Goodbye Unemployment: A Valediction

I have been employed for about three weeks now and it looks like it is going to stick. So, I figured it's time to officially bid adieu to unemployment, homage style. A-hem.

What I learned while unemployed

The lessons of unemployment were frustrating at times, but ultimately fruitful. It's true that necessity is the mother of invention, and unemployment was nothing if not a season of mandatory ingenuity. I learned to reach for my library card instead of my debit card. I expressed shock and awe to find that the rubber stamp library of my youth was now a self-scanning, multimedia haven of ways to humor oneself. I learned that lo and behold, West Seattle wasn't all stroller mommies and cycle dads, and that there were more than a few fun, young, fascinating single ladies like myself ready to paint Alki red at a moment's notice. I learned that it would take three times longer to find a new job than I thought it would. I learned how much my fiance loves me when I had to lean on him for financial support. I learned there is no financial substitute for feel-good moments like the natural beauty of Lincoln Park, the adrenaline of a bike ride, or the endorphins from a great deep conversation with a close girlfriend. I learned nights in playing board games or going for a walk can be a lot more fun than a fancy dinner out, especially when it is somewhere snobby and overpriced like Saltys. On the flipside, I learned you don't have to sacrifice style for budget (thanks Sazerac and Cafe Presse). I learned to actually use the stuff I had by learning more about the capabilities of my digital camera and my mac, rather than adding new bewildering technologies to my life. I learned to find lost treasures in my closet and create fresh styles from old clothes rather than purchase new things. I learned volunteering can be just as fancy and thrilling as going out (wooh ArtsWest). I learned that your life passion doesn't have to be all-consuming, and that just because I quit my last job to write a book doesn't mean I can't do a new little job on the side. I learned that you don't have to save yourself for the perfect job. Settle for a job that's less-bad than your last one. Most importantly, I learned that you are not your job. Many employed people are just as miserable, listless and frustrated as unemployed people. And no matter what job you end up taking, you're still you. It's your friends, your family, your personality, and your hobbies that define you, not your working gig. Last of all, I learned that Coming to America never gets old. Never.

The First Day of Civilization

It's official. Tomorrow I return to work. In fact, as we speak I have an actual deliverable in an actual inbox at my new email address. True, it's only a part-time gig, but considering my four month hiatus from the workplace and hence society, I'm starting to feel the proverbial butterflies in my belly. Will I be good? Or should I say, will I get fired and have to deal with unemployment again? Will I like it? Will it be super stressful? While I remember how to read, write or speak verbal coherent strings of words? It's a whole new set of questions to replace the never-ending hypothetical scenarios that kept me company as an unemployed person. Either way you slice it, uncertainty is trippy. And so is being the new kid, no matter how old you are.

It may sound conceited, but when I resigned from my old job I left on top of the heap. My boss loved me, I had plenty of friends, and I had all the status, salary and security one craves from a professional environment.

Now it's back to the bottom of the heap, back to proving myself, back to slowly building those relationships of trust and respect that take so much gentle care to build. It's going to be an adjustment. I remember what a brutal struggle it was to get to the top the first time and hope this won't be like that.

Looking back though, I am proud to say I stayed true to why I resigned from my job in the first place. Tomorrow I will start a job that has all the important qualities my old one lacked: new creative skills, cooler projects and clients, authority, autonomy, and a stepping stone to a more creative career in the future. It doesn't look how I thought it would, but it feels right. It's time to kiss my four month Craigslist coma goodbye and rejoin civilization. I just hope I can remember how to talk.

It's the little things

As anyone who reads my blog knows, Litegeist is all about celebrating the little things. As anyone who reads my blog also knows, I am devoting this year to new creative endeavors outside the "creative writing" box. As such, today I completed my very first photoshop effect: Dreamy Photo Editing. Here is the result! Yay!

Something New

As I lay on the floor, breathing hard, in the fetal position, I watched Jillian Michael's cocky smile as my mind stuttered to a stop. Indeed, the 30 Shred Level 2 has been an initiation unlike any other for this knee-raise neophyte-well, an initiation unlike any other except one.

As I lay there, dazed, curled, exhilarated yet limp, crowing yet comatose, intensely introspective yet completely blank, it must be said: It felt like the exercise equivalent of losing your virginity.

Even now, as I drag my hollow body to the favorite easy chair with the childhood blanket to curl up and process what's just happened, I fight those warring sensations to tell all my friends or avoid everyone until my mind composes itself, until I get my dignity back, until I feel like my buoyant, chattery self again. I suppose in the same way, the 30 day shred will get easier and easier and then second nature and then something I don't even mention, or even register. I'll probably long for this level of stunned newness again. But right now, I just want some toast.

A Hidden Way to Tell if A Job is Right for You

Job shadowing and parachute colors are great, but I have a theory on another way to tell if a job is right for you. A good indicator of your future job satisfaction is how much you enjoy applying for it. After all, the application is pretty much a petri dish for the future job, so it's a good indicator of if you will enjoy the job itself.

First off, do you like the writing in the ad? Do the core values speak to you? When you are completing the application, is it fun and challenging? If so, the job will probably be fun and challenging. When you complete the job application, is it boring and stressful? Then the job will probably be boring and stressful. Tempted to stretch the truth on the app? Get ready to bring your inner Pinnochio on full-time. Find yourself trying to talk yourself into why the job is good for you? Prepare to do the same pep talk every morning and evening on your commute for the rest of the time you work at this job.

It's not rocket science. But the citizens of the floating world of Unemployment can use all the signposts they can get, and I think this is an apt one. Consider the application, your "first date" with a new job. Pay attention to how you feel throughout it, and you'll have a good indicator of whether it's time to fish or cut bait!

See-One Person/Sasquatch Hippie Can Make A Difference

I know this little gem has been making the rounds on the Internet, but as a Seattleite I think I have more claim than most to this dancing hippie video. The chain reaction of joy created on this sloping hill is amazing, so enjoy, and watch the whole thing. This guy is an Honorary Litegeister!

EMBED-Weirdo Kid Starts Huge Dance Party - Watch more free videos

Recreation versus Perspiration: An Epiphany

For years now, I have been hearing rumors about this suspicious E-word. How it makes you all tingly and relaxed. How it's the perfect stress-reliever after an intense work week. How it makes you feel happy and healthy and sexy. But I'd never actually experienced endorphins for myself until I became unemployed. I guess you could say I've always been an endorphins orphan.

I'm well-acquainted with natural highs, including those associated with shopping, chocolate, or a great conversation with a girlfriend. But I have always been nothing but suspicious of those glowing gym girls who would stroll out all gazelle-like with their yoga mats and their tube tops, raving about how "invigorated" they felt. Exercise either made me grumpy, gaspy and red-faced, or simply nonplussed.

Then I started doing the Jillian Michaels "Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism" workout on OnDemand, and lo and behold my E-phinany came. The age-old adage "no pain, no gain" was exactly applicable to my situation. I never experienced the swooping zen sensation of endorphins because I never sweat hard enough to warrant the payoff. And I didn't realize how much I was shortchanging myself, not just physically, but mentally as well.

Once you really start to push yourself in your workout, all the stress of the day finally, blessedly recedes to the back of your mind. I really genuinely did not know this, and I am 27 years old. I've been contenting myself with latte-slurping Greenlake power walks in the name of "exercise," not realizing sweet blessed mental obliteration could be mine with just a good solid kickboxing combo. And as all unemployed people know, any relief from the endless hamster wheel of anxiety and doubt and "what-ifs" is purely incredible, a drink of sweet nirvana water.

Unlike with Greenlake power walking or my other token forms of exercise, the Jillian Michaels workout pushes me into a sweat that is pure sanctuary, a hollowed out place where this is no craigslist ads or mounting bills or endless hours staring in the dark. I am not thinking about anything, or anyone but the sound and movement of my own body, of my pumping heart and gasping breath, working against my own best time. And when I go into that cobra pose at the end of that killer workout, I am calm, cool, and chalkfull of endorphins. At this point in my life, there is no better gift. Thanks, sweat.