Tag: #California

  • Job Hunting

    I have now been in California for two and a half weeks now, and the job-hunting fear has set in. I have been sending out resumes and applications, and I haven’t got one interview yet. The first week was no big deal, the second week was a little annoying. Now, that we are on week three, and it is a short week with Thanksgiving, which means my search will continue into a fourth week. The fear is setting in. It is possible now that I will go a month with nothing.

    That’s a problem.

    As we planned this move to California, me finding a job wasn’t that big of a concern. I had worked my way up in arts management, and from that, I thought I had many marketable skills.

    I am beginning to have second thoughts about that.

    Also, it has been almost 15 years since I was last out of a job, and the instability and insecurity that this situation creates has caused more than a few self-doubts. There are a few anxiety triggers that are firing up now which also makes me spiral/fall into thinking that everything will blow up in my face. That I won’t be able to provide…

    And then I have to remind myself that I need to relax.

    Take a breath.

    I’m not at the panic point yet, though I can see it on the horizon.

  • Parenting Challenges

    Today, with the observance of Veteran’s Day, the kid’s school is closed. The wife, on the other hand, had to go to work. That leaves me with the kid.

    Back in New York, those were good days to spend together. Since it would be a “treat” that Dad would be home during the week, we’d watch a little extra TV, but then get ready and walk three blocks over to the park. We’d be there for an hour or more, and then head back for lunch. After eating, it would be nap time, and sometimes I would also take a nap on the couch watching Sports Center. When we got up, story and drawing time. Maybe one more TV show, and then news and getting ready for Mom to come home and dinner.

    Ah… but we are in California now. We need a car to go to the nearest park, but the wife has it today to go to work. There are wild fires that are blowing smoke in our direction, and the air quality is so bad that we can’t go outside to play. This past weekend, the last of our things arrived, so there are boxes all over the apartment. We will be making a game of putting things away and arranging the furniture. I set the kid’s easel up in the living room so we can all draw together.

    We are in transition, and this is a big change for all of us, sometimes to does feel overwhelming.  I had a colleague at the last job I had who shared an article with me when we were in the processes of moving offices. The article was about how people hate change/transition and will react negatively to things they normally would agree with. I lost the article, but I have thought about it often over this past month with everything that has happened to us. It might be awhile before we begin to feel normal again.

  • A Lot Has Happened

    So… I have been away for a month, and that wasn’t my intention. I have had several life changing events happen to me and my family, and it has taken a bit of time for me to get adjusted to my new reality.

    Not that I am trying to be mysterious, but one of the bigger things that has happened is that a decision was made, and the wife, I and the kid have moved to the west coast, and we are Californians.

    Goodbye, New York City.

    Hello, Golden State.

    My wife got a really badass job, and it was just too big of an opportunity for her to pass up. It took a lot of work, but we were able to get all of us out, and now I am learning how to deal with people who are not perpetually angry all the time.

    I’m also learning that I was perpetually angry all the time. And that I have to start learning how to let go of so many things that I thought were important, but really weren’t. I see now that I was stopping myself from enjoying life, and the people I chose to share it with. I can’t fully blame New York for that, I made the decision to be that person. Now I have the opportunity to reinvent myself. In a place where it is sunny, often.

    There are so many things that I need to write about, and now I will add changing locations to the mix.

    Let’s see what happens.