I finally have a picture of me that is not just a cartoon standing in for me! So even though everyone reading this blog knows what I look like, now there's a picture that proves it.

I have not been very good about keeping in touch with friends, for which I apologize to anyone who wonders why I've been so quiet. My away from work time has been spent job-hunting (every application is so time-consuming!) and unpacking/fixing up the house in Nanaimo. Or on the ferry or a city bus, where I spend about 5 hours every weekend day.

The job hunt thing has become interesting, if only because, for some reason, I'm not getting responses to the jobs I assumed I would, and am getting responses to things that might be more of a longshot. I've done a lot of hiring in my time, so I have a pretty good idea of what attracts the attention of retail employers. My resume, in theory, should be getting me at least a lot more interviews than it has, but for the most part, silence.

So I've gone two different routes with my applications - one is to apply for government jobs here in the Lower Mainland, which doesn't get me any closer to Vancouver Island but, if they work out, would mean better wages and get me out of retail. The other is to apply for some journalism jobs, mostly community papers, just to get me back to using my writing skills again. I have a pre-interview phone interview this week, and have no idea how that differs from a real interview, but will find out. Interestingly, in the few short years since I left KUC, my layout computer skills have become obsolete, because it seems most of the papers are now using InDesign, which didn't exist four years ago. I am thinking of buying my own copy of it and teaching myself - I hear it's actually much simpler to use than QuarkExpress.

Anyway, I'm not sure what will happen with the newspaper thing - if I were REALLY serious about it, I would apply in Alberta, because there are literally hundreds of jobs, many in towns so small I've never heard of them. But for now I want to concentrate on the West Coast. My aim is still to get enough money saved to do grad school in a couple of years, without any student loans - there's no reason it can't happen at the job I'm at, I guess, but I really need a change.

On a non-jobhunting-related topic, I went away to a retreat at Cedar Springs in Sumas in Washington (that's where the photo on this blog came from; my friend has a digital camera and I made her use it so I could get a picture for my site). I went last year but ended up being sick and having to miss part of it. This year, no such problems - it's a gorgeous, serene place, and even though it poured rain all weekend, we were able to go out walking several times along some abandoned railway trestles. The seminar speaker was funny and knowledgable, and the music was great. Probably the most interesting thing I learned about myself during the weekend is that I don't know how to relax. I know in theory what to do, but in actual fact, I suck at it. I'm always either doing something (I have an incredibly long mental 'to do' list), thinking about doing something, worrying about not doing something... even if the something I am planning is supposed to be relaxing! Even my sleeping time is not very restful. Clearly this is an issue I've got to address, or the tension will eventually burst and cause a big mess everywhere. Yuck.