Category: Random

Introspection on a Friday

Has it been two weeks since I last posted? Work has been keeping me very busy. It’s chilly days that make me more thoughtful… so here are some thoughts. 

In late July I went from a schedule of 15-25 hours a week at work, to (suddenly) a solid 40 hours a week. 40 hours a week sounds like “the dream” to many who (like myself recently) are underemployed, but 40 hours a week in a retail environment is very taxing. I have to be just as upbeat, informative, and charming to a customer who walks through the door fifteen minutes into my shift, as I am to the very last person I help when my feet are aching eight hours later. I can’t close my office door to catch up on work or get a jump start on projects at home….

Here’s the thing though: I like my job.

A year ago, I sought a retail job because we had just moved into town and needed money to pay rent. Retail jobs aren’t hard to find as long as you have open availability. They’re willing to train on the job. I was coming from an office job that seemed more “grown up” and appropriate for a college grad, but really didn’t make me happy at all. My current job is at an up-scale shopping mall, which makes me put more effort into (gasp) actually wearing makeup to work and generally presenting myself to the public in a put-together manner. I get to talk to all kinds of interesting people all day long (even the weird or upset ones). I’ve learned so much about cookware and cooking tips from coworkers and customers. And I love my coworkers! I have fun joking with them even on hard and stressful days. 

I don’t see this job as a long-term plan, but the weird thing is that the year I’ve spent is longer than the time spent at my last two jobs. I got a promotion and I feel like I’m good at what I do! I hate that when I talk to my friends I’m so self-deprecating about my work. “It’s just retail.” Why do I feel the need to say that? Because I went to college? Because I’ve been out of college almost four years (say it isn’t so). I am keeping my mind open to new opportunities and now that I’m closer to 30 than I am to 20 I am thinking hard about a long-term plan. It’s just that I want to do so many things I can’t decide. Use this retail experience to open a business of my own? Try networking and join a smaller up and coming company? Or something more traditional…

I really miss blogging. I miss interacting with other bloggers, working on projects, and coming up with new and exciting content. I’d like to write freelance for other San Diego blogs — food or travel writing perhaps? I want to do so much more, but I’m so tired on a daily basis. 

I think I’ll get the balance figured out; after Christmas my hours should lessen. I am taking this opportunity to sock away money– so I am working towards one of my goals–buying a house/condo/whatever in maybe a year. Once my hours die down I’ll have more time to think about what I really want to do. 

Favorite Things: June 2013

Weekends are when I log most of my hours at work and it leaves little time for blogging, so I’m just popping in with a quick fun little post today. It’s Monday, right? Who wants to read anything too long anyway? Here’s a few things I’m super into at the moment.

june favorites

Store Front: The disappearing face of New York — Doug and I have been reading this book together and it’s both sad and beautiful. “Reading together” is a relative term with us… he reads while I’m at work and I read while he’s in bed (I stay up way later than he does). But! We have a good time discussing the interesting stories of storefronts who have been forced to close due to New York City real estate prices, or those who are still making do. It really is heartbreaking the way “old New York” disappears one shopfront at a time and will soon be made up of chains, deluxe boutiques, and shady tourist shops selling bootleg soccer jerseys and Empire State building keychains.

Cronuts — These are one of my favorite things in the way that Zac Efron was one of my favorite things a few years ago: Mostly I’m obsessed/intrigued with the hype around them. I was never obsessed with Zac Efron, just with the fanaticism surrounding him, and I think I feel the same way about Cronuts. Of course… if I ever got the chance to taste one maybe I would actually become obsessed with the pastry. Does that make sense? (For the adventurous types, you can try making your own croissant-donuts at home using this recipe— thanks Libby!)

Dark Horse Coffee — Is it lame to include one of your own instagrams on your “favorite things” post? I don’t know what the Emily Post of blogging has to say about something like this. If it’s wrong, I don’t want to be right because this coffee is the. best. We were out of all forms of coffee last week (the bank account was all dried up until payday) and I definitely noticed an effect on my demeanor and my interactions with others. Whoops!

What makes your “June favorites” shortlist? Share in the comments, I want to hear!

Movers and Shakers

It seems like every time I load my bloglovin’ feed these days, somebody has purchased a new house! It makes me itchy about living in my shoebox (as we affectionately call it) and eager to purchase my own home. I guess it really lit a fire under me to start getting serious about putting every spare penny into a savings fund. With this renewed focus and inspiration, I’m more obsessed than ever with scouring real estate websites for affordable fixer-uppers with lots of potential. We are no strangers to living in less-than-perfect conditions and I feel like I have the ability to see inspiration in anything. We’ll see what happens! Don’t hold your breath though, because you’d probably be holding it for like a year.

Anyway, this is a fantastic time to share with you some inspirational and influential blogs I follow, that happen to have just moved or will be moving in the near future! I love all of these blogs dearly and very strongly recommend all of them.

  • It all started with Emily at Merrypad, who in April began sharing a several part series on their quest to find their new home. Spoiler alert: they bought one! I can’t wait to find out more about their new home as she and her hubby settle into life together with their elementary-aged daughter, oh and not to mention the one on the way. (Squee!!)
  • Not long after that, Sherry and John Young House Love shared a bombshell with us: They bought a house and would be moving in within a few weeks’ time. They’ve since re-floored the upstairs, moved over all their belongings, and started arranging the new home!
  • And of course there are Kim and Scott at Yellow Brick Home who closed on their new house last Friday, after a rollercoaster ride of finding what they thought was “the one,” then losing it (I can only imagine the heartbreak) and now finding “the real one!”

What?!??!! If there’s one way to ensure that I’m addicted to your home blog… it’s to start over with a blank slate and let me watch you work your magic again.*

And just yesterday (!!!) two more bloggers dropped bombshells on us… Little Green Notebook and Oh Happy Day!

This is a very exciting time to be a blogger… and a blog reader! So much hopefulness, excitement, adrenaline, and future-thinking is swirling around everywhere I look! I must admit, these blogs inspired me to finish rearranging my living and dining room and generally refresh my living space. And, of course, as the end of my lease approaches (September) I’m weighing the pros and cons of a new apartment… A new apartment (PRO!) and moving again (CON!) Maybe I should split the difference and sign a six-month lease? I guess it will all depend on the dolla billz.

*I am not implying that any of these bloggers moved simply for more followers, although I’m sure those rumors are swirling like mad. I’m simply along for the ride of their lives and enjoying every minute of it.