At least I still have my health

I interrupt this regular schedule program of not writing or giving a general crap to give you this sunset and a blog post!

In the new year, I resolved a few things: 1) To find a job 2) To blog more/more consistently 3) To, perhaps, run/exercise a bit more. So far I've been lacking on all three...well, unless you count doing jumping jacks to get warm because I'm trying to cut down on the cost of heating the house by keeping the thermostat low. To be honest, it's hard to blog when there's not much to blog about. I'm rounding into my second year of full time unemployment and were I to keep up a blogging schedule the bulk of the content would be about the terrible reality shows that I watch, how I walked to get the mail today, and the state of the neighbors' dogs when they come over for treats.

All that being said, I have been living in North Carolina for over half a year now! In this time living here, I've noticed that it is way too easy to spend my days wallowing in my own self pity and despair (hence the lack of updates) than it is to be grateful for the sunnier side of life. And so, in keeping with my devolution into mediocre writing skills (see, how the negativity so easily rears its head?), here are the things I am blessed to have and grateful for:

• Jack
• Kale for $0.99 a pound at the grocery store. At least I can assuage my guilt for eating at Chick-Fil-A by eating more kale purchased at a ludicrously low price. EDITED! 03/21/13: I just went to the store today and the price of kale has gone up to $1.29/lb--what is this, Seattle? There is officially nothing redeeming about this area.

And, because I need some perspective as to why I need the above list in my life, here are the things that suck about the area:

• It's very nearly impossible to find a mid-level professional job because the area is still mostly agricultural and seasonal. I think it's one of the few areas in the country where a college degree means next to nothing. Ask me how demoralizing it is to not get a job where one of the few requirements was to have graduated high school.
• Follow up. I think it's nice to follow up when people leave voicemail messages or say they will send an email with information, but I guess that's not the norm here. I've now realized that it's easier to pull teeth than to get companies (utility companies, especially) to follow up and maybe return/pick up a call or two, because, I guess, either people don't care about the money we want to lavish on them or this is some sick, demented version of Island time. 
• Loud rain. Some may call it heavy rain, but I'm going to call it like it is: loud. At least in the Pacific Northwest the rain had to decency to fall in a constant, near mist so that it is quiet and allow people to sleep through the night. Not so in the South! Here it is loud, thunderously announcing its arrival in the middle of the night so that you are awoken from your semi-deep slumber and unable to go back to sleep to continue that dream about hanging with Liz Lemon on 30 Rock.

Television is not the only thing that's rotting my brain.

It's official. Someone please hire me now because the longer I remain unemployed, spending way too much with trashy reality television shows, my brain is quickly atrophying to the point where I have forgotten basic baking principles:

Last week, I wanted to make some blueberry cheesecake bars for the upcoming camping trip so I set to baking. I made the crust without any major problems, but then came the cheesecake filling. Normally, like any sane person with half a gram of baking skillz, you would normally cream your fats (butter and/or cream cheese) with the sugar, add in the eggs, and finally the vanilla extract with some zest. But not me! I, with the atrophied brain mass, proceeded to dump EVERYTHING (ALL TOGETHER, AT ONCE) into the mixing bowl and set to mixing. It took about five minutes (5!!), when the eggs started to foam, that I realized my mistake.

After a quick round of cursing, I plow ahead, thinking maybe the heat from the baking would melt the cream cheese and it would all come together in the end. NOPE. After about 20 minutes of baking, the center was still liquid and chunky. There was no way it was going to set. Finally, that's when I decided that maybe it was a better idea to just throw it away.

I'm so cool. Look at all the awesome things I've done.

It's been a month since I last worked and I am both enjoying this time off and achingly desperately to get another job. Perhaps its the American mentality that you live to work (or maybe that's a child of an immigrant's mentality), but some days I feel like my identity is closely tied to what I do. Without a job, I just feel lost, without something to anchor me down and give me a day to day purpose.

It also occurs to me that I don't necessarily need a job to to define myself. I can find things that I'm passionate about and, if I'm supremely lucky, I can find a job that meets my expectations for myself. But then again--have you not seen our economy? I am seriously wondering how much longer until I go back to retail.

In the meantime, I've been keeping busy. I finally have the chance to cook through all cookbooks and magazines that I've collected all these years. I've been able to take a run during the day. I'm now caught up on every single trashy reality show on air currently (so happy that Jersey Shore is back). I have managed to kill all my useful brain cells by watching said reality shows. I have watched a group of deer come into our back lawn nearly everyday to defecate and eat the bushes. I'm very nearly halfway through Dance of Dragons. I've also caught up with the TV series. I finished my quilt. And I also had time to fix it once it began to fall apart. I've watered the lawn and taken out the trash (to various levels of success since I haven't done that in years). I have also explored a bit of Friday Harbor with Jack. And, I've finally had time to enjoy being sick since I'm home all the time anyway.

Up next: Car camping!