Egads, time is haulin ass

Preparing a job packet yesterday, I pulled out a letter of recommendation from my old supervisor and noticed something a bit jarring ... the date. Oct. 25.

That means it's been more than three months since I began my job hunt, and here I am still plugging away. Now, an optimist might note that I actually do have a full-time job, one that even gives me benefits and lets me take a week off each month to do some consulting.

But as much as I love working at the bookstore cafe, I have to say it just won't pay the bills if I ever give up this freeloading lifestyle of living with family. Karen's new job will be a big help; now it's just my turn.

I have a good feeling about the coming month, though. The consulting work in Illinois will get my juices pumping just by putting me back in a newsroom. There are also a lot more jobs popping up in the "media" category of the Birmingham classifieds.

Obviously, our options were somewhat limited when we decided to stay here. Birmingham was originally supposed to be a waystation while we figured out what to do with ourselves. But we soon realized that we actually love it here. The town has matured a lot in the decade since I lived here (or maybe it was me that matured....nah). Being so close to my family has been great, and the flight to visit Karen's folks is now an easy peasy 1.5 hours direct.

Thanks largely to my sister, we've landed amid a fun group of friends who keep a pretty frenetic social calendar. We're picking up new skills, too. Karen, somewhat ironically, is taking up yoga now that we're out of California, and she's re-learning the trumpet. I've started playing drums and am steadily getting more practice on the guitar by playing with my brother-in-law. We've taken some dance lessons, and we've all started knitting. I have to say, I'm pretty good at the knitting, but that's another blog post entirely.

So yes, it's been three unexpected months. But it's been a valuable time for us, one where we can take stock of what we really want out of life and start working to get there. Two years ago, maybe even a year ago, I would have laughed at you if you said I'd be at my happiest if I moved back to Alabama. I guess it just shows that you never know what's waiting for you around the corner. Hopefully my next nice surprise will be the one that, you know, cuts me a check.

Oh, and in case you're curious, today's picture is a graph of fecal coliform levels from the San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz. That's what you get when you do a google image search for "three months," apparently. That, and tons of baby pictures.