Time for an update

Yep, I'm still unemployed.

But I want to thank the family and friends who have helped me in my job search during these past couple of months. I've been genuinely overwhelmed by your generosity in providing me with leads -- all unsolicited -- whether it be with your own employers or jobs that have crossed your desk you've forwarded on to me. Nothing has panned out yet, but my determination to remain optimistic is driven by your kindness and friendship.

By my estimate, I've applied to well more than 100 jobs. (To put it into perspective: I ran into a former colleague at a restaurant, a couple of weeks after I quit my job. He'd managed to find work as a communications spokesman for a local institution and said he sent his resume out more than 300 times before he landed the new gig. So I won't hit the panic button until then.) And with the newspaper industry in a freefall and the market flooded with communications majors LFW (looking for work), I honestly don't expect to hear from 98 percent of those employers. But you ask 100 girls out on a date...

I've had moments of doubt to be sure, but I still stand by my choice to leave my last job. Of course, if I had to do it all over again, I wish I could change how I did it. And I deeply regret that my relationship with my boss, which I considered to be as much friendship as business relationship, has gone silent. I hope I didn't cause him too much consternation.

But I'll persist at the job search. Luckily for my BF, I'm a super-cheap date. I'm like a pet goldfish -- I don't require much other than food and a comfortable home. ;) The food I eat is typically cheap (no meat!), and I rarely eat out unless he's the one who asks. Just gimme soup and sandwiches (anyone who has ever worked or gone to school with me knows that's all I ever brought for lunch), cereal, microwaveable dinners and the Internet, and I'm good to go.

Besides trolling the job boards and filling out apps just about every day, I've been keeping busy at my rowing club. I've been maintaining their Web site -- I didn't design it; I just update content -- which surprisingly has been getting a lot of traffic (one unique visitor from New Zealand, another from Switzerland!) lately.

I've also been rowing five to six mornings a week in preparation for a regatta in Delaware in which I will compete in a couple of weeks (no, our competition will not be the same age as those geezers on the main page, he he). (In a sick irony, the plane ticket I bought to Philly to get to the regatta gave me the 100 frequent-flyer miles I needed to get Premier status on USAir/United, which effectively would have gone a long way toward mitigating my travel woes at my last job.) Thank you, American taxpayers, for financing my trip. :)

The great practices my team has had recently have been wonderful in keeping my spirits up, and I feel pretty good physically, the best I've felt since late last year. I've seen a noticeable improvement in my rowing-machine workouts, and my seat in the boat that I had to give up (stroke) for work -- we have to compete for spots in the racing boats, because seats in those boats are limited -- I quickly have won back.

I don't think I realized when I started my last job how much not rowing was going to affect me physically and emotionally. I tried to downplay it all those months. But after coming back to it, I realize now that the workouts, mental and physical exercise and camaraderie it provides are things I can't live without.

Current mood: Creative