I finally have a job!
Deciding to stay in Seattle was a bit of a risk, I’ll admit it, but just how much of a risk it was didn’t really resonate with me until I had to empty my savings out in order to pay for the deposit on my new place, the lease having been up at the old Amerihaus. I wasn’t overly upset to leave (life with 14 people in a ramshackle old house is interesting to say the least, although I will miss the great relationships I built there), but the prospect of having no money and no new money coming in was scary.
Wait, did I say scary? Let’s up that adjective a bit. Something approaching mind-numbedly terrified would probably be more accurate.
And this was after three months of looking for jobs while still in the corps, three months of informational interviews and slowly ratcheting my expectations from a “writing job” to a “job where I can use my writing degree” to “something full-time that pays decent money.” But I had made a decision and, as anyone who has argued with me about absolutely worthless topics can tell you, I am a fairly stubborn individual.
Luckily a temp agency provided the necessary balm to stave off my abject terror, getting me just enough work to keep me afloat- although close budgeting and a heavier use of my credit card than I am used to was also necessary.
Two more months passed, and two more months where I found it difficult to write despite the fact that I wasn’t doing anything else. Here I was, unemployed and with tons of time on my hands, but too stressed about finances to actually work. I was stuck in the bottom of Maslow’s evil hierarchy, and couldn’t move to the higher brain functions necessary to put pen to paper. And the plethora of free minutes didn’t help either… why work now when I’ll have plenty of time to finish this later today? Or even tomorrow? Aren’t job applications more important?
But tomorrow I start work again, this time at a neat little agency in Fremont, and I find that my brain is focused again. No longer afloat in worry now that I know money will be coming in soon (unless I royally screw things up) the world seems a lot more solid and thus, easier to make my escape from.
So two new updates, one here and one on the Widdershins blog (http://megandurham.blogspot.com/). One more will be in the works after I come back from the Founders festival this weekend, an event which necessitates a bit of steampunk costume-making on my part.
Till we meet again, may the road rise up to meet your feet.