How I Spent The Thirty-Second Week Of The Rest Of My Life

This was another busy week of absolutely no results.  Thursday marked the one month anniversary of my all out resume blitz.  And still not a single place of the 50 that I sent to last month have called me back about an interview (including those that I sent to after correcting the phone number on the document).

I still have a lot more to send.  Though I do need to locate a professional writing sample.  It's hard to believe I never sent myself a copy of anything that I drafted for work to my personal account to work on at home.  I'm sure that I did, in fact.  But I must have deleted them from my e-mail.  And the hard copies are on my desktop computer.  Which is sitting in storage with no monitor.  It's like past me is the greatest enemy of future me.

Having read up on what constitutes a good writing sample, people recommend that you don't send blogs (unless they have to do with the subject matter you'll be writing about at a job) or creative writing.  And while my Yelp reviews have gotten plaudits, they're not the kind of hard hitting, tear inducing, wallet opening sort of writing that non-profits are trying to look for in their marketing efforts.

And according to this article from Psychology Today, writing samples are supposed to avoid humor at all costs: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/career-transitions/200906/the-dreaded-writing-sample

For those who knew me at my old job toward the end, never was I so humorless in my writing.

The only hopeful article that I've read on the writing sample was one that I can't find the link to right (almost spelled it the wrong way there) now is one that said, "they're just trying to make sure you don't write like an 8-year-old."

What's ironic is that I *know* tons of people who do write like 8-year-olds who are gainfully employed.  And, yet, I've consistently been given good reviews on my writing of all sorts and can't find a silly sample.  Guh!  Then again, for the positions that I'm applying for, in general, the people I'm applying against are all excellent writers.

Speaking of which, I have been working hard on my marketing skill set as well.  I'm currently reading "Marketing for Dummies."  Yes, I know that's silly.  But I looked for marketing text books at the George Washington University bookstore yesterday and couldn't find any.  I'm going to look online when I'm done with this.  There's also an online marketing certificate that I can take.  But I'm guessing that's worthless.

If something doesn't happen in the next week, I'm definitely going to need to figure out what I'm doing wrong again.  This feels like a process instead of something that I'm succeeding at with what I'm already doing.

Here's how I "spent" last week:

TUESDAY, AUGUST 9 ($15.75)

• 12:19 p.m. G. Richard Pfitzner Baseball Stadium - $15.75.  The Baby Red Sox were in town and it was a day game.  So I decided to go.  The Salem Red Sox actually won this time, so it was a pretty perfect day.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10 ($33.06)

• 12:41 a.m. Subway - $6.09.  Since I had spent so much the week before, I decided to stick close to home and apply for jobs at the closest Starbucks.  And get Subway so I could be carbed up to do so.
• 12:52 a.m. Great Clips - $18.00.  I felt scruffy and felt that perhaps getting a haircut would make me feel more up to applying for a lot of jobs.
• 1:56 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  The staff at this Starbucks should know me better than at any Starbucks in the city.  This is not the case right now.  I intend to change that.
• 4:40 p.m. Harris Teeter - $4.97.  I was out of food at home.  But I was good and just bought one night's worth of dinner.  Though it was pretty shocking how much that cost.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 11 ($33.81)

• 11:11 a.m. Washington Sports Club - Free.  Since I hadn't been back to the city since I signed up for my membership, I wasn't really neglecting it.  But this first workout hurt a lot.  I really had been neglecting fitness.
• 12:27 p.m. Chinatown Express - $7.00.  After working out, I always crave cheap Chinese food.  And since I work out in Chinatown, this could get dangerous.  But at least it's pretty cheap.
• 1:04 p.m. Curbside Cupcakes - $3.00.  Even though I wanted to get to work sending in resumes, I couldn't pass up the food truck since it was so close.  I ate my cupcake walking to Starbucks.
• 1:27 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  This was a very active day.  I sent in four resumes.  It was also the day that I discovered that they all had the wrong phone number on them.
• 5:06 p.m. Safeway - $17.81.  As has been the case a lot recently (since I've only been buying one week at a time), I was running out of food.  I managed to hit all the bargains and only bought one box of Cheez-Its.
• 6:42 p.m. Simply Sweet On Main - $2.00.  I actually wanted to send out more resumes (with the corrected phone number), but my brain was fried.  Even an Italian soda couldn't save it.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 12 ($14.00)

• 11:54 a.m. Truckeroo - $10.00.  When I walked in, I had thought that I had eaten at most of the trucks that I wanted to try.  But they had brought in some Arlington trucks for some freshness.  I managed to keep my meal lightish on the wallet.
• 12:56 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  After some major revisions, I was ready to send my resume out into the wild again.  My brain would not, however, cooperate due to how late I stayed up revising it the night before.
• 3:30 p.m. Washington Sports Club - Free.  Going to the gym after Starbucks didn't particularly help to wake my brain up.  But it did mean that I got two workouts in this week.
• 4:39 p.m. Fado Irish Pub - Free.  My friend had a gift certificate that he had won during the World Cup and I got a free boxty.  Since I pretty much take the VRE every day now, it was convenient to get home.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 13 (Free)

SUNDAY, AUGUST 14 ($11.14)

• 7:07 p.m. Walgreens - $4.99.  I could no longer survive well without replenishing my Benadryl.  I think it's part of the reason that my brain was getting foggy.  My sinuses had been keeping me up all night.
• 7:18 p.m. 7-Eleven - $6.15.  Since I was already walking home by it, I decided to grab some bad burritos and a Slurpee.

MONDAY, AUGUST 15 ($28.88)

• 10:17 a.m. Washington Sports Club - Free.  After a weekend of nearly complete inactivity, I decided to get to the gym first thing in the morning.  Even if it meant the trip on the Metro was a bit more expensive.
• 11:25 a.m. Chipotle - $7.00.  Nothing else seemed very appetizing before noon.  But I was absolutely starving.  I think I ate my burrito bowl in record time.
• 12:02 a.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  Since I planned on watching the soccer match at Fado, I decided not to walk the extra few blocks to my normal Starbucks.  The Chinatown one is pretty amazing.
• 2:55 p.m. Fado - $14.00.  The crowd seemed to all be Australians on vacation, but it was still an enjoyable time.  Especially after Manchester City decided to wake up and beat Swansea 4-0.
• 6:01 p.m. Union Station - $3.88.  I had chips at Fado, but I was drunk and couldn't wait to get home to eat.  So Taco Bell it was.

So that's $136.64. But it was well worth it since I was in the city and, therefore, excited to be looking for work.  It was expensive to go there so much (though I went four times this week), but I figure it's preparing me to wake up every morning and take on the world once I do get a job.  My total spent since I've been unemployed is $6527.49.