Happy Halloween! I'm not doing anything special for it but at work I got a bag of Halloween candy on my chair when I came in today and it was a nice touch. Plus, I get to finally have some candy corn this year so I'm psyched. Evidently we're going out to lunch today and taking an hour off early today so it's win-win! Can we say best Halloween ever?
No big plans for this weekend. Marissa is working all weekend so I'll be largely on my own to basically sleep, play games and maybe work out once or twice. Not sure what, if anything else, I'll be doing but we shall see.
Work has been good besides the free candy. Good people and fun environment so I'm pleased. Any who, looking forward to my first weekend so I can return to doing nothing!
So I've been real bad about updating this since last week. I'm not sure why. Sure, I've had things to do but for the most part I've been sitting at home and playing games so I should have had time to post on here but I haven't for some reason. Any who, I'm back with more posts (at least that's the plan). Tomorrow is my first day of my new job. I'm excited and nervous about it. I'm excited because I think this will be a good opportunity for me but I'm nervous about the job because it's with a software package that is similar to one I know real well but I don't want to let down the new employer or make them think I'm an idiot or something.
Today Marissa and I voted at the pre-voting booth location in Orlando. It's a nice idea but there was still a mega line that usually comes on voting day so we didn't miss out on that. The truth is it was more convenient to vote today than try to vote before or after work on election day. Plus I was able to get a "I voted" sticker that I can wear on election do so no one will know that I skipped out on suffering in line. The thing I hate about voting is all the minor elections and stuff they tack onto the Presidential ballot. I feel bad voting for people purely based on their names, especially when it comes down to posts that aren't Democrat or Republicans. When it came to the judges and if they should remain or not a judge, I voted no to all figuring they all stink and new blood can be used. Remind me not to bring this point up if I ever find myself on the wrong side of the law.
After voting we also had a quick stop at Taco Bell because they were giving away free tacos thanks to the World Series. Eating there brought back strong memories of eating at Taco Bell at the Crystal Mall. I remember growing up as a kid and loving Taco Bell and I was always in competition with my dad to see how many tacos I could eat. I think I could get up to 9 or so at once and I loved it. At some point I realized how bad Taco Bell is and I moved on but having a few tacos today reminded me of all of that and it felt good to eat there again. I'm looking forward to Taco Bell's next public relations scam so I can score a few more tacos.
Song of the Day: Ray Parker, Jr - Ghostbusters theme song
The big news is I have a job (again)! Yesterday I went for a follow up interview and was offered a position so I'm pretty excited that I'm set. My first day is on Wednesday so I have a week off to relax mostly. I'm glad the job search is over and am grateful that I didn't have to go apply for unemployment or really have to worry about our financial situation. To celebrate, Marissa and I, along with Erin and Glenn went to Turf Club last night for dinner. I had the strip steak, which wasn't as good as their prime rib but it was still pretty tasty.
Since financial hardship seems to be less of an issue now with me gainfully employed, I went out this morning and bought Marissa a new PC. I got her a nice new HP slimline desktop from Sam's Club and a monitor from Circuit City. It's a solid machine and probably a bit overkill for what she needs, but we want this PC to actually last her. Her last two laptops have crapped out somewhat more premature than we would have liked so we now have a desktop for her, which we hope will provide a long computing life for her. I have to admit I'm jealous since the computing power is well above my own PC, but in due time I too will reap the reward of a new PC. Right now I have my heart set on a new TV for the house.
Aside from the job and new PC, not much is going on. We're sort of back in our normal routines and the next few days Marissa has off from work so we'll both be available to do....something.
After a few relaxing days in Atlanta, we've returned to Orlando. We left yesterday at about 9:45am and it was I think in the high 40's, so it was pretty darn cold. Marissa and I were both eager to drive south to get back to warmer weather. I hate to be the typical Floridian that freaks out about being cold, but 40's is acceptable to be cold, right? As long as I'm not complaining about the 60's being cold, I think I'm okay.
All in all, we had a great weekend with Marissa's folks. It was exactly what I think we wanted it to be; a relaxing time with Marissa's parents and dogs and a way to "get away" from the job stuff and usual crap at home. I know Marissa really had a tough time coming home but I'm glad we live close enough to be able to visit like that. It certainly makes me jealous that I can't do that with my folks anymore.
This week it's back to the job hunt. I have a second interview set up for tomorrow morning so I'm excited about that. At this point, I simply don't want to jinx anything so I shall wait and see how it goes and keep my fingers crossed. Aside from that, nothing major is on my radar. I'll keep up the usual job search stuff and see how it goes.
I would also like to congratulate "the other Florida baseball team", the Rays for beating the hated Red Sox (finally) last night.
Video of the day:
Song of the Day: AC/DC - What do you do for the money honey
So the job interview went well yeserday and I feel like I really aced it, so to speak. I really feel good about how it went and think it would be a good fit so I'm hopeful. I'm supposed to call back on Monday morning so we'll have to wait and see. In the meantime I have a phone interview with Disney (surprising, right?). All these interviews make me feel better about the prospects of having a job sooner rather than later.
As the title of todays blog entry indicates, we're in Georgia visiting Marissa's parents and hanging out over here. No major plans here, just relaxing and such. Marissa loves spending time with her family and dogs and I enjoy the time spent away on a pseudo-vacation. Plus their house is so nice that it does have a sort of vacation feel to it. The ride up here was easy enough so we'll have a few days "away from it all".
We currently have plans to get out of town for a few days and take advantage of my "time off" by driving up to Atlanta to stay with Marissa's parents for a few days. It occured to me earlier this week that with this built in time off, we should take advantage of it and if I didn't have anything planned, we should drive up to her folks place and spend a long weekend there. I think it will be good to get out of our apartment and take a break from the job searching routine. Well, I'll still be searching for jobs but at least there we can sort of mellow out. It'll be fun and I know Marissa can't wait to see her folks and her puppies so just to see her ecstatic about the trip is worth it to me.
The original plan was to leave tonight after Marissa was done with work and drive 2 or 3 hours and sleep at a hotel for the night but we basically decided spending $50 on a hotel isn't the smartest use of our limited financial resources so we're just going to wake up early tomorrow morning and gun it and arrive hopefully around lunch time.
As I was writing this blog entry for today, I was about to report no new job hunting news but then I received a phone call as I was typing and now I have what I think is a promising job interview for this afternoon. Wish me luck!
I almost forgot to write today's blog entry but here it is. Sure it's 11pm but it's better late than never, right? It'll be short because we just got back from meeting friends and I'm ready for bed. I had a job interview today that went fine, but I'm concerned about the commute length so unless the offer comes in with a nice salary behind it, I'm not too sure. Anyway, I'll worry about it when/if I get an offer.
It's starting to settle in that I'm unemployed and it sucks because I basically feel useless. I would think I'd be enjoying some time off but it kind of feels like I'm letting people down. I just wish I knew I'd have a job ready to go soon so I could stop worrying about the whole thing. It's not like I'm actively freaking out, rather, it's just sitting in the back of my mind and I'm reminded of it quite a bit. It's funny, I never thought I'd be this motivated to go to work.
The good part of being unemployed is I get to enjoy the day without the hassle of waking up early or being tired. I get to sleep in, watch daytime tv (like the 11am SportsCenter!), play games and make and eat lunch at lunchtime. I check the job sites every few hours but otherwise I lounge around and soak up the nothingness. What I need to do is motivate myself to clean up our apartment that has been a disaster area since the wedding but that might be asking a lot.
I met with two job recruiters yesterday and the thing that bothers me about them is they have copies of my resume, they look it over and invite me in to talk and before I can talk to them when I stop by their office, they hand me all this paperwork to fill out that is basically all of the information they have in my resume. Does the word redundant mean anything to them?
Today is the first day of being unemployed and it's a lot worse than I thought it would be. I feel so useless and a general drain on humanity. As much as it stinks waking up to go to work, at least you can feel like you're doing something. Unlike a vacation, I feel like I'm skipping school or something by not going to work. It just feels wrong.
On Saturday I had my first job interview and it went real well. So well that the guy basically gave me the job but the issue was the pay. It was $8k less than I made before and with no benefits. I told the guy that wasn't going to fly and he said he would make me a counter offer so I'm waiting to hear back on that. It's an interesting job that I would like to be a part of so hopefully that will work out. In the meantime, I have some recruiter interviews today in Maitland so I've got something else going on.
Aside from job stuff, it was a pretty quiet weekend. We bought some furniture for Marissa and otherwise took it easy. Marissa worked yesterday so I basically sat around and enjoyed some time to myself. Perhaps if things go well this week, we're eying a trip to Atlanta for a long weekend but we shall see how everything goes on the job front.
Song of the Day: BJ Thomas - Raindrops keep falling on my head
Today is a very bittersweet day for me. It's my last day of my job and it just stinks. To my surprise, my coworkers are taking me out to lunch today and it's a great gesture on their behalf and makes me feel pretty special. This may not be my favorite job ever, but this was certainly a good job and it made for a good experience overall. As for the future, I'm unsure. Sometimes I get the sense that everything will be okay and other times I get concerned. While I might not ordinarily worry, I can't help but be concerned because of the state of the economy and the job openings out there seem to want Bill Gates but only will pay $20k/year. I can't wait to get a job and be gainfully employed again.
No big plans for this weekend really. Before I got laid off, I think we were going to go TV shopping but I think we're going to hold back on any major purchases like that for now and wait and see how long I'm out of work for. Of course, if Marissa gets a new job before I, then that will be okay. But in the meantime we're going to be taking it easy for now. My mom reassured me yesterday when she said the first two years she was married they never did anything and only went out for dinner once a week. Thanks mom.
To be honest, this all feels like a weird dream. It certainly has not sunk in yet and I'm not sure when it will (probably next week when I'm playing video games at 11am instead of being at work). I hope this will just be one good story to tell down the road but I'm hoping for the best in the meantime.
Unrelated to my job status, I made it through another Yom Kippur! This year was by far the easiest. My master plan of uber-carb loading at Waffle House paid dividends because I wasn't really that hungry, even at dinner time! Of course, my ingesting of about 8000 calories and 80g of fat at Waffle House may have played a part in that process. As dinner approached last night I wasn't craving anything per-se, so I opted to just break my fast by eating at Chick-fil-a and enjoying some good old fast food.
Video of the Day (No, this is not how I went out of work, but one day I will):
Other video of the day:
This video is from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and it's a metaphor for me and the dolphins represent me