Monday, January 19, 2009

3 hours...

3 hours will the gap in time between my severance and extra vacation time pay running out and the start of my new job. I don't think I qualify for unemployment any more. Let's see $378 a week was the max. So divided by 40 hours is $9.45 times 3 hours = $28.35. You can keep it Virginia! (maybe put it towards that pothole in front of my condo please?)

So I feel like a little bit of drama queen here for making such a fuss...but I am employed again. I will say the initial shock for the first 48 hours post lay off was terrifying and painful and sleepless. And I had fears of not being able to keep the condo or having to leave DC etc. Scary.

While I was worried about those things I was also stressed about having to take a job I hated just to be able to pay bills.

But I think of the others with kids and bigger mortgages and I hope they are able to find a job as soon as possible. Good luck and I am here to read resumes, practice interview, drink, feed you (Italian medicine), console, whatever. I have only had about 10 jobs in 10 years so I have a knack for this stuff...

Thanks to good friends who consoled, gave leads and ultimately recommended me for a job and helped me get hired. Thanks Jim!

I will be working for a company that works with country clubs to build out websites to manage their members, tee times, dinner reservations etc. I am sure I will have a better one sentence description after I start! But I love golf and I am beyond ecstatic to be selling something to an industry I have a huge interest in. (I will break 100 this year dang it)

Post layoff, while editing my resume, I came to the realization that I am a salesperson. That is my career. It was not what I wanted to be when I grew up and I have been in denial for years. I thought I'd be the one standing on the capitol steps in January someday :-)...but I started in fundraising which is a warmer and fuzzier but less lucrative type of selling and ended up a salesperson.

In the end, and I am usually humble about things, I am not so bad at it and I like the challenge of having a goal to hit and working towards it. Its like my own little small business and if you are good at it and work hard you get a nice reward and a good quality of life.

I had a choice, many years ago, after working for the Make A Wish Foundation, that I could either:

1. Stay in a nonprofit and work my way up to maybe run an organization someday. Even tho I loved it, I was impatient and was working 60 hours a week and making about $8 an hour. (Ah, the impatience of youth. The Executive Director job was open last year. I applied but I didn't spend the time working my up, and was unqualified. Oh well.)

2. Go work at a for profit, take care of myself first then 2b. give back as much as I can.

I chose option #2 but never really followed thru on 2b except for some adhoc fundraising and volunteering. After this experience I pledge my time to volunteer on a regular basis. Now that I have said it for all to read I need to follow thru.

And it starts with my fundraiser in DC for Row for Hope on Feb 19th. My goal is 100 people and $2,500. If you live in DC - please help by showing up and telling 1-2 people.

And, YES, the blog will continue. I love being the center of attention (to all 6 of you for 10 minutes once or twice a week). Tho this will be the last semi-serious posting. As you may have gleaned (giggle inside joke with a few very special readers), stupid things happen to me all the time and I can generally find something funny about most things.

Soon, I will recount the day my car got towed from my own personal parking spot behind my condo resulting in a 6 hour journey to two tow lots, one with bullet holes in the window and ending in a lonely stroll along a highway searching for my car...or the time I plowed into a giant landscaping rock while going 50 miles an hour on the GW Parkway, or the time I got the $1900 reckless driving ticket for going the speed limit...hmm, I am obviously a hazard to the road as most of my stories involve my car...I will have to think of more topics besides my inability to keep my car in one piece on the road and my license from not being suspended. If the last two weeks are any indication, I am sure I will have lots of material.

4 comments:

  1. That was the fastest unemployment stint ever! Congrats on the new gig. I've "gleaned" a lot from your writing...most importantly, that you should absolutely continue it! You've also shamed me into updated my own blog...

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  2. you do realize that Eddie is very well connected in the golf industry... around the country. AND... you ass, he just bought a new POS system for a course in Louisiana LAST FRIGGIN WEEK.

    Miss you :)

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  3. Ah, to read, perchance to glean...

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