(Disclaimer: it’s a long one)

So many things to update on that I’ve actually been putting this off for a few days. Which, within the first line, leads me to digress already: I’m not sure why I feel the need to write; those that are close to me know what’s going on, and I don’t think I have too many random people following the intricacies of my life that I, for whatever reason, chose to post on the world wide web. Regardless, I feel I have the responsibility to let you all know what’s been going on. So here we go.

WORK. I haven’t written [too] much about my frustrations with TBM and my job because 1) I’m sure it gets old and most people seem to dislike their job to some degree; 2) it’s minor complaining compared to what other people have to deal with in their lives; 3) as someone once said before, “be ye not so stupid” and don’t write about your work on the internet unless you have permission to. So yeah, I wasn’t so keen on the idea of my boss finding out about my blog while I was still working there and reading all the things I hated about the position (although I’m pretty sure he knew anyway).

This job was meant to be temporary, but it actually started looking like it would turn into something more permanent, and then it didn’t. Woah, what does that even mean?! An attorney I used to work for (“TBM”) was in need of a legal assistant since the one he had left him high and dry. I needed the money, so I agreed to work in his office part time doing administrative work. He later asked me to start working full time, and told me there was room for me to grow and possibly start a family law practice within his firm. Which sounded great, except that 1) there wasn’t really enough time left in the week for me to “start a family law practice” while also keeping on top of all the other things I had to do (you know, important stuff, like correspondence and filing and making court and deposition appearances when him and the other attorney weren’t available); and 2) I didn’t really want to bust my ass to start a practice for someone else: if I’m going to put in the time and effort to learn a whole new area of law and make it work, I wanna make it work for me, not for someone else.

I could go on forever, but for your sake and mine, I’ll just say that the administrative and “personal assistant” duties became a bit much for me to handle, and I realized that any promises made were not going to come to fruition. I was planning on putting in my two weeks notice when TBM let me know last Friday that he was gonna have to let me go due to some financial difficulties. It wasn’t a huge shock, and aside from not having a steady check every two weeks (which is HUGE), I was actually relieved.

Here’s why.

I’ve been thinking about what I want to do, or at least what I could enjoy doing, that would help bring some income into our household. I’ve got some business ideas floating around with Jeff, my friend Brooke, and an old colleague also, but I haven’t been able to do anything with these ideas because I’ve been wasting forty hours a week at a pointless job. Sure, not having a source of steady income is scary as all hell, but I think it’s something that needed to happen to make me do something for myself. I’m so used to things working out, and always being able to get things done with minimal effort, that I’m not used to having to work really hard at things. This is my challenge, and I’m nervous/excited to see how I deal with it.

One thing Jeff and I did have to laugh/cry about: I wrote before about how our lives seem to be a roller coaster, but one that never careens out of control: there’s always a very delicate balance that keeps us holding on. I mentioned in the “Failure to Launch” blog (which I still have to respond to, thank you everyone for your very thoughtful comments!) how Jeff and I would be moving into his parents house. We were both so excited to be able to save up some money. But with the whole loss of income thing…it seems like we’ll be, once again, just getting by. Thankfully we won’t have to worry about paying rent, but we also won’t have the income we had…which we were hoping to save up. Just so typically us :)

FOOD. Salads. They’re kind of my jam right now. I grew up on salads that contained minimal ingredients, and figured that was the norm. I’m discovering that you can throw just about anything into a salad and make it delicious. Like almonds. Or bell peppers. Or feta cheese. Or cilantro! I know, they may seem obvious to you, but for whatever reason, they’re new discoveries to me, and I’m excited about it. I think I’ve been pretty good the last few weeks on not over-indulging on stuff. I did have Mickey D’s on Friday (right before I found out I was getting laid off), but that was because I had few alternatives, plus, it came out to about five bucks. Sigh.

This last picture is from dinner with Jeff’s parents on Sunday. Holy glorious. Those potatoes? Yep, amazing. Foil paper, slice, salt, butter, put some onion chunks over them, smear some italian dressing over them, put them on the grill, and voila. Not pictured: stuffed chile. I don’t know enough to give details, other than it was delicious. And it sent me into a food coma.

EXERCISE: I haven’t been the greatest at this, but with being unemployed and Vegas being around the corner, I’m really gonna try to kick it up a notch. Jeff and I are trying to go on little walks before/after dinner, and I actually made it to the gym this morning! It was probably my most lame attempt at working out, but I at least made it there. Baby steps…

THINGS I WANT: Remember that iPhone case I wanted? Here’s a reminder just in case. (Ha! iPhone “case”…”just in case“…get it?! wow…Lord help me…) Well….I GOT IT! Turns out Jeff wanted to give me some sort of compensation for helping him get his art show set up at Mesa, and it’s absolutely fabulous. It’s taking some getting used to, but I really like it. I still haven’t dropped my phone, so I can’t attest to it’s protective powers, but hopefully they’re good…because my phone falls quite a bit. Needless to say…I need to set up Jeff’s next art show before my next installment of “Things I Want”…this could be great!

Unemployment accountability: I think I might go back to my old accountability reports from my last stint of unemployment. It shamed me into being productive, and I might need that up and running again. I think this post is long enough as is, so I might skip my accountability from the last couple days, but I am proud of everything I did yesterday and today, so I’m off to a much better start.

Well, I hope that wasn’t entirely boring. One thing I’m excited about with this whole unemployment thing is working on more substantive blog posts…so hopefully that works out to your advantage :)