Tis the Season

Today I made a vow to take all of next week off. No gym. No job applications. No maniacal watching of the stock market. After all, it is Thanksgiving week and besides the week between Christmas and New Years, you can’t find a deader week in the US right?

Today, I was finishing up my job applications for the week, eleven so far, when my phone rang. OMG don’t you know it was the hiring manager for a job I applied for this morning!! Part of me was incredibly excited. After all it is a job really well suited to me. However, my other reaction was sfd!!! Just, when I’d managed to get myself into a place where I was OK with spending the rest of the year not expecting anything, they come along and get me all excited with hopes up again. The moral of this is, this job hunting business is not for the faint hearted. Oh boy isn’t that ever a true statement. Chins up everyone. I know I’ve said this before, but it only takes one yes. You just never know when it will come and you can’t win if you don’t play.

This year is so bleak that it’s almost funny in a kind of macabre way. If one tends toward dark humor, boy is this the year for it. Monday, I was sitting on my couch reading the paper (I know, I’m totally addicted), listening to the “Today Show”, when I realize that NBC is doing a piece on how the environment is being destroyed; drought in Australia, destruction of the barrier reef in some islands and melting of glaciers and resulting lack of water. All of a sudden, I was furious with NBC. I’m sure they’ve had this scheduled for a while and I did calm down before I placed any harassing phone calls. All I could think of was how about they give us a little light at the end of the tunnel? With everything else going on, they run this piece now? They did seem to cut it short over the week, so maybe some other poor souls did make the calls. After this I went to a networking session where we were given the advice to just network and not worry about applying for jobs. I came home and poured myself a glass of scotch that night. Then, the market dropped 900 points. Companies were announcing layoffs right and left. Holy Moly, even a Pollyanna like me has a really hard time keeping my spirits up. That’s when I came to the conclusion that it’s time for a holiday. It’s time for a holiday from everything. So what if you gain a few pounds. Those job opportunities will be there when you get back, believe me.

It is Thanksgiving next week, my favorite holiday of the whole year. Get together with friends and family, and eat all you want of favorite foods. Be there for them and let them be there for you. How can it get better than that?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!