24 Days

My three week temp job has been completed, so currently I am only employed at Panera on the weekends. I worked 24 days in a row without a break. It sounds really difficult until you do it. It wasn't as bad as I expected. But that's probably because 1) I knew that it would end soon and 2) Robb was amazing and kept the house clean, cooked, shopped, took care of the cats, and made my lunches for me. Working at the mental health facility for three weeks was certainly interesting. I spoke to some unusual people on the phone and have some interesting stories for the future. One day I went into the lobby and saw someone sitting there with a Dracula cape on. I thought, well, this is where crazy people hang out; so I wasn't completely surprised. But then I remembered that there was a Halloween party for some of the clients that day! So lesson learned: even the crazies only pull out the costumes on certain days!

Today I went to interview for a Management Analyst position with the state government. It was a really phenomenal interview, and if nothing else, at least I have my interviewing confidence back. After that, I headed to downtown Seattle to check out a public administration career fair. How lucky am I? This month there was a nonprofit career fair and a public administration career fair in Seattle. Unfortunately, I didn't find much at either fair. The nonprofit fair had a lot of organizations looking for interns and volunteers. And the public administration fair employers just told everyone to check out their websites, which I already do. It's pretty sad that career fairs are now wastes of time for me. From what I understand, employers at career fairs used to accept hard copies of your resume, tell you about great job opportunities that you couldn't hear about anywhere else, and actually make connections with people who could help you. That's no longer the case. But I continue to go to job fairs because you always hope that you'll meet that one person who can help you.

And today I met some people involved with the American Society for Public Administrators (ASPA.) I was really involved in Central Florida's ASPA organization. But my membership lapsed this summer and I don't want to spend the money right now on the renewal. But I talked to a couple of ASPA members today and I'm going to try to get involved again without having to pay the dues quite yet.

So now, the next few days will be spent on recuperating from my long days of work. I will probably try to sleep in a little, get back to running, and take care of a few chores. Then it's back to Panera this weekend. Believe it or not, I actually enjoy working there. My fellow employees (although mostly young and in high school!) are very nice and the managers are really great. I enjoy helping customers and eating reduced-price lunches. If nothing else works out soon with another temp or full-time position, I might take on more hours at Panera. We'll see though.