Fantastic Four(th Month)

I miss writing about my life. I feel like it keeps me in touch with myself. I intend to start writing again more frequently.

Updates:

• I lost 15 pounds (possibly 17-18, but I don't know if I trust this new scale that we got)
• I got my PhD diploma a couple months ago
• I am just starting to apply for jobs again, and I feel like I'm in a much better place now
• My tropical trip is totally booked, minus the fun events and adventures that we need to sign up for
• We went to the Washington State Fair a couple weekends ago. We rode a monster truck, watched "dock dogs" compete in a jumping competition, went to an animal exhibit, and did other fun stuff. He got donuts that he claimed are the best he can remember having (he's a donut fiend).
• I am trying to seriously work on my sleep. I slept about 9.5 hours Friday, but got up at 5 this morning after just about 4.5 hours of sleep (had a HORRIBLE nightmare about work). Seems like any progress I make on sleep (9.5 hours on Friday) is just totally negated the next day (4.5 hours of sleep). My goal is 9 hours per night, although 8 hours on average would be a tremendous achievement.
• I have a costume planned for this year's festivals - I'm paying someone to hand-craft it because I don't have time. Next year though, I'm going to hand-make this one I really like. I just am not ready for a big project like that right now.

I'm excited about getting a new job and living in a big city. There aren't a whole lot of jobs open for my field in this geographic location right now, so I decided to change my game plan. I made a list of actual companies where I would like to work because they have good cultures, good work-life balance, and they are in the area. 

I want to find somewhere I can stay for at least 3-5 years, because my resume has no indication of longevity -- I only stayed at my last 3 jobs for 1 year 2 months, 1 year 6 months, and now 1 year 2 months at this job. I need a longer stint, which means I need to find a place I am happy at. I made a list of 25 companies that I plan to watch and apply for any new job opening. There are currently 2 semi-related job openings that I'll be applying to today. They are jobs that are related to skills I have, but aren't directly in my field. 

My plan, because of the lack of current "perfectly relevant" job openings, is:

• To get an "in" with a company I like and work there until a job opens up in my field. I expect it will be easier to transfer to a position internally than externally, partially because if I start working there now I'll have the advantage of having direct experience with that company.
• As far as timeline, I've just really started my job search this weekend. I am about halfway done revising my resume. 
• I need to really start studying topics in my field so that I can start preparing for technical interviews (which is the most stressful part of interviewing). 
• I have also come up with a plan to fast-track some projects at my current job so that I can finish them and put those on my resume. I plan to put in some extra hours to get this done because there isn't enough time at work to get additional projects done. 
• Also, I really need to start working on getting 3 strong references. To do this, I plan to ask my current supervisor and the coworker I work with a lot at work (he's basically the VP of my division, so I think he would be good). I feel like I'm on shaky terms with my supervisor, so I need to work on that area the most. This is another reason I want to fast-track a few extra projects on my spare time, so that I can impress him and show a lot of accomplishments over the next month before I announce that I'm leaving.
• I plan to study for technical interviews over the month of May and start applying to jobs now whenever I see them. The tricky part is that I'll be on vacation for 2 weeks in May, so I may need to do some studying for interviews while I'm there. I'm thinking a minor amount, maybe 30 minutes a day (which equals about 1 journal article). Then when I come back, start studying more often. 
• My ideal plan is to study for interviews, prepare myself, and apply to jobs throughout the month of May, and hopefully get interviews in June. I hope to start a new job in July.

I'll update the trip pictures when I can -- J has to finish formatting them in his special program before he'll let me get final copies of them. Off to grocery shop, go on a nature education program, and do some job prep work!