It’s amazing how beautiful a sunset can be, no matter its location or vantage point from which seen. I often catch fleeting glimpses of some very pretty sunsets at work. Though admittedly, when inside the company’s gates, the experience feels awfully restrained and oppressive…and as I did yesterday, pause for a minute to consider just who’s in control of my job: me or the job.
Today marks two weeks since our move here into Akron, Ohio. It’s a return for Tristan to her hometown and a departure from my own, in Pennsylvania. Neither of us are super thrilled about it; we both just really miss pre-parenthood right now and our lives in Cali.
Regardless, I see some potential here. Downtown Akron, though small, still has some measure of vibrancy to it.
The job search is proving the most frustrating so far though, out of anything. One month online and nearly two weeks in person should have returned at least a call or email, but I’ve gotten nothing (other than spam/scam email responses). As an entrepreneur, I see a lot of potential – I always do. But as an employee, I’m losing confidence. More than likely, I’m just getting impatient due to the stress of landing an income and admittedly, of going back to work as an employee, not the employer. Though in some ways, I’ve been craving this, since the stresses of self-employment and entrepreneurship have taken their toll on me over the last few years.
It would be nice to find something cool, engaging, challenging, and stable. And maybe on the side I’ll pursue some more modest startup ideas here, time and resources permitting.
On the homefront side of things, our house, known as “the Chitty farmhouse” is cool, though it does have a few issues (what house doesn’t?). We’re mostly settled in now, though short some bedroom storage since we have little closet space. Our cats are adjusting to our roommates cats nicely, as we ourselves work to adjust to living with roomies again. We have a separate studio/garage space that I look forward to modifying for my future office/studio use, once I’ve secured a job.
Other than that, things are pretty low-key. I’m enjoying the relatively quiet neighborhood, more reading and getting to know the area.
So, as our friends continue on with their rockstar lives in Cali, we struggle to shift our lives for the necessary stability of parenting, all the while wondering what is to become of our own lives.
Finding purpose outside of parenting is a must for our survival, I think.
Today I took another much needed break from office/computer work to work up the street at the River.
Yesterday I returned to work on one of the many ongoing projects there, picking up this time from where I’d left off before Lee was born in January: the floor installation. So yesterday I hand-carried a truck full of white pine tonge-and-groove flooring half an acre or so to the job site, since I couldn’t drive on the wet, soft ground. I got the job site prepped for installation, my workstation organized and installed my first few pieces, then called it a day. It was a short day at only three hours, but a very busy one.
Today I got in a decent amount of work in only five hours, installing up to nearly 3/4 quarters of the flooring. I also helped Tim install the main, front window, which was really nice as it really brightens the room and makes working amidst stone and block that much better.
Tomorrow, time permitting, I’ll be back to finish the flooring installation. Then it’s on to finishing the window and door installations, the ceiling, the interior wall, wiring, heating, and some other odds and ends.
While seemingly inevitable, it still sucks to face the facts and have to lay yourself off from your own company.
This is exactly what I’ve had to do this week to keep operations going at Distinctivefabric.com. So I’ve filed unemployment in California, though with their budget issues, my chances of getting unemployment income looks bleak.
Here’s what my resume looks like on the CalJOBS board:
My CalJOBS resume
And on the job hunt front, my options there seem equally dispairing as:
Oh what a great time to begin fatherhood. Moving here was one of my life’s biggest mistakes yet. A rebound from this would be a miracle.
For some reason my Posterous posts aren’t coming through with pics here. So I’ve edited the post to include them here now. And oh how cute they are!
Today I submitted my resume, along with my LinkedIn profile, to Twitter for their Founder Associate position.
I asked Alissa, an old west coast friend, what she thought of this and she graciously offered to put in a good word for me.
I’ve had minimal luck getting jobs I’ve gone after previously, so it’ll be interesting to see what kind of feedback, if any, I get on this.
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Update 1.22 9:07am EST:
I’m questioning the appropriateness of this post right now…I’m so used to posting on just about anything I do, it’s become so ingrained that it was an automatic reflex to do the same with this post. Hopefully I’m not committing any sort of faux pas by doing so.)
Baby’s coming any day now, Tristan is going insane with the wait and feels like it’ll never happen. I keep promising it’ll be over soon, but my words seem to be falling on deaf ears.
Nothing for it but to wait it out and do whatever I can to keep her occupied until then.
Tough timing though trying a new job, prep for the cross-country move back again, and a slew of other equally complicated details. But I’m confident everything will work. I always work things out with half or less the trouble perceived from the start.
Now if only she could share in my optimism…