Autodesk Assistance Program

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=13107886&linkID=12338624

Check out this link to learn more about the Autodesk Assistance Program. Great for "displaced" professionals like me who want to stay in the know and learn programs that will give me an edge on the competition!

You can get a free 13-month term student license of an Autodesk program like AutoCAD, Autodesk Revit Architecture, Autodesk Inventor Professional, and/or AutoCAD Civil 3D software. Awesome!

Morning Jogger My Ass

Remember that dream I had about becoming a morning jogger? Scratch that. I'm out.

Yesterday I completely bailed on a five mile run with my friend Betsy. It was muggy and wet outside and I just could not bring myself to get out of bed for that kind of torture. Today I felt guilty so I pulled myself from the sheets for a easy two mile run. Sounded a lot more do-able when I agreed to it. I was supposed to meet at her place at 8:30. I showed up at 9. Strike one. I have never been a morning person. I think at age thirty you just come to grips with the fact that you're never going to be a morning person.

I got there, hair unbrushed, no makeup, clothes-who knows if they matched. I literally think I scared an old man as we ran by him. Strike two. Not the cute little morning jogger stereotype I had in mind.

And lastly...I thought I was dying! Strike three. Usually two miles is great, not that bad. But I have not ran in a while and Betsy is so fast now. I got that scratchy throat thing from all the hard breathing. I hate that. And then when it was all over I thought I was going to puke, but I didn't.

I'm not giving up on running...just the morning part, the looking cute part, the being good at it part, and the part where you do it in bad weather. And well, since I live in Michigan that eliminates a lot of running :)

Just another day off...

Just another day off...and I think I can get used to this. I cleaned up a bit, painted the trim upstairs, did some drywall patching, and watched a movie. Now that I am feeling more like a productive citizen again I am working on my to do list. My main "to do" is finishing our master bedroom and bathroom. We've been working on it for a year now, so needless to say I have this huge unfinished hole in my house. Now is the perfect time for me to finish it!

Having all this time off also means that my dog Lola gets less time in her crate and more time just lounging around the house with me. This is good and bad. She is so great most of the time that I forget she is still a puppy and just expect her to be behaving herself. In this past week I have lost a bra and three pair of underwear to extreme chewing. Ugh! And of course they're not the old nasty underwear that you've had since college. They were all new, cute, and are now either in the garbage or missing a crotch.

No Worker Left Behind

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/nwlb/NWLB_Fact_Sheet_Final_203216_7.pdf

I was going to check out this program at Michigan Works, but I won't qualify because Ben makes too much money :) However, if anyone else is interested it seems like a great program...You don't necessarily need to be unemployed to take advantage of it. Check it out!

Moping

I started out with good intentions but moping seems to be getting the best of me. Before being laid off, when just the thought of being laid off was a fog lingering around the office, I told myself it wouldn't be so bad. I thought off all the things I could do with my free time.

I was going to be one of those morning joggers. You know the type - the lady you pass on your drive into work, looking fabulous in her little Nike outfit (complete with matching shoes) just running along the street. I thought, she must not have a job, and I thought I could be her...if I didn't have a job. Well, now I don't have a job. The thing is, I don't like getting out of bed, it would take to much effort to match my clothes, let alone run, and why start all this today when I have nothing to do tomorrow? I'm going to save that dream for another day...

I have currently been preoccupied with eating Doritos, both the ones in the bag and those that land on my chest, as I lay on the sofa in my pajamas watching what appears to be daytime television. I didn't realise how horrible it really was (daytime television). Yesterday Maury had a show and the whole premise was to guess if these scantly dressed guests were male or female. WTF?

On a positive note, I did manage to make it down to MI Works, which I thought was the unemployment office?! It's not. So after I left there I went to the real unemployment office and met a lady named Tina who was super friendly and very helpful.

Day One

On the same day I read the recession was over...I got laid off. That was last Friday, September 11th of all days (as if the memory of that day couldn't get any worse, it did.) I knew it was coming, but it was still like a punch in the stomach when I got pulled into the conference room for the talk. What sucks the most is that I really liked my job. I worked with my best friend and a bunch of other cool people, and I was doing what I liked. I was an Interior Designer.

I wallowed in my own self pity for the entire weekend.

Today I have managed to shower, defer my student loans, pack up my desk and clean out my "inbox," and have been rejected by the online unemployment claim system of Michigan. I guess I will need to stand in line just like the next guy. That's a job for tomorrow...well today actually. (Only the unemployed me would be up this late, but even that new me is getting tired.) I've got a lot to do tomorrow. Getting out of bed alone will take a tremendous amount of will power :)

But before I leave you...an interesting tidbit. Today I learned to never hit send on a mass email before double checking who is included in your entire contact list! I accidentally, and stupidly, managed to let all my friends, and a dozen or so customers ($%^&!) know that I was no longer with the company - and in a very blunt, mildly sarcastic way. I then proceeded to try and recall the message and respond with another less harsh, and hopefully warmer message, that will ensure I have a job with the company if this market ever picks up, and they decide to call me back to work! You know, when the recession really is over.