1, 2, 3, 4...

Eeek.

Welp, this is embarrassing. It's been a little over two months since my last blog post. I promise I have a good reason. Well kind of. Let's be honest... The reason I haven't blogged in a looonnnggg time is because I was a coward. More specifically, embarrassed of the recent turning of events. Let's start from the beginning.

1. I was laid off from my job
2. I picked up three jobs... which turned into two "part-time" jobs
3. Found a cat. Uh, yes this part is not so much important but extremely cute
4. We're moving to JAPAN. Uh yeah... lots to fill you in on

SO. Imma start from the beginning.

1. I was laid off

Um. This part was the hardest pill to swallow. I mean, I have my BACHELOR'S DEGREE... From UC DAVIS. People with Bachelor's don't get laid off... it's just not supposed to happen. But it did. My boss had given me some warning... "Ackie," [that's the way my name was pronounced] "You should really start looking for a job"

So I started looking. Every free moment was spent applying to every job on Monster, CareerBuilder, even Craigslist. I saw two options: a) panic, stress, freak out and cry OR b) pour that energy into job hunting. I went with the latter untillll two weeks later when my boss broke the news that THIS would be my last week with the company. My last week being employed. My last week with a steady paycheck. Begin ultra panic mode. I began imaging my life on the streets,  a properly spelled cardboard sign, gaining a street dog. I kid you not, this was a legit fear of mine. John had to convince me night after night that I would not end up homeless.

Seriously- I put in at least 300 job applications. Out of that.. I got six job interviews. Six. Didn't you think a bachelor's degree would get you farther than that? Because I sure did. The people I called my "friends" said snide comments. People I thought would be supportive and kind were instead sarcastic and cunning. People I thought of only as acquaintances gave me kind words and offered any kind of support they could.

In short... being laid off is a terrible feeling. I woke up every morning with the suffocating feeling of failure. And fear... HOW am I going to pay the bills. I literally live paycheck to paycheck, with no money to put away for savings. I began to plan out the essentials I would take with me and put into my shopping cart after we were evicted from the apartment and John moved back down to San Diego

Future self... If I became white

2. I picked up three jobs

In the year that I spent at my job, in between dodging slugs and killing centipedes, we got to the heart of what I REALLY wanted to do. Well, work with animals. Duh. #1 choice: dolphins of course. But dogs would always have that special ability to pull on my heartstrings and turn my normal self into one of those super annoying, high pitched gushing valley girl. LIKE OHMIIGODDDD, Did you see that dog?!? Ssheee'sss sooo caaa-UUTTEEE! Oh yes she wass!!!

 Ew. Right? 

So after job interviews, it boiled down to three... 

1. bank teller (for some reason, dealing with THOUSANDS of dollars on a daily basis made me feel rich by extension. I could pretend it was all mine for a couple hours)

2. See's Candy

3. Pet Trainer

See's got dropped after they said "Hey, training is tomorrow. If you can't make it, you can't work for us". Which left "Bank A" and Pet Trainer. Since I had NO JOB to speak of when I applied to both, I said... WORK ME AS MANY HOURS AS POSSIBLE. This came to bite me in the hiney. I ended up working seven days a week, sometimes an average of 75 hours per week. It. was. hell. 

I would stand for eight hours at a time at the bank job, fight rush hour traffic while shoving cold pizza into my mouth, run into my second job while frantically trying to change and clock in justintime. Another five hour shift, go home, sleep. Repeat. I am not kidding you when I tell you that for a good five weeks, I didn't have a single day off. I would cry from exhaustion, but John would remind me "You thought you were going to be homeless a couple weeks ago. This is better right?"

Sometimes I wasn't so sure.

I find this commercial hilariousssss. 

Anyways. 

To be continued...

This post is way too long.