supplements end up costing me more than a psychiatrist and Lexapro, or if they end up costing about the same. In any case, I figured out that my lack of energy and dizziness is probably caused by iron and other nutritional deficiences. This week, I even tried eating red meat (I've been a vegetarian for about 10 years, though I started eating fish a year ago) - but after downing a half-pound hamburger yesterday I got sick to my stomach. Let's just say an hour or so after eating that burger, I only digested about half of it. The rest? Don't ask. (Yuck.) So I'm done with red meat (again) for now. Instead, I'm looking into other supplements to help the cause of mission get healthy (without - getting broke.) Think I can do it? Well, I certainly hope so.

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Over and Done and on to the Next

I apologize for taking forever to update this blog. Life has been a wee bit crazy as of late, but despite all of the chaos I think in the long run all that has gone down will be for the better. In short, at the moment I am unemployed. Basically, I quit my job, although of course it wasn't nearly that simple. In the brief hour or so I had to decide between forced resignation and firing, I chose the former. I'm still not sure if that was the right decision given that I cut myself off from unemployment benefits, but given that the parting was amicable, it seemed in my best interest to keep things that way and not have to force my boss to fire me.

Anyway, it seems like I'm back to square one. Funny that. I spent a year and three months building up my career and I really had gotten far. Too far, to be honest. I just jumped way ahead of my capabilities at this point in my career and experience. My boss even commented in our closing conversation that I'm really good at what I do, I just need more time to nurture my skills in a more stable journalism environment, preferably at a magazine. I'm not really such such a job exists these days, nor am I sure I'd want it if miracle of miracles it was offered to me. Right now I'm going through a massive re-evaluation of my career plans and goals. I'm really interested in pursuing web design and copy writing, but I'm not sure what kind of openings there would be in those areas for someone with my particular background.

For the time being, I'm doing some freelance web and writing work, and I'm going to take a trip to the local temp agency to try to land some short-term gigs until I figure this all out. I'm a wee bit nervous about the whole health insurance situation -- I'm insured until the end of the month on my current policy and then it's either dealing with expensive Cobra coverage or trying to figure out if the alternatives are any cheaper. The whole situation isn't very good given that I'm finally on medication to treat my depression and, well, I might not be able to obtain insurance that will help pay for the condition. Ugh. It's fine, though, I've been through worse times before. To be honest, I kind of feel relieved right now. I know that I did my best and it just wasn't the right job for me at this time. Being unemployed sucks, but hopefully I won't be job-less for long.

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