New Year's Eve

Here we find ourselves again, sending out the old and ringing in the new. Counting our blessings and trying to decide what we want to work to improve upon in the coming year.

I can honestly say that all I've resolved to do in the last few years is find a new job and get settled in it and attempt to resume a life I never could have imagined would be interrupted. It's too soon to say where this new job will lead, but it's a) a job, b) new and c) mine.

Tonight when the clock strikes 12:00 a.m. I will count my blessings and resolve to count them some more. When you've worked so hard for so long and hold that elusive "thing" in your hands, everything else is the diaper on the Baby New Year.

Does This Thing Come With Instructions?

These two "Instructions" have come up on my Life's Little Instruction Calendar and I wanted to share them with you:

December 22nd:
Change what you can.
Accept what you can't.
Live peacefully with all that's left.

December 29th:
This coming year make time for good books, good food, good blogs and good friends.

(OK, I added the "good blog" part and I am hoping my blog falls into the 'good' category.)

In Between

I hope you are all having a great holiday and enjoying this week between the chaos of Christmas and the chaos of a New Year.

I'm just taking a little break but I'll be back strong in 2011, if not before.

The Job Gods Have A Sense Of Humor, But I'm Not Laughing

I had been out of work for almost 3 years and now, the day before Christmas Eve, everyone I know – and apparently everyone I don’t know – is home, snuggled in their beds, visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads.

I, however, am sitting at my desk drinking my coffee with visions of meetings and events in my head.

Fa, la, la, la, la . . .

Life Is A Revolving Door

I started my new job a week ago and one of the women in my office is leaving the company tomorrow.

Even though we do totally different jobs, it's the yin and the yang, the Circle of Life. She's excited about her new opportunity and seems more than ready to leave my new company. I'm excited about being at this company that she's so anxious to leave.

The next time you go through a revolving door, look at the people going in the opposite direction of you. They may be headed where you've just left or they may have left where you're headed. And if you keep pushing that door, you just might end up where you started or at the very least where someone else just was.

Give Me A Large Rock And A Chisel

You know you've been out of work a long time when you go to order office supplies to order a notebook to write things in with a pen and computers come up. Same with tablets.

Yup, That's My Name On My Office Door

I am struggling with a major case of uncomfortableness in the new job and I'm trying to analyze what is going on. Is it just returning to the work force after so much time? Is it the fact that I am, for the first time in my career, not the only Meeting Planner in the company? Have I lost my confidence? Is it because we're so close to the holidays? Is it because I don't feel like working at all?

Honestly, I don't think it's any of these things and yet I suppose it could be all of these things. The only thing I know for sure, Oprah, is that I GOT the job and these people seem to have their act together so I'm gonna go with the fact that they made a smart, smart choice.

I've already got the job. Now it's time for me to see what they see in me. And prove us all right.

Rejection Only Hurts If You Care

I received this email today, on my second day of work at my new job:

Dear Sister Rain,

Thank you for your interest in XYZ Medical.

Unfortunately, this email is to inform you that we have filled the Meeting Planner position.

We invite you to revisit our website to view future opportunities that may be of interest to you.

Please accept our best wishes in your career search.

Kind Regards,

Human Resources

For the first time in a long time, it didn't hurt a bit.

Who Is That? Oh, It's Me!

On my way to my first day on the job I stopped at Wawa for coffee. For those of you who don't know Wawa, it's a really great convenience store here in Pennsylvania and other close states.

Anyway, as I was pulling into a parking spot I noticed one woman get out of her car in sneakers and workout pants. Another woman also got out of her car but she was wearing nice pants, heels and looked like she was headed for work.

As I approached the entrance to Wawa, I saw myself in the glass doors. Today for the first time in a long time I didn't look like the first woman, but the second. And I barely recognized myself.

My Girl Scout Leader Would Be Ashamed

Here it is, the Eve before I start my new job. I've been saying since I got the offer that I needed to go through my winter work clothes (because it's been freezing here already oh joy) to see what fits and what I can still wear and now it's the night before and I'm scrambling. I found a few things and since that will get me through the next few days, I'm setting it aside again. What is wrong with me?

Also, I got a new passport when I worked in the summer for that other company and I need it tomorrow for my new hire paperwork and I can't find it. Let me explain to you, I can tell you where just about everything my husband and I own (except for his "man stuff") is in this house and the passport was not in its file. I looked through my files from my old job, I looked everywhere. Finally I looked in the "Jewelry" file which is right before my "Legal" file in my filing cabinet. Again, why am I doing this the night before the big day?

I was a Girl Scout and a mighty good one if I do say myself. I still have my sash (it's in the attic in the bin marked "Sister Rain's Childhood") which is full of badges and I remember giving lots of speeches while I was involved in the organization. And even though it's the Boy Scout's Motto, you would think the day I have waited for for three years would not be coming as such as a surprise.

Apparently this former Girl Scout's Motto is:
"Holy crap! I start a new job tomorrow!"

Now that they know where to find it, they make take away my sash!

1,000 Visitors Served

My blog reached 1,000 visitors today. It's quite a milestone for not only me but my job search. I started this blog in January and since then I've struggled through my unemployment, a new job that was terribly, terribly wrong, unemployment again -- this time on my own terms but not easier, probably worse because it was my own doing -- and finally a job offer and a new job that will begin in two days.

Once again, I find myself at a fork in the road with my blog. I love to write and I've found that I need to write, for my sanity and for my enjoyment.

So I'm not going anywhere. I hope you all continue to visit this blog as I enter a new phase of my job search. Because really, I'll never stop looking for the right job, even if I'm in it.

Thank you 1,000 visitors. I don't consider you visitors, but friends. Dear friends.

My Cup Runneth Half Full

Two more days until I start my new job. I was busy today with some final Christmas shopping and visiting with family. It's a different kind of time off for me now, I am way more relaxed since I know I have a job and yet now with each passing minute the clock counts down my remaining free time.

This is truly a case of half empty or half full. Am I sad to have to go back to work or happy to go back to work? Sometimes it really isn't about what makes you happy or sad. Sometimes it's about what is right at the time and what's right for me and my husband is for me to go back to work.

To every thing there is a season and to every glass there's a half full.

'Twas Two Weeks Before Christmas

'Twas two weeks before Christmas, when all through my blog,
Not much was happening, the job search covered in fog;
The resumes were submitted with cover letters in tow,
In hopes that a job would arrive, way before snow;

The business suits and heels were all snug in the closets,
While our bank account was waiting for larger deposits;
And I was in the fetal position, my husband snoring away,
While I prayed for a job, which had been kept at bay;

When the next morning the phone, it rang with a clatter,
I ran to it expecting a friend wanting to chatter;
When, rushing to get it, dropping what I was doing,
There was the phone number of a company I was pursuing;

With the area code and number, recognizable and bright,
I knew that the job search end might be in sight;
So an offer was received, both verbally and in writing,
With the salary and benefits, oh what a sighting!

I sprang to my blog, to give my readers the news,
And away they all read, like any friends you would choose;
And they heard me exclaim as they scrolled with the mouse knob,
"HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL, SISTER RAIN GOT A JOB!"

Christmas Has Come Early

I received a verbal and written offer yesterday for the job I've been pursuing. It's a good offer and although I haven't accepted yet, I'm going to. I've asked a few question before I accept, but I'm sure their answers will not change my mind.

It's such a strange time of year to be starting a new job, right before the holidays. Even though my house is decorated, the tree is up and decorated, the 1,500 cookies are baked, the cards are mailed, 85% of my shopping is done and I am bragging about having all this done, it still is a self-induced stressful time for all of us. So adding starting a new job on top of it is really cause my stress level to pop out the ole stressometer.

But we don't always get to choose the when or the where, the who, the why and the how do we? But I got to choose the what, and like a brand new bike under the tree with a big red bow on it, a more beautiful gift I could not have received.

The Offer . . .

. . . has landed!

I'd Like To Change My Wish Please Jiminy Cricket

One of my references was called this morning and talked to who is looking more and more like my new manager.

Is this what they mean when they say "Be careful what you wish for?".

Merry Status Quo

There's been some news in my job search. On Friday I got a call from the recruiter I've been working with on the job I had two interviews for. The second interview was last Monday and there were two other candidates they were seeing again. When I didn't hear anything as the week progressed, I assumed it was a holly, jolly "No".

On Friday I was making dinner and was washing a pot when our house phone rang. I saw on the caller ID that it was the recruiter and I made the decision it wasn't worth drying my hands to receive the holly, jolly "No" that I expected.

As I dried my hands and walked to our answering machine in another part of the house, my BlackBerry started ringing on the dining room table. The recruiter again. I listened to the message on the house phone, and the call was to let me know that they were going to be checking my references in preparation of making me an offer.

I've alerted my references and now I wait to see what happens next. I know they had wanted someone in the position quickly but with the holidays and all I'm just not sure how this is all going to play out. Until it does, I am attempting life in the "status quo". An offer isn't an offer until it's an offer so the decorating, the gift buying and wrapping continues. And so does the job search.

A Cup Of Perfectionism And A Pinch Of OCD

I've got some perfectionism issues mixed in with what I would diagnose as (playing a doctor on TV as I do) a SMALL amount of OCD. I’ve always known this but sometimes the signs smack you in the head like a 2' x 4'.

I’ve been decorating my house the past few days for the holidays. As I was looking around my house yesterday before I was done, with half-empty bins and their lids strewn about, with some tissue paper thrown in for good measure, with various incarnations of Santa and snowmen lying on the floor like the Gettysburg Battlefield, I mentioned to my husband that I had “way too much stuff”. His response, “Well, you always do everything in a big way. Just like the cookies.” I started to deny it and then I thought of the 1,500 cookies we made batter for AND baked in a 4-day period last weekend and then what really could I say?

Later last night, I was saying to my husband that some people put their decorations up exactly the same way every year. I tend to wing it although I know the general area where everything belongs.

This morning I went on my computer and checked the “My Pictures” file and looked at last Christmas. Lo, the angels said, I had taken pictures of my decorations last year. But I’m sure that I took them for enjoyment purposes, not for some deep-seeded need to have everything the same way this year as last year.

I do admit my philosophy, after don't dip your pen in company ink is, if you’re not going to do it right or do it in a big way, why do it at all?

If you apply this to my job search, you can see how a perfectionist like me has a problem with how it’s been going. I do it in a big way, just like everything else, and yet it’s never finished. I’m always having to tweak a resume here, redo a cover letter there but never can bring the project to a close.

I am many things, hopefully, such as loyal and loving and funny and caring. And I am a perfectionist. Just like the 28 sticks of butter and over 3 dozen eggs that went into all those cookies, it’s all part of the recipe that’s me.

Will Expire 99/99/9999

More decorating today. When will this nightmare end? Oh, that's right -- on December 26th.

I haven't heard anything about the job I second interviewed for on Monday. They had two other candidates they were bringing back and then were going to check references and make an offer. None of my references have heard from anyone yet. I don't know what their time frame is for doing all this but I know they had originally wanted the position filled by December 1st. That ship has sailed.

Not much I can do but wait it out and keep looking for other opportunities. I know when the Holiday Nightmare will end but this Job Search Nightmare seems to have no expiration date.

I'll Say It Again, I Need A Job To Get Some Rest

An email I just sent to my mother-in-law:

Hello Mother-In-Law Dear:

I received your voice mail and will return your call tonight. Right now, however, I am in Decorating Hell. Are you familiar with Decorating Hell? I think you are. It's not to be confused with Baking Hell, which is a whole nother kind of Hell. So you see, it's true. Hell comes in all different forms. There is Marriage Hell, which I've only heard about, of course, plus I'm just sticking to the Holiday Hells for the moment.

I'll give you a call later. I am headed up to the attic for the 6th time and it's not over yet. This is Attic Hell, or Stairs Hell, a subset of Decorating Hell.

Love, in Hell,
Your Daughter-in-Law

P.S. I am copying your son, my husband, so he sees what I do all day and the Hell I go through to make a nice holiday for him.