5 Ways to Survive Unemployment

Because handling it for 6 months makes me an expert, right? In any case, I didn’t plan to be (f)unemployed for most of 2013. I didn’t go into it financially, emotionally or mentally prepared. It just all unexpectedly exploded into my life, which I think a lot of jobless people can relate to.

But whether you plan to take that risky leap or it suddenly sneaks up on you, navigating the situation can be tough. Flexible and with more time for sleep/laundry/Netflix than normal, yes. But also still tough. So, here’s me pretending I’m wise about the business of changing careers, dishing out advice and whatnot.

5 Ways to Survive Unemployment

1. Have a Plan
If there’s one common theme throughout my unemployment adventures, it’s that very few things are reliable. Jobs that seem like they’re going to pan out, sometimes don’t. Jobs that do pan out, can just as easily fall through. But regardless of setbacks (and more setbacks) (and still more setbacks), it’s so so important to have a plan. Know what kind of job you want. Know what skills you need to make that happen. Know where you want to apply. Even if your plans will inevitably change a few times along the way, just having a plan is important in and of itself. You gotta have a prize to keep your eye on or you’ll end up wallowing in directionless despair.

2. Set Daily Goals
Look, I don’t care if your daily goal is simply to get out of bed and take a shower. I probably don’t even care if you shower, actually. But pick something...several things, if you’re up to it...every day, and get them done. Fold your laundry. Write cover letters for 3 jobs. Take yourself on a picnic. Ride your bicycle around the neighborhood and listen to a podcast. Reach out to someone who works in your desired field and ask to meet them for coffee. Whatever it is, write it down on a sticky note and cross it off at the end of the day. Unemployment has a nasty way of making you feel like a worthless human being -- so allow yourself to feel accomplished, even in a small way, every single day.

3. Get Out 
I can’t stress this one enough: You need to leave the house. I had a couple wake-up calls during the last few months when I’d realize I hadn’t left the house in 48+ hours. Yikes. I’d been productive on my computer, I’d done things around the apartment, but I hadn’t gotten dressed (in anything besides fresh pajamas, anyway) and actually walked out the front door. Make plans! Get some fresh air. Clearing your head can work wonders for adding enthusiasm to the next cover letter you have to write. If anything, new scenery is distracting and can lift your mood.

4. Ask for Help
I chronically avoid asking anyone to do anything for me that I think will even mildly inconvenience them. Also, it takes swallowing some pride to admit that you need help. But if no one is responding to your dozens of resume submissions, maybe you need a business-savvy friend to look it over and make some suggestions. If your cover letters aren’t catching anyone’s eye, there could be some issues with your spelling and grammar -- ask someone with editing experience to take a look. And, maybe you just need someone to vent to now and again. It can be tough to unload negativity onto someone else -- but that’s one thing friends are there for. Call someone you trust and let it all out.

5. Take Risks
Look, I applied to all kinds of jobs in the last few months. I honestly couldn’t even tell you how many, or what they all were, or the number of random industries they spanned. If it looked interesting and my gut said it was worth going after, I went after it. I could have spent time dragging my feet and thinking, “I’m not qualified for that,” or “They won’t like me,” or “Why bother,” but I simply chose not to. I just applied anyway. When it seemed like a company wanted someone with personality and pizzazz, I pushed the limits a little in my cover letter. I guess my approach was along the lines of “go big or go home.” Too many people tell me they don’t apply to jobs they really want because of something small like “3-5 years of experience” when they only have 1 or 2. So what? You’re everything else they say they want. Apply anyway. Accept rejection when you need to, and move on to the next leap of faith. You never know.

So there you have it, for whatever it’s worth. Anyone else had a bout of unemployment and have advice to add?

The Dreams of Trees

"When Summer lies upon the world, and in a noon of gold, Beneath the roof of sleeping leaves the dreams of trees unfold." J.R.R. Tolkien

Indian Summer & Seabright Beach

So there's this little thing called Indian Summer, apparently.

Aaand it's totally happening right now in the Bay Area. July and August were weirdly cold for this AZ girl, but now that the fog (Karl the Fog, they call him) is leaving, there's this surprising, blessedly warm month of September. I can't say I mind. The roomie and I blasted my oldies playlist on Saturday and took full advantage of it with a little trip to Seabright Beach.

....and it doesn't hurt that we happened upon a lighthouse, and "touch a lighthouse" was an item on my bucket list. Check! Now I just have to pull off "sleep inside a lighthouse." Working on it.

 

"We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won't need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don't fire cannons to call attention to their shining -- they just shine." Dwight L. Moody

I got me one of them JOB things.

Raise your hand if you got a job today...

YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT, FOOLS.
It's just temporary, but hey....HEY, IT'S SOMETHING. Time will tell if the temporary job turns into a long-term gig (I know full well how fickle those contract jobs can be) or if I'll go a different direction, but for the time being...

I am once again an employed human being! I'll be doing content writing, eCommerce development and social media for an antiques furniture and decor company! WOOT!

If you know me, you know I'm passionate about all that old vintage stuff. My entire apartment is an array of carefully selected Goodwill treasures. You are also probably aware that I love social media. I LOVE IT. So combine these two areas? Yes please!

I mean, I watch Antiques Roadshow for fun...if that says anything.

I feel excited, happy, relieved and blessed. I drove home after getting the offer yesterday, blasting Katy Perry's "Roar" in my car, made a pit stop for some In 'n Out french fries and a Dr. Pepper, and danced in my car like a crazy child (a safe-driver crazy child, don't worry) all the way home.

SILICON VALLEY, LET'S DO THIS FOR REALS.

p.s. They have a little dog in the office, named Potato. Actually his name is Tudou (too-doh), which is Chinese for potato so I feel like I can use the names interchangeably. Potato likes to bark at me and then sit by/on my feet during interviews. I think it's his way of testing my grit and comforting me all at once. I think we will be great friends. Please stay tuned for the inevitable pictures.

Time to talk about...feelings...

Hello and welcome to my therapy session.

You know in movies where the patient says, "I feel...lonely..." and the therapist is some absentminded loon doodling on a clipboard who responds, "Talk about....lonely..."? Don't worry, I have a better opinion of therapists than that. But in any case, today we're going to "talk about....feelings...."

In the interest of updating you on my little NorCal life, I feel...

...hopeful. Little lifelines keep on coming to keep me afloat financially and emotionally, and I'm confident the big guy upstairs and the good people in my life will continue to look out for me.

...curious. I can't stop thinking about outer space lately and how much I want to go there someday. I feel like I need to educate myself more on the matter. I also want to type SPACE in capital letters every time I write it, just like I always want to do with the word SCIENCE.

...nostalgic. To be honest, I haven't had too many homesick moments for Arizona. But every time someone posts on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/everywhere about monsoon season, I wish I was right there in those warm rainstorms. Some of the best memories of my whole life involve August and the smell of warm rain!

...tired. I'm training for the Napa Valley Ragnar Relay next month. I always forget how much consistent running transforms me into a hibernating bear. I want double the sleep and double the food, always. On cue, I'm currently hungry again. SNACKS! (That word follows the same rules as SPACE and SCIENCE.)

...frustrated. I cried three separate times on Sunday night and Monday morning because I just feel like I'm reaching a breaking point with job hunting. I'm working my tail off just to get noticed and make companies realize that I could be a really good thing for them. It can get demoralizing.

...intrigued. Considering some alternative writing career paths that I hadn't thought about before. Still involves writing, but maybe different than the deadline-driven frenzy of content writing that I'm accustomed to. Currently working on scheduling lunch or coffee dates with people who do what I'm interested in doing. Fingers crossed!

...swamped. Job hunting is surprisingly busy. All the job boards to check, the cover letters to write, the writing tests that every interview process wants, even just for small part-time things...I'm investing a lot of hours in all of it. It wouldn't be so different than normal work, except I don't get paid for any of it....so then I still have to squeeze in time for freelance assignments to pay some billz. I'm creatively sapped and mentally overworked, with a dwindling bank account.

...grateful. People here are seriously so nice. I feel like I've been welcomed with open arms and had so many adventures to keep me occupied! If I didn't have that, the job hunt stress could very well do me in.

...growing pains. Sometimes I look back on phases of my life and recognize that I grew a lot, and other times I can feel the growing pains and recognize the growth in very real, current ways. I'm in one of those latter phases. I can see myself turning inside and out and stretching as every tough and amazing week goes by. I'm excited to see what/who I turn out to be.

...happy. Even amid the stress of it all, I am so happy to be on this #bravekatie adventure. I am proud of myself for taking that leap, even if I feel like I left the cliff's edge two months ago and still haven't quite found my footing yet.  I just have these little moments where I feel like happiness is coming out of my pores, and the permeating thought in my head is a simple, quiet, "Yes." And that inner voice (the same one that made me get in my car and move here in the first place) alone makes any of the other junk easier to navigate. I've learned to trust that inner voice with my life. It always knows.

And that's all. Thank you for joining me in talking about...feelings...

Music: The Blessed Unrest

It's easy for me to label different phases of my life by the music I listened to at the time.

Sometimes I figure out what the music is after the fact -- when I hear certain songs or artists later on, and BAM I'm in a fit of nostalgia (or a fit of dread and clenched tummy) about a different time and place. Music has a funny, transportive way of making you feel old emotions like you're right back in the moment.

A few opening strains and some key lyrics and I'm easily thrown back to the anticipation and goodbye of my senior year of high school (Ben Folds Rocking the Suburbs), the general gray loneliness of the few months after I transferred colleges and landed in Provo (Patty Griffin's "Burgundy Shoes"), the calm and nausea and hope and frenzy of the first couple months back in AZ after graduation (the Weepies), a dozen sweaty concert crowds (Jimmy Eat World, the Format, Yellowcard, etc etc etc), and a half dozen sore heartaches (Radical Face, the Beatles, Rocky Votolato, Sara Bareilles, Taylor Swift, etc etc etc).

And speaking of Sara Bareilles, she's the reason for this post. Because her new album is my NOW music.

via

I loved her new album, The Blessed Unrest, at first listen for several reasons. She's always had a way of producing lyrics that speak to me, but something about the very chords and beats of this one unsettle me in all the good ways. For example, the discordant high note on the word "sun" in the chorus of "Chasing the Sun" does something to my insides. I don't think it's the most mind-blowing music I've ever heard, but still, it's like the very unrest (aptly named album) of it all gets under my skin and matches the exact flavor of all the emotions I've had since uprooting and moving to California. It's like adventure, fear, hope, anxiety, longing and finding all at once. The visual is something like...running and cliff jumping into an ocean. (Jason Bourne? I don't know.)

Give it a listen:

Other favorite tracks include 1000 Times, Satellite Call, Brave, Manhattan, I Choose You, December, Islands....um, all of them?

Anyone else rocking the Sara B lately? Or have your own "defines a specific time period of life" music?

She's the (job hunting) man.

Just poured my heart, soul, guts and maybe my left eye (it's fuzzy for some reason) into a cover letter and officially calling it a night on job hunting. 1:15am, we are not strangers these days.

In other news, this is what researching a company then writing a cover letter, personal emails to current employees and reaching out to people on LinkedIn for a job I really, really want (really, really late at night) makes me feel like:

via

Something about shaking the funk.

Disclaimer: I'm one of the most naturally optimistic people you'll ever meet. Cynicism and I, we are not pals. So, the first paragraph below is going to sound like nothing that I normally sound like but I can tell you that it is 100% honest, so that means it's probably something worth sharing because I just wrote that whole post about not being afraid to be flawed and heyyy you just have to get it out sometimes.

A Paragraph of Negativity

I could tell this week started out a little off when I woke up on Monday and the idea of writing yet-another-cover-letter made me stay in bed for two extra hours for no reason at all. By Wednesday, I was a mess of gray hoodies and acoustic Dashboard tracks like whoa. Job hunting is the pits. Nay, the armpits. It was hard to take a leap of faith and move to CA only to lose my contract job (aka security blanket) the very day I arrived. It's hard to apply to jobs that I know I'm qualified for (every bullet point on this list, I say!) and hear nada back. It's hard to be told by the umpteenth HR department that "we'll get back to you soon" and two weeks later I'm questioning the integrity and etymology of the word "soon." It's hard to know that I'm a writer (not a designer) and be turned down for writing (not designing) jobs because I don't know photoshop (it's for designing, not writing) very well. It's hard to know that I'm really good (I am! I'm good at this!) at what I do and not be able to figure out why no one else is seeing that right now. It's hard to write a rent check for August and feel kind of sick inside about how September and October are going to pan out. It's hard that I gambled on a potentially glutenous snack yesterday and I've had sharp pains in my stomach for the last 30 hours, because it would be really nice to just eat like a normal person now and again. OK DEEP BREATH END NEGATIVITY VOMIT. I know I'm doing everything I can, and that means the right thing will work out. I really do believe that. But I'm human, and everything lately has been enough to tip me a bit over the edge into the land of wallow. Tomorrow morning I'm getting up and going running. I'll shake this funk off (can that be a new dance craze? shake the funk?) and hopefully be back leading the hopeful chipper parade in a few days. But right now...gray hoodie and acoustic Dashboard tracks like whoa. And something about an episode of Duck Dynasty?

A Paragraph of Positivity

Let's be real. That entire paragraph above? First world problems. I know what I need to do -- I need to read the news and get my tush out into the community and do some service projects and then I know my head will be in the right place again. I need to listen to faith and not fear. I need to be patient, trust my gluten-pained gut and remember why I got in my car and dropped my whole life and moved to a new state in the first place. I need to enjoy the total awesomeness that is northern California (the trees! the cool air! the ocean! the TREES, hooverdamit!). I need to keep loving that the asian boy upstairs sings Imagine Dragons to himself in the shower in a really, truly great monotonous way. I need to remember how many people are praying for me and sending good juju into the universe while I'm on this leap-of-faith, gut-trusting ride. I'm also going to keep appreciating that this angel friend of mine is in town and somehow that makes all kinds of things right in the world:

Because what more does a girl really need than a friend, a plaid shirt, boots and the ocean?

a thursday adventure to santa cruz

My new roommate is nearing the end of her funemployment days because of that whole "start working at Google" thing next Monday. So on Thursday she said, "Let's go on an adventure!"

The day included a drive to the coast, climbing over a small fence, traipsing through a historic ranch, observing sea cliffs and sea lions, lounging in a secluded beach cove, eating tacos that rocked my world (you know I don't say that lightly), finding Pineapple Dole Whip on a magical boardwalk, and riding an old wooden rollercoaster on said boardwalk. Conclusion: my roommate knows how to adventure.

The coast is breathtaking. The icy wind, the salt in the air and the lush growth along the cliffs. The boardwalk and kites and the smell of corn dogs and kettle corn. The farmland and forest and seashore all in the same breath. While my heart is probably still in Arizona, I think my soul has always known it needs the ocean.

Throwback to my last coastal adventure, when I was a wild child.

On Being Brave Enough to Fall (Not Fail)

"You're afraid of making mistakes. Don't be." Ray Bradbury

I discovered this quote a couple years ago, and it kind of soaked into my skin and stayed with me. I remember it now and again, usually right when I'm about to let fear make a decision for me. "Don't."

Fear and I have a stubborn relationship.

When I feel it, I want to defy it. I hate when fear wins. I hate when I shrink because it's the safe or comfortable thing to do. There's big things, like moving to California or jumping out of a plane at age 18 because my friend Mariah and I made a pact three years earlier that we would do it. And there's small things, like last weekend when I was invited to go on a river trip with a few people I'd just met. Right before falling asleep the night before, I suddenly thought, "This is going to be awkward. I don't even have anyone's number, just a meeting spot at 7am. What if they leave me? What if no one talks to me? What if it's four awful hours trapped on a river with people who don't like me?"

I had those thoughts because I am human. And then I told them to leave-me-the-*ell-alone because I am me, and because of Ray Bradbury and "Don't be." And that river trip, just like every other time I've gone to a social activity as "the new girl" and thought about backing out at the last second, is something I'm glad I was brave enough to do.

I'm not afraid of mistakes. I'm not afraid of them because I make them all. the. freak. time.

I say dumb things. I write dumb things. I drop things and break them. I don't go running when I should. I don't relax when I should. I like the wrong boys. I let the right boys get away. Or I just like them at the wrong time. Or something. I spill my dinner on myself. I forget to call people when I say I will. I wear outfits that a week later I'm like, "What was that....?" And so on.

I listened to an audio speech this morning about mistakes and failure. My favorite part was when he told a story about his daughters taking ice skating lessons, and how they could barely stay upright even when holding on to the wall. When they officially started their lessons, they were surprised when the instructor said no more hanging on to anything. If they could barely keep their feet under them even while holding on, how would they possibly manage it without holding on at all?

The reason, he said, is that they needed to learn how to fall. Just let go, and let yourself fall down.

My life is ice skating. (And while I'm actually pretty good at real life ice skating, we're speaking metaphorically right now.) And life is about learning how to fall. I quit my job in the last couple months, left my family and friends and my everything behind, secured a new temporary job that turned out to be muuuuch more temporary than it was supposed to be, applied to a bazillion jobs and haven't had much of a response to all those careful cover letters yet. Fall, fall, fall.

Falling, but not failing.

Throughout this whole California shenanigan, I've repeatedly been asked a lot of "what if" questions. "What if you don't find a job?" "What if you run out of money?" "What if you get homesick?" What if, what if, what if. I'm not naturally the "what if" type, so my response to those questions is usually, "Then I'll figure it out." Life goes on. I gave it a go, and life goes on. I don't believe in playing small because of an ominous, lurking, nasty "what if."

I'm fine with missed shots and almost-theres and you'll-get-it-next-times. I'm fine with bruised knees and scraped palms and frustration and delayed success. I'm learning how to fall, so I can learn how to skate. Falling, but not failing. Just being brave, letting go, and letting myself fall down a little. And you know, I think I recommend it.

6 Updates from My (California!) Life

Oh heyyyy....I'm alive!

Officially breaking my blog silence to update you crazy fools on this little vagabond life of mine! I've been all busy with the whole "packing my car full of stuff and driving to northern California" thing, so that's my excuse. Also, I'm camped out at Starbucks right now, because I won't have Internet until Friday. And I'll have some rambling gushy thoughts about this whole adventure in the near future. But here's the logistics of what's been going on, list style:

1. I live in northern California! There are trees. And a cool breeze. And TREEEEES. I want to wrap myself in plaid flannel and a loose gray beanie, locate a porch swing and read a novel until the end of my days. Oh man, do I have stories of the good things I've seen and learned. I will compile them all into a separate post so stay tuned!

 

 

2. My hair is pink. What can I say, impulsive things sometimes happen at 1am. Go explore my instagram for various pictures of this situation. Or enjoy these ghetto fab images with my arm or hand or some portion of flesh joining the party:

 

3. I spent the 4th of July at Six Flags. Because 'murica and stuff.

 

4. I upgraded my phone. I have Siri now. We're still getting used to each other, but she does call me Master Splinter like I requested. I have to set boundaries so she doesn't go all Smart House freaky on me.

5. I own a bicycle! 25 smackers on Craigslist. Oh Craigslist, you are good to me! She's a bit rusty but the tires and chain are in good condition, and who am I not to love a bike with a little extra personality? Her name is Jean Louise Scout Finch and adventures are on the horizon.

6. My apartment is friggin adorable. I'm working on decorating the interior to keep up with that quaint, magical exterior. Stay tuned for more photos of my bedazzling efforts. There was a free rocking chair waiting for me under a climbing tree when I arrived, and if that's not fate my name isn't Stinky Pete.

[no photo included, because, safety first)]

p.s. Congrats to Emily Margaret for winning my vintage shop giveaway! Remember, any of you cats can save 15% when you spend at least $15 with the code KATILDA15.