The Week is Finally Over

Yesterday I wanted to stay home and breathe a little easier. I ended up getting a call in the morning and going to an unexpected meeting. At the mandatory orientation I went to on Tuesday, I found out about a training program that I could attend for free and get lots of support in my career transition (aptitude tests, personality tests, career exploration). I can even learn some new computer skills (PowerPoint and Excel). I know a bit about Excel, but I have just scratched the surface. I will get more help with my resume as well as interview and job search skills. I could probably do OK without it, but I find the support encouraging and helpful. I hope to discover some new career ideas, or at least confirm that I am going in the right direction. It is a seven week program with classes all day (8:30 AM -5:00 PM) from Monday through Thursday. Yesterday I had to go to the site to register. It isn’t far from my house, so that is very convenient. I took the bus, which means I walked a lot yesterday. Can I count that as a workout?

Today I stayed home all day. Mom and Dad went away for the long weekend, so I have the whole house to myself. I enjoy the peace and quiet of a day alone. I have puttered around, getting some housework and organizing done- all at my own pace. This morning I watched CNN for a long time, which allowed me to witness the arrival of the first caravan of food, water and supplies arrive at the Superdome. That is the first hopeful thing I’ve seen in days. I don’t even have words for the things I’ve heard and read. The Interdictor is blogging a chronicle of the chaos as he is fighting to survive and help others do the same in New Orleans.

Tonight my brother-in-law and I may go out to eat and see a movie (The Constant Gardener). It depends on how tired he is after work. They have been offering extra hours and he has been working very hard. If we stay home I’ll grill hamburgers. We have pepper jack slices and barbeque sauce.

Running on the Treadmill

That is what I feel like I'm doing now as I try to relax at the end of a long, tiring week. But it's only Wednesday night, almost Thursday morning. Ahhh! Not sure if I've really accomplished all that much either. The wrenching stories of Katrina's destruction and the plight of the people who were in her path are so tragic. I'll never forget the short spot that I saw of a news reporter trying to interview one of the refugees who was wandering around. He recounted how his family was on top of the roof and their house had split in half. He had tried to hold on to his wife, who had fallen into the water. He couldn't. She told him to take care of their children and grandchildren just before she was lost in the flood waters. He had no idea if she had managed to survive or where she might be. If I had a job, I would donate money. What can I do but pray? I haven't done that, either, because I've been maddly working on getting that application in for the copywriting job and finishing the writing sample to go with it. I faxed it tonight shortly before 10:00 PM. I had a mandatory class all morning at WorkSource. This afternoon I edited it and proofread it over and over, but I found a questionable capitalization and a missing comma after I was scanning the copy that I faxed. Hopefully they won't notice. I made the corrections to the file on the computer. At least I'll be ready with a good sample for the next copywriting job that I find. I also did some editing of yesterday's post because the sentences were choppy and I found some errors. I tried to rush it yesterday because I was excited and wanted to get it posted. I was also more focused on getting all of the links in. My mind has been racing like this all day and doesn't seem to be slowing down. I was in such a zone last night that I totally forgot that I was supposed to go to worship team practice. I am scheduled to sing this Sunday. It would be easier if I had to go to the practice every week, but when it's every-other week (or depending on whatever Sundays you are scheduled for) I don't get into a routine. I'm in my room with the light low and the radio turned to one of my favorite stations, Classical King FM, 98.1, hoping that I'll start to relax. I haven't had more caffeine than usual, but it almost feels like it.

Tacoma, a City Reborn

Last night my aunt was in town and stayed with us. She came to Washington for a few days to see Grandpa and then drove over here to spend the night with us before flying back to Colorado. We went out for a drive and some sightseeing in Tacoma, which used to be a dying industrial pit with a decaying downtown. Other than the crime rate, the city was know for the “Tacoma Aroma” because of the noxious spewings from a paper mill that is now closed. There has been a great effort to revitalize the city. In 1990 the University of Washington opened a satellite campus near downtown and has restored many old buildings. Union Station, a brick building in Beaux Arts style that served as the train depot, has been rescued from demolition and made into the courthouse. Next to Union Station, a new brick building was built to house the Washington State History Museum. On the other side is the very modern styled Tacoma Art Museum. Dale Chihuly, an internationally famous local glass artist, is the driving force behind the The Museum of Glass, which includes a glass blowing workshop and school. They are renovating housing and building new apartment buildings downtown so that people can move into the area, making it more active and encouraging business. It hasn’t all been smooth. Tacoma Actors Guild, the only professional theater in the region, outside of Seattle, had great financial difficulties last year and closed down temporarily. With fundraising and the partnership of Bellevue Civic Theatre, they opened their doors again to finish the season. They will open the 2005-2006 season in September with Noises Off. The transformation of the city’s atmosphere is dramatic! Now I would enjoy living downtown or in North Tacoma. There are still bad areas, like Hilltop. That has been an infamously crime ridden area for many years. There is one area of Tacoma that has really nice old homes. Some of them need work and others have been well-maintained or lovingly restored. There are several old apartment buildings with names like “The Whitman” and brick or stone exteriors. The architecture ranges from Victorian to Neo Classical, Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival. We drove around looking at them. It reminds me of Browns Edition in Spokane, where my mother grew up. Her family inherited an uncle’s Victorian house with all the furniture. In fact, I sleep on an antique brass bed that came from that house. Anyway, all of those houses have so much character and distinction. None of them is alike. Just the opposite of boring suburban houses and apartment complexes. We had dinner at a tavern, The Harmon, in the university district. It brews its own tasty ales and has great food. Monday happens to be $3.00 steak night. We didn’t realize that until we had already ordered our meals, though. Dad had fish and chips and everyone else ordered one of their specialty burgers. Mine had blue cheese and mushrooms. We all had a great time on our little tour. My aunt had never been to Tacoma before.

It has been a busy couple of days. I had an appointment this morning at WorkSource. This afternoon has been busy updating and revising some more. Since I am looking to start in a new field, I have to work hard at effectively marketing my transferable skills. I found an opening for a copywriter, but they want a portfolio sample along with the resume. I guess I’ll just have to start a portfolio. Perhaps a short article about one of the development projects in Tacoma!

Still haven’t gotten back to exercising. It’s been quite a while, now.

Auld Lang Syne

Friends have played a very important role in my life because they have often acted as a family. For single people especially, friends are form of family. But over the tough times of this transition, I have sometimes gone into a shell when I felt depressed and frustrated. That made it hard to reach out and communicate with anyone. I have several friends living very far away, as in out of the country. I kept in contact for a while, but it has been so long since I’ve sent them an e-mail. I feel bad, which makes me less likely to start writing to them. A vicious cycle begins. I miss them. I am sorry about neglecting them. Of course they are free to write me at any time and haven’t done so. It is somewhat mutual, the neglect. I have lost track of who technically owes the next e-mail. Does it matter? Philosophically I understand that people go in and out of each other’s lives and very few friendships can last a lifetime. But the cost of that reality is sometimes painful. I find myself developing new friendships and enlarging my community. That is good and exciting. Then I find myself thinking that I could or should be spending that time or energy reaching out to dear people from the past. Of course, it doesn’t have to be either or. There isn't a black and white choice here. I can embrace new friends and do my best to keep in touch with and honor old friendships. That is naturally what people do. “Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other’s gold” as the old lyrics say. Why am I feeling so nostalgic and guilty recently? I need to just write to them, regardless of my guilt or angst. I made a list of them a couple of weeks ago. There are about eight people on that list that I haven't brought myself to write to yet. That is about 2/3 of the total list. Not all of them are overseas.