Retail Therapy

Last week, as I tried to get over the depression associated with being unemployed and married to a man who thinks I am a housewife, I tried some therapy...retail therapy. You might be wondering why someone on a small fixed income is shopping, as am I, but I couldn't stop myself. I have always been a sucker for a deal and now that I have time to look for these deals I am finding them everywhere.

I started at Meijer, grocery shopping and using all the coupons I cut from the paper. If you bought 5 Campbell's soups and a loaf a bread you got a $5 Meijer coupon. That's like getting it all for free! So I stayed at that do it yourself lane and kept doing it over and over. I now have a lot of bread & soup.

Then I had to go to Menards to pick up parts to fix our wood stove (wood heat is cheap) and found some other good things, like these balls to put in your dryer that cut down on dry time, and really cheap rakes we'll need this fall. You know, the necessities!

But all this shopping got me feeling like more shopping and so I went to Ulta. And bought some makeup that was on sale, that I didn't really need. But I saw this advertisement on TV aimed at unemployed persons and it said to "invest in yourself" so I did.

The trip to Ulta then led me into TJ Maxx & Old Navy, because they're in the same plaza. I needed to find Ben new jeans but I also found me a new sweater. And I had to go to Old Navy because they so nicely had sent me a coupon.

So that was all Monday. The next day I met Marie at the mall, and on another day I met my mom at TJ Maxx, and by the weekend I was feeling a little guilty about buying new things so I went to some church sales on Friday & Saturday. There I filled bags for only $1.00 and got so many more things! I bought items for basically everyone I know so if you are reading this and I know you I probably have a bag in my dining room just waiting for you!

I don't know how well the therapy worked...but I think it did a little because I read my post titled "I'm a Loser" and thought to myself, "That girl is pathetic, I am way cooler than her."

I never wanted to be a housewife...

I'm feeling more like my old self again. I had completely underestimated how much of my self identity I placed in my job, and not having a job has really created a void that the Oreos are just not filling! It doesn't help when my husband makes comments like, "I thought the house was going to start looking more clean since you're not working?" To which I start sobbing and screaming that I did not sign up for this $%&# and I never wanted to be a housewife. I once did consider the life of a housewife, but only in a dream, and in this dream I was filthy rich and had maids and housekeepers. In reality I am not cut out for it .

On a positive note, today was my first day as a mentor through Kids Hope USA. Every Tuesday I will be meeting Isaac. He is a 3rd grader at Lake Center (the same elementary school I was working on) and he is really cool. He told me he has never had a mentor before and I told him I have never had a mentee before, so this is new to us both. I left him today unharmed and he had learned no new swear words, so pretty much I did great!

Disability vs. Unemployment

I was just thinking...does disability pay more than unemployment??? And would plastic surgery qualify? Just thinking outside the box folks :)

I'm a Loser

Seriously. Is this my life? I am pretty much a loser. I received my last paycheck Friday and now the real life adventures of an unemployed Interior Designer begin. Only, I am a loser. We'll see what adventures I can actually embark on.

I stay in bed late and barely make to do list (I am a to do list kind of girl.) And even when I do have things to do I put them off until tomorrow or the next day. At least Mark Twain was in agreement with me, "Do not put off until tomorrow what can be put off till day-after-tomorrow just as well."

I'm going to have to resort to my old stories in order to fill this blog with interesting reading material...I do have some pretty great stories though. I am prone to self imposed embarrassment, clumsiness, and saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.

In case you're not picking up on it, this post is laced with a wee bit of self pity which directly correlates with the title. I will write again when I am not feeling like such a douche.

Me...A Guest Speaker

Today I was a guest speaker for an Interior Design "Professional Practices" course at Western Michigan University! If you know me at all you would be asking yourself what I asked myself: Who would let me speak to impressionable young adults on purpose? Well, let me explain.

I got a call from the professor, Beth Jarl, last night. She had a speaker all lined up and they got sick or something. Beth then called Meghan at TMP, who was too busy to fill in, but gave her my name and I decided to do it. It seemed like a good reason to roll out of bed and get dressed.

So even though I was like the third string I got a chance to tell a bunch of seniors about my professional life post graduation. I didn't really have much time to prepare and Beth asked me not to dwell to long on the "lay off." (Isn't that crazy...she didn't want me to freak them out too bad with the economic crisis.) So I talked in my usual fast paced, sporadic, mess of a vocabulary and hopefully wasn't a total let down to the profession!

I even think I was able to sucker a young lady into interning at TMP with Meghan. (Pro bono of course!)

Beth told me that the Interior Design program at WMU and other colleges around the country are in need of NCIDQ certified Designers with a Master's degree to teach the Interior Design curriculum. So keep that in your back pocket!