Laundry Day

Dance Camp pretty much forced the issue. In order to pack in time to leave early Friday afternoon, Laundry had to be done today or tomorrow. In order to do laundry, I had to purchase laundry detergent. And as long as I was going out this morning to get detergent, I might as well run a couple of other errands. By the time I got home, it was after 11:00.

We have a saying in our family: Everythng is a project!

We have two washers and two dryers in our complex's laundry room, so you can imagine the time it takes to do five loads. So while they were going through their cycles, I opened up the windows and doors and did some light housework--mostly putting things away. What a difference fresh air, sunshine, and less clutter can make!

I turned the matress. I made a couple of phone calls that I've needed to make. I sorted out a couple of issues for organizations I belong to.

And then there will be climbing into a bed made with fresh sheets.

Knit 1, Knit 1, Knit 1...

The last time I picked up a pair of knitting needles was to make a Christmas present for Honey, my maternal grandmother. It was my first real knitting project, a purse knitted from soft yarn, which I think was mohair. I remember sitting in the den working on it. I remember wrapping it.  I don't remember anything about the actual mechanics of knitting. For years, Honey kept it in the bottom drawer of her dresser wrapped in tissue paper.

Sunday night, after finishing the purple and blue prayer shawl, I picked up a pair of knitting needles for the first time in almost 40 years and started reteaching myself to knit. I've become fairly adept at casting on.

And I actually got pretty good at the basic knit stitch.

The purl stitch and casting off, not so much.

I see more practice in my near future.

First One Done

I finished the first of my contributions to the Grace Church Shawl Ministry.

As you can see, it's really more of a lap rug, but it will serve its purpose.

Double-crocheted using a P gauge hook, Caron 4-ply Acrylic worsted weight Deep Violet, Caron 4-ply Acrylic worsted weight Midnight Blue, and Red Heart 4-ply Acrylic Worsted Weight Soft Navy.

Easter?

Officially Lent is over. In some circles, it was over last Sunday. In my case, as my spiritual director often says, my life seems to be Lent.

Attending church has been rote activity. My prayer life has been rote. I did take on a Lenten discipline, which involved a regular schedule of prayer several times a day using Phillys Tickle's The Divine Hours, Pocket Edition. Rote.

On the other hand, if it hadn't been for church/religious activities, I wouldn't have left the house this week. In fact, I probably wouldn't have got dressed at all. So I did leave the house at least once a day.

Monday - Passover Seder
Tuesday - Education for Ministry
Wednesday - Stations of the Cross
Thursday - Maundy Thursday supper and stripping of the altar
Friday - Good Friday service
Saturday - Easter Vigil
Today - Easter Sunday service

There are some exciting things going on at our parish, things I'm part of. But lately, attending services gives me a headache. The reason for the headache is good. Most services are bilingual because of our growing relationship with Iglesia Betania. The two congregations are gradually merging into one community. But operating in two languages (one of which is my fourth) when church has become a rote activity brings on a headache.

And going to church also means gearing up to intuit how much people who ask me how I'm doing really want to know. Screaming, "I'm unemployed, the economy sucks, and job hunting is a pain in the @##! How do you think I feel?" just isn't an option. Nor is advice about praying particularly helpful just now (see above,"rote").

Let's face it, this past week just plain sucked. The week coming up doesn't look much better.

The promise of Dance Camp next weekend should get me through.

TGIF

Today was a do nothing day. I read. I took a walk. I did some journaling. I went to dinner with a friend.

Okay, technically, I did things. I just didn't do anything in terms of job hunting. Or the parish. Or household chores. Or any of the things on my To Do list.

Sometimes, you just need a day off.

Who Got Us Here?

Grandmere Mimi's Let's Not Forget... post reminded me of something I'd seen just before the 2008 election. It was on the blog of Dan Roam, author of The Back of the Napkin and The Napkin Unfolded.  While the title can be read a number of ways, and probably intentionally on Dan's part, the visuals are very clear. Dan writes:

Whenever I give a workshop, I ask in advance for a sample problem relevant to my audience, so that I can demonstrate the power of pictures in a context drawn from their real-world experience.

In this case, Doug supplied me with a thick set of economic data comparing eight years of the Clinton Administration with eight years of the George W Bush administration.

Go read Careful Senator, your politics are showing and pay attention to the charts.

Remind me again how we got to this budget standoff...

New Opportunities

After the dry spell, a small deluge.

Today four friends forwarded three job leads to me. Two of them are church-related, and one of those is with an Episcopal organization. The third would take me back into the field I worked in when I was employed at Pitney Bowes. A couple of people who have been my sounding boards through this period of unemployment have noted that I talk about my time with Pitney Bowes a lot. So it may be worth pursuing that third lead.

Tomorrow I'll sit down take a closer look at the job descriptions. One of them isn't particularly interesting, even though I have the skills to do the job. While I am anxious to find new employment, I also don't want to get myself into a job that I don't particularly like.

This morning my Outplacement Coach and I began the process of putting together a search plan. Late in the game? Not really. It's still less than 110 days that I've been unemployed; less than 3 1/2 months. And for the first time in my professional life, I'm working with a Coach and not a firm or corporate consultant. It's a very different process. I find myself looking forward to my sessions and always feel more positive about things when we're done.

It is possible that I will find a position before I actually complete this coaching process. But what I'm developing now is a long-range plan. We've even talked about the NEXT job during this process.

I also have a couple of projects I'm working on for organizations I belong to. They're concrete. They have short term goals and objectives. They provide me with the opportunity to create some structure to my days during this time of upheaval and uncertainty. Not to mention that they look good on the resume.

Onward.

So Begins Another Week

Monday's aren't that much different from any other day when you're unemployed. Even on Saturdays and Sundays you can network and send out resumes. But it's still a convenient way to track a cycle and keep to a schedule.

And it is the day I file my unemployment claim for the previous week.

Today marks my 101st day of unemployment. Just over three months, which isn't really that long compared to my previous periods of unemployment. In many ways I've had a more constructive time than in the past. I have a really good outplacement counselor. I have a better professional network than I've ever had. I've had job leads a lot earlier in the process.

That isn't to say that I don't get discouraged. So far very few of the leads have resulted in interviews, and none of the interviews have resulted in job offers.

But today is the beginning of a new week.

To prepare for the week, I sit down Sunday evening and go through my calendar. I transfer the coming week's meetings and major task due dates to the white board schedule. I put my To Do list on the small white board. It turns out that this is a busy week. The only day I have nothing scheduled--yet--is Friday. Saturday will be my busiest day with two meetings at church, a class, and probably dinner with friends.

And so begins another week. Another week closer to new horizons.

Second Weekend in April

For the past few years, this weekend has meant a drive up to Southington with my friend Rees for one of the few (and some years, the only) Depression Glass shows in the area. After a couple of years of shrinking vendor participation, this year we found more booths than the last time we went.

This is what started it all.

I have eight of these that belonged to Grandma Harre. Rees saw them when I used them to serve dessert one evening at my apartment. Shortly after that she took me to my first glass show. It took me a couple of shows before I finally identified the pattern as Cambridge Glass' Elaine. Of course, it is one of the harder patterns to find! I saw three pieces at the show, only one of which I do not have, an ice bucket:

Needless to say, at $235, it didn't come home with me.

I did find one really spectacular deal, a set of eight Cambridge Diane champagne glasses for $55. Usually, the champagne glasses sell for about $20 each.

However, Diane isn't one of the patterns I collect, so they stayed with the dealer. The only other pieces that tempted me were an interesting relish tray and a purple-tinted Diane glass. Although neither was a pattern I collect, they were interesting enough that I considered purchasing one or the other. In the end, I bought neither. I did enjoy looking though.

After the show, Rees took me to lunch at Red Lobster in Danbury--a belated birthday lunch.

What better way to spend a beautiful Spring day than with a good friend doing something fun together?

Enough Already!

So instead of actually resolving the issues, Congress has handed us an additional week's worth of public posturing and blame-gaming. How quickly can we hold a recall election for all 535 members?

What Were They Thinking?

There was a period of time during my childhood when I wanted to be an architect. Floor plans covered almost every piece of paper I touched. About the time I started doing renderings of the exteriors, I lost interest. Drafting lessons in 7th grade shop class contributed, but primarily it was the discovery of how much math I'd need to study to become an architect.

However, I never lost interest in architecture. I have a basic grasp of most historical styles, though I am no expert. If a house or building intrigues me, and I can't identify its style, I'll do a little research.

This afternoon I was running some errands, and walking back to my car, passed this building.

I've passed it many many times, but today it really struck me. What were thinking when they built the addition on the front? You can clearly see the bones of the Italianate original.

You can see a little of what the original house looked like in this c. 1900 postcard of the Methodist Church. The house is immediately behind the church and has the cupola, which it lost at some point, that is characteristic of many Italianate style houses.

I understand changing needs of a town, even if I don't always like the results.  It's just not possible to repurpose every building, and if you preserve every existing building, you end up with urban sprawl. That makes no sense in terms of economics or wise land use. But what's with the ziggurat roofline and the giant-sized window on the front of the blue monstrosity?

If you're going to expand a building to suit your needs, put some thought into it. About a block from the blue monstrosity is this law office.

Originally, this was two separate houses, both of which still carry historic markers. The house in the foreground is the c. 1867 Margaret and Amelia Belden House. The one at the far end is the c. 1863 Charles F. Sherwood House. A few years ago they were joined together with this central addition.

The architect also put some thought into what the rear of the new complex looks like.

These houses were near the original church building of my parish, Grace Episcopal Church. From this 1906 postcard of the Norwalk Library and Grace Episcopal Church, I'm gathering the houses were on the other side of the church. They survived the urban renewal projects that followed the 1955 floods, which the church did not. The current church building is down the block from the blue monstrosity.

Etiquette in the Job Hunt

Today's mail delivery brought a letter from the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. I wasn't expecting it, but I knew at once what it was.

"Thank you, but no thank you."

If they'd wanted to interview me, they would have called, or possibly, sent an email. I knew the position was somewhat of a long shot, and the posting did state there was a strong internal candidate, but I had nothing to lose by sending in my resume with a cover email. I figured if they were interested, they would contact me. If not, statistically, the chance of hearing from them was very small.

Some people blame today's economy and the overwhelming number of resumes submitted for any opening for the lack of response on the part of hiring managers/HR departments. Over the years I've been unemployed in bad economic times and in good economic times. This trend started long before the current recession. Letter writing takes too much time in leaner organizations. In the days of copy and paste and email, that excuse doesn't hold water.

At least some employers are honest. They state in the job posting that only qualified applicants will be contacted.

Even more frustrating, however, are the times when you've been interviewed for a position and then hear nothing. Until you find out from another source that the position has been filled. If you hear anything at all. This has happened a number of times during my last couple of job hunts.

Of course, applicants that don't send thank you notes or emails after being interviewed are considered rude. As Mr. Rogers might ask, "Can you say 'double standard'?"

Common courtesy never hurts, so I will continue to write thank you notes after interviews.