After three and a half years of useless job searching around Chicago, I was forced to move in with my folks.  And now, after TWO WEEKS of job hunting, given that all the paperwork goes through without a hitch, I'm employed!  :-)  Wow!!!  I guess the move was the thing to do.

It's a contract-to-hire Tech Writing job for Dell in Round Rock, TX, outside Austin.  I will probably start a week from Monday.  And it's for good money!

Tomorrow will be a very busy day getting all the paperwork filled out and faxed back and forth.

I'll be living with my brother's family, sleeping in the camper in their driveway, as my hide-away from all the kids.  :-)  I've got the greatest sister-in-law to put up with this.  :-)

Sooo... changes are underway, yet again.

A head-hunter called yesterday, and I am now submitted for two Tech Writing contract jobs at Dell outside Austin.  For one of of the two jobs, my brother already gave my resume to the hiring supervisor.  So that's all good news.  :-)

Then I just got a phone call from that brother, and he says the supervisor he's been talking to is intending to call me tomorrow for a phone interview, so she can snap me up before the other department does.  Even better news!  :-)  Keep your fingers crossed for me. 

I'm not looking forward to moving again, but I much prefer Austin-area to Dallas-area, so that would be good.  And my brother has told me that I'm moving in with them until I can get my feet on the ground.  Wow!! 

<<teasing my little brother as big sisters are supposed to do>> Although I do suspect that this brother has an ulterior motive or two.  :-)  This is the brother who is writing the book that I've been helping him edit.  So having me there would make the process go a lot faster.  Plus having me work at the same place he does would give him somebody to commute the hour-drive with, and cut his commuting costs.  Plus all two of his three cars are broken and he doesn't have the bucks so fix them, so having my minivan down there would be a big help to them.  But even with the ulterior motives...

I've got such a great family!!!!   :-)

Update (11:30am):  Do have phone interview tomorrow!!  Yah!!!

Yesterday morning, I applied for a job as a freelance editor at a small press.

I'm trying really hard to not get my hopes up, but it sure would be fun.

Send good thoughts my way.  :-)

I'm job hunting again. 

This job (with the bank), like the last one, has been wonderful and I've learned tons, but I need more hours.  So, I'm on the hunt for a full-time job... which is sucking up all the energy that I'd normally spend writing.

I've updated my resume, found a couple places to apply to (one of which I'm really excited about), and today I'm writing cover letters and sending applications off.

The agent is still sitting on my manuscript.  I emailed her last week to confirm she got it, and she did.  So it's more waiting.  Which is fine, as I don't have the brain cells to deal with it if she did get back to me. (Read more)

Good me.  I worked more hours today. 

I also got a few things done on my to-do list, including calling around to find a place that still had appointments for school physicals (bad me for letting it go this long), and critiquing a synopsis and 3 chapters. 

I also got more insight into Jane's characters... her guys are going to keep me on my toes.  Also pondered my other manuscript, but haven't made decision which file I will actually open first.

So, I'm tired but not sleepy... does that make sense?  I shall go up and ponder book more, that will certainly make me sleepy.  :-)

Blessings upon my boss for being understanding.

So, starting off with that, I worked today, because I really needed the money, unfortunately having to work didn't negate everything else that had to be done today, so I actually didn't even start working until 4pm today.  But I put in four hours on not-critical-but-useful stuff for work, so that's good. 

And before 4pm, I actually got a fair number of things checked off my to-do list for today.  Make note, that was only today's to-do list, not the overall to-do list, but I guess every little bit helps.

It also helped that today I realized I've been wallowing in victim-mode for the last few days.  When I recognize what's going on, I can deal with it, and as soon as I realized what was up, I knew why I was thinking that way, so I'm now working on thinking a more productive way.  It's not an immediate fix, but it's a start. (Read more)

It's been a busy day from one end to the other.  I actually worked at my paid-job, not as long as I'd want, but I did work some, so I get brownie points for that.

Beyond work, I got done a few of the things on my to-do list, and one of those things was to get this new blog up and running and set up so it functioned the way I wanted it to function.

Why am I moving blogs?  The main reason was that I was tried of having to update two different sets of software... with the blog now hosted on the software that runs the rest of my website, I only have to update one program. (Read more)