Month in Review

Ok.....so technically it's like Five Weeks in Review, but the month mark sounds so much more catchy. Yes, I have been out here for just over a month and will be going into my sixth week starting tomorrow. As for some initial thoughts:

• The weather is beautiful....the coldest day was this past Saturday and it was 51 degrees. Yes 51, and people were all bundled up saying how cold it was.
  
• Living near the beach is great and I get such a great sunset each night, which makes for a pleasurable walk/run.
  
• Having a gym in the complex (and no job to be at) has made it much easier to work out each week.
  

Now that being said, I want to use this blog to sort of review where I'm at, where I thought I would be at, and where to go from here. I guess I can start by saying that the distance from Mel is a thousand times harder than I ever thought and I miss her tremendously. Now I'm not saying that just to get some oohs and awws out of the female reader, (Did it work though?! Huh, did it?!) but rather because I thought that the love that we hold would make the time apart difficult but doable like when Mel would go on business trips in the past. The difference of course was that during those past trips, I was working during that day and after a busy day of work I did kind of like the quiet time to myself.

That leads to my next thought. I did think that the job search would be easier. Maybe easy is the wrong word, perhaps I should say that I thought it would be more fruitful. As you know from reading, I have been on one interview which granted was a major interview that I am really pulling for. That being said, that is the only contact I have had...at least until today, when I got a call from another major studio to come in and meet with the head of production. So this feeling of despair which was well thought out prior to today is now shifting to accommodate the recent news. Still, I did expect that I would have been in touch with more people and my network would be larger than it currently is. While I knew it would take time, I thought opportunities would make themselves open to myself other than the constant "available position" postings that I have been answering constantly on company's websites.

Thus being out of work with not much interviewing or networking contact has led to a lack of structure, which I now realize I was unprepared for. While I have found structure in my running and gym routine, that has been at one-hour increments only. I find I am most successful (as I was while working) making lists and setting goals for the day. When I do, like today, I feel much more focussed on what to do. When I don't, my mind wanders, I surf the internet, bum around watching TV, and ultimately see the day slip away like a day a few weeks ago where it was 4:00 before I knew it and had not done anything outside of going to the gym. However even with a detailed list of things to do, there is still a lot of downtime, which I am trying to prevent from going astray into worthless activities. I enjoy the ability of going out for walks or hanging around town, but am always fearful of getting an important phone call while out in an area that doesn't allow for my best phone conversation skills. It is a tricky balance of not staying in the house constantly mixed with being prepared to email, research, network, and interview if need be.

As for social networking, I have been spending a lot of time with my sister-in-law, which is great and she has been so helpful in helping me get out of the house. I also have been hanging out with a good friend from high school. This has been nice, but I do find myself isolated because of the lack of work. Being in the East Bay has also separated myself a little as most of the people I do know are in the city or somewhere else in the area. This weekend seeing this to be a major drain on my motivation and positive persona, I joined up with Meetup.com to try and meet some new people that are more local to the area. We will see if this works. I am going to an activity this week and the little addition of personal contact will help to keep me motivated.

As for my persona and internal feelings without getting too Dr Phil on you. (Your life is like a Banana......there is an outside layer that people sometimes slip on. You know what I'm saying.) I can immediately feel a change in pace and personality from New York, one that I absolutely love. I pass random people on the street and say hello, and I can get in conversations with people at the store. This has been pleasant. I don't feel an overall stress, but then again I am not working, like I've said before. Where I have failed is that I do find some of my bad habits continuing like the days when I do not accomplish much or I stay inside and on the computer. I find the lack of structure troubling, which has been very difficult. However after a really frustrating Friday, which got me pretty low, I was able to spend the weekend reassessing and I feel that I know what I need to do to move forward more positively and productively.

So there you go. The move I will say was definitely the right choice and while things have not got exactly like I envisioned, there are still a number of good things on the horizon. I should hear from my first interview by this Friday (last Friday I was told I was a top choice, but they still had a few more people to meet) and then I have the other interview on Thursday. Overall, I would give the first month a B+ with definite things to work on and further, and of course getting a job and getting Mel out here will make everything worthwhile. Ok..enough for tonight.

-Scott-

P.S. As for a running update, I had a good 6-mile run today, which felt very good, and got back online to my NikePlus account, which always gives me added motivation.