I'm officially a blogger...

I've never really considered myself the blogging type. I guess I'm a little more narcissistic than I ever wanted to admit. Instead of using my first blog entry to talk about blogging, I'm just going to dive right in. But first I feel the need to preface this entry with the following points:

1. I do NOT fancy myself a writer. I'm not in the least bit creative, I don't use impressive words, and I doubt that any of my blogs will be very meaningful. Pretty much I just want an excuse to talk about myself and everything that's going on with me. I can't imagine who wouldn't want to read that...

2. I'm not an expert at punctuation.

3. This will not be interesting.

4. This could very well be my first and last blog entry, so for that reason, it's probably going to be a long one.

Ok so now that I have lowered any expectations, here I go--

Last fall I quit my job as a social worker at a well known non-profit agency. I'd been a social worker for about about 3.5 years and I had finally started to experience the burn-out that everyone always talked about. I feel like I was really good at my job, but I was starting to hate it, and I mean really hate it. In the past I had worked with case managers who were so jaded and negative and I promised myself that I would quit before I got to that point. So last summer, after enduring months of whining and complaining, my patient, understanding, self-less husband said "why don't you just quit?" I love him.

So here I am over 3 months and hundreds of applications later. Not much to report really. I had an interview last week and it went really well. I did get a second one, but it hasn't been scheduled yet and I was warned that it could take a little while (because the head supervisor is out of town a lot). So that's where I am right now. I feel really good about this job, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. It sounds like I'd really like it, and it pays about the same that I was making at my last job (maybe even a little more.)

Being unemployed gives me a lot of time on my hands. Time that I appreciated for the first couple of weeks of unemployment and time that I will probably appreciate again, once I get offered a job. But for now, it's more time than I know what to do with. Actually I have a lot of things I could do with it--paint the trim in about every room in our house, rake leaves, put down fresh mulch, finally get my last name changed, clean the grout on our tile floor-- but it seems like the less I do, the less I feel like doing anything at all. I'm sad to say that all the things I thought I'd accomplish before I start my new job (whatever that may be) will probably not get done.

One thing that I have been doing a lot of lately is cooking. I really enjoy cooking. Unfortunately I'm not particularly good at it. I mean, I can throw some ingredients in a pot and call it a soup, but rarely do I fix something and think "damn, that's good." Today though, I impressed myself. I fixed a pork tenderloin in the crock pot with garlic, wine, and chicken broth. It was quite tasty. Even Hunter seemed to be impressed, and that always makes me feel good. To go with it, I made a Mediterranean-type couscous salad. I started with a recipe and changed half of the ingredients, which I do a lot and might explain why things don't always turn out so great, but this time it turned out really good. I cooked pearl couscous in chicken broth and then added fresh lemon juice, olive oil, ground cumin, fresh mint and cilantro, and grape tomatoes. It was so fresh and light tasting...I'm definitely going to make it again.

Well that's it for now.