I only take advice from 80s songs.

I am officially taking a break from job hunting. I still have a couple resumes floating around out there, so it's possible something will come of them, but I doubt it.

At any rate, I'm just going to stay put for the winter, tucked in all cozy in my living room with my dog, and I'm going to use the hell out of my fireplace, and then I'll reassess in the spring. It's just really tiring, doing interviews and filling out applications and getting so far in the process only to not hear anything back. I can't imagine what it's like for people who can't take a break from job hunting. I mean, at least I still have a paycheck.

What else? Nothing. I walk the dog, I go to bed, I get up, walk the dog again, go to work. My life is so boring. I stopped taking my antidepressant last night, though, so maybe one of these days I'll actually start writing something again.

Since we last spoke, I have walked the dog a lot and applied for a bunch more jobs. It's tough out there! I've been applying for anything I'm even remotely qualified for in any part of Florida I think I could stand to live for awhile (i.e. Not The Middle, basically) and even the positions I'm super qualified for aren't calling. Granted, the wheels of county HR departments turn very, verrrrry slowly, as I well know, so I haven't given up hope. I'm just not that patient.

In the meantime I have begun wearing a cheap pedometer, just to keep track of how far the dog and I go on our thrice-daily adventures. My record so far is 6.5 miles in a day. But as it turns out, my cheap pedometer is measuring for an average size step, not my tiny baby steps, so it's been shorting me (no pun intended) miles, and therefore my record 6.5 mile day was probably closer to 7.5-8 miles. True story.

It's no wonder I'm in constant pain lately. And taking her to the dog park doesn't substitute for walking, because she still refuses to run when there are other dogs there. As a result, I am always tired.

I want a new tattoo, but a) I do not have any money, and b) what little money I do have has to go into my savings account so I can eventually move.

I never really talk to anyone anymore. I can't figure out if I'm isolating myself on purpose or if I'm just not that interesting without fandom. Funny how friends just drop out of your life. I mean, mostly I don't even care, but sometimes I do. Sometimes.

Oops. I keep meaning to, but then I get distracted and forget again. Partly it's that tumblr is so much quicker, but mostly it's just that I haven't been glued to my computer as much lately as I used to be.

( The reason for that is behind the cut. )

In other news, I have been having more sinus problems. Nothing super serious, but it's that time of year here, and I think I can feel another infection trying to form, which is worrying, given my history. So I've been doing some research, and they say the best place to live if you have chronic sinus problems is the south of Florida, because of the constant humidity and the ocean breeze. It's true that I have less allergy problems there than anywhere, so I'm not surprised.

Anyway, that news has changed my focus when it comes to job hunting. As much as I would love to be up north for the culture, health-wise it might be smarter to go back to the beach. Not that I will ever complain about living at the beach, especially if I can find a decent job there.

So that's a thing. I don't have any offers or even glimmers of interest from anyone so far, because I have been skating by for years and my resume is not that impressive, but hopefully soon.

Last night after work my sister met me downtown and we went to see the final performance of Mary Poppins: The Musical. It was...okay. I mean, I enjoyed it, mostly, and Con O'Shea-Creal, who played Bert, was fantastic, as were Kerry Conte as Winnifred and Karen Murphy as the Bird Woman/Miss Andrews. I cry every time I watch the "Feed the Birds" scene in the movie, and as it turns out, the Broadway show was no exception. Lame!

Anyway, the little girl playing Jane, bless her, was just terrible. I couldn't understand a word out of her mouth the entire show. And neither my sister or I thought Madeline Trumble was the right choice for Mary. She just didn't work for us. Apparently she was Katherine's understudy in Newsies during the period when we saw it last year. I'm very grateful we got to see Kara Lindsay instead.

But again, it was fun, and I loved some of the musical numbers ("Step In Time" and "Supercalafragilisticexpialidocious" especially.) The sets were AMAZING, especially given it was the touring production so they have to break those things down and cart them around the country every week.

Other that that I worked all weekend. It was super fun, let me tell you. The police had to be called on Saturday because of a mentally ill woman who started screaming and throwing things at the circulation staff, and apparently one of the new guys was traumatized by his first solicitation from an older man. They should really mention these inevitabilities in the interview so people can prepare themselves.

No one ever hassles me because I scare people, so I spent an uneventful weekend apartment shopping and learning about all the things there are to do in Connecticut. I grew up right next door in RI and I've only ever been to Mystic. That's sad. Of course I have to make it through my interview first, but it's never a bad idea to have a plan in place, just in case. If they do want to hire me I'm going to have to start the moving process, after all, and if I do my research beforehand I won't have to worry about it later.

It's only my first interview. Anything could happen! But I have a good feeling about this one.

So over the weekend I had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad fibromyalgia attack. What happens (to me) is that my skin gets hypersensitive to the point where even my flannel sheets hurt to the touch, and my legs feel as though they've been beaten with a sack full of baseballs from the bottom of my spine all the way to my mid-calves. The pain is bad during the day, but when I try to lie down to sleep, it becomes excruciating. It's weird.

It's worse these days because I have been neglecting my cardio, but in order to get better I have to fight through the pain and general fatigue to get to a point where it doesn't hurt to do cardio. It's a catch 22, if you will. The meds make my mom feel even worse, though, so I tend to self-medicate the way my grandfather did, which isn't the best approach, but we do what we can.

( This got long so I will cut to spare you the boredom-induced coma. )

So that was my weekend. This morning I applied for that job in Connecticut, because the pay is too good not to, and also it is basically the next town over from writingpathways, so at least I know people there. Plus my tarot card reading (the professional one, not my sad attempt) suggested that the job for me isn't necessarily in the city, so I should keep my options open. We'll see.

Today I have a dentist appointment at lunch time. Tomorrow I see the nose doctor. It's an exciting week.

Yesterday while I was at the allergy clinic, I mentioned to the nurse who gave me my shot that I'd just come back from Florida. I said that while I was out of town my allergy symptoms all but disappeared, but as soon as I got back to Knoxville, they came back like they were making up for lost time, and I was surprised because there's so much mold in Florida that I figured they'd be terrible there.

She said it's because the vegetation there is different, therefore the mold is different. Also the ocean breeze apparently helps. So now I have verifiable proof that I am actually allergic to Knoxville. Good to know. Just one more reason to get out of here asap.

I applied for another opening today, and two more yesterday. I would love to be hired somewhere for the fall semester. Fingers crossed.

My inbox is filling up with all these job openings* to apply for, and it's making me feel guilty because I promised my dad I'd give it awhile. (That's a long story.)

Still, it's not like I have much of a shot at any of these positions, so it's just good practice at this point. I hate cover letter writing so much.

* Today there's an opening in Vermont. Vermont! Wouldn't that be something. I'd need better boots. And a 4-wheel drive.

I stick around Tumblr for a couple people I'd probably lose touch with otherwise, but the format is just not for me. The fandom portion just tends to make me angry, and I'm always too rambly for text posts. I feel like my entire existence is tl;dr for Tumblr users.

Let's face it, I am old in fannish terms and the LJ/DW format is more my speed, even if people aren't using it that much anymore. That's okay; the important people are still here. Mostly. Except those ones who are forcing me to keep my Tumblr blog. "Blog." It feels weird even calling it that. Is it a blog if no one ever *says* anything?

Aaaaand I probably didn't get enough sleep last night. I'm on day six of my nine-day work week and going a little crazy. Saturdays are kind of ridiculous because I drag myself in here at 8:00 and don't actually have to be on a public desk until noon. But I need the hours, so here I am, in my office, wasting time instead of getting any work done.

It's snowing already, so they might send me home early (I was hoping the snow would hold off until later in the day because again, I need the hours) and I'm supposed to babysit tonight, but I suppose that will depend on the weather conditions later. I don't mind snow at all, I just mind trying to get home when they don't treat the secondary roads and everyone in this town lives at the top or bottom of a large hill. It's just not smart planning on the county's part. Not that they care.

What am I even talking about? I came here to post a To Do list for myself for the next four days. ( Under the cut for your ignoring pleasure. )

There's an opening for a librarian at Yale. Should I apply for another job that won't call me? I'm used to rejection so that's no problem. The real issue is that eventually someone *is* going to hire me, maybe, and if I move anywhere in New England besides Boston, I'm going to have to keep my car.

I finally discovered the magic trick that will get me to crosspost consistently. All LJ had to do was completely bork the post interface! So now I will just post to DW and you can comment wherever. I don't care.

So I'm reading this book called How to Make People Like You In 90 Seconds Or Less. It's about body language, and how to use it to establish a rapport with other people. I always say that the key to my professional success is that I don't really care what other people think of me, so I don't waste time being passive aggressive. If you don't like me, oh well. Here's how things are going to go, and that's the end of it. It's pretty efficient, and it has the side affect of making people want me to like them, for some reason.

I've employed this approach when job hunting over the years as well, and I've always said that the reason I've had success in a really tight job market is that I always go into an interview not caring whether or not they hire me. They'd be lucky to have me! It tends to make you a lot more relaxed.

Well, for the first time in my life I actually care whether or not I get a job, so I'm brushing up on my first impression skills. It's really very interesting, to be honest. I would recommend this book for introverts who have to fake it in order to get ahead or even just make a good impression. There are some great tips in there.

Next on my list is Sixty Seconds to You're Hired, which I have read before, but I need to refresh my memory. The only problem is that I tend to listen to nonfiction, and the author read that one herself. That was not the best decision. Her voice is pretty irritating.

I've written quite a bit lately! I just can't show you any of it. My Yuletide fic is still not done, but I have an outline for the rest of it, so fingers crossed I'll get it done pretty soon here. Yesterday I took a break to write a couple things for Fandom Stocking, but today I'll get back to my Yuletide Fic. Honest. I'm going. Here I go.

ETA: I just totally thought of something I should have asked for in my fandom stocking. A Will/Finn header for my LJ! Though I would be hard-pressed to let this one go, I love it so much. Still, there's been so much hugging and touching and longing looks on the show lately that it would be glorious. But it's not worth making Medie edit my entry for a pairing that squicks 90% of the population. Alas.