After over 30 job interviews, nearly five months of unemployment and dwindling savings accounts (not to mention the borderline depression and laziness that took over my life here in Arizona), I GOT A JOB AND ACCEPTED IT!!!!!!!
You'll remember I was offered a job in Nevada that seemed like a great job, except I had strong reservations about moving out of state again, away from my bf and puppy. Well, this job is in Arizona! I get to stay at home.... and commute... ewww. But it'll be worth it. Here are a few hints :)
I.am.beyond.frickin.excited!!! It's been my dream, ever since high school, maybe longer, to work for a Major League Baseball team!!!!!!! I can't can't can't can't wait. But I'm going to have to, because the position doesn't start until Spring Training reports to the Cactus League in February. And it is only a seasonal position. But who knows, this gets my foot in the door and might help me find something long term down the road :) Anyways, in the meantime I'm still working college basketball games, tutoring students in the area and I believe in December I'm going to start subbing French classes at a local high school! So many opportunities have come my way this month. For that I am grateful.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE! I know mine will be :)
Yesterday needed to be an exciting, busy day for me to get my mind off a phone call that started my morning. I received what I imagine would have been the perfect job for me and for where I'm at right now. Except.... it was in Nevada. I'm in Arizona. I interviewed over the phone and then was flown out to Reno to meet all the co-workers and coaches who would be working with this position. It was very enticing. I was sold immediately upon my flight out to Reno.
But the mind can play some gnarly tricks on you when you've steadily been unemployed for the better part of three months. I really wanted the job. I still do. However, it was not practical for me and my situation so I had a long inner struggle trying to figure out whether or not I should take the opportunity. In order to keep my mind from exploding, I tried to keep busy with J.D. and Woodstock, allowing a day to really explore the Phoenix area and what I would be missing if I took that job.
We spent the afternoon picnic-ing and hiking around South Mountain Park, a network of regional mountain trails that overlooks Downtown Phoenix and the entire Valley of the Sun.
Sometimes a girl just needs some time alone with her dog to think.
By the end of the day, I'd talked to enough people who've done the long distance thing in favor of a job, I spoke with former co-workers, friends and family. The results came back split. I needed a break for dinner. Spaghetti squash it was then, with a zucchini asparagus marinara sauce atop. As delicious as it was, I was too nervous to eat.
Eventually I went to bed, tossing and turning and dreading the call I'd have to make in the a.m. With a heavy heart, I decided to turn down the position this morning. But, I freaked out. When the director didn't answer, I left a voicemail. How cowardly was that?!? Who leaves a voicemail??? Either way, I'm still hopelessly unemployed and in search of the right opportunity. It's so hard when companies aren't hiring and the positions I've applied for online keep getting reposted in search of new candidates. I wonder if I'm going to find as good a job in this area as what Reno had promised me...
It's funny because I've up and left so many times in my life for jobs that promised very uncertain futures. I packed up and moved to France with no idea where I'd be living. After living in Europe, I jumped into a job in collegiate athletics, a career that would be extremely demanding, despite not really having any previous experience in the field. I up and left my job in Stockton to move to Arizona with no promise of employment anywhere on the horizon. I've seemed to land on my feet each time. But I decided not to take the leap in this specific situation.
I just hope I made the right call; it takes a lot of courage to say no to a job you really want. Now I'm going to drown my sorrows in an afternoon of baking. Sleeping in late didn't help elevate my confidence level today. Maybe pumpkin banana bread will do the trick.
So, not like earth-shattering news or anything, but we got the house. NBD.
Are you kidding me?! That's HUGE NEWS.... WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!! (insert girl hysteria noise here).
Because of that, I've been up all hours cleaning out our former house in Stockton. I say former because today I officially moved out. Moved out as in no longer living there, not as in turned in the keys. J.D. left for Arizona today because his job starts Monday. We packed our little hearts out until nearly 2 a.m. this morning. Then today I stayed behind and packed some more stragglers and cleaned up a bit. He's flying back later next week and we'll finish cleaning then hand over the keys to our landlord and drive down to AZ to move into our new rental!!!!
For the time being Woodstock and I are at my parents' house.
As far as work goes, I'm newly unemployed. That's very frightening, but there are affordable insurance plans I could buy. And I do have some leads on jobs.
As originally planned, I'm still going to go and get fingerprinted so I can be a substitute teacher (hopefully for English or French classes) in Phoenix. Then I'm going to write freelance articles for a few sports/fitness magazines/blogs in the area. I also signed up to tutor English, math, history and French with a private company. And I'm hoping to work some games on Arizona State's event staff. So maybe volleyball, basketball and when the season comes baseball/softball.
Plenty of things to keep me busy until I find a full-time paying job! Provided any of these options pan out, that is.
And knee update. The move up and down stairs is KILLING my knee. It's so swollen and painful. I'm taking some advice and seeing a chiropractor on Monday, because guess what, I'm insurance-free right now :-\ so scary with how much I'm sick/injured.
Hopefully it doesn't last long.....
I guess I'm going to pick up biking tomorrow as my form of exercise since running is clearly out of the cards for me right now. I'm also really excited about moving to Phoenix because they have tons of Lululemon stores down there which means yoga classes!!!
Just thought you'd all like a quick update on my life :) Now back to insurance and job hunting!
We had some major news on the house renting front yesterday!! After work, I had a loud, excited message from J.D. on my voice mail saying the house was almost ours!
Let me explain. THE HOUSE, our No. 1 pick, brand new house, is in reach! Someone else had snuck in before us with an application, after the place had been sitting unoccupied since May. Apparently they did not pass the credit check!!!!!!!! SO we're next in line! The property management woman met with our Realtor (J.D.'s cousin) this morning to get the ball rolling for us. We sent in the application, references, employment contracts, etc. She seems really optimistic we'll get the place. But we should know at some point tomorrow.
Keep those fingers crossed!!
In the meantime, here are some pictures of the place we absolutely loooove!
Fireplace.... even if it's not actually wood-burning, it's cute!
Ample storage space in the kitchen and APPLIANCES INCLUDED!
Double vanity in the master bath :)
Landscaped backyard with grass and a water fountain -- so rare in AZ! (Well, in our price range)
And really neat light fixtures!
After hearing the good start to good news last night, we buckled down and continued viciously packing. We did some major damage on the kitchen, but there is much more left to do. Eventually, we had to take a break and cook some dinner. More cleaning out the freezer/pantry, yay.
We went with some home-made takeout. Orange chicken, brown rice, grilled veggies and an Asian salad with ginger/citrus dressing.
I also have some very depressing news to share with you. I may have injured my knee in my determination to become a long-distance runner :(. As you can see on the sidebar to the right, I ran a lot in May and June. July has had a few setbacks because I thought I had bronchitis, then had a severe reaction to the antibiotics I took for it. Then it turned out I just had really bad allergies. And now my knee's bumming me out.
In order to continue on my half marathon training plan, I did an "easy" run last night. Two miles at a 9:00 minute/mile pace. I could tell it'd been a while since I ran. My lungs hurt and my knee throbbed the entire time. Even walking afterward was grueling.
This morning I went in to see on of our athletic trainers. Another perk of working for an athletic department (only two more days, however). She looked it over and said I had some visible swelling on the affected, left knee. I could tell plain as day once she pointed it out. Apparently the fatty shock absorbing sack around my knee is either deteriorating or just super inflamed. So I've been instructed to lay off running for a bit. When I get back in a few weeks, I'm supposed to take 15-20 minute walking warm-ups before my run, ice heavily afterward and also take lotsa ibuprofen.
The half I had originally planned on competing in is the Scottsdale/Tempe Women's Half Marathon on Nov. 7, for my first ever half!!! What do you think? Can I train for it if I take 2-3 weeks off and ease into it? To give you some perspective, it's exactly 15 weeks away. I don't know what to do!! I mean, there's always the Phoenix Rock 'n' Roll in January also, but I don't know if I want to take this long to do a half! It's taunting and torturing me!!
So I guess in the meantime, I'll be using packing and moving as my cardio. I won't be wearing heels much more, since they kill my knee. And once I'm in Arizona, I'm considering reserving the third bedroom for my indoor workouts, such as pilates and yoga. Maybe I'll start working on creating a killer home gym :)
Oh, I can't believe I forgot to share this too!!! Woodstock passed a major milestone in his puppyhood! He passed his puppy class, and only missed one point on his test! So proud of my little wiener :)
Pictures of pictures never work, but I really wanted to display this cuteness :) He even sat still like a good boy with the mortar board!
Alright, two days to go. Lots of cleaning and packing ahead. I also need to start working on a playlist for the 12 hour drive down! We will only get solid radio stations in three places along the drive: here, KROQ in Los Angeles and what I hope will become my new fav radio station in Phoenix, 103.9 FM.
I know for sure THIS is going to be on that playlist:
I'm not sure why the video is so creepy, but it's a good song anyways. Also, I LOVE Katy Perry. Maybe it's because I LOVE Zooey Deschanel and they're basically doppelgängers.
First I'd like to thank you ALL for the sweet comments about the move and my boyfriend's (hope that clears up some confusion haha) new job. I'm down for meet-ups now that I'll be closer to some of you :) Or you know, you can always come to me!
Since J.D. was offered the job, we've been doing a lot of running around like decapitated chickens. He obviously accepted first of all. We both turned in our resignation notices. We scheduled a visit next week to go house hunting -- best part about that trip is staying in a SPA/RESORT FOR DIRT CHEAP since it's Phoenix's low season afterall!! And today is really our only free day from work, so we've been cleaning the house, doing laundry, donating items we don't want to Goodwill, boxing things up and posting to Craigslist like it's my job.
Got 10 offers for this little guy in two minutes of posting! Thank God we won't have to cart him on a 12-hour drive.
But speaking of jobs, I've kind of come to a conclusion about what I will do in the meantime. I applied for a job in athletics I'm still waiting to hear back from, but am ready to accept the fact that I'm not getting an interview there. As SOON as we have an address, I'm going to Arizona's Dept. of Public Safety and getting finger printed/background checked so that I can be a substitute teacher. I feel like I could teach any HS subject: English, AP history, US history, World history, French, biology, algebra, etc. I did pretty well in all those subjects and even went on to study some in college. Subbing would be a pretty neat way to get benefits and also a paycheck until I find a career.
But I'm also toying with the idea of finishing my master's at Arizona State. I mean, they provide fully-funded TAships to many of their grad students! How sweet is that?!?!? Obtain a master's AND get paid for it?!?! Sign me up.
My only problem is trying to decide which program of study I'd apply for. French Comparative Literature? English? Education? Communications? Luckily I have until January to figure it out.
So with all this craziness going on, we've been going out to eat often. And at the same time, trying to use everything in the fridge. That being said, I got the itch to use my frozen bananas again in attempt to make some banana soft serve. And guess what, you all were RIGHT about cutting the banana up before freezing. Not only did it stay white, but it also blended pretty consistently! The only problem I'll have to tweak is that I wanted to prep the night before. It gets way too hard in the freezer, but turns to mush in the fridge. So if I make it again, I'll have to stick to day-of preparation.
This time I blended up some frozen bananas with raspberries. It was tart and creamy and delicious! I then put it in a nice little parfait with CHOCOLATE OVERNIGHT OATS! You know, just regular overnight oats and milk snazzed up with a little chocolate syrup ;)
Ready for some more breakfast photos??
This morning I made a honey Greek yogurt parfait with lowfat granola, cherries and pineapple. It was yummy and hit the spot :) The perfect start to a day of boxing and moving preparation!
And now we're off to my parents' house because tomorrow night we're going to a Giants/Mets baseball game in San Francisco! J.D.'s favorite team is the Mets, so for his birthday two months ago I bought him third-row tickets to the only series the Mets play in California this year! What a nice girlfriend, right?! :) I just love David Wright. I wish our seats were on the third base side......
Once we get to their house, we've got all the fixin's to make seafood mac'n'cheese! I'm pretty stoked for this meal; we've had a box of elbow macaroni hiding in the pantry for MONTHS. It's about time we put it to some use!
Have a good weekend, everyone! And sorry in advance again, but my posts will continue to be pretty sparse until August. Two more weeks!! Eeeek :)
