The Pursuit of Joy

I'm nearly done with week four of unemployment. I haven't been this utterly happy with my life overall since my wedding/honeymoon (before I was burnt out on corporate work).

I'll fully admit I took a long time to let the creative juices back in: that first week I was extra stressed until I figured out how we'd make it financially with me on unemployement (well, I'll be on unemployment in May if I don't find something before then). The next two weeks I worked on finding work, applying for jobs all over the country, attending interviews for one I found in Bloomington, and generally updating my resume and profile all over the web.

This week though, I'm more focused on this creative opportunity. I spent the day today at the library working out multiple ways to pitch articles to magazines for two topics I've spent a lot of time researching. That led to a non-fiction book idea I want to talk about with a friend, a big list of books I want to read for research, and updating the outline for one of the novels. I feel like this is my lucky shot: I'm in a unique position to have a chance to make my living the way I want to, instead of the way I had to in the past. My hope is to someday have a job I can do anywhere, so we can live wherever feels like home to us instead of wherever I can find a job.

In addition to all those shenanagins, I've found I actually really enjoy letting Jillian Michaels kick my ass once a day: I feel better overall and have way more energy, which in turn encourages me to eat better and think up new and fun ways to torment my bellydance students every week. Turns out it's good for me too...hahaha. I've lost a few pounds already and hope to be down at least 25lbs by the time we go to Mexico in May with the family.