The hunt is on... and still going...

So in June of this year, I was layed off, it was probably one of the most horrible experiences I have had in a while. Nothing is worse than feeling useless and unneeded at a job you love. Since then I have been hunting continuously for a job. I have had a few interviews, but no bites, and the more "no's" I get, the more discouraged I become. About a month ago, I had an interview that was on my "I really want to work for" company list, I was very excited just to learn more about the company and to have the opportunity to interview with them, while it turned out that I wasn't a good fit, it was still a good experience, even with the disappointment in the end.

Looking for work is like a full time job. I get up every morning, check my email, check my 10 job websites and apply, apply, apply! I literally check back on the sites every couple of hours to see what else has been posted and what else I can apply for. I keep a list of all the company's/jobs I have applied for so I don't apply for the same job twice (that would be embarrassing!) and then I wait... and wait.... and wait.

This week I had (what I thought was) an awesome interview and I am hoping to hear back from the company soon. About 2 weeks ago, I had an absolutely HORRIBLE impromptu phone interview, I totally screwed it up and kicked myself every day for about a week. I have since moved on, used it as a learning experience and will be more prepared in the future.

I have been getting more and more prepared for interviews as each one comes up, soon I am gonna feel like I am just reciting lines. I have research difficult questions asked in interviews and written out my responses to each one, I research each company prior to applying, so I know what the company is, their visions and culture etc, If I dont like what they sound like from their website, I am definitely not going to like working there.

So far, my efforts haven't paid off, but I am hoping all this interviewing is just practice for the perfect job! I know its out there and I can't wait to find it!

Get Yur Hair Did...

Since I have lost my job it has been impossible for me to get to the salon and get my hair done. My hair is so thick and gets so long that it gives me headaches when I put it up, it totally sucks!

Well last night my amazing boyfriend said he would pay for me to get my hair done and I could pay him back with my next few unemployment checks! I was so, so, so excited, I got into the salon today and feel like a new woman! It's amazing what a new hairdo does for your confidence :D

If you are ever looking for a new stylist Lisa Ponce at Faces and Alamode Salon is the best! See my review here: Faces & Alamode Salon, Yelp.com Review

Our Second Anniversary

Over the weekend, David and I turned 2! Our Anniversary was on Saturday, but Davids family was in town, so we decided to hang out with them and celebrate on Sunday. It was nice to spend time with each other on both Friday and Saturday night, just hanging out and relaxing. Sunday was a long day, but totally worth it! We split the day into 2 parts, David wanted the first half of the day and I got the second (mine started around 4pm). We woke up around 9am and layed in bed for an hour talking and enjoying each others company. While I got ready, David ran to the store to get supplies for his day. At 10:45 it was time to leave.

We started the day off with brunch at The Clubhouse at This Old House, enjoying large mimosas and a pretty good breakfast burrito.

After brunch we headed home and it was time for a walk, we ended up walking to the park down the street. David brought a few sodas and some blankets so we could just lay and relax, enjoying each others company and the beautiful day. We rested for about an hour, then it was time to head home.



He told me I had to grab something I could get wet in (I don't own a swimsuit), so i grabbed some shorts and a tank top and we were off again. He drove us to Sycamore Mineral Springs where we got a hot tub! I was super excited, because if you know David, you know he HATES water! This was so sweet of him!

Once we got to the hot tub he pulled all kinds of stuff out of his bag! He had prepared a cute little snack for us; Strawberries, PB&J, Cheeze Its, Animal Cookies and topped it all off with Arbor Mist in some red cups! We sat in the hot tub and talked and ate our snacks until it was time to go home.

We got home around 3:30 so we layed around for a half hour until it was my turn to take over. At 4pm it was time to leave.

First we headed to the dollar store, I gave David $10 and tasked him with finding 5 things that reminded him of me, it could be literal, metaphorical etc. I did the same and we did our best to avoid each other in the store. Once we were done with that, we headed to Micheals.

At Michaels we bought supplies to create t-shirts for each other, we had bought plain white shirts on Saturday, so we knew what we were decorating. After picking up all the supplies, we headed to vons.

At Vons we purchased stuff to make our own home made pizza and then ice cream sundays for dessert. I got chicken, bacon bits, creamy parmesan basil sauce. David got pepperoni, mozzarella and marinara sauce. We had some cheddar and pepperjack cheese at home. I picked up some pillsbary croissant rounds and then we grabbed some hot fudge, butterscotch, whipped cream and peanuts for our sundays and lastly a pint of Oreo cookies and cream ice cream!

Once we got home from our shopping trip, it was time to make our shirts. We both worked diligently on each others shirts until they were complete.

After creating the shirts,it was time to make dinner. David made a pepperoni pizza with marinara sauce and mozzarella and pepperjack cheese. I made a chicken and bacon pizza with creamy parmesan basil sauce and cheddar and mozzarella cheese. After sticking our food in the oven, I sent David to the office so I could get the living room ready to create an indoor candlelight picnic. When the food was ready I set up our table and poured us some Chamisal Rose (thanks Jon!).

After dinner we went through the dollar store stuff! We each took turns showing an item and explaining why we got it. This was a lot of fun, it was silly but sweet, I really enjoyed it!

Word Puzzles - because when we first got together we would create words of the day and use them often.
Kitty Puppet - because we both want a kitty
Flower - because every girl likes flowers!
Runts -  because i was a preme baby (and I like candy)
Silly putty - because I am silly and we both like to play with toys!

Socks - because he keeps me warm and cozy
Googly Eyes - because I love him so much, he gives me googly eyes
Vanilla Candles - because it reminded me of a time he made me a bubble bath with vanilla candles after I had a long week at work
Goobers - because he is a Goober
Glow sticks - because he lights up my life


We finished the night off watching TrueBlood and eating ice cream sundaes! All in all, it was a fantastic day and I am looking forward to more wonderful years with my man!

It has been a while... and a lot has happened.

So when I first started this blog I was truly excited about writing daily or even weekly and getting my thoughts out to the endless world of the internet. But I haven't really written that much. So I am back (well I guess I was never really here that much) but I am here and trying to write again, lets see if it works out this time.

Over the past few months a lot has happened in my life that has made me re-evaluate what is important, who to depend on and where I stand in life. In short, I had some very intense family stuff happen, I got moved from a "we need you" position at work to a "b team" position to layed off and my boyfriend and I took a week break to evaluate our relationship and make sure it is where it should be.

My family has been going through some major life changes since February, without getting into too much detail I had to be the adult and the shoulder to lean on. While I don't mind being the strong point for family members, its hard when you are just as involved as they are in the situation, you have to pull strength from a place that you weren't even sure existed.

During this time my work made some organizational changes, at that time I was moved from the position that i was recently told was a "we will always need" to what they were calling the "JV staff", where we were told we had to petition for projects, essentially may the best man win. I was already so stressed out with the family situation that it was increasingly difficult to deal with the situation at work. Everything made me cry and I was having a hard time holding it together. I did the best I could do but was layed off a month or so later (along with 4 other staff members).

About a week after being layed off, my relationship took a little turn... My boyfriend was having some difficulty dealing with all the craziness I called life and "wasn't sure if we should be together". Talk about the final blow. I packed up and left that day, I was so upset that I could give and give and give so much in the 2 years we have been together and he couldn't even man up to support me in my few months of need. I stayed with my mom for a week, in that week we only conversed via email, somedays seemed like we were moving forward and some felt as if we were moving backward. One week felt like an exhausting month! In the end, I needed more support and appreciation from him and he needed more trust from me. We did work things out and I am now home, but don't want to go through that again.

After going through a week of sitting at my mom's house with nothing to do, I realized that I REALLY need more friends. So I posted a craigslist ad in the strictly platonic (I know, I know) looking for gal pals. And guess what... I found some! I met an amazing new friend, Ashley, who is a blast to be around and just brings light into a room! I also met a new friend, Amber, who I am just getting to know, but she seems like a ton of fun so far and I can't wait for a friendship to develop.

I recieved unemployment and have been looking for jobs daily. Lord knows how many I have applied for! I had 2 great interviews about a week after I got layed off, but neither of them worked out... since then I have had a whole lot of nothing! Just sitting and applying over and over and over.

This all leads up to right now... right now, I am sitting at home, waiting for my BF to get here so we can go do laundry. I had a great interview this afternoon with an awesome start up company and I am hoping to hear good things. I think once I get a job I will finally be in a place where life is settling back into place... while the issues with my family are still going on, the initial shock has much warn off and I think I will be OK. I have new friends, a newly revived relationship with my boyfriend and great potential heading my way...

Until next time...

Jenna Rae

Help For Haiti

This week my work hosted an Italian potluck to support Haiti. We were all incouraged to invite our friends and family to the event and to donate what we could, the owner of the company funded the event (paying for the food, letting us take a long lunch to hang out with the people attending, etc)and also generously matched what was raised. From this small fundraiser put together by our office, we were able to raise over $2,200 with the match from our owner that put us at $4,500! With the final total in, the donation was made to UNICEF.

I am truly honored to work for such an amazing company and humbled to have such awesome co workers. Just think if every company held a small get together with just a small donation jar, you'd be amazed at the results!

This is Halloween

So Halloween has come and gone and I have been lagging on getting this posted! Halloween has to be one of my all time favorite holidays! One of those times you can dress up as an adult and not get looked at funny, and I am happy to say that I have found a man that shares my passion for dressing up like something fun and scary as much as I do!

This year we chose Jack & Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, we always make our costumes and this one looked simple at the time.

We set off to buy everything we needed and came home spending WAY more then we expected (but that happens to us every year :D ). It took us weeks to make the costume, each time we thought we were close to being done, we remembered something else that we needed to do, we thought it would never end. My boyfriends mom was a huge help as I can't sew (and even if I could, I hate it!) she worked hard on my sally dress to get it done and looking AMAZING.

The end result was awesome, we felt like mini celebrities when we went out to the bars, everyone was taking pictures with us (well mainly Jack, but that is to be expected). Enjoy the pictures!

Bye Bye Blondie

So a few weeks ago I decided it was time for a change, and that my hair is where it would happen. I worked up the courage to call my aunt and say "I think I want to go darker"... her response "You think? You need to know..." So I said "OK, I know!" 1 week later we were at the store buying my new hair color.

As I sat in the chair while she painted my hair with dark red/brown and threw some honey highlights in there, I couldn't help but be nervous! I kept thinking, "what if it doesn't look good? What if I hate it? What if....." It was really too late now.

For those of you that don't know, I have had blonde-platinum blonde hair for as long as I can remember, its always been long staying around the middle of my back, at this point it was passed the middle of my back. So going from platinum blonde to anything darker is a pretty drastic change.

After about an hour and half it was time to rinse, I watched the red/purple water pour down the drain getting more nervous each time I opened my eyes, but there was no turning back now.

She wrapped my hair up in a towel and sent me to the chair, were she cut and cut and cut (what felt like FOREVER), I got up to see what could have been a large hamster on the ground, man that was a lot of hair! So finally I get to see it...... drum roll please.......

I walk into the bathroom, turn on the light and look in the mirror. I am shocked! I think I like it.... but I am still not sure, its now a little passed my shoulder, a deep red/brown and my bangs are definately shorter.

My aunt calls from the other room... "Well, how do you like it?" I hesitate and answer "I think I like it...." she laughs and says "It is a huge change, you'll get used to it".

Now its time to head home, I jump in my car and head to SLO, hoping my boyfriend likes it too. The ride seemed like hours, when really it was about 20 min, I pulled up to see my boyfriends smiling face, I can tell he likes it right away.

So a few weeks have gone by, its lightened up a little and I am in love with it, not sure if I will ever go back blonde.... if you would have asked me 2 months ago if I would die my hair something other than blonde, I probably would have laughed at you!

BEFORE


AFTER


XOXO
Jenna Rae