September!

Can you believe it’s September already?  It’s so cliché to remark on how quickly the year seems to be passing but seriously, is 2013 not flying by?  When I think of other years, such as 2012, then 2011…I realize that all of them seemed to pass fast.  It makes me question, did the years pass quickly or is it now that I’m older time overall seems to move faster?   I’m going to go with the latter.

Now that we have a new month upon us, it’s a great time for me to check in with myself.  I evaluate past goals, reassess, then create new ones.  I also make a mental note of things I’m looking forward to within that month.

Goals of mine for the month of September are…

• Land a job I REALLY want-I need to assess what this looks like because I’m not sure that I even know.
• Continue to cut back and spend less-the lone exception is this pair of shoes I’ve been watching on ShoeDazzle.com  I may have to make something shake because I really need them.
• Finish all 30 days of the squat challenge-I generally find myself quitting halfway through because I’m satisfied with the muscle definition I see and I also don’t want my thighs to get too big (I sometimes have trouble fitting them into my bottoms already).
• Read a different business-oriented/self-help book each week-my aunt shared with me that the average business book is written based on 15 years of experience.  If I read four of them, that’s 60 years in a single month.  I’m down for that!

Things that I’m looking forward to are…

• Reuniting with most of my core group of girlfriends from undergrad-We are all getting together in about three weeks and I’m so excited.
• Enjoying the last few memories that Summer 2013 has in store for me.
• Continuing to draw closer to my family-the older I get, the more essential they become.  It’s now a major priority of mine to check in, in some way, with them semi-regularly.
• Playing September by Earth, Wind & Fire on repeat-It’s my favorite song by them, probably because it always reminds me of my younger brother Ty.  His birthday is in September.
• Ty’s 25^th birthday-I have many siblings, but Ty is the one who just “gets” me.  When I was experiencing my quarter-life crisis, he was there along with me (so much so, that he even shared tears with me…and Ty doesn’t cry.  That’s love!).  I am ready to step in and be a support for him for whatever he may be feeling.  I just really want to be there for him as he was there for me.

While the month seems so expansive, it will be gone before I know it!  What about you?  Do you make goals for the month?  Are there things that September will be bringing that you’re anticipating?  Share below!

“Say do you remember, dancing in September?  Never was a cloudy day!” -Earth, Wind & Fire

Labor Day 2013: A Day In the Life of the Unemployed*

I’m here today to talk about my experience thus far as a member of the undercaste of America’s labor force.  This undercaste doesn’t have the liberty to complain about their unpaid, 30-minute lunch break that never seems to be long enough.  They also don’t have the option to attend protests about the country’s minimum-wage laws for America’s fast food workers either.  You want to know why?

I had to pay them a visit last month and we were given the option to watch an unemployment video or read the script. This gentleman who I’d met only moments earlier and was trying to date me (it wasn’t happening) exclaimed, “I aint tryin to read $h!t! Where the video at?!” Fail.

This is because this undercaste is America’s unemployed.

Overall, when I’m honest with myself unemployment actually hasn’t been the worst thing in the world.  A perk of being registered with the unemployment office is that I’m able to collect my weekly unemployment checks.  Now granted, they are a mere fraction of what I was earning before, but something is better than nothing.  My rent’s paid every month!  (There is a yin to this yang however; perhaps I will share that another day.)

Since many know I’m unemployed, I’ve been questioned how I spend my time.  While my days do have their share of job-hunting and eating home-cooked meals, all while chatting with my girlfriends about our upcoming free plans for that week(end), a major part of my unemployment experience has been my rededication to my life’s first love, reading.

I read a lot.  When I was employed, it might have been four hours or so a day.  Now, at the very least it’s double.  With my increased reading, I’ve noticed my vocabulary has shifted a tad…I have more words to choose from, new ways to use old words and I have a bunch of new stuff to talk about.  Below, is an average day in my life as an unemployed reader lol.

1. Wake up/read social networks for news that I missed while I was sleeping.  CNN is especially clutch for this.
2. Shower/dress/breakfast (yes I get dressed even though I probably have nowhere to go except the store).
3. Read social networking for more news I missed, and to get details/full articles I briefly learned of when I first woke up.
4. It’s inevitable that one of the sites leads me to popular culture-now I’m reading celebrity news.
5. I begin to feel guilty so I begin reading health/diet/wellness related news.
6. I then feel guilty I’ve wasted my entire morning reading tons of nonsense so now I head over to Craigslist and start sending out resumes.
7. I then head over to Indeed.com and other more professional sites and apply to jobs.
8. It’s inevitable that I need to research one of the companies I’m about to send a cover letter/resume too, so I begin reading recent news articles about them.
9. I now find myself reading current, updated business stories.
10. It’s now late afternoon/evening and I recognize I’m getting hungry.  I head off for a store run and cook a nice dinner.
11. Now I’ve realized I’ve spent all day bullcrapping and settle down to try to write something of substance for my blog and other sites.  Sometimes I’m successful, many times I’m not.
12. I now am sick and tired of reading AND writing, so I turn on Netflix and watch a few hours of whatever show I’ve recently become obsessed with (Weeds has been my current obsession until Orange is the New Black comes back on).
13. I now need to wind down so I pick up one of the actual books I’m trying to finish reading (right now I’m in the middle of both The New Jim Crow and The Four Agreements).
14. I then hop back on social networking to catch up on any news I’ve missed throughout the day and read until I fall asleep.
15. If I wake up in the middle of the night, *surprise surprise* I hop on social networking and read about some more news.

My life isn’t always the most exciting, but for right now, this chapter of my life, I’m managing to deal with it okay.  Many of my closest friends are in places of transition so we are able to offer each other uplifting words of encouragement, entertainment and good cheer.

So what about you?  What does Labor Day mean to you this year?

*This post was inspired by Shelby Stone-Steel

35 in 2012: Update

I was recently talking to Shelby about the 35 in 2012 Book Challenge and while reviewing the books I’ve read thus far she paused before asking, “Where are your reviews though?  I haven’t really seen any on your blog.”

After visiting her site, I realized she’s actually been giving mini book reports on each of her reads…how ambitious!.  While I personally haven’t had the energy to do it (i.e. I’m too lazy to commit) I figured now would be a great time to give a rundown of the books I have read and the ones that I have coming up, Shelby-style…

 

#1

Recommended by: Adelina, my ex-roommate who is a voracious reader

Genre: Non-fiction

Synopsis: The first-half introduces you to the Southern town that is Savannah, Georgia in the 1970s/1980s.  You meet all of the characters that contribute to the daily life and fall in love with it, just as the author did.  The second half reveals a death and how the town is split: was it murder or self-defense?  From there all kinds of drama unfolds.  The best part?  It all really happened.

My Recommendation: A- It’s an easy, breezy, entertaining read that keeps you occupied with stuff to think about.  I love how it reads as a fictional novel but is actually a non-fictional account of a serious time in a Southern town’s history.

Lasting Impression: I’ve gotta visit Savannah, Georgia sometime this lifetime.

 

#2

Recommended by: Michael, a co-worker of mine who is the equivalent of a walking encyclopedia.  He literally knows a great deal about nearly everything…I could sit and listen to him talk for days about various subjects and never get bored.

Genre: Fiction (but I’m convinced some of it, if not all of it, is actually non-fiction…)

Synopsis: A Vietnam veteran shares various stories of his time spent serving in the Vietnam War with his fellow soldiers.  He also updates you on how some of those soldiers adjusted to life after the War.

My Recommendation: C. I spent the first half of the book confused…I wasn’t sure what was going on.  Somebody was narrating it, but I wasn’t sure who it was and wound up wrongfully confusing various soldiers as the narrator and their roles in the scattered, spotty storyline.  There wasn’t much of a plot.  Michael had to break it down for me.  “Tim O’Brien, the author, was a Vietnam vet in real life.  The story is that he got back to the USA and refused to talk about his experiences, but wrote about them instead.  The result is this book, which he says is actually fictional.  But that’s why the narrator in the story is named ‘Tim O’Brien’ and is described as having served in the war and uses writing as his way of coping, a therapy of sorts.”  Oh, okay…I guess I get that.

Final Thoughts: This is a heavily hyped book that left me disappointed.  Why didn’t the back cover of the book explain the background info to me before I started reading?  And I wish the storyline wouldn’t have been so scattered….it was everywhere and nowhere all at the same time.

 

#3

Recommended by: Adelina

Genre: Fiction

Synopsis, My Recommendation, Final Thoughts: Peep this.

 

#4

Recommended by: Shelby, but she was slightly apprehensive when handing it over.  “Let me know what you think about this one.  It’s…interesting.”

Genre: Non-fiction

Synopsis: Waris Dirie, a Somalian supermodel, shares her personal journey from being a nomad in the Sahara desert to finding superstardom.

My Recommendation: C.  I greatly appreciated the rags-to-riches story she presented, but was greatly disappointed in her lack of humility and sense of entitlement that she expressed throughout.  She was brutally honest about everything from her torturous personal account of her own female genital mutilation rite of passage to her flight from an arranged marriage with a 60+-year-old man, to her time spent playing maid/housekeeper in London for Somalia’s ambassador to her time struggling to obtain a legal passport that enabled her to become an international supermodel.  On the other hand, she seemed quite unappreciative of all the liberties she enjoyed as a result of others bending over backwards for her…she describes how harshly she spoke/treated to others around her and lacked a certain level of humility that I would expect people, of all cultures to have when interacting with others.

Final Thoughts: I still can’t get over how Dirie confronted Iman about why Iman didn’t use Dirie, a fellow Somalian, to model for Iman’s cosmetic line.  Dirie did it with such a level of aggression, hostility and entitlement that it turned me ALL the way off.  For a second I contemplated not finishing the book.  I was so over her and her diva tactics.  If you can see past that, I guess it was a good read.  Ultimately, it left a sour taste in my mouth.

So that’s it folks!  Unfortunately I’m behind in The Challenge…the schedule is roughly 1 book every 10 days.  I’m supposed to be on #7 right now, but instead I’m nearly finished with #5.  Womp. Womp.  Below you’ll find an outline of the next several titles I plan on tackling in March (and part of April)…

• The Love Toy by Keith Basso.  It’s another recommendation by Adelina and I’m halfway finished with the small book.  So far, I’m over it.  It’s too simple, basic and trashy for my own personal taste but I have a hard time quitting things before they’re finished so yeah…I’m stuck.
• Methland by Nick Reding.  It was recommended by Shelby from a Barnes & Noble employee…she never read it but said it sounded good.  I’m reading it and am over it.  The author is repetitive and uses unnecessarily big words.  I’m bored but because I’ve started…yeah.
• It’s Your Time by Joel Osteen.  Another recommendation from Shelby, via Mike.  He REALLY raved about it and she reluctantly picked it up and was then blown away.  It’s now been passed on to me.  I’m stuck on the 3rd chapter…I’m bored.  Joel’s saying the same thing, over and over….sigh.  Pray for a breakthrough for me saints!  Lol…notice a pattern?  Looks like I’m easily bored with stuff. 😦
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  Who HASN’T recommended this book?  I opened it up for the first time last night and have been IMMEDIATELY sucked in!  My mom called me last night to tell me she was in line purchasing it for Jon Jon (my baby brother) as she and I were talking lol.  So now I’m gonna go ahead and knock it out real quick…Jon Jon (and Jordan, my baby sister) and I will be reading it together…aww!
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.  And yet, another Shelby recommendation.  She didn’t say much other than it GREATLY affected her emotionally…more than any other book she’s ever read.  I’m kind of nervous to start it.
• Waiting for Superman:How We Can Save America’s Failing Public Schools edited by Karl Weber.  This one comes recommended by Mr. Right Now, who’s a teacher by occupation.  He’s not a major reader (mainly because he doesn’t have the time) but it resonated deeply with him.  I figure if it didn’t bore him I should be good.