Getting up to speed

An old college friend recently inadvertently reminded me that I had been seriously neglecting my blog. Partly that's because it was on MySpace, and I never spend any time on there anymore ... so I created a Blogger account to get back to it.

So here's a rundown of what I've been doing since my last post nine months ago:

1. I was fortunate enough to find a graphic design job in Indianapolis at a small marketing company the week after my last day telecommuting for McClatchy. Talk about timing. Seriously awesome. I commuted an hour each way from my parents' house for the first month and a half. That was seriously unawesome. (Nope, I haven't stopped making up words.)

2. On December 30th, I closed on my house in Indy ... a purchase I had wanted for at least four years prior. Finally things were feeling like they were coming together. About three weeks later, I admitted to myself and others that I fucking hated my new job. What a brilliant plan. Saddle yourself with a mortgage and realize you can't stand your job in a shitty economy. Yep, totally felt good about that.

3. I celebrated my 30th birthday. Hooray. Really, I only say that with a little sarcasm. I was at least back in Indy ... I certainly thought my life would be different now than it is ... but if I were still in D.C., I think the milestone would have caused a lot more emotional turmoil.

4. On May 22, I was laid off from my job. I had lost all respect for the owners of the company by that point and couldn't have been more relieved to be walking out the door. Now a month later, I'm feeling pretty crappy to be such a noncontributing member of society, but I'm still relieved to not have THAT job.

5. I have no desire at all to have another graphic design job, so I'm going back to school. Right now, I'm looking at becoming a dental hygienist, a physician assistant or maybe a pharmacist. I'm not looking forward to going into debt for school since I've made it a point to, and succeeded at, not being in debt for anything other than a house and a car to this point in my life ... but I also can't see myself being miserable at work until I retire.

6. I started dating a really great guy. He's sweet and cute, perfectly sarcastic, gives great hugs ... makes me feel a way that I haven't felt about anyone in a long, LONG time. Spending time with him makes me really happy, but he also comes with as much or more of a problematic relationship history, and that worries me. I seriously hope we can eventually work each other through that, but right now I'm not sure we see our futures the same way.

7. And most recently ... I spent a good eight hours of my life copy pasting my blog archive to start this one. Stupid, shitty MySpace.