The Search Is On

K & I are a week into our contract period; the inspections on our house have been done; and so far things are going well. That is to say, we haven't heard anything, and no news is good news. With this big piece of the puzzle nearing completion, I decided this past week to begin the job hunt and started working on my resume and cover letter. With all the research I have done in resume and cover letter writing, I have decided that it is not experience that gets you in the door for an interview, but rather how well you can masturbate the English language. So far I have spent no fewer than eight hours working on my resume; becoming a master at using action verbs and making my work history sound truly amazing. I'm not lying on my resume - I truly think that is flirting with disaster - I wrote down exactly what I have been doing and what I have done over the past ten years or so, but it's really amazing what a handful of action verbs and a dash of personal detail can do to make you sound like Mr. or Mrs. Fantastic.

Right now I'm going out for a program coordinator position within the Nonprofit Leadership program at Seattle University. Among other things, the person in this position would advise, recruit, and advise students within the program as well as develop new ideas for the program. I think this is a fantastic opportunity to bridge my skills in higher education administration with my knowledge of nonprofit management and administration. Yes, it's only one job (so far), but I don't know how one can write a resume without a goal in mind. This job is my motivator. It would be really sweet if I got this position, but I have never gotten the first job I've looked at within my search, so I'm not getting my hopes up. Again, this is not to say that I'm not working my ass off to get it - But with my job search being long distance, already the odds are against me - So, I'm looking at this is my motivation to write and fine-tune my resume and cover letter - The first of many dress rehearsals.

My goal is to have three or four objective-specific resumes, including theatre, higher ed, and office management, completed by Wednesday (at the latest) and immediately going into an aggressive job hunt. I feel like I'm going into unknown waters and I'm scared to death. I'm begging each of you to send some positive energy my way.

Java Jive

Mood: Fuzzy
Song: N/A
Units of Caffeine: 3

Merriam Webster defines coffee as a beverage made by percolation, infusion, or decoction from the roasted and ground seeds of a coffee plant. Pretty simple, eh? There's no rocket science to it or anything. So, how is it possible that someone can take a pretty simple procedure and make some god-awful brown liquid that doesn't deserve to be labeled as a beverage, let alone 'coffee'?

Stress & Everything

Mood: Completely stressed out
Song: When I'm With You - Sheriff
Units of Caffeine: 1

If you remember from my last blog entry, I said that the only thing K & I were worried about with the sale of our house was that it would sell quickly. I mean, sure, all of the data indicated that it would sell in 60 to 90 days, but both K & I had a huge gut feeling that it would be much sooner than that. We were only into our first week of the house being on the market and still working on home improvement projects last week when we received our first offer. After about 24 hours of negotating, we have unoficially sold our beautiful home. That is to say, we are in the contract period where the potential buyers get the house inspected; do their financial paperwork; and simply have a little time to think about it to make sure that this is the house they want to buy. If all goes well, the house will be sold by the end of this month/beginning of next month and K & I will be headed to Seattle on August 15th. This has happened so quickly that K & I are both suffering from a little emotional whiplash. We both cried when the buyers accepted our final counteroffer. I mean, we are very ready to leave Texas - We're sick of the seemingly endless hot, hot summers and a lot of the stupid politics of this place, but K & I cannot deny that the renaissance of our relationship started here. We have made the most of our time here; made some really good friends; and bought an absolutely beautiful home. We love our house. Other than its location, there is absolutely nothing that we do not like about our house. So, to just sell something we love so much is extremely emotional for us.

To top things off, one of our aforementioned Texan friends; one of the most loving people I have ever met; passed away last Friday. Because I've been so busy at work and dealing with house issues, it didn't fully settle in until last night. I didn't get much sleep last night. My mind was running at 300 miles per second and I couldn't shut it off. I was thinking of my friend's passing; thinking of selling the house; thinking of the final steps that need to be accomplished before we close on the house; thinking of finding a job; thinking of how I'm going to find a place to live. I have very little time to deal with all of this and I don't think I have ever felt more stress.

The End of the Beginning

With three and a half months to "M" Day, K & I decided to get a realtor last week to discuss the sale of our house. We were presented with pie charts, graphs and statistical data of the housing market in our area and, after a few hours of talking with and quesitoning the realtor, we made a decision. After a week of non-stop work, hiring contractors to fix up little odds and ends; hiring a landscaper to make the yard and flower beds look nice; packing up 25% to 30% of the house, and cleaning, cleaning, CLEANING our house is officially on the market.

Really, the only thing that K and I are worried about is the house selling too soon. We made our decision to put the house on the market now based on data that indicated the houses like ours in our neghborhood take between 60 and 90 days to sell, (not including the 30-day contract period.) Of course, we're not stupid - K and I have a contingency plan in case our house sells sooner than expected. Although the sale of our house, packing, moving, and finding jobs and housing long distance is a logistical nightmare, it's not too bad. What's bad is my in-laws constantly telling K & I how we're doing everything wrong. We've both received sermons via e-mail telling us that we've priced our house too low; we're selling our house too soon; we're moving too fast towards our goal of "M" Day; etc. I guess I hate this because it makes the assumption that K and I are really stupid. So stupid, in fact, that we wouldn't have done any research to determine when to put our house on the market and at what price to sell it. I also don't understand this thought that we are moving "too fast". As I said, "M" Day is just about three months away and those three months will be gone before we know it. Of course, the mid-September date is soft. There is no reason, (as of right now) that K & I HAVE to move in mid-September, but what is the point of making a goal if you're not going to aim for it?