Job Hunting, or Something Like It

My job hunting day:
This weekend, we're having our friends J & R, who also moved from Austin to NYC (also from the same building to the same building) over for dinner, so I pulled together an order of groceries last night. I asked J (who is also job hunting) if she wanted to come to the Union Square farmer's market with me to see if I could find any of the required produce, and she readily agreed.
Even when we woke up this morning and it was gross and rainy, J and I still went to the market, we just went via the subway instead of walking. Only about half of the vendors showed up, so I couldn't find most of the things I needed, well, at least not in the quantities I wanted.
Since it was such a quick trip, I invited J up for coffee, so we sat and had a lovely chat while we sipped on our coffee. We commiserated about job stuff and life stuff, and it was just a pleasant hour. Then we realized it was almost lunch, so J went to her apartment to do job search stuff, and I pulled up my laptop and applied to several jobs.
After lunch, I ran a couple errands and then came home to find a package, not expecting one to be there. It turns out it was from my mother-in-law and, since she just returned from Norway, she sent us a goody box from her travels. Included in the box was a lovely necklace for me (I hope), a bottle of cognac, and two boxes of chocolates. Yum! This, of course means, that aside from my job hunting exploits, I made a trip to the farmer's market, had coffee with a friend, went to the farmer's market, and ate chocolates on the couch. I think I'll need to have a martini or something in order to turn myself into a total "housewife," but I think I'll abstain in order to save myself from the stereotype.

The Hunt Begins

And today the official hunt for gainful employment begins. I don't know if there is anything less pleasant than job-hunting; it's almost painful, especially when, well, always. Baring your soul to the (often) nameless, faceless hiring manager, who will look at your resume and decide whether or not to put your bio into the "I'll consider this one, when I actually decide to look at things, because finding a new person is my least favorite thing to do."

I think part of the difficulty is that I have been in school, so it's been two years since I've been employed for longer than a three-month stretch. Going to school was fun, and going to back to work seems a bit daunting, and almost alien. Not that I don't miss working. I miss the rush of going into work everyday, running around like crazy, talking to clients, and leaving after what feels like only a couple of hours.

Being a stay-at-home wife is fun for a little while, as I found out over the summer. I spent the morning cleaning up the dishes from the night before, straightening up, and getting dinner ready. I made a lot of homemade pasta in those days. Of course, even staying at home gets old quickly. There are only so many days that cooking and cleaning are fun, and as I soon found out, our dog apparently sleeps all day.