Job Search - Day 10 / What I do when I'm unemployed

Today is day 10 of the job search... my list of bakeries is ever dwindling and I've broke down and applied for a few barista positions in lieu of any leads. If nothing comes up by the end of this week, I might have to come up with a new game plan, but even though a lot of doors have been shut in my face, I still like to think everything happens for a reason.

Now, even though I've been kind of distraught about all of this job business, I've been doing a lot of things I always told myself I would do when I had the time, and even knocking off some resolutions... some examples include:

Re-trying starting a sourdough starter with the help of Ross - I tried this about a year ago and it ended in probably the worst baking project to date.. but a good learning experience nonetheless. This time we'll show this starter who's boss.

Going to the farmers market, also with Ross (Ross is pretty much my cooking/bread baking partner in crime, so you can pretty much guess all of my food projects will involve him), which resulted in some amazing dinner: roasted beets and parsnips over lentils and topped with goat cheese - Ross also made amazing rosemary/ olive oil/ sea salt no knead bread to go with this. We also plan on making homemade mayonnaise in the near future (which I've never made before), and last week we made eggs florentine with homemade hollandaise. Saying we've been eating well is kind of an understatement.

To go along with resolution #8, I started P90X with Mike/Jesse/Ross yesterday morning, and after plyometrics this morning, I'm sore in a lot a places, to say the least. Plus since I'm pretty used to getting up early and having to be ready to go, our 6:30am wakeup call isn't too out of the ordinary for me... but I still want to punch Tony Horton in the face sometimes.

-E

Job Search - Day 4

Instead of a recap of my past week, I thought I'd shake it up a bit and do a video blog - enjoy! Note: I started this one Saturday before I left Albany.

Goals for 2010

Now that I'm in Rochester, I can officially start the job search. So far I have five applications in, three of which are actually hiring. Since most bakeries are closed on Mondays, I've done what I can for today.

Now here are some of the goals I mentioned for 2010 - some easy, some not so easy, but hopefully I'm be able to accomplish them in good time.

1. Get better at tennis - there was a time for a few years there where I was really good, but life and other interests got in the way, so now I'm back to hitting the ball out of the court... I'd like to fix this,

2. Find a job that fits my life - I don't like a job to totally consume my life, nor do I want one to be totally separate - so I'll try to avoid having to wake up at 3am, and find something that'll fit just right.

3. Move to Rochester - this one is in progress, considering I'm temporarily living here now, but to accomplish #3 I have to accomplish #2 first.

4. Be happy with my dancing - I don't have to be super- rockstar-awesome-competitor-whatever to be happy with my dancing, but I do want to get better, be more creative, and generally feel not so out of practice all the time.

5. Get better at vintage hair - also a goal in progress. I've gotten pretty good at pin curls so far, and I'm hoping being around all these great fashionable girls in Rochester will help expand my repertoire of great hairstyles.

6. Expand knitting knowledge - I've been knitting scarves for a few years, and at the very minimum I want to know to to purl - crocheting might also fall into this category.

7. Learn to sew - because if I'm going to call myself a conventional woman, I feel like sewing would be a great addition. Plus my wonderful friend Monica promised to teach me. :)

8. Get stronger physically (somehow) - not sure exactly how this one is going to get accomplished, but for work purposes I usually have to do a lot of lifting, so making that easier would be beneficial.

9. Take advantage of summer farmers market - now that I actually have people that might want to go with me, there's no reason I shouldn't take advantage of living more sustainably... and deliciously.

10. More tango - about a year ago I was trading private lessons with a tango instructor, but after a while the logistics didn't work out, so we had to discontinue. During this period, I absolutely loved it and I really want to learn more now.

Looking at this list seems a little daunting, but a have a whole year, right? .... right.

Impatiently Waiting

It's scary sometimes when you wake up and don't remember what day it is.

My last two weeks at home in Albany have been uneventful, to say the least, though I have made progress on some things, like buying a car (silver '02 Honda Accord), and starting at least the online portion of the job application process in preparation for moving to Rochester.

Right now, I'm sitting around waiting for my mechanic to call. I wanted to be able to drive to Rochester tomorrow to start my temporary job searching move, as well as attend a dance on Saturday at RIT which my sister Jesse is organizing. So while I'll still make it to the dance, my journey might not get started until Saturday, depending on whether they finish tonight, tomorrow morning, or tomorrow afternoon.

Since I've had a lot of hours of free time on my hands recently, I've been trying to think of some goals for 2010, inspired by the extensive list that my lovely friend Breanna Perry posted earlier this week. I'll have to share with everyone once my list is a little more to where I'd like it. But I'm glad to have completed goal #1 - buy a car, and to be working toward goal #2 - find a job/move to Rochester.

Now.. back to waiting....