Friday, August 5, 2011

And so begins the month of August

I'm sure by now my reader is wondering what has become of me. Did I leave for the beach and pull a Virginia Woolf? No - nothing that drastic. I've been plugging along. Looking for work, reading, applying for jobs, networking, chatting online with friends, tweeking my resume, going to Weight Watchers meetings and mostly staying close to home.

So - accomplishments! I enjoy reading and have worked my way through several books from my local library - which has the benefit of being about a mile away so it is a good walk over and back so I get some exercise too.

As for my Weight Watchers accomplishments - I passed the 50 lb mark and... as of last night I weighed in under 200 lbs - the first time I have been under 200 lbs in about 20 years! What made that even sweeter is that I had no idea if I had even lost any weight in the past week. The bathroom scales at home are much kinder than the scales at the Weight Watchers office and the scales at home have been stuck at 190 for about 3 weeks - so what a nice surprise to go in and learn of this success.

I wouldn't have made it this far without the support of George!!! So, many thanks!

Band -- our marching band has had a good summer and performed at many events. Now we are getting ready to head into our fall concert season. That's always fun! On a sad note one of our band members passed away rather suddenly in June. He was quite the musician and played in many ensembles within our band and without. Some of his friends organized an evening concert and memorial that was quite nice.

I did notice when I saw his dates that he was 58 years old when he died. I turned to a friend and said - okay this is the third friend of mine who has died at the age of 58. Steve replied that things happen in 3's so this will put an end to it. I said - well - just so the next round isn't people aged 53 as I'm looking at that in two months and it could take me and a bunch of my friends!

Family home - still hasn't sold - but I'm still hoping and praying! I haven't resorted to burying a statue of St. Joseph - maybe I could start by asking him for help!

Job front - My efforts have paid off somewhat. I started off the month with two interviews. One was a phone interview for a job at Georgetown Medical Library. I think it went well. I hope so. Next step for them is to weed the candidates and then invite the next round for on-site interviews. Like going into the semi-finals of a reality show. Would be nice to make it to the next round!

On Tuesday of this week I had an interview for a two-month temp job for a contractor at an agency near College Park, MD. That interview went well and they offered me the post. Starting Monday I'll be working - at least through the end of September so I'll be getting up and dressed and out of the house every day!

So - August is starting out as a really good month for me -- hope and pray things continue to get better!!