The horizon

There are some exciting things on the horizon. Still no full-time job, but I landed an awesome (although unpaid) internship that will hopefully lead to bigger and better things. I'm working multiple jobs 7 days a week, but I have to make up for all the time I couldn't find any work and had no income. So for now things are going well and I have a few things cooking that could be fabulous. Updates to come later!!

As for other aspects in my life, May is gonna be huge. In two weeks my little brother is graduating from college. He has had to overcome some serious road blocks to get where he is and I can't believe it's finally here. He has definitely enjoyed college to the fullest, but he worked hard as well. I'm so proud of him and excited for him. I know first hand how scary the job market is right now, but if I can make it he can too. Not to mention he could sell ice to an Eskimo so I'm sure he'll have no problem talking someone into giving him a job. He's not exactly sure what direction he wants to go in, but neither am I and I've got a few years on him. Although if he gets a job offer before me, I may have to beat him up.

Aside from the family time to come, I've a little spoiled lately. My parents came to Charleston two weekends in a row and we all got to attend my brother's formal. Our lovely family photo from the event is below. I also went down to my parent's house this past weekend for the Beaufort Food & Wine Festival. My sister and her family came as well. It was good times all around and I loved gettin to see my little neice and nephew. Charlotte is getting such a cute personality and I can't wait til she's older. Well actually I can because she's ADORABLE right now.I knew it was coming, but I have officially reached that age of weddings galore. In the next 10 months I am attending 6 weddings. Three of which I am in. With all of this planning I have realized I absolutely LOVE weddings!! My bank account doesn't love weddings, but where there's a will, there's a way. In about 4 weeks, my old roomies and I will celebrate our first bachelorette party of the season. The location: Charleston. Perfect for me, because I already live here! It will not only be a fabulous reunion, but also a glorious celebration of Heather's upcoming nuptuals! The following weekend I head back to Greensboro for the first wedding of the year. It will be bittersweet. The girl getting married is the older sister of one of my best friends, Natalie, who passed away a few years ago. While I know the day will be absolutely beautiful, it will be hard not to see Natalie standing by her sister. But even if we can't see her, I know she'll still be there.

For now my days are filled with working, dog parks, beaching and cuddlin up with Soco and Tiggles at night. Not as glamorous as my Australia life, I know but . . . "This is just a stop, on the way to where I'm going."

4 months . . .

I knew job hunting would be hard, but I didn't really see myself still without any good leads 4 months in. I've been trying so hard to work towards my future that I lost myself in the present. Job hunting has taken its toll not only on my bank account, but also on my relationships and my self esteem. However, I'm a firm believer in creating your own happiness, so I'm changing things up a bit.

I've been so focused on looking forward that I forgot to enjoy now. I'm living in a beautiful town, I'm healthy and I currently have 4 part-time jobs. I want to be happy now and as long as I can start supporting myself and paying rent to my generous boyfriend who has allowed me to live free at his house, then that is enough for me right now. Of course I want to keep job hunting, but not having my dream job right away isn't failing to me. Even if I have to take another internship with an agency here, I'm fine with that.

So for now I'm ok with being a caterer, babysitter, pet accessory store, freelancer. I'm still designing and expanding my portfolio and hopefully some paychecks will start coming in as well. I'm tired of putting my life on hold for my dream job. Instead, I'm gonna start living my life again knowing that the dream job will come when the time is right.

I heart Charleston

I apologize for not keeping my blog up to date. It's amazing how busy one can be without even having a job.

Ever since I was a little girl, I have always loved the beach. For years my family owned a beach condo in Emerald Isle and my mom, brother and I would live there every summer. Pops would come on the weekends and my favorite weekend, he brought me a kitty. Anyway, I've always known I'd end up at the beach eventually, I just assumed it'd have to be when I was retired. Oh how sweetly life can surprise you.

About 2 weeks ago I had an interview in Charleston. The interviews went well and I was offered a job. I knew it wasn't my dream job but it would get me down to Charleston where I've wanted to be since I graduated college. Not to mention my brother lives there, I already have a few girlfriends there and the boyfriend is there as well. Now I must share, however, my hilarious one day experience at my job. And by one day, I mean my first day was my last day at that job.

When I arrived that Monday morning at 8am we went to the back conference room. There were no chairs, no tables, just one small desk in a corner. They explained that this was the "Attitude" room and there was no leaning on the walls because this is where we got pumped up for the day. Yet another red flag went up, but I was already there so I figured I might as well check it out. I had a meeting with a guy who was training me. He was probably 20 yrs old and had almost graduated from College of Charleston. While writing their mottos and various other information on the white board, I cringed at his absolutely horrible use of spelling. Not to mention he moved his mouth weird and stuck his tongue out when he wrote anything. Around 9:30am it was finally time to head out to our territory. Our job, it turns out, was pretty much scamming insurance companies. In South Carolina you can get your windshield fixed for free if it has a crack (aka not free but your insurance covers it) so we were trying to convince people they needed a new windshield and should choose us.

I mistakenly wore heels assuming that one day in heels couldn't be that bad. I was seriously mistaken. We drove to a territory right near my house, parked at a gas station and started walking. We went in EVERY business. We pitched people and by lunch had made about one sale. Luckily we were close to my house so my trainer took me by the house to grab some tennis shoes. Eric was home and I gave him a quick, omg I think this job is ridiculous and told him I was excited for our dinner plans that night. Out the door and I was back on the grind. We literally walked down the highway and walked into some of the sketchiest stores ever. We're talkin about 3.5 miles I walked in a business suit.

Highlights of the day. . . This guy was outrageous and would walk into random doors and into offices. At one point he walked into this door that was obviously not a business and just had a partition up right near the door. As we walked in, two very ghetto guys were playing video games and smoking pot. He STILL pitched them. Also, he went up to an apartment building that was clearly on the wrong side of the tracks and instead of knocking on doors, he knocked on a sliding glass door. He said "Sometimes its a great way to get business." I replied "Or get shot." Towards the end of the evening when it was getting dark, we were still in the ghetto and he walked up to a group of terrifying guys and tried to pitch them. I literally started praying.

My day ended around 7:30pm. AKA I worked from 8am until 7:30pm for a whopping $90 pre tax. I left almost in tears. Eric and I didn't have dinner until close to 8:30pm and I called my sister and my parents and gave them the scoop. My sister laughed hysterically and said, um quit. My parents were pretty much in agreement so while at dinner I called my boss and said thanks for the opportunity but I didn't feel like it was a good fit for me. At least I got a good story out of it.
Family photo day at the dog park - yes, lame but totally adorable

The good news is I am still in Charleston and I have already fallen in love with this town. I'm living at Eric's house (he's currently in Chapel Hill for a few more weeks doing repairs on the house there so he can start renting it out). It's an amazing 5 bedroom house with a screened in back porch (with a HOT TUB) and a huge fenced in yard for the pup. Our neighborhood is so cute and I try to take Soco on daily walks. Right near us is a neighborhood that would rival Harker's Island with mansions each with their own docks and boats. I'm hoping someone over there has kids and needs a babysitter.
James Island County Park

Also, the dog parks are ridiculous down here. Soco and I love James Island County Park best because it's 3 acres and has a huge lake for her to play in. She sort of escaped yesterday by swimming across the small part of the lake and not coming back, but I was able to find her. My days pretty much consist of job hunting, nesting in this big old house and spending some quality time with Soco. I'm hoping to get Tiger down here soon too, it's been too long since I've gotten to snuggle with my kitten.

Today I'm off to apply for some more catering jobs and start researching Advertising agencies that may potentially be hiring. Let the job hunting continue . . .

Concrete jungle where dreams are made of . . .

It has been entirely too long since I blogged. However, I've pretty much turned into a stay at home mom helping my sister with her kids which doesn't provide for much exciting blog material. Between pirate movies, nap time and the occasional puke its a pretty normal routine. Don't get me wrong, I'm having a great time. It has however reminded me why I'm in no way ready for motherhood.

Last week I got to spend 6 days in the Big Apple. I stayed with my friend Laura and we had a much needed reunion. She is a new proud parent of a cute little kitten named Bella. We bonded immediately. After my arrival, Laura and I got to spend the day drinking margaritas and visiting with her boyfriend and her sister.During the week while Laura was working, I explored the city and continued my job hunt. I attended two job fairs while there. The first one I had to stand in line for two hours in the cold before I even got into the fair. The second one I arrived really early and didn't have to wait outside at all. While we all hear about the high rate of unemployment, it is still pretty depressing to see it first hand. I also tried to contact some recruiters up there but I haven't heard anything back. I'm not sure if I necessarily want to live in NY, but for the right job I think I could do it for a few years.

I also got very touristy while there. I had lots of free time during the day while Laura worked so I explored the city. I went to the Empire State Building and checked out the fabulous view. I also attended some of the fancy museums. The MET is ginormous and I barely made it through a third of it. They have some amazing sculptures there and after walking through it for over an hour, my feet were throbbing. I caved and took a cab back to Laura's apartment. I also met some friends and went to the Museum of Natural History. We saw the space show and wandered through all of the bones and fossils. We wanted to stay longer but we were starving and another friend was outside waiting for us. After the museum we had lunch at the Shake Shack. It was YUMMY.

The best part of my NY trip was all the fun reunions I had. Wednesday night I got to have dinner and drinks with my friend Alex who I met while in Australia. We talked about how much we missed Aussie and all the good time we had there.

Thursday night was a doozy. Laura and I had dinner with my cousin and his wife. It was a fabulous Mexican restaurant called Rosa Mexicana. Between the delicious food and the margaritas we were set. After dinner I ventured on my own out to Brooklyn to meet up with one of my old roommates. While trying to catch the subway, a guy held the door for me and I started chatting with him and his friends. They were a rugby team and one of the guys was actually from Brisbane! It was so random but made the night more exciting. I arrived in Brooklyn safely and met up with Jess and her roommates. We went to a Help for Haiti benefit and were serenaded by Qtip and ?uestion. After a glorious night of drinking and dancing, we decided to head back to Jess's house. On they way out I saw Mos Def (famous rapper and actor) and wanted a picture. I chatted him up but he wouldn't let me take a picture. I did, however, learn that his grandmother lives in Raleigh which is about an hour from where I live. Saweet. It was such a fun reunion with Jess.
Friday night Laura and I had a tame night in and then had a shopping extravaganza on Saturday. Laura's boyfriend and his twin brother came to town that night and we all went out to dinner together. We had dinner at the Blue Water Grill. Best meal I have EVER eaten. I had the Swordfish dish with a side of sweet potatoes and crabmeat. With the sauces they used I can barely describe how good this meal was. The fact that I got two free cocktails and we all got to share two free desserts makes it truly amazing. We ended the night at Dive Bar by Laura's house. Needless to say, flying home Sunday was pretty miserable.

As for my current life, I've started doing a temp job for some extra cash while I'm job hunting. I'm still living with my sister and her husband and will continue to do so until I can find a full time job. This weekend I'm headed to Charlotte for a fishing expo with my dad and then to Chapel Hill to settle the rest of my furniture thats not in storage yet.

I'll try to keep my blog a little more current aka I'll try to make my life a little more exciting :)