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
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
I bet you're thinking I'll be writing about how much it sucks that I'm fasting and it's Yom Kippur and how I want to eat but all of that is very secondary today because yesterday afternoon I learned my project at work was canceled and thus, I have been "let go" from my job. To say it sucks would be an understatement. I was totally floored by it and didn't see it coming at all. The hardest part was telling Marissa about it because there's no easy way to tell anyone you've lost your job but it definitely feels like you did something wrong even though I know it isn't my fault. Luckily for me, the situation isn't personal here and they are letting me finish out this week and then I get two weeks of severance pay. It could be a lot worse and it's been handled very professionally.
So I'm back on the job hunting band wagon again and I'll be working on my resume today and applying for jobs. Hopefully I'll get a job before my two weeks of severance pay run out and things can work out. As they say, from my lips to God's ears, right?
Aside from my professional career, Marissa and I went to temple last night and it was a nice, albeit different service. I suspect this temple is conservative (whereas I come from a reform background) and the entire service was very different than what I was used to. They did some weird things like read a few lines of a prayer and then skip down to the last two lines or so as well as interjecting a lot of sermon-type speeches between prayers. Again, it was different than what I was used to but it was nice and I felt good after leaving there. Anyway, I hope the rest of my fast goes by quickly and easily.
