A Comprehensive List of Things I Have Done Since Becoming Unemployed

I am currently unemployed. I have been unemployed-- a word which I posit could not sound more demeaning-- for a little over two months. In those two months, I have picked up and subsequently dropped many different hobbies and dreams that I hoped would give my life purpose. Few things can make you feel as useless and purposeless as being unemployed-- even worse if you've been fired.

So! I have compiled for you a list of things to do while looking for work to help while away the hours.

1. Think about writing on your blog again now that you have the time.
2. Spend hours on job sites.
3. Wonder why there are so many job sites.
4. Spend hours on Pinterest.
5. Buy craft supplies in the hopes of becoming a master crafter (this especially applies if you have done number four).
6. Pack away box of craft supplies you haven't touched.
7. Think about blogging again.
8. Go to a job interview.
9. Get turned down.
10. Lay on the couch awhile feeling sorry for yourself. (repeat 8, 9, 10 as many times as necessary)
11. Buy an e-course about starting your own business.
12. Get halfway through and decide starting a business is harder than getting hired.
13. Wonder why you haven't been hired yet.
14. Think about blogging again.
15. Download camera apps to your phone with the hope of becoming a master phone photographer.
16. Lay in the tub awhile feeling sorry for yourself.
17. Watch series after series of shows you've never seen before.
18. Get an interview for a marketing position and voraciously research marketing.
19. Give up on that job because you know less about marketing now than before you started researching.
20. Think about becoming internet famous, starting with your blog.

And that brings us to now. Since I am no good at hobbies, business, marketing, or even feeling sorry for myself, I'm going to exercise my very out-of-shape motivation to get back into blogging and generally improve my internet presence as a way to make myself feel important and, admittedly, less insane.

I hope you find these activity ideas as useful as I have(n't).

Advice? Who Needs It

Two quotes that I have used often and emphatically in reference to myself have been:

"I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it." -from Alice in Wonderland

and

"I'm not exactly the 'look before you leap' type. I'm more the 'leap then improvise like hell when you realize the bottom is riddled with spikes' type. Makes life more interesting." -from my brain

Both describe my take on advice perfectly.

I believe in advice, and it can be very useful when based on experience- which is usually the kind of advice I give myself. It generally goes something like, "Hmm, I've been in this situation before, and it ended badly. Danger, Will Robinson. Do not proceed on your current path." But then I'm like... "I really want to do this. Maybe this time it will be different." I believe Einstein would have classified me as crazy, as many times as I've done the same thing expecting a different result.

It's never a different result.

And yet I still ignore my inner voice of reason, about eight times out of ten, and jump headlong into what could very well end in a figurative pit of spikes.

Because I'd rather live life the way I want to, and take risks, and not live timidly (or because I lack self-control; you choose). Yes, I usually end up in places I'd rather not be, but if everything went right all of the time, where would be the fun in that? I feel like I'm a stronger and wiser person due to my stupidity. And after all, high risk/high reward, right?

Maybe I'm justifying. But I stand by my way of approaching life- if you aren't going to grab it by the horns, and make stupid mistakes, are you really getting the most out of life?

A New Camera App!

I wanted to add that I found another fun camera app, and wanted to make a new post out of it so that it didn't get missed because this one is so fun! It's called Xiamen Meitu.

The downside is that all the text is in Chinese... but that's half the fun (for me at least)! I was a little annoyed at first but it's really not necessary once I figured out how to get to the different effects, because I don't need to know their names. This app has a ton of different effects, plus fun borders and even filters. Here's a couple photos using this app:

What do you think?

I spent ten minutes at least on both of those. It's a good thing these apps are free; this is quickly becoming a daily obsession.

Top 10 Obsessions of 2011

I've been doing the whole end of the year, thinking about who I've become this year thing, and I realized something. Over the last year, I have picked up more random obsessions/hobbies than any other year. These are the top ten that are currently applicable (in no particular order):

1. Coffee and tea 
I'm one of those people who loves both. And over the last year I've actually done some research, both online (to learn about the process, different types, etc.) and, you know, taste testing. I've discovered what I like and what I don't and enjoy trying new things having the background knowledge to feel like I know what to expect. You know the different types of tea Ramona Flowers has in "Scott Pilgrim vs the World?" I've had about 75% of  those, and before this year I'd never even heard of them.

2. Wine
This started with a Barnes & Noble membership. I got an email saying new members had an exclusive chance to order a case of Zagat-rated wine for $10 a bottle, so I signed up. I got my first case of wine, along with a little snapshot of what was in the wine, what it would pair well with, etc. I was hooked. I pretty much did the same thing I did with coffee and tea and learned what I could both theoretically and practically (you should see the wine bottles lining my cabinets in my kitchen... oh wait you can!)

Yeah that's 20 bottles of wine (in full disclosure, 3 are champagne).


I've actually gotten pretty good at wine pairings. I also know that I prefer whites to reds, and a good Pinot Grigio is my favorite.

3. Vintage
This and a few other things on this list are mostly to entirely thanks to a blog I started reading recently- abeautifulmess.typepad.com. Elsie's blog is so beautiful and organized and inspiring that's it's almost painful to read because mine... isn't. But she has great stuff on diy, baking, home decorating, and of course, vintage. She has her own vintage shop and everything she wears is adorable and it makes me sad because I don't have the sense of style to be able to dress like that so I have to live vicariously through people who do. I love looking at vintage styles on line and at thrift stores, and it's become one of my favorite ways to waste time. Maybe one of these days I'll actually have some vintage know-how and be able to start actually participating in vintage. (For the record, this glowing review was unsolicited. I just really enjoy her work and it's been a huge inspiration.)

4.Writing
Of course. This year I both started a blog and started writing articles online. I love writing for so many reasons- to get my thoughts out of my head in at least semi-coherent form, to talk about things I love or hate, and mostly, because I come off so much more eloquent and well-versed when writing as opposed to talking. My brain is so scattered and moves so quickly, I often stutter and sound like a moron. Despite evidence to the contrary, I love blogging and hope that one day I can make something out of this blog- both as a means to improve my writing, and a means for people to read what I have to write. That's one of my goals for 2012. As is building my portfolio of other things I have written, both on FootballNation and hopefully elsewhere.

5. Fantasy Football
I've been a fan of football for awhile, but had never played fantasy football before my office formed a league this year. I was excited to participate because I love a little friendly competition, and it was an excuse to follow football even more closely than I already did. I was not disappointed. Despite the fact that I didn't make it into the playoffs and could very well not even end up being the best of the worst in the "consolation" bracket, it's still been a ton of fun and I'm pretty sure I'm going to go through withdrawals when it's over.

6. Carbon Leaf
I love this band. This band is awesome. Especially for a band that I discovered through a movie my daughter wanted to watch, Curious George 2. Seriously, go check them out. If the boyfriend and I had an "our song," one of them would definitely be "Life Less Ordinary."

7. Camera apps for my phone
 I've been seeing Instagram photos popping up all over the internet the last couple months, and fell instantly in love with the look of them. My heart broke a little when I discovered it was only for iPhone, so I searched my Android Market for something similar. I found picplz, which has the whole account, upload to someplace on the internet quality of Instagram and of course some cool effects. I also found Photofunia, which has a few effects I like, and even the Droid camera comes with some pretty nifty effects. Here are a few of my faves from these apps:

 Droid camera effects

 Droid camera effects

 Droid camera effects

 Photofunia

 Droid camera effects

Droid camera effects

picplz

Soooo much fun!

8. Handmade/diy
Again, this is thanks to the blog above. The only thing I've made so far is diy leg warmers (hello, 1980s), but I have a looooong list of things I still want to make for Christmas presents. I just need to get my sewing machine from my dad's...

9. Guinea pigs
I wanted a pet. But I live in an apartment complex, and of course there's a non-refundable deposit that I couldn't afford for dogs or cats. But... but... I didn't have to pay it for caged pets. I've had gerbils and hamsters before (lame), and I didn't want reptiles, so... guinea pigs! I did my research, I found one who needed to be rehomed on craigslist, and voila... d'Artagnan!

10. The boyfriend
Okay I admit, part of the reason I added this was to make an even ten ;) but really, he's an obsession. He started out as a crush-obsession, which grew to be the new-romance-obsession, which is now the still-relatively-new-but-also-familiar-obsession, and every step has been sensational. The growing knowledge of each others' pasts and future dreams, wants, quirks, and all is so amazing, but every day is new too. It's wonderful.

Thanks for letting me share my current passions with you. What obsessions has this year brought you?

A Big City Girl's Adventures in a Small Town

I grew up in Kansas City, and I've been in Omaha for almost three years now. I've never lived out in the middle of nowhere. So listening to the boyfriend's stories from his childhood and adolescence, cow-tipping and partying in cornfields and going to a school that was K-12 and still didn't have as many people as my senior class alone, was all a little mind-blowing.

I failed to take this into account when I agreed to go with him back home for Thanksgiving, however.

I knew I was in for a little bit of a culture shock. I've seen small towns on tv before. But I was entirely unprepared for what awaited me in the boyfriend's hometown-- everyone lived just a few miles from one another, everyone knew the boyfriend and was "so glad to have you home!", then they'd turn to me and say, "And you must be the girlfriend! I understand you have a little girl?" (I found out later that his mother had told the entire county my life story, and that was perfectly normal behavior for her.) And everyone hugged. My god, the hugging. I don't mind hugging, it was just a little weird to extend my hand for a quick shake and all of a sudden I'm being enveloped by this person I'd just met-- every single time.

I was also unprepared for the total lack of internet or cell phone usage. I think I had the shakes by the time we left, due to complete lack of any source of outside entertainment. I had to actually find things to do (which wasn't so hard considering all the running around we did and all the people I met). But still. Almost an entire week without twitter, or facebook, or email, or my blog? I could have died. I'm embarrassed to admit how much I missed the internet. I almost hugged it upon my return.

And I could probably count on one hand the number of stores and restaurants I'd actually heard of before. What the hell is an IGA?

His entire family accepted me as one of their own almost immediately, however, so I must have been doing a pretty good job hiding my "city-slicker" status and state of awe enough to not just walk around with my jaw on the floor the whole time. I, and my daughter (whom they have never even met), are now honorary members of the family.

Talk about pressure.

Vacation!

I've been awol because the boyfriend and I are visiting his hometown of BFE for Thanksgiving. :)

NaBloPoMo 20: The Difference Between Being Sick as a Kid and as an Adult

All I remember about being sick as a kid is that it meant I could stay home from school and watch tv curled up under a blanket all day. What could be better? I have absolutely no recollection of how awful I felt, being feverish, vomiting--nothing. Being sick as a kid was the best--unless it happened over a holiday or weekend and kept you from having fun, instead of keeping you from doing less interesting things like school. Being sick was like a password to a magical land of unsupervised lounging, cartoons, and soup- and junk-food-eating.

As an adult, the luxury of sleeping in is coveted, but staying in bed all day is near unheard-of and more like a death-sentence than anything. You have responsibilities to tend to, work to do, deadlines to meet, houses to clean, and kids to look after. Instead of being enjoyable, being sick is cause for constant worry that you're neglecting your to-do list. Not to mention the feeling awful. I'm positive that sickness affects adults tenfold more than it does kids; you feel like death and don't bounce back nearly as quickly. Part of that may be due to the lack of pleasure that adults take in being sick.

Maybe if we grown-ups could approach sickness with the same eyes as a child, and just enjoyed the temporary reprieve from our normal hectic lives, it wouldn't seem so bad.

I doubt it, but I suppose it's worth a shot.