Happy hour

Aaaah Aaaah yes, the weekend. Who doesn't look forward to the weekend, a time to relax and enjoy a few days off after a week of hard work? But being unemployed, relaxing on the weekend has taken on a different tact. Relaxing after looking for a job all week has sometimes been difficult.

As I soon learned after being laid off, days tend to run into each other and I sometimes was unsure of the day of the week, and often didn't know the date. I stopped wearing a watch every once in awhile. But I still looked forward to the weekend, when my wife would be off (unless she had to work one of the weekend days) and we could do something together as a family. But it's still difficult to free my mind and do fun things on Saturday and Sunday because it's always in the back of my mind that the job hunt isn't easy and I have to continue looking every hour that I have available.

I remember a few months ago at a CPC Job Connections meeting on a Saturday morning when a fellow member said he had to treat himself to some time off alone and spent the afternoon going to a movie after looking for a job for months without a break. He needed to get some sanity back in his life. At first, I was anxious to spend every hour looking for work, but now I've slowed down to weekdays. But with unemployment benefits set to runout someday, the clock slowly continues ticking in the back of my mind.

Good and bad days

Everyone, whether they're searching for a job or not, has bad days. The trick to getting past them, I think, is to find some small accomplishment to proudly point to and not feel like the day was a total waste in the job hunt or whatever it is you're doing.

Some days feel like you haven't accomplished a thing, while others feel right on target with many accomplishments. Today was a mixed bag for me, but a lot of positives to take on a day that didn't start out so well as I ran into a lot of traffic on I-680 on my way to an informational interview. The talk, with a former CCT colleague, went great and was an inspiration to keep trying. I wanted to know how someone who has been a life-long journalist moved into another field and how they overcame the barriers employers throw up to people witih transferable skills, but maybe not the exact, defined skills they desire. The guy I talked with, for example, found a great job in corporate communications, but had never done such a job before. He turned his managerial experience at newspapers, his abilities under deadline pressure at newspapers, and other skills he used as a journalist, and turned them into a job in corporate communications. I'd like to do the same, among other job possibilities, and he helped me see how to do that better.

Other bonuses today: A friend who works for the state government forwarded a job opening to me, which I will apply for on Thursday. I'm looking into taking a PowerPoint class at the local adult education center in December, the earlies it's available. I plan to go to the local community college on Thursday to look into working as a guest lecturer and taking classes, if I can afford them.

Those were the highlights. The low? I found out from a recruiter that a Nevada newspaper is going forward with two candidates for an editor position, and so far isn't calling me in for an interview. And awaiting callback from Texas.

A wild time

These photos don't have anything to do with finding a job, but have a lot to do with keeping our daughter entertained. We went to a wild animal park Sunday in Texas, and as they say at the end of stories in community newspapers, a good time was had by all. Animals that you thought would be wild are enticed by free food, so they come right up to and sometimes into your car for a handful of some type of pellets they like to eat. The zebras tried to get food from Kristen, in the last photo, and I handfed a deer that kept chasing after us. Emma also had a blast, throwing some food (first photo) and getting a close look at one of her favorite animals.

It was a great trip and a state that I'd like to visit again. We didn't have enough time to explore Austin, although the city does offer relocation guides to anyone thinking of moving there. I never did get a "Don't Mess With Texas" shirt, but I did get a T-shirt with the state flag on front. Nice flag. Again, a state worth considering living in, if only I could find a job there. I did have an unexpected job interview while in Killeen, but haven't heard back yet.

With the short vacation over, it's now time to get back into job hunting mode. I'm now looking to take classes for accreditation in Microsoft Suite, which is something many job listings call for. I'm looking at adult school, but those look costly, so I plan to look at the local community college, which may also be costly. Maybe I can find some type of discount for the unemployed.

Moving questions

As we prepare to fly out of Texas this afternoon, I contemplate some questions that many people must face when moving out of state. For me, these are some of the issues we will look into and think about as my job search continues:

* Even if you find a great job, what happens if it sours in a year, or sooner? Some jobs look great going into them, only to learn the many pitfalls once you've arrived. Moving from California to Texas, for example, is a big step and I wouldn't want to have to start a new job hunt after moving.

* How important is family and a support group when moving somewhere new? Most of my family lives in California, while some of Kris' relatives live in Texas and others in North Dakota and Minnesota. I think it's very important and I'm sure I'd be happy living in Texas, but am torn from leaving my home state.

* Weather. Texas gets very hot in the summer, which Kris enjoys, but I'm not a big fan of such heat and would have to have a backyard pool.

* Big city vs rural. We didn't get a chance to explore Austin, which we'd like to do, but much of what we've seen so far is rural, or at least what I'd call rural-suburban. Concord is definitely suburban, but we're near BART and can get to SF or Oakland in 45 minutes or less. And while we don't get to those cities as much as we'd like to with Emma so young, we look forward to taking her out to events in San Francisco when she gets older, and she already has some favorite landmarks. If we didn't live in Austin, we'd probably want to live close to a big city for all of the options it offers.

* Politics, etc. We're Obama supporters and have seen all McCain signs. That was expected. But Texas politics would be quite a change from California politics. It would also take some getting used to seeing cowboy hats and other Texas things, although I do like the state flag. And BBQ.

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Alessandra Ambrosio Super Hot Wallpapers

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BBQ, Texas style

My view of dining out at someplace you haven't been before is to go with what the restaurant's specialty is. When at a hamburger stop, have a hamburger, not a chicken sandwich. At a pizza parlor, go with the pizza and not the pasta. At a BBQ, go with the ribs or brisket. Friday night we went to a BBQ joint outside Killeen, Texas, and it had the look of a place with some great food. While it was a good BBQ dinner, I don't think the food lived up to the lived-in feel of the place.

And it was an interesting place: Long picnic tables inside with rolls of paper towels, stuffed deer heads and other animals lined the walls, and probably best, a line to stand in to pick your meat that was just steps from the outdoor grill so the chef could cut and weigh it. Then to another line to get potato salad, onions, pickles, bbq sauce, cornbread, beer, beans and other typical BBQ fixins. It was all good food that I happily ate, but not as spicy or melt-in-your-mouth good that I expected from Texas. I had my new Texas T-shirt on and was prepared for one of the main things Texas is known for: BBQ. Maybe next time.

As for the job hunt, today and on Sunday evening we're working with my father-in-law on bidding on a government contract for writing work in the Bay Area. It's a long, complicated document that must be filled out correctly or the bid won't be accepted. It's a new world to learn about.