Wabbits...

Job hunting is depressing. I went through the second round yesterday with a marketing company. You know when you leave a store and there's this smiling man with a catchy table who is really excited to sell you a great deal on a fabulous savings package?

That's my job offer. In fairness, the products were legit and good deals. And the manager training me was a genuinely positive guy. But ambush marketing? Sure, I could do that. Do I want to? No.

This would be easier to turn down if any of my other prospects looked better. The jobs that actually appealed to me were filled without so much as a distant wave my direction.

The pressure I'm feeling is really self-imposed. I have income moving my way, and I've been a smart spender lately. But I'm a pretty typical man in that so much of my self-worth is pinned on my financial value to the family. I know, typical male ego...

A decent job is out there, but where? And how will I land it? I really want to own my own business, so I need to get into a business world of some sort. But how? And what? And why won't the breweries in town magically adopt me as their spokesdork?

Rolling along

Miss Neverpoop's first bike ride at the local park. It was her first time going down hills (which terrified her), and her first time going up hills (which terrified her). She is afraid of everything these days.

• Hills


• Spiderwebs


• Bees


• Dust bunnies


• New food


• Hair


• Doctors


• Medicine


• Band Aids


• Removing Band Aids


• Loud sneezes


• Lint


• Speed Bumps


• Fire


• Pickies (hangnails)


• Toilets flushing


• Going fast


• Monsters


• Moths

It is a little disturbing to see her so frightened all of the time. We never allow her to give into her fears (alright, maybe fire...). We calmly hold her as she faces them. She loves adrenaline, but is terrified of trying anything brand new. If we can get her to try it once, though...

I'm working with that in my own world. Leaving teaching is scary, especially when I failed at doing so last year. In the middle of it all, I am trying to figure out how to find a new job, prepare for the next venture (owning the microbrewery), deciding whether to buy a house, rent, or get the hell out of Texas, refinancing the house in Kansas, and trying to manage the stress without letting daily life scare the shit out of me.

Yeah, working on that. It was a good day for a bike ride.

New job...

I am about to enter my last quarter as a teacher. I'm throwing in the towel. I surrender. It has been something that I have excelled at and pushed the boundaries of. But enough is enough. It's a tough job that gets worse as you get older.

I am still, however, completely clueless as to what comes next. More school? A new career? And where will that be? My wife has about a month left until she is Dr. Wife, PhD. Although that sounds glamourous, it is really just stressful, as she is interviewing for a select few jobs that happen to all be located on edges of the US. Currently, we are in the wheat-fed middle.

So help me out. Career advice, por favor!