ginia.org

Anyone remember this song?

I’ve worked, on and off, for years on figuring out what I want to do when I grow up.  Law school seemed like a good idea: I had okay grades, a fabulous test score, and the support of some wonderful professors.  But I wonder if it delayed the inevitable: I frequently alternate between thinking the law is a good fit for me and thinking that there’s a better fit for my interests and talents.

But if there is something “better,” I still have no idea what it is.  I’ve read oodles of career books, worked with a career coach, considered all sorts of alternatives, all for naught.

I love food.  I love to eat, I obsess over foodie culture, I obsess over what to eat.

But I hate grocery planning and shopping.  Which we’re in the middle of doing right now (which is why I’m blogging instead).  It really isn’t that hard and we’ve got some basic rules we try to follow:

• We almost always buy a whole chicken which then gets used over three meals.
• We try to have fish/seafood at least once (preferably twice) a week.
• We try to have a veggie meal at least once a week.
• Lunch is usually sandwiches and fruit.
• Breakfast is oatmeal for him, soy smoothies for me.
• Snacks are limited to raw nuts or yogurt or fruit (or some combination thereof).

So why is menu planning still so freakin’ hard?  We’re currently stuck on what to have for lunch today: nothing is appealing to either of us.  (In our defense, we did just eat our mid-morning snack of yogurt and fruit.)  So we’re heading out with our list mostly complete and we’ll probably wind up splurging on an impulse buy for lunch… which is exactly what we try to avoid by creating grocery lists and menu planning…  argh.

Wow, it’s been about 2.5 years since I blogged here.  Since then, changes in my personal life include:

• A few jobs (one I hated and wisely did not blog about)
• Selling the condo
• Moving into our apartment
• Starting a business
• Resuming travel (this time with a focus on my own country)
• Reconnecting with my dad and aunt

Changes in the world around me include:

• Emergence of the Tea Party craziness
• Arab Spring
• Adieu Steve Jobs
• A new Chicago mayor

And somethings just don’t change:

• Chris and I are going strong
• The cat is still the cutest cat in the world
• My friends and family continue to astonish me with their inherent awesomeness
• I still dream…

I find myself wanting to capture thoughts that aren’t necessarily appropriate for Facebook.  The privacy settings here are nil, though, so the paranoid in me is going to continue to edit myself here, but I’m curious to see if/how this develops this time…

So under-employment (I have been working sporadically) continues.  In the past 8 months, I’ve had about 10 interviews, some of which went very well and some of which were border-line disaster and NONE of which lead to a job offer.  So what have I learned in this process?

1.  I’ve got too much experience.  For one gig, the interviews went ASTONISHINGLY well.  I even keep in touch with one of the partners that I met.  But in the end, they decided to go for a junior associate (with 3 months of experience) instead of a mid-level associate.

2.  I don’t have enough experience.  My most recent interview, last week, also went pretty well.  We hit it off, I got a good vibe, and had my fingers crossed all weekend.  Monday, I get a call saying that they went with someone with more experience.  Bugger.

3.  I’m too aggressive.  That was a feedback comment I got last week, from a New Yorker, after I interviewed for a teaching position.  I can only laugh…

4.  I’m not aggressive enough?  This is surmise based upon one interview that went really, really well and then… radio silence.  After following up with calls and emails for over a month, I finally just gave up on hearing back from them.

I keep reminding myself that something will pan out, that something will turn up, that I’m on the verge of something great.  It’s just getting harder and harder to believe…

I’m watching Divine Design.  I wish I could find a Candice Olsen clone in Chicago (although I did read a rumor that her first sewer, Edmund, moved here last year).  Since I’m almost finished with the bedrooms, I’m now free to dream about the kitchen.  In the past 4 years, the only thing we’ve done to the kitchen was paint it.  While that did help make it much more attractive, that did nothing to enhance its functionality.  At this point, I’ve got a few ideas on what I do and don’t want…  and I figure this space is as good as any to jot down a few ideas for the future.  Keeping in mind that I’m not interested in a drastic change (and the drastic costs associated with such changes), I think I want:

• almost anything but stainless steel appliances (so normal nowadays)…  I’m still quite taken with Jenn Aire’s floating glass black appliances.
• almost anything but granite countertops (again, too common, but more importantly, the stuff is too hard on our place settings!).  I keep changing my mind between cladding the current countertops with copper (a lovely, cost-effective trick we encountered in Arizona) and butcher block countertops.
• I do like having an undermount sink.
• I’d *love* to have a counter-depth, French door fridge.
• I’m also lusting after a Bosch dishwasher.
• While I’m at it, a gas range w/ continuous grates would be a lovely upgrade.  Oh, and an attractive range hood (instead of a microwave).
• One thought that keeps popping in my head: demo the pantry and laundry closets, extend our countertops along that wall to create a u-shaped kitchen, and fit in the laundry appliances underneath the new countertops.
• pull out drawers in lieu of our standard lower cabinets, self-closing of course!
• We need room for cookbooks!  Also a sensible spot for our laptops, for those instances when we cook based off a recipe online.
• a spot for recycling and composting would be lovely.
• oh, and room for a large (100+ bottle) wine fridge would be ideal.

Yeah, it’s a dream list.  Pretty much like my last couple of posts.  But if I stopped dreaming, what would I do with myself?

Yes, yes, yes: first I need to be re-employed.

Still, this never-ending winter makes me fantasize about locations that I would never, EVER seriously consider when the weather is decent.  Florida, the Caribbean, Canary Islands, Southern California…  all sound gloriously warm  and appealing right now.

Of course, the obvious question: if I was someplace warm and sunny right now, what would I do?  I don’t like the heat THAT much, so how much time would I actually spend outside?  I’d hang out for maybe an afternoon, then get very bored.

If this winter doesn’t freakin’ end soon though, a weekend in a warm locale might be in the cards — screw unemployment!