September Goals

  1. Find a job.
  2. Exercise daily.
  3. Write.
  4. Read.
  5. Make household work-ready. I need to remember to wash the sheets.
  6. Go to the dentist. Made an appointment for tomorrow. Cleaning went well, no cavities. I'm going back in 4 months for another cleaning, and then will switch to every 6 months.
  7. Apply for IBR through Sallie Mae. This is Income Based Repayment. From what I understand at this site, if I'm not making anything, I'm only responsible for the monthly accrued interest.
  8. Get eyebrows done
  9. Get gel nails removed. I haven't decided if I'm going to do the gel thing again. I need to first see the state of my nails when the gel is soaked off.
  10. Call endocrinologist re: test results. I had my third blood test last week. Hoping that my TSH levels are finally normal. My levels are still a little high, so now I'll be doubling the dose on Saturdays and Sundays.
  11. Go to ENT. Ear, nose & throat dr - just for my annual ear cleaning.
1-5 are the same as last month. I've been REALLY good about exercising (the scale says I lost 10 lbs, though admittedly 3 of those are from being sick and will probably come back. But 7 lbs is still good! :)). I've been reading a lot. Been writing a little. And making the apartment work-ready is an ongoing process. I hate how easily everything gets cluttered. :( And as for the job... well, I'm still sending the resumes out, and keeping my fingers crossed.

Recovering

I've been sick with pretty bad food poisoning (salmonella?) since Thursday, and am just starting to feel like my normal self again. The lingering symptom is lethargy; even walking across the room saps my energy. So the apartment is a mess, I have way too much laundry to do, and I've been ignoring my basic routine. But I'll get there.

What really sucks is that I missed out on a job opportunity. It wasn't the greatest opportunity, but it was something. I had an interview on Friday, which the office moved to Monday. I was relieved about that, hoping I'd feel better. But when I woke up yesterday, I knew I couldn't do it. So I asked to reschedule... they got back to me this morning and said they had filled the position. Damn.

Anyway. I'm renewing the search today. M has been encouraging and optimistic. I hope that lasts.

Canon PowerShot Pro1

I mentioned in a previous post that I was selling some items. Since this is a fairly big ticket item, I figured I might as well post some pictures and see if anyone's interested.

This was something M purchased 4-5 years ago for a trip we made. After the trip, he lost interest in it, and since then we've relied on more compact cameras. He purchased it for $800+. It still works perfectly. The case was an additional $20 or so, and maybe $5 for the lens cleaning supplies you can see peeking out of the front of the case. I'm asking $200 for everything. Email me at debtchronicles at hotmail.com if you'd like more pictures, have any questions, or would like to buy it. :)

Job Hunt Update

It's been a week and a couple days since I met with the recruiter. I haven't heard anything back from her. She's on vacation now until the end of the week.

I've sent out 11 resumes in the last 2 1/2 weeks. I applied only to the decent jobs - I'm not desperate enough (yet) to slave away for $10 per hour at a small firm. That's incredibly insulting. I'd sooner take law school off my resume and go back to making $26 per hour as an assistant.

One of those resumes was to the recruiter, and that's the only person I got a call back from. Several of those were for paralegal positions, and I bet some of the people on the receiving end deleted my resume instantly when they saw I had a JD. Some of the ads on Craig's List actually got changed to say "no JDs."

I've had my resume and cover letter critiqued by the director of my school's career services department. Everything looks good. I have another 20 jobs I'm going to apply to today.

This is the first time in my life that I haven't had immediate responses from employers to my job inquiries. I know a lot of people who don't have jobs, from schools at the top to the bottom, and I can only imagine how many resumes are pouring in daily to the jobs that are halfway decent. It's a depressing situation.

I know I'm luckier than some people, because I have M... he's been paying for everything since my bar loan money ran out - rent, my credit card payments, food, etc. I intend to pay him back. But I'm tired of adding to the debt. That depresses me too.

I'm still optimistic. I'll try to stay that way as long as I can.

Books this week

1) Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris

This is the 2nd book in the Harper Connelly Mysteries. I like this series more than the Lily Bard one, although it's clear a romance is about to blossom between the main character and her brother (step-brother, not related, though if you're actively calling someone your brother, should you really then fall in love with him?), and I don't know how I feel about that. (Protecting those who want to read it from a sort of spoiler! ;))

Harper has the ability to locate dead bodies and see how that person died (though not who killed them). The ability was gained from a freak lightning accident when she was a teenager. People seek out her help, and are at the same time disgusted by her. She travels with her brother, who acts as a sort of manager and partner. Like all Harris' other novels, it's a fast, entertaining read, not something that sticks with you.

2) Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

This is Gillian Flynn's 2nd book, her first one was Sharp Objects (which I also loved). She's a fantastic writer, and she's kind of my role model at the moment. She even has praise from Stephen King (although I don't know how hard that is to get). Neither I would call horror novels (Amazon calls them "crime thrillers"), but they do deal with some horrible things. Sharp Objects disturbed me for a while after I read it, this not as much. That's not to say this book isn't as good as her first. It's very good, and had me hooked from the first paragraph.

The main character is Libby Day, and when she was a child, her brother slaughtered her family in their Kansas farmhouse. Circumstances make it so she must reexamine that day... we get to see things from her perspective in the present day as well as the perspectives of her family leading up to the murders.

3) Faithful Place by Tana French

This is the third book following the Dublin police squad, and her third book, period, I think. (French is Irish and her books, so far, are all set in Ireland) Her first was In the Woods, the second was The Likeness and this is the third. I've read all of them, enjoyed all of them, though I think this was my favorite. This would also fall into the "crime thriller" category. The first two books followed Murder Squad detectives - Rob and Cassie in the first, and Cassie in the second. The main character of this book is a detective in the Undercover Squad, Frank. I know he was in the second novel, I can't remember if he was in the first.

This book is the best of the three. I would still recommend the other two, if just to get a feel for the setting. Rob made me hate him in the first book, the second book uncomfortably reminded me of The Secret History - still, I enjoyed them. This book, though, I couldn't put down. If anyone does read this, we need to talk about the ending - I did guess it, but I was sure there was something else going on... but something else never materialized.

The main character is Frank Mackey, who has to revisit his childhood neighborhood, Faithful Place, when a suitcase belonging to a long-lost love turns up in an abandoned house. That woman broke his heart when he was 19 and set to run off with her to England - she never showed. The suitcase suggests that something else may have happened that day, and Frank is determined to find out the truth.

Random Stuff for Sale

I've been cleaning out the closet and have come upon the following things that I want to get rid of -

  1. Manga
  2. Chumby
  3. Scanner
  4. Canon PowerShot
  5. 2 iPhones (the old ones, with boxes)
  6. ThermaClear
  7. Various fiction books
  8. Various law books & Law in a flash cards
  9. Bike helmet
  10. Black shelves
So if you find yourself needing one of those items, email me at debtchronicles at hotmail.com and I promise I'll give you a good deal. :)

Books this week

In the past week, I've read:

1) Shakespeare's Champion by Charlaine Harris

This is the woman who wrote the Sookie Stackhouse novels (aka True Blood). I'm a big fan of True Blood, but didn't really like the first novel it was based on, and also didn't want to spoil the tv series, so I stopped reading the books. But I have read this series (The Lily Bard Mysteries) and her other series (The Harper Connelly Mysteries). It takes place in the south (the town is called Shakespeare), the main character is a 31 year old white maid with a disturbing past, and there's always someone dying (and she's always getting mixed up in it). I feel like the writing in this series is MUCH better than the SS novel I read. However, I like the characters in the SS novels better.

I'm not a fan of the south. This book made me remember the reasons why. That said, it was still an engaging, fast read.

2) Shakespeare's Christmas by Charlaine Harris

Same as above...

3) The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell

This is about Carrie from Sex & The City... but high school Carrie. Another engaging, fast read. Some of it annoyed the hell out of me, but I had to keep reminding myself that this was high school, and that makes it plausible. The ending made me a little giddy.

It feels so good to have time to read for fun again! :)

Interviewing... and Gel Nails

I had my first interview last week. But it was with a recruiter, so it wasn't a "real" interview. They'll call me if they have any document review positions available. These are temporary, contract jobs, and pay from $30-40 per hour. That was more than I was getting paid as a legal assistant, but not by much. Assuming it would be full-time, it would be anywhere from $3462-4350 net per month. I'm also going to try to apply to the recruiting company itself. The recruiter said there might be openings. I don't know how much recruiters get paid, but it seemed like it might be an interesting position.

Yesterday I decided it was time to pamper myself, and make myself a little more interview ready. I've totally ignored my nails for months, and the hypothyroidism makes them prone to breakage. So I'm trying gel nails for the first time. I did the french manicure, and wanted them looking as natural as possible. I paid $88 in total (inc. tip) for the gel mani and a normal pedicure. This was a great deal more than I was used to paying; the local salons I usually go to charge about $25 for both., so I come out paying $30 with tip. That said, this place was much nicer than those salons.

The place I went to did "bio sculpture" gel nails, which I heard was better for you. They don't do fills, so in 3-6 weeks you come back and have them soaked off and then re-done. The manicurist first cut, filed, buffed and soaked my nails, and once they were dry, she began painting on the gel. She painted on a base coat, I stuck my hands in a machine (I think my nails went under UV light?). We repeated this process for each coat that went on. When I stuck my hands in to dry the final coat I felt a burning sensation. The manicurist said to take my hands out if it hurt too much (I didn't, because the pain subsided after about 2 seconds), and then said that some people feel pain at that stage and some don't. Those of you who have tried gel - is this normal??

It looks just like a normal french manicure, except it's supposed to last 3-6 weeks as opposed to 2 days. I figure it'll take me through interviewing season and then I'll have it removed. I love looking at it, but that burning sensation, plus the feeling of heaviness on my nails (I notice it more than with a normal manicure; feels like my nails are suffocating) makes me think it's not worth it. But I'm glad I tried it once. :)

August Goals

  1. Find a job. Ideally, this will pay $70k+.
  2. Exercise daily. I haven't exercised since the beginning of the bar, but prior to that I'd been going to the gym, tennis or yoga daily for a month. I need to make sure I stick with that.
  3. Write. I want to write a fiction novel one day (yeah, just like the million other people :p). If I don't start working on my craft now, it'll never happen.
  4. Read. I'd like to read at least 1-2 books a week. I have SO many on my Kindle, I just need to sit down and read them. Maybe I'll take a walk to the beach or park and do it.
  5. Make household work-ready. I want everything clean and organized. I don't want to scramble around looking for something M or I have misplaced. I want to stock up on necessities (soap, shampoo, razors, etc). I also need to get my pants hemmed, and maybe take some things to the dry cleaners.

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