Apartment-Girlfriend

So, it seems that it's been quite some time since I've actually posted on this thing. Since then, I've relocated to the capital of New York State to be with the love of my life as he had accepted a job at Albany Medical Center. Myself, being an art teacher, has the summer off; and the foreseeable fall and winter as well...

While my partner in crime is at work, I get a sense of accomplishment and feeling of being useful by being a housewife; or, in my case: apartment-girlfriend (As we don't live in a house nor are we married). Cleaning, doing laundry, running errands and cooking dinner are good distractions from the fact that I have yet to find a teaching position for September. I'm hoping to hear from schools that I've applied to later this month, but in all honesty, I won't be too disappointed if I don't.

Finding a teaching position just plain sucks. There's no other way of saying it. New York State requires that all open teaching positions be posted; however it's not stipulated as to where. This means that most positions are posted in obscure places that aren't able to be found by the regular job hunter. Also, it should be pointed out that schools generally already know who they want to fill these "available" positions, so the fact that some of these postings aren't attainable by the classroom hungry unemployed teachers isn't such an issue. It's an issue when those positions are posted in very visible and public areas and we jump through hoops making sure we write the perfect and impressive cover letter, tailor our resume to the 9's and make carefully thought out follow-up calls: and the position has always been "filled" by someone waiting in the wings.

Frustrating? Yes. Discouraging? Yes. Cause for periodic break-downs questioning if you should try to find another career path even after you went to school for X number of years specifically to teach what you want to teach? Oh, you bet.

DJ (that is what I'll refer to my other half as I'm not sure how keen he'd be to see that I've included him in an online blog) has tried to push me to make my own stuff this summer and to use this as an opportunity to focus on that because "who knows when you'll be able to have the chance to do this again?". Not sure if he;s implying fun summer activities in the years to come or if he's thinking I'm going to have to throw away all those years of school in order to work in some field that I have no interest in whatsoever. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say fun stuff is ahead.

Since I find myself alone for the day most days of the week with my cat; I think I might come back to this blogging thing to express random thoughts, ideas and frustrations. Currently I only have one follower, my best friend, but who knows... maybe some strangers will have interest in the poorly written babble I have to share. (A la Julie and Julia perhaps!)

I think this will conclude my reintroduction; I'm sure I've got some more constructive things to be doing right now; I just have to find my list...