Lone Star State

Scott and I took our first vacation together to visit my family and friends in San Antonio.  We had 3 full days to spend there and we were busy.  On Friday we took a day trip to Austin and explored downtown for the afternoon.  We had lunch at Moonshine Bar & Grill and it was wonderful.  Afterwards we cruised 6th Street and viewed the much quieter bar scene on our way to tour the Capital Building.  The Capital Building was very interesting, viewing the art work, the Senate room and the offices.  It was worth the stop.   Even if we couldn't couldn't go into the reception room.  

We did stop across the street from University of Texas and walked along and saw a small street fair with jewelry.  We stopped at a local coffee shop to relax and people watch.  We drove back to San Antonio to meet up with my parents for dinner.  After dinner Scott helped my dad fixed his "computer problems" and we relaxed a bit before heading out to meet Jason, Kendra and Jon at the Flying Saucer.  I'm extremely happy that Scott was able to finally meet Jon & Jason since they have been a big part of my San Antonio life and even more happy to know that Kendra approved!

On Saturday, Scott and I went hiking in Eisenhower park.  It was fun showing Scott Reily and I's hiking route and the faint sound of gun fire from Camp Bullis in the background.  We cleaned up and headed down to the South East side of San Antonio for lunch at Big Lou's.  This was Scott's only requested stop while in San Antonio.  We had seen this place on Man vs. Food and their famous 42" pizza, so we had to try it.  Since my dad had been there a few times for lunch at work he drove us down there.  It was a good 30 minute drive to the pizza place from my parents house into to a iffy neighborhood.  While waiting, and it was a long wait, we met Big Lou and he talked to us about how he uses the best ingredients to make is pizzas and that they are expanding soon.  Big Lou was right, the pizza was amazing!  And completely worth the wait.

After lunch we we and walked around downtown San Antonio and enjoyed being tourist for the afternoon.  It was a great afternoon.

[caption id="attachment_311" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Scott & I at the Alamo"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_313" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Me & Scott on the Riverwalk"][/caption]

After our tourist afternoon we tried to head back to my parents house but on our way back to the highway we were stuck behind the Immigration Reform parade.  The parade lasted about 10 minutes and it was the most unorganized parade I've ever watched.   We made it out to Niki & Chris's baby shower.  I was happy for Scott to meet more friends, April and Niki & Chris.  I finally met Josh, April's boyfriend.  All in all it was a fun event.  I had an even bigger surprise that afternoon and found out that Cody was in town.  After a quick Rudy's run, Scott and I headed over to Oak Hills Tavern...the old Frostie hang out for a few drinks and laughs.

[caption id="attachment_314" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Scott & I at Oak Hills"][/caption]

On Sunday we visited with Kelly, Ken, Katie and Allie.  The girls just keep getting bigger and they are so much fun.  After hanging out with the girls we went down to Alamo Cafe for a quick lunch.  We then drove up to Gruene, Texas to check out the town.

[caption id="attachment_315" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Me & Scott in Gruene, Texas"][/caption]

We did the old time pictures and then went down to Gruene Hall, the oldest Dance Hall in Texas.  Gruene was the perfect day, we saw Robyn Ludwick and Guy Forsythe there.   We then came back home and had my dad's birthday/mother's day dinner with my parents and then spent a relaxing night at my parents house.

It was a great trip down to San Antonio and Scott survived my parents, even though he thought my dad was going to kill him.  ;-)

Easter Weekend

[caption id="attachment_295" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Scott & I at Castlewood Park"][/caption]

Scott had Good Friday off so we decided to take advantage of the great weather.  First we went to breakfast at Chris's pancake house and stopped to get cookies for Easter lunch at Missouri Bakery.  And on our way to the park we stopped to check in with Zia Julie.  This was Scott's first visit with Zia.  She seems to be doing well after her short hospital visit.

After a quick change of clothes we were off to Castlewood Park in West county.  We hiked up to the top of the bluff and overlooked the Meremac River.  It was a great view.  We managed to hike for a couple hours.

Friday night we tried a Greek restaurant in Clayton that we will definitely go back to and caught Hot Tub Time Machine.  Truly a funny 80s movie.

On Saturday, Scott did a little shopping to update his wardrobe at Old Navy.  And then we headed down to his parents house so that he could help his mom with some work.  Scott's dad and I watch basketball while they worked.

On Easter, we went to Scott's parent's house for a late lunch.  Scott's sister made a few dishes that were great!  After an afternoon walk we relaxed and watched movies.  All in all it was a great weekend.  The weather was perfect too.  Can't wait for this weekend.  It's finally the 1/2 marathon!

Week 3

It's been a couple weeks since I've been laid off and honestly I'm still enjoying my mini vacation.  I obviously really needed a break.  I'm sure it will hit me soon that I am short on funds but right now I'm ok with staying home during the day and not going out much.  I have picked up the pace on sending out resumes and trying to make contacts.

Today I was lucky to make a contact courtesy of my dad.  He has a college friend that has business contacts in St. Louis and he is going to pass my resume along to them.  It is still a waiting game to see if I am qualified for any open positions with their company's.  I, also, applied for a few government jobs and a marketing job that I found.  Maybe this week I get a call back.

Starting a new business

For some people who are laid off the thought of running your own business might cross their mind.  You think you can run a business better than you last boss.  You wouldn't have let the company get to a point where it has to let employees go.  Or have you ever just always wanted to be your own boss but not sure where to start?  I'm currently stuck on the latter.

I feel that there are a bunch of ideas out there that I want to do.  I would be a great boss but where do I start?  Do I go the consulting route?  Public Relations?  Event Planning?  Trade Shows?  So many ideas but so little of understanding where to start.

Suggestions?

New Week, New Outlook

As the week begins I have found a couple new tools to help me in my job search.  I have never hid the fact that I'm not the biggest fan of Twitter.  However, I do acknowledge the benefits that it holds for someone in my situation.  So a few months ago I decided that I should rejoin the Twitter world and see what I was missing.

Although I haven't tweeted much, I have taken advantage of those that post jobs on there.  And this past weekend Scott showed me the wonders of TweetDeck and how that can help me.  I now have a fancy setup that allows me to get up to the minute posts from anyone who mentions St. Louis Jobs.  It's been great when I'm screening who I want to apply with.

I, also, completely redid my resume.  I thought it needed to be more eye catching and so I changed the format so that hopefully it is.

Besides those two changes Monday wasn't as productive as I had hoped.  My great aunt, Zia Julie was admitted into the hospital over the weekend and I spent most of the afternoon with her waiting for her to be released.  It's amazing, they tell you that you are being released and then 3 hours later they finally bring in the paperwork.  All in all she is much better and was able to walk out on her own.  Not bad for an 85 year old!

It was also Mathew's 4th Birthday!  I hung out at the Birch house last night to celebrate with him.  Mathew cleaned out the Cardinals aisle at Target.  He got Cardinals jersey, bat, ball, wrist bands and Toy Story 2.  We played a little baseball before dinner and then worked on some puzzles.

Fun in 2010

[caption id="attachment_266" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Starting 2010 off right"][/caption]

A lot's been going on since the beginning of the year.  A lot of fun stuff.  In January Scott and I went to Grafton, IL to see the bald eagles on the Great River Road.  They just hang out on the cliffs and everyone just stops along the side of the road to take pictures.  It was actually a very cool event to see them that close.

[caption id="attachment_265" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Bald Eagle on the cliff Jan 2010"][/caption]

After seeing 4 or 5 bald eagles we did a little shopping in downtown Grafton, IL.  There wasn't a whole lot there but it was fun to walk through the antique shops.  Plus they did have an awesome ice cream parlor and fudge shop.
We also finally made it to Steinberg Ice Rink in Forest Park for some outdoor ice skating.  This was the first time ice skating since high school.  It took a while for me to get my groove but once we got over the initial fear we were all good to go!  We just had to make sure we dodged the younger kids who were speeding around the rink.

In February we were busy again.  We celebrated Elizabeth's 12th birthday.  I can't believe it has been 12 years since I lived with Ben & Ellen.  Crazy how the time flies by.  For my present to E, I took her to the mall and let her pick out what she wanted.  Needless to say, we spent about 4 hours there and she came away with a ton of stuff.  She is a great bargain shopper.  We even managed to have CPK for lunch.  Scott and I took her to her soccer game and then hung out with 3 of the 4 kids that night.    We even went to see Robert Earl Keen, Jr. for my 1/2 birthday, the Kinko's Day!  I couldn't believe he was in St. Louis.  It was my first concert at the Pageant and he put on a great show!

[caption id="attachment_274" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Steinberg Ice Rink Jan 2010"][/caption]

The next weekend my cousin Jeff and his fiancé's family were in town.  We met up with them at Kirkwood's ice rink for more skating.  Scott took on more skating after completing the Frosty 5 mile race earlier that morning with his mom.  After skating and a quick nap we were off to Elizabeth's official birthday party.  For Valentine's Day I wanted a low key event.  I didn't want to try to go out to a restaurant that I knew would be packed and I didn't want either of us to spend a lot of money.  So we went to lunch at Blueberry Hill and made homemade chili.  It was the perfect Valentine's Day!

We celebrated Scott's dad's birthday at the end of the month with a 3 course meal prepared by his younger sister, the chef.  It was amazing!  Being a picky eater, I'm shocked that I ate everything that she made and wanted more.

March has proved to keep me busy as well.  I've gone to a bunch of the Birch kids sporting events over the last few weeks.  From basketball, dance and now soccer they always have something for me to watch.

[caption id="attachment_268" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="St. Louis Botanical Gardens March 2010"][/caption]

Scott and I went to the Botanical Gardens the first day it was nice out.  I guess everyone had the same idea but it was worth it.  Although there weren't many flowers out yet it was nice to get out and enjoy the fresh air and see what will be there soon.

We even went downtown to the St. Patrick's Day Parade.  It was freezing during the parade but was fun to see how many people actually participate in it.  There was even the Ursuline cheerleaders and the bear in the parade!

[caption id="attachment_269" align="alignright" width="112" caption="St. Patrick's Day Mar 2010"][/caption]

Obviously, the first 3 months of the year have been insanely busy as was the last few months of 2009.  I don't see any sign of this trend stopping.  Few things coming up in May is a trip to Chicago and Lincoln, NE.  Can't wait and hopefully this stays updated.

Day 4 and 5

Yesterday I completely slacked off from doing anything productive for myself on the job front. Instead I uploaded my brother's LinkedIn profile and helped him officially get started and hopefully on the right foot.  He should be able to start looking for jobs in the DFW area now.

I did search a little more on LinkedIn for a recruiter for myself.  For some reason finding a recruiter to help in my job hunt is proving harder than I would have imagined.  I did a little searching on Craigslist, I'm very iffy of the quality of jobs that are on there but it doesn't hurt to check them out.

Today I reviewed my weekly e-mail from CareerBuilder and Monster.  I'm not sure I trust the jobs on there.  Hence my last, oh so awesome, job came from Monster so I am very cautious of what I choose.

Monday ends my week off and it's back to being my own recruiter.

Here's to the weekend!