Elennare

Well, The Doom(TM) has finally arrived. *gif of meteor here* I've been given a lay off notice and only have a job through the end of June. So, priority #1 is finding new employment. But, I'm also a busy parent, coach, and athlete, so I can't let any of that stuff fall by the wayside either. This is going to suck. In light of the Teetering Tavern theme, I'm going to have some counters running for my goals this challenge! Goal one: apply for jobs! One point for each job applied for, aiming for as many as I can, until someone hires me. Goal two: eat more healthy meals than junk food. My definitions are a little fuzzy, but generally healthy meals will have lots of veggies and protein, and junk is everything that doesn't. Obviously I am going to keep exercising every day, at least a little bit, but at this point I think it's safe to say that's just something I do not a challenge, so I'm not going to track it here. My tally counters, for easy copy/paste for future updates: Jobs applied for: 0 Food goal met: 0 (Healthy meals: 0/junk meals: 0) *another theme-appropriate gif here* Note: my work computer won't display any gifs, so I'll find some and come edit them in later.

Elennare shuffles in, barely able to move her feet, sits down at a table, and promptly passes out. I'm still here! Barely. I have a major upheaval thrown into my life and will for sure be playing on Legendary this go-round! I like the idea of having a counter for hitting goals, though, so I will definitely be thinking about how to incorporate that into my challenge this time. Question for @titsworth: is there some sort of tracker everyone is adding to, are we just keeping track ourselves, or are we supposed to post periodic updates here?

Oh, whoops, the challenge ended. Well, not a whole lot else to report from the end of the last week, other than my whirlwind trip to Canada for junior roller derby. That turned out to be a less than great experience overall, sadly. We had a really short roster, the floor was weird (very slippery), and the first team we played against was *really* good. Like, 5 kids on the national team good. We got beat up. Literally. The second game was right after the first. They adjusted the schedule a bit to give us a full half-hour in between games so the kids could get something to eat. Halfway through the first half, I benched a kid because I was very concerned about how many times she'd been to the medics and bounced her head on the floor. Just before half time, during a long break where another one of my team was being evaluated by the medics after getting slapped in the face really hard, the refs called a meeting to tell me they were getting concerned about safety. I agreed, because at that point I had already been debating whether to forfeit or not. But, if we wanted to go to regionals (which my team very much did), we needed to have the game count as a sanctioned game. So, after some discussion, we decided to finish the half and then work on getting answers to what was needed to have the game count. Unfortunately, the answer was "it's evaluated on a case-by-case basis and we can't give you any guarantees or firm guidelines." So, lots more hard discussions followed, and we ended up agreeing with the other team to finish the game but to play with only 3 blockers instead of 4 to give my kids a little more opportunity to rest. That went a lot better, but we ended up losing a third kid halfway through the second half because he was getting a migraine. Which meant we finished the game with only 8 players (started with 11). A full roster is 15! And, unfortunately, both the kid I benched and the one who got slapped ended up with concussions. 😢 On the up side, while all of that truly sucked, we did get our sanctioned games in, which means we only need one more (scheduled for a few weeks out) to qualify for regionals. And, I am getting way more confident as a coach, which is great. I also managed to keep up with my exercise during all that craziness. Haven't missed a day yet! We're not going to talk about what I ate. 😜 On the job front, I've applied for another opening at my current company, but haven't had the time or the brain to apply anywhere else. I don't know how successful I'll be at finding either of those this week, but I'm going to try!

3/25: 172.5 4/1: 172.4 4/8: 176 4/15: 173.4 4/22: 171.9 4/29: 174.8 *sigh* Yeah, that's about what I expected. Actually, that's less of an increase than I was afraid it would be, so, yay? I guess? It was a week. I am, in fact, being laid off. And, as a result of that, fully knowing what I was doing, I did some stress eating. And then promptly paid the price for it...3 donuts right before roller derby practice is not a great idea. 😅 And then Friday I drove out to Niagara Falls, where I spent the night before driving to Canada on Saturday morning to coach a couple roller derby games promptly followed by the 4 hour drive home. Ate lots of junk food during that as well, because it was pretty much the only option. I currently have lots of motivation to get back on top of eating healthy, but we'll see if I can follow through with it. I have a lot going on right now...🥴

Whelp, there's that. I have officially received notification that I am going to be laid off. Unless either I or the managers find a new position for me, I have a job through the end of June and then I will be unemployed. At the moment, I'm pretty much numb, likely because of how worried I've been for the last week. In some ways, it's a relief to at least have an answer and a date. But, now there's a whole mountain of other things that need to happen that I don't have time for, and a giant new pile of worries. Which I need to balance with the responsibilities I already have that are currently taking a lot of my time and I am in the process of dropping several balls of dealing with. So yeah. I am not ok. In good news, I got to try a couple of the things we were working on in the clinic on Sunday during practice last night, and they worked. So that was cool.

In job news, I have not yet gotten a lay off notice. In a surprising and slightly positive development, my manager asked me to send her my resume this morning. So, maybe they are trying to find me a different position in the company! Guess we'll see. I do still ultimately think I need to be employed elsewhere, but if they can find me a position that's located somewhere I want to be long-term, I'll probably take it and at least stick it out the year it takes until I don't have to pay back the relocation costs (or the company implodes and they lay me off for real). So, fingers crossed something good comes from that, and/or I find something somewhere else fast! Exercise for Friday and Saturday ended up being 20 minutes of walking, though Saturday also included a trip to Ikea. We now have a new dishwasher, that (better not!) randomly turn itself on, refuse to turn off or select the cycle you actually want to run, or quit halfway through washing the dishes because reasons. Hopefully Husband and I can find time to install it this week. Sunday was...a lot. Little One's derby league set up a clinic with Freight Train. If you don't follow roller derby, she is a VERY high level skater and a great coach. So that was a pretty awesome opportunity. It was 4 hours long, though. Unfortunately for Little One, he could only participate in 1 hour of it, because it was set up with the first hour for L2s, and the rest for L3s. I, however, participated in the whole thing. I hadn't really planned on skating for most of it since it was a clinic for the kids, but they kept ending up one person short when they broke up into groups, so I filled in. She also had me help demonstrate something, so I got to hit her! She was demonstrating a counter block (where you hit back at someone who is hitting you, so you take away the power of it and don't go flying), and I was not prepared for how hard she was going to hit me back. 🤣 It took me 2 tries to figure out how to not bounce off and fall down, but I did it. Her name is appropriate. *cue intense fangirling* So, that was a lot of fun, and I learned some cool stuff, but also, 4 hours of skating is a lot of work. I didn't realize just how tired I was until I laid down on my bed for a minute after my shower, and then my muscles just didn't want to work. I didn't hurt, but everything felt drained. The hurt will likely show up tomorrow...unless I have a bunch of bruises showing up today.

Thanks. Unfortunately, due to some first rate fuckery from my manager, I am almost certainly at the top of the list of people to be reduced. I think the best I can hope for is getting offered a different position in the company, but I think chances of that are relatively small (though my manager asked me to send her my resume this morning, so slightly larger than I had thought initially).

3/25: 172.5 4/1: 172.4 4/8: 176 4/15: 173.4 4/22: 171.9 Technically that's Saturday's weigh-in, but today's is artificially high, so, yeah. The scale is going down, yay! Stress has gone way up, boo! Really hoping the stress level follows the scale, but suspect it's likely to go the other way. Depends very much on whether I get laid off this week or not, but either way having an answer will probably at least temporarily drop the stress level. Last week they announced a big "workforce reduction" at my place of employment, with most people affected being notified by the end of this week. The being in limbo state right now is not great.

Unfortunately not. I had a response from another one, but they wanted me to do one of those stupid record yourself answering questions initial interviews, and it came at a really bad time for me to sit down and do it. Before I had a chance, I got the "thanks but we're not moving forward with you" email. 😖 And also, literally minutes before the meeting where they announced the "workforce reductions," I got a similar email for the remaining of the 2 positions I had applied for at my current company. So, there will be lots of applying for jobs in the coming weeks, and if I can find the time to do it, I think I'm going to go check out the relatively new stem-focused recruiting agency down the road and see if they can do anything for me.

Wednesday was supposed to be Little One's practice, but it got canceled on account of bad weather, including a tornado watch. So, Little Bug and I started the crossfit style workout program I bought a while ago and never tried. He wants to lift weights, and the NF Prime program is taking too long to get us to actual weights, so we're trying something different. One workout in, it kicked our butts. Thursday was scrimmage, but I reffed for it because I didn't want to risk aggravating my leg. I definitely got my exercise, because everyone wanted to play fast derby, so there was a lot of sprinting around the outside of the track to keep up! Food has been meh, but I'm at least eating. Today I got a call back from the company I interviewed with. They really liked me, but apparently in the process of interviewing me and the other person, they realized they needed someone with experience in everything in the job listing, not just some of it, so, sorry. Which is extra unfortunate, because yesterday afternoon there was a big meeting with everyone. Where they announced that due to the delay in the rocket schedule and subsequent reduction in funding from NASA, there is going to be a workforce reduction. A significant one, though they didn't give specifics about how much. And, while they are trying to find new positions for people, the rest of the company is also going through reductions because things are not going great for the company as a whole right now, so it's difficult to find spots. They are letting everyone affected know by the end of next week. As of today I still have my job, but I am fully expecting to get a layoff notice by next Saturday. Time to step up the job hunting...

There's not a lot to report from Monday. I ate ok, and did 20 minutes of yoga before bed. Tuesday I also ate ok, and went to derby practice. I got halfway through it (an hour) before my leg went "ahem." I definitely didn't re-injure it, but it was letting me know that it was still injured. So, I decided that was enough of the high-intensity practice, even though they were working on stuff I really wanted to practice. I need my leg to get better so I can play well, not end up with an injury that's bugging me all season because it's not so bad that I can't play (but not quite at my usual level) but never giving it enough rest to actually heal. There were a couple newer skaters working on some skating basics with one of the coaches off to the side, so I went and joined them. That way, I still stayed on my skates for all of practice, and with the coach's permission, I also gave the newer skaters some tips on things and ended up helping at least one of them get past a mental block with a skill.

Thanks! It would require us to move, but until such time as anything is definitely changing, we're continuing like it's not. Given what I've said for my availability, though, Husband should at least be able to work for a few months, which would get something current on his resume and also show he was hired by a city's municipal department, which apparently is a big deal in his field and once you've got that you're more likely to be able to get similar jobs. It's also a seasonal job so it was never going to be long-term, which is also how working for that kind of organization tends to go - you start with something small/limited time, and then if they like you, you get offered something permanent when it's available. So, even if things don't work out for him to be able to do as much as he'd like, it'll still be a big boost to his future job searches. Also, worst-case option, he could always relocate later than the rest of us. We've got a lot to think about if the job for me becomes a reality, but we're still a ways (at least one more interview) away from that, and we're trying not to get too wrapped up in details of things that are still very much at the level of "maybe."

I mean, what's the point of having a healthy lifestyle if you have to give up your life to have it? Everyone definitely has foods like that. You can have my tasty, sugary coffee creamer when you pry it out of my cold, sleepy hands.

Yesterday was super busy. Couldn't go to church on Saturday afternoon like we normally do, because I had my game and Little One was singing at a minor league hockey game with his choir from school, so we had to get up super early to go at 8am. And then head straight from church to the junior derby games (it was a double header). Well, we stopped for breakfast on the way...where the coffee shop messed up my order and gave me a fancy chai instead of the fancy coffee I had ordered. So I got to do all of the crazy with no coffee. 🥴 So we got to the venue about 45 minutes after we were supposed to, though I had let everyone know we were going to be a bit late, so it wasn't too big of a deal. Except, as the head coach, people needed me to do a whole bunch of stuff pretty much as soon as I walked in the door. And it turned out no one had put together a proper schedule for the day, so I ended up digging up the one we used from the last home bout and making sure it got shared with everyone who needed it. The actual coaching went well, though I had to briefly ask the other coach to do something I usually do in between games so I could run to the bathroom. Both teams played pretty well, but couldn't quite manage to take the win. I am especially proud of the level 2 team, who made the adjustments in how they were playing that we told them to and as a result closed the score gap significantly. And then, after getting some lunch dinner and ice cream, home and time to do the taxes. Because I haven't had time to do them sooner, so pretty much last minute it was! Turns out we're actually getting a refund this year! Thanks to the tax code changes, the last couple of years we've ended up having to pay, so that was a nice (and welcome) surprise. Also, Saturday evening, Little Bug started getting sick. He still wasn't feeling great on Sunday, and pretty much stayed in bed all day. So, we figured he'd stay home from school today. Except, apparently that message didn't make it to Little Bug. And Husband and I got woken up this morning by the sound of him leaving to catch the school bus! So Husband threw on clothes and went and got him back from the bus stop. I was definitely awake, and it was 45 minutes until my alarm was supposed to go off, so I decided to just stay up. On the one hand, I'm annoyed at getting woken up early, but on the other, I am very proud of Little Bug for getting himself up and around for school on time when as far as he knew Dad overslept. My pulled muscle is significantly less sore today. I'm still a little bit worried it's because I've been taking anti-inflammatory doses of advil and once it wears off it's going to be a lot more sore than I think it is, but it actually hurts less than my non-pulled muscles do currently, so it's probably fine. I also forgot a couple big things in my giant update. Husband has a job offer from the zoo! It's currently an informal offer, but that's because they're still in the process of adjusting some things to basically make a new position specifically for him, and once that's finished he's going to get the formal offer. It's part time, but it's also exactly what he wants to do (and is good at), and he got the nice confidence boost of them wanting him to join the organization so much they are making a spot specifically for him. And the other thing for me, is while I was on the business trip I had a screening interview for a position. I think I mentioned that was going to happen? Well, I didn't exactly hear back from that one, but the recruiter contacted me again to say another team had taken a look at my resume and thought I was a good fit for a position they had open and would I like to apply for that one? Here, talk to this other recruiter and take a look at the listing. So I looked at the listing, and the position did indeed sound like something I would be a good fit for, so I let the other recruiter know I was interested, and also formally applied for it. She set up a screening interview for me, and we had that the same day as the science museum trip. Where she pretty much told me "yeah, the team has already decided they want to interview you, so we're just having this call as a formality because the process says we need to. When are you free for the actual interview?" So, I had a real, actual interview last week. The position sounds very interesting and also like something I think I would be really good at. I think the interview went well, but who knows? Not me, until I hear back. So, 🤞!

3/25: 172.5 4/1: 172.4 4/8: 176 4/15: 173.4 Still up from where I started, but down a fair bit from last week! While the number is still nowhere near where I want to be, I am very pleased to see it heading down again. Here's hoping I can keep doing whatever it is that's got it going down.