Tina's wanderings around the world

The job search continues. And while there are some minor progressions on that front, the superstitious part of me says to stay quiet until something firm is in place. I will listen to that side of me at the moment. Fingers crossed things work out, I'm channeling positive thoughts and energy every passing day. I even submitted a writing sample today, which made me question a previous writing sample, which made me think that I better stay up to date with my writing skills. As if I haven't written more cover letters in the last few months than I had in my entire life before that! Anyway, there are some more lighthearted things to write about. Marcus sat the bar two weeks ago and got two hellish days of testing done. Celebration!!!! I went with an depleted Marcus to Bitterroot down in Ballard to feast on some happy hour bbq and some strong whiskey cocktails to celebrate. Then the next few days were spent recovering somewhat and I slowly watched the life return to the dear man...

Yes, the days are passing. In that interminably slow but far too fast fashion. The days themselves drag by, but then I look at the date and realize we've been here for nearly three months. Shit! How did that happen?? And I'm still not working? Stress, stress, stress. Let go of the stress, let go of the stress, let go of the stress. It's this cycle that is counterproductive to changing the circumstances, so I'm bobbing between the anxiety of being unemployed and an overcompensating positivity. I'm reading a book by Daniel Pink right now called "To Sell is Human". It points out that selling, whether in the traditional salesman stream of work or otherwise, is now an important part of all of nine out of ten jobs. "Moving people" or "non-sales selling" he calls it. As a fundraiser, my job has, in fact, been selling. I've been very aware of it and have on more than one occasion likened my professional position to that of a used car salesm...

Just a few notes here. In the midst of an abundant amount of free time, in an effort to be productive and continue building on my acquisition of higher education, I signed up for a free, online university class through Coursera . There's a huge variety of classes available for those so inclined to expand their knowledge base and the first that really caught my eye was a class entitled "How to Change the World" being lead by the President of Wesleyan University, Michael Roth. The class is based on this awesome-looking event that was held last year called the Social Good Summit that joined a massive list of impressive, do-gooder speakers. Right up my alley. I signed up straight away. The first week was less of an overview of the course, but giving a sort of context in which to think about the proceeding week's themes. It was based on the topic of "social goods", what social goods are, how they're governed, how they should be governed and why this is imp...

We're now in our second month of US living, rapidly approaching month three. Although there's a certain sense of normalcy to life these days, normal is a relative term. At this time last year, normal was going to work then being bored and trying to figure out what to do while on the summer holiday from grad school. A few months later, it was driving to the university early in the morning, studying for a few hours, going to work, going to class, then going to work again and returning home around 10pm. Then for three months, normal was wandering around southeast Asia, sight seeing, testing street food, riding in various modes of rickety transportation and walking, walking, walking. Now normal is some other version of a routine that will also change soon. Wake up, maybe go for a run, spend hours on the computer job searching, furniture searching, reading the news, ordering books and CDs from the library (I heart the Seattle Public Library system), and all of the other ways I manag...