Update

Things are going slowly since I moved back to Klamath Falls. I've realized that few newspaper jobs are in cities where I want to live, and having to choose between a job I'd love and a city in which I'd be happy is difficult right now. I don't have to pay rent for a while, which gives me the ability to be a little picky. I'm starting to think seriously about what my other options are.

This isn't the most exciting town and it's a hard period of adjustment being back here again, but it's kind of nice. I do actually like my parents and enjoy spending time with them even if the town is boring. Yesterday, my dad and I went to Crater Lake. It is nice to live so close (about 60 miles) to one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

No news

There's not much new to report here. Life is boring,and testing whether
I can update from my blackberry is the most interesting thing I have to Do. Real update soon. Today I went to crater lake.

Saying goodbye

This was my last day in Yakima. Tomorrow I make the big move down to Klamath Falls. Because I have no one to drive a U-Haul for me (I just don't feel safe driving one, particularly if it's towing my car, and there's no room in the front of one for my cat carriers), I had to do one trip down to Klamath a few weeks ago and had to condense down to what would fit in a car. My mom and I traded cars because hers has a lot more room than mine does, and it was still quite a feat.

I gave a lot of stuff to Goodwill and contributed several boxes of household items to a friend's garage sale and even then took more bags than I remembered to count to the dumpster. I had to throw away most of my food (a lot of it perfectly good, but that I couldn't donate because it had been opened), all my cleaning supplies and various things that I just realized as I packed up the car today would NOT fit. I also had a trip to the recycling center this week where I learned that a lot of types of plastic, as well as ALL glass items, are no longer recyclable here. I feel absolutely awful knowing that there's what felt like an entire dumpster full of stuff that will be in a landfill forever because I live in a place where I can't recycle everything or because I couldn't get the help I needed to move. I'm not a hoarder (although I am a bit of a pack rat), but I keep stuff around just because I try to be pretty "green" and hate the idea of something lying around a landfill if it might have use to someone or if I can find a place to recycle it. But I just reached a point in my packing process where I didn't give a shit anymore. The sad thing is, I didn't own an unusual amount of stuff. It all had a place and could be put away. I just owned what any adult who's been on her own for nearly a decade would own. And it turns out that's a LOT. A lot that will have to be replaced when I find a new job and move away from the parents. Again. I own far too many books for just one person, but I love books. There's not a place here I could really donate them and I will NOT throw books away. Maybe someday if I really have to pare things down I'll give them to the library, but I love books and will read (or re-read) every one of them.

Tonight I'm staying in a hotel, while my poor cats stay on their own back at the apartment, because a friend took all my furniture this morning and then I foolishly packed all my blankets and sheets away. I have a very long drive and thought I'd be better off if I got a comfortable, relaxed sleep than if I tried to sleep on the floor sans blankets. Went on Priceline and got an amazing deal on a room, so I'm quite proud of myself.

I'm quite cranky at the moment because I'm in pain from trying to lift very heavy trash bags/boxes and having to do everything myself (other than the furniture, which I had help with) made me feel rather alone and frustrated. I'm feeling much more sorry for myself than is really called for, but I think if this ever happens again, I'll definitely suck it up and learn to drive the damn U-Haul.


I'd be lying if I said I'd miss Yakima, but I'll definitely miss some of the people I met here and I'll miss my apartment, which I actually really loved. A friend from work had just started to invite me out with a group of her friends, who are really cool people, and I'm sad that I didn't get the chance to know them better. One of them, a man from Mexico City who works for Univision (I think...) helped the work friend and I move all my furniture to her apartment today. As we drove in the U-Haul, he kept saying goodbye to various things in Yakima. I won't miss the town itself, although there are interesting things about living here, but I'll miss the people I didn't get to know better. And I certainly still miss my job.

Now I'm off to find a vending machine, have a cup of tea and try to enjoy my last few hours before I have to get up and spend 8 hours in a car with two cranky cats.

Pictured at the top of this post: The wiener dog races in Ellensburg, Wash., about 40 minutes from here. One of the more entertaining things I did in my first month in Yakima last year.

Daily project

As my time in Yakima winds down, I'm finally getting a few leads on the job search front, but still need to fill the daylight hours. Yesterday I came across a recipe for homemade bagels and thought I'd give it a shot. It's not like me to be so ambitious, but I love bagels and they're expensive, so I figured that learning to make my own could save me money. The results were quite pleasing to my eye and tastebuds:

How I feel about what I just did ...

I can't really explain here, but if you ask me on a more private setting, I'll tell you what this photo refers to.

Two months of unemployment

Sunday will mark the two-month anniversary of my lay-off. There's not much news to report.

Now that I know I'm moving back in with my parents and will be off the hook for rent for a month or two, I'm a little less stressed out about living on unemployment money. I don't really want to go back to Klamath Falls, but it's easier to at least know what's happening. At this point, I almost hope that it takes several more weeks to find something new so that I have some time to settle in a bit before I have to move again.

The problem I'm having now is finding three jobs per week to apply for. It's required, but there just aren't three journalism jobs being advertised per week. There are plenty of jobs I am not qualified for, but I don't want to just apply for things I wouldn't be offered any more than I want to apply for things I wouldn't take.

At this point, I'm starting to accept that I may have to look in another field. There are ways to use these skills in other ways.

The freelance writing thing hasn't panned out yet. The Web sites I've applied for are mostly looking for how to articles or opinion pieces, which isn't what I want to do. They're not looking for journalistic pieces.

In the meantime, I'm spending much more time online than I should, simply because I'm trying to avoid the last bit of packing I still have to do. it's at that point where everything left is just little stuff lying on the floor and knick-knacks, or stuff that has to go to Goodwill and it's just a pain in my ass.

The fun thing that I've done this week is go to the Mariners home opener. I've been a fan of Ken Griffey Jr. since I was a kid and I wanted to see him come back to Seattle. It was a beautiful day and a friend who also went to the game met up with me afterward (I crashed at his place) and on the way home, we ran into a mutual friend and went out for a beer with her at Pike Place Brewery. It was a perfect Northwest sort of day.

Thank you, MSNBC ...

I'm not entirely clear on how this got past the censors, except that this is what a movement is calling itself, and I'm aware that it stoops to the intellectual level of a 13-year-old boy, but I laughed my ass off.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Lazy Saturday

One of the things about unemployment is that you can either have a lot to write or absolutely nothing. The search for work can be an interesting job in itself, if you're willing and/or able to do anything, but if you're determined to work in a specific industry, the process of looking gets a tad monotonous.

After about two months of looking for work (I started the search around Feb. 5 — the day we had a union meeting to discuss the fact that we knew there would be layoffs and that my job was one of the ones most in danger), I finally got a few responses to resumes. I don't want to mention anything specific for fear of jinxing the process, but I do have at least one solid lead that I'm confident about. It's a paper on the west coast, which would be great. I've been in contact with some people from that paper all week and one was supposed to call me yesterday regarding an interview, but he didn't. Here's hoping they were just busy.

The other lead is less sure, but I got an e-mail from an editor telling me he was narrowing down who to interview. I know it wasn't a form e-mail because he referenced a very specific, personal part of my cover letter. That job would be farther away from the west coast but is close to some family.

If nothing else, I'm just happy to have gotten some response after all this time. I'm about to send out some more cover letters — I have to do three per week while I'm on unemployment — but I'm feeling a bit better. One thing's certain. The countdown to leaving Yakima has begun. I've given notice to be out of my apartment on May 3, and if I don't have a job by then, I'll be staying with my parents until I do. Knowing whether I have a job would make it easier to decide how to deal with my stuff (particularly if I have an offer from a place that will pay moving expenses), but the sure thing is that by the end of the month, I'll be off the hook for rent and utilities or moving somewhere where I have a steady paycheck and can take care of those things without stress.


Tonight I'm going to a party with a work friend and some of her friends. I met them last week at a fun party at this really cool farm house out in the country where they tried to teach me to Salsa. It was a fun time. It figures that right when I'm ready to move, I finally start meeting great people and feeling really comfortable with the friends I have made here. I've always considered myself to be someone who made friends easily, but it's been hard here. It was the first time I ever moved somewhere where I didn't know anyone (including when I went to D.C. for the summer) and I just felt like the new kid in school. I just didn't have the confidence to call people and invite them places, even when we were friends at work. I haven't felt like myself in a long time, and I hope that wherever I go next, that changes. I need to figure out how to make the most out of wherever I am and I hope I've learned to do that.

Unemployment Week Four(ish)

Well, a month in and still no job leads. I'm finally having to accept how tight money is on unemployment and for the second time in my adult life, am going to move back in with my parents. I'm in Yakima until April 30 and then it's back to the hometown. Hopefully not for long. It's not my ideal option but at least I won't have to pay rent. The worst part? It's not possible to buy a national newspaper in Klamath Falls. No NY Times, no Wall Street Journal, not even USA Today! I'm going to go crazy. In the meantime, my friend Brant posted this link on my Facebook that pretty much sums up how each day has gone since I lost my job.

This week, I'm meeting my parents at the Oregon Coast for a short vacation and then it's back to Yakima to start packing and getting rid of stuff. Anyone want to drive a U-Haul from Yakima to Klamath Falls for me?

On Friday, I mentored a student in a journalism workshop at my old paper. It's a workshop they've been doing for seven years. After a Friday night dinner, the kids -- all in high school, except my student, who's an eighth grader -- come in on Saturday, report in the morning and write a story in the afternoon. I took my student to a DVD release party for "Twilight" on Friday night and we came back and wrote in the morning. Since we had free time, we went out to report on a yard sale at one of the high schools. So my student was not only the youngest ever to do the workshop, she was the first to do a Friday night assignment and the first to do two stories! It was really fun. Walking around helping her do interviews just served to remind me how much I love reporting. This is not the time for me to find more reasons that I want to stay in newspapers. I've been trying to convince myself to look in other industries, but this is all I want to do. Something's going to have to give.

Edited to add: When I made the reservation for this hotel in Portland (staying here tonight to make it easier to get to Lincoln City early tomorrow), I wondered why it was so cheap. It's a pretty nice place. A train just went past, and I think I have my answer. Here's hoping the conductors don't blow the whistle in the middle of the night.

Homesick

I went down to Eugene this weekend for a visit. I hung out with several, but not all, of my friends and had some delicious food (no good restaurants in the current town). I've only been there twice since I moved away, and I'd forgotten how pretty it is. The winter rain may be a bit depressing, but everything is so green. I'd also forgotten how much I love just walking around Eugene. I always felt so at home there and nothing's changed. Whenever I go back to Oregon, there's a moment in the drive at which the vegetation starts to change from the desert of Eastern Oregon/Washington to the lush green grass of the more rainy Willamette Valley, and right about then, every part of my body relaxes. I felt that way when I was a college freshman, brand new to the area, and I feel that way now. It feels like home. Some part of me knows I'm supposed to be there.

As I drove away, the homesickness set in. I was relatively happy in the current city, even though I only moved here for the job, but leaving Eugene felt like leaving home to stay in a temporary place. I also know I can't go back there to live. I've started to look around the country for new work and have accepted that I'll have to leave the Pacific Northwest. But as I watched Eugene get smaller in my rearview mirror, I realized I may not be back for quite some time, and it made me sad. Moving away to a new part of the country will be an adventure, and one I'm ready for, but being far away from Oregon will be hard.