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Last Day of Being Unemployed

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Unemployed Girl

Last day of UNEMPLOYMENT

Things I Won’t Miss:  

  • That nagging feeling that I should be chained to the computer searching indeed.com or any of the many job search sites I checked
  • That nagging feeling that I should be out networking and hob-nobbing
  • That nagging feeling that I should be sending another email or making another phone call to check on a job status
  • That nagging feeling that while I was home, unemployed, I should be exercising and getting into shape
  • That nagging feeling that I shouldn’t be eating out/seeing a movie/doing anything fun because I should keep all my pennies
  • That nagging feeling that I didn’t have health insurance for a few months
  • I guess a lot of nagging feelings 🙂

Things I Will Miss:

  • Going to bed and waking up whenever I want to – I had some months of pretty good sleep, after the anxious sleeplessness went away
  • Bringing the kids to school in the morning or picking them up after school
  • Having the time to help out – making meals, babysitting, painting a nursery, grocery shopping, library-going…
  • Long leisurely showers in the afternoon and air-drying my hair (maybe only understood by curly-haired folk?)
  • Painting my fingernails crazy colors
  • Movie matinees on Wednesday (free popcorn!)
  • Keeping up with Twitter and bloggers
  • Tweeting and blogging
  • Having a super flexible schedule so that I could say YES to almost anything

Although the list of things that I will miss could go on and on, the overwhelming feeling of relief about being employed really overshadows them all.  I value being self-reliant and I know that most of the things on the second list will continue in some way.  I will still be helpful when I can, stay up late and sleep in when I can, tweet and blog when I can, and say YES to fun things when I can.

Life is good.

Happy last day of unemployment to me!!!

Off to read – after a leisurely afternoon shower!

40 Things (23)

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Pippi Longstocking (book)

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Following along with Boof’s 40 Day Challenge leading up to her 40th birthday, next topic is:

23) A book that is a most treasured possession

Because of the flood, many of my childhood books were destroyed so anything that I have from my childhood is treasured by me.  It’s kind of funny, because I’ll be at my brother’s house and find a book that somehow ended up at his house but was inscribed to me and I’ll just steal it back to my house, thankful that it survived.  So I now own my Pippi Longstocking book as well as a Child’s Book of Prayers.  Yay!

Some of my favorite books were in high bookshelves upstairs, so I am still thankful that I have them – like “Now We Are Six” and the poetry books I compiled in high school.  When cleaning out my flooded house, the gravity of it all hit me when I picked up my book journal and threw it away.  I kinda lost it then.  Books that were surrounding my bed were all a loss – imagine that TBR pile disappearing!

How depressing that is!  I also treasure books that I’ve had autographed recently.  It was fun to read the books, discuss them with the author, and get them autographed by those fantastic women.  Good stuff.

# 23 on my list was to: Go to local art galleries.  I make it a conscious choice to visit art galleries and museums whenever I can.  I also do my best to support them in my small way by making purchases there for gifts or for myself.  I can’t afford big art but I can buy hand painted cards or earrings.  As I have said before, the first art museum I went to was eye-opening and made me wonder why I hadn’t been going to them all my life!

Off to read!

40 Things (21)

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Cover of "The Sleeping Beauty Proposal"

Cover of The Sleeping Beauty Proposal

Following along with Boof‘s 40 Day Challenge leading up to her 40th birthday, her next topic is:

21) A book I am embarrassed to say I like

I read a lot of pretty embarrassing books.  I mean “The Cinderella Deal”?  “The Sleeping Beauty Proposal”? Both given four stars by me on Goodreads.  They’re good for the time – summer at the cabin.  So I am not embarrassed by liking the books I like.  I know that I am missing out on a great book by reading a fluffy good one, but sometimes a fluffy good one is what is called for.  Often, lately, a fluffy good one is what is called for.  I may grow out of it?  I may not.

#21 on my list of 40 things was: Enter a photo contest.  How silly and random, eh?  But I did enter a contest of travel pictures and was made a finalist!  I didn’t win, but it was a lot of fun to get credit for a photo I took.  The photo was of human grape vines at the San Diego Zoo.  They were amazing to look at and the photo turned out pretty good.

Off to read!

 

40 Things (18)

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War and Peace

Image by felibrilu via Flickr

Following along with Boof’s 40 Day Challenge leading up to her 40th birthday, next topic is:

18) A book that I tell people I have read but haven’t

I read an abridged version of “War and Peace,” so although I mark it as “read” in those which of these have you read? lists, it doesn’t count in my eyes.  But I mark it anyway!  I can’t think of any other book that I’d lie about… aside from text books. 🙂

18 on my list was to Learn how to play MahJong.  And I did!  On the computer, anyway, and I have played it once live as well.  Mostly I play it on the computer, and I love the sound of the tiles and the music that plays in the background.  Good stuff.

Off to read!

40 Things (15)

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Cover of "Extremely Loud and Incredibly C...

Cover of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Following along with Boof’s 40 Day Challenge leading up to her 40th birthday, day 15!  Her topic for today is:

15) A book that I have read the most number of times

Well, I don’t tend to re-read books too much (save the kiddo books I read when smaller), so the books I’ve read twice include: the Harry Potter series, Pride & Prejudice, and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.  That’s all I can remember.  I sort of have a “keep moving forward” philosophy and so use my limited time to try new books.  I had some poetry books when I was younger (“Now We Are Six” and “Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle”) that I read over and over again because they were so clever and fun.

#15 on my list of 40 things was to WRITE.  Blog, journal, stories, poetry, letters and postcards.  Again, not measurable but it has made me more purposeful and intentional and to put stamps on things and to keep a book for haikus.  Good stuff.

Off to read!