All Posts Tagged ‘job search’

A season to say thank you
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A Season to Say Thanks

November 27, 2014
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I walked into our home office yesterday after a day of buzzing about, updating technology, writing and baking and noticed that the wall calendar still displayed the vintage corn advertisement artwork for the month of OCTOBER. Yes, I am a nerd and I have a whole calendar dedicated to vintage advertising, but more importantly where the heck did November go?!

Maybe it is the fact that I am still running around in shorts and tank tops (I did not get to wear this combo enough in Colorado!), or that the weather is FINALLY cooling down to really enjoyable temps and humidity levels, or maybe it’s that R and I are guilty of being busy and letting time get away from us, but in no way does it feel like today is Thanksgiving.

First a quick update, November was very good to R and I, and most of this post is to recognize that and be thankful. But is being thankful the same as saying thank you? I don’t think there are enough thank you’s floating around out there, so an update, and then a whole lot of THANK YOU is coming your way.

November was a booty kicking month, here’s why:

  • An actual marketing job posting came my way, I applied, I interviewed, I interviewed again with a presentation, and then I got it! I was hired by the NTBG (National Tropical Botanical Garden) to be the marketing manager for the south shore gardens on Kauai. This is right up my alley in that it is marketing and communications AND still in an educational field since the NTBG was started by government charter 50 years to protect the biodiversity of the pacific islands. It is a research institute as well as incredible tourist destination, and I get to make it my job to communicate about this place. I know I will learn much more about this incredible organization in the future, but for now, that’s what I know.
  • Not to be outdone, R also applied for a position and got it too! Crazy! R was hired by a design/build company on Kauai to be a part-time draftsman for their projects. They are a little firm right now, but have lots of work and are training R in some of the drafting programs he isn’t familiar with. This allows R to keep working on design/build himself AND learn the office side of the field of architecture. I’m proud, ridiculously proud. He may even get to earn hours toward his architectural internship requirement. I know this isn’t the right term, but it’s a good thing. Ask him and he’ll tell you all about it.
  • I turned in the first draft of my thesis. It’s almost 70 pages. The good news is that I’m still alive and breathing. Awaiting feedback for a December 4th defense that will be the last thing I do as a grad student. Yippee!
  • We went to Polihale. I have no words to describe just how beautiful the experience was. It is very easily the most beautiful place I have ever been. When you visit, we will take you.
  • We’re buying another house. Everything is still processing so nothing is final until it’s final, but we’re excited because it is a place that we can really call home. Not a project for Richard to come home to or a construction zone to live in. Fingers crossed!

OK – here’s the good stuff. R and I know there is a heap load of crap going on in the world right now, you know what it is I don’t have to remind you. Why we are able to live the life that we do while that heap of crap is going on I will never understand, but I do think that it is in big part because of you, yes YOU, THANK  YOU!

THANK YOU to our families. We know you have mixed feelings about us picking up and trekking across the pacific to live on a tiny island, but we know you supported us too. Thank you for the care packages and encouragement as we figure out what the heck we are doing out here, slowly but surely we are figuring it out! We miss you!

THANK YOU to our friends back home and new friends on the island. Friends in CO, you pushed us to be brave, to take this chance and know that when we have bad days you’re there on the other end of the phone or screen. We miss you all like crazy! Come out and visit! Thank you to our new friends on the island for helping us figure out this place and how to survive.

THANK YOU to all of our former co-workers and colleagues at the places we have been. It may not have always been fun, but it was always leading us to where we are today and for that we will always be thankful. I know what I know because of the people I’ve worked with and I think R would say the same. Thank you for being teachers and mentors, motivators and reality-checkers.

THANK YOU for reading this and our crazy social media updates about our daily life here and for your kind words and thoughts. We have been completely overwhelmed by the response to our move and adventures out here, and you’re a big part of why we’re still going!

Happy Thanksgiving. Go say thank you for something that you are thankful for too! Maybe saying a few more thank you’s will help that heap of crap going on in the world get a little smaller.

XO
RT

A new new chapter
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A (New) New Chapter

September 25, 2014
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R and I are just past the 2 month mark of our move to Kauai – wow how time flies! We thought that living in Hawaii would slow us down a little bit, get us (ok mostly me) to relax a little, but so far that has not been the case. We did move here primarily for a work opportunity for Richard and to try living in a new place with a different culture than anything we were used to in Colorado. We wanted a little adventure in our life story and what better way to start a new chapter than with a move to a tropical oasis?

For R, this new chapter has brought on a lot of work with a lot more sweat. He is still a do-it-all and do-it-extremely well designer/contractor, but he has been spending anywhere from 6 to 10 hours per day, outside in the crazy heat and humidity crawling under and around this house, chasing electrical wire disasters, repairing shoddy plumbing and just generally fixing the janky additions to the main house. It is exhausting just watching him and a far cry from the basement remodels and kitchen finishes that he was used to in Colorado. It is amazing to see the transformation that this house has already gone through and I can’t wait to see the finished product and find out if we can sell it but more on that later.

The first two months here have been full of new things for me too. If you remember way back to the beginning of the blog I was graciously offered the opportunity to give remote work a try for my job in Colorado. It was a decent job (marketing for the University I went to for undergrad) and there were great days where I loved everything about it, but there were also days where all I wanted to do was run screaming from the building and never come back. Taking the offer to work remotely I thought that moving to this little green dot in the middle of the Pacific would help me find that initial joy I once had for the job and decrease the frequency of pull-out-my-hair-and-scream days, but those days were still there and still frequent. So when the terms of my full time employment were up at the end of August and I was supposed to move into a part time position, I decided that it was best if I declined the temporary work offer and tried to find something else new to fit into this little story about life.

It’s hard to walk away from something that has been part of how you introduce yourself for so long. “What do you do? I work for a university admissions office where I manage email marketing design and communication” is no longer part of my casual conversation and that is weird. I went to college for four years and worked at the university six, so 10 years of my 28 were shaped by that place and the people there. Even on the most frustrating days it was (and still is) so much a part of who I am and what I am capable of. For that I will always be thankful. So with the decision not to extend the position made final, I packed up my bags and headed to Honolulu for one final event as Tessa, Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing. It was a fitting way to end my position since the first event I ever did as an employee was of the same variety just in a different state.

What was really great about timing of everything and the presentation in Honolulu was that it gave Richard and I the chance to island hop and check out the big city for a few days. We stayed in Honolulu for a night and then stayed two nights at my aunt’s house in Kaneohe. We had a blast and fit in a crazy amount of tourist activities. We shopped, dined along Waikiki Beach, visited Pearl Harbor, Byodo-in Temple and the Polynesian Cultural Center, ate Round Table pizza (I was obsessed with this pizza the first time I visited Oahu. It’s good, but not as mind-bending as my 14 year old self remembers) kayaked the bay and had a little time at Kailua beach before catching our late flight back to Kauai. The trip was great but didn’t leave a lot of time to consider how I would answer the question, “What do you do?” now.

I’d love to say that I have a fabulous answer to that question now, but I’m not sure I do just yet. For now I’m spending the days working on my master’ thesis, (proposal is currently under review by my committee at a whopping 42 pages in length and that’s just the proposal!) working on a few freelance marketing projects and deciding if I want to make a go of this freelance situation full time and start my own LLC  (shameless plug here. . . Have any marketing or design needs? I’m your gal!), and keeping an eye on job postings and tracking down contact information for people in places I’d like to work. Also trying to enjoy this little green dot in the Pacific just a little.

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