Recap of the Last Few Days in These Foolish Things

Last I left you, I was floating on a high of having completed 10+ interviews and a strong feeling that I’d hear back from two companies before the weekend. I was also kind of ego-stroked by a young guy in the park and even had come out of the week before with medical appointments that ended in a squeaky clean report. Good stuff!

But Friday was the day that I expected to hear from both of my prospective new job opportunities. Friday was the day I was going to get ready to have Best Bud, her husband and her bro and SIL over for a concert in the park. Friday was going to be super productive and a marvelous day!

Turns out, I heard NOTHING from either company and Best Bud replied to my reminder text that her uncle had just died. Also turns out that I had to set Chuckles straight again (remember the old married guy I had coffee with?). It was just an ODD day:

First, I had an appointment to have Mini Pearl serviced, so I took her to the BMW dealership. Figured it would take half an hour to have the oil changed, right? Well actually, I needed to have a few other things done with this service, plus there was a recall with the computer system (I guess they had to do an update) and a couple of other things, so it ended up taking them five hours to do all of this stuff. So, instead of waiting around, I had them Lyft me uptown to a coffee shop where I did some emails and stuff on my ipad (while constantly checking for news from the job front) and then I took the trolley back down to my old hood, which was actually a really nice side trip - took myself to lunch and walked around a bunch.

In the midst of all of that, I heard from Chuckles from the neighborhood walks. We’d actually run into each other a couple of weeks ago and I was friendly and said hello. That’s all. Maybe that was a mistake? Because he took that as an open door to text me another one of his little mini-stories (he’s a writer, remember?) about seeing me again. I made the BIG mistake of reacting with a “haha” - nothing more. He also told me that the divorce was in process and seemed quite excited about it. I did not react. So finally, he reached out again with a text asking if we could revisit the terms of our acquaintanceship.

I had to answer like this, “Chuckles. Please respect my boundaries. What I said in my earlier message stands. I’m happy to say hello when we see each other, but the rest still applies.”

He replied, “I am very sorry. Full stop.”

GAH!

By the time my car was ready, it was late in the afternoon, and both companies I was hoping to hear from are on the East Coast, so the window was closing on hearing from them before the weekend.

The only good thing that came out of Friday was that I got a late call from my friend Gregory letting me know that he and Jeff (his partner, who also happens to be my primary care physician) were going to be close-ish to my place around dinnertime and wondered if I’d like to grab a bite with them.

It was a lovely last-minute deal at a restaurant that I LOVE, so that kind of made Friday okay…except for the fact that Gregory was pushing and pushing me to talk about my job search and it stressed me out. Gregory has been a flight attendant his whole 35+ year career and doesn’t understand why it would possibly be hard for me to find an office job in my field of work. He thinks that Best Bud and I do exactly the same thing (we don’t, even though we have worked together at two different companies), and doesn’t get the non-airline work dynamic or the fact that there are only so many senior management jobs in my industry!

I was able to change the subject and we had a lovely dinner, but man, was the tone set for the weekend.

I was down on Saturday into Sunday. Probably the lowest I’ve been since I was laid off. I just could NOT get myself out of the doldrums, and that theme lasted all weekend. The weather was cloudy and dreary and I just couldn’t pick myself up. I even half-heartedly got on one of the dating apps and messaged with a guy for a bit, only to get annoyed with him and basically say, never mind - I’m out. Pissed him off, too. I ended up having to block him!

And don’t get me started on how much HGTV I watched…and how much Tik Tok too! I’m addicted in the worst way. What a time suck!

Anyway, I think I just needed a dumpy weekend so that I could put an end to it on Sunday night and start fresh again on Monday.

Even though it’s rained BUCKETLOADS and there has been widespread flooding and all kinds of craziness all day today, I’ve personally had a much better day. I have a couple of things going on, but I’m not going to write about them just yet.

I’m setting my intention for the rest of the week. I want to push through some personal challenges I’m working on and finally put the finishing touches on my work portfolio (it’s done and out there - I’m just refining it), and make it a much, much better week and weekend.

Heading to bed now.

Night,
GS