Ups and Downs

Life's a rollercoster, you know? One minute things are great, and the next they may not be so great... Well, I feel like I've been in one giant up my whole life and now I'm experiencing a bit of a down. Words cannot express how tired I am of being unemployed. My greatest sympathy goes out to all those people we have known recently who have had long bouts of unemployment, and who have also had to take care of a family at the same time. I know my problems are not nearly as huge, but it sucks anyway. I am so tired of being at a stand-still. I want something that not only will keep me occupied during the day, but is something that I can be excited and passionate about. Something where I feel like I am making a difference in this ridiculous world. It turns out that a BA in Sociology doesn't necessarily give you a huge skills set that entice employers... It's not just the being bored and having not much to do that's hard about this, though. It's trying to figure myself out, what I want to do, what I could do and still stay sane if I were to get an offer at some menial task. It's also getting rejected constantly and having the keep a positive morale and not letting that get me down, which is much more difficult than I expected it to be. I really want to have something that I love. I dread having to say, "My boyfriend is in school to get his PhD in Chemical Engineering and I work at a shoe store." What? I went to a great college, where I was involved in a lot. I had leadership experiences, I volunteered a ton, I studied abroad. I am a smart person. I am driven and passionate about doing some good. Something has to come along, right? I'm sure it will.

Luckily, I have discovered that one can have ups and downs at the same time. While the unemployment thing is one giant down, it has been really nice to have a lot of people supporting me and offering continuous encouragement. Brian has been very good to me, and I feel bad that he has to deal with me through all my emotional distress. It's nice to have someone here. Having some free time has meant having time to keep in touch with people, which has been great. I miss my best friends, but most of us have kept in touch really well, and I am so incredibly thankful for them. I've read some good books, learned about a lot of great organizations around Seattle, and have had time to exercise, which has been really nice. Hopefully that will counteract the cookies I plan to make today.

And finally, ladies and gentlemen, get ready for the biggest "up" of all... Brian has been eating vegetables. Now if you have known Brian Swift for any part of his life before now, he has always stayed far, far away from anything green, or anything that wasn't chicken or turkey or bar-b-que, for that matter. But the other day he actually walked in the door and one of the first things out of his mouth was "I want a salad." No joke. It happened. And the next day he texted me during the day about how much he was craving veggies and the day after that he had me make him a salad to take to school for lunch. There are definitely things he still won't eat, like sugar snap peas which I think he might veto forever, but he's enjoying broccoli, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and lettuce. Crazy, right?

We went to the locks yesterday-- isn't fall just lovely here when it's sunny?

He's a good one.