Laid Off but Keeping Busy

I don't have much to write about today. Of course once I start a blog I cant think of anything cool or interesting to write about!! Before I actually committed to this thing I had TONS of ideas! Arg...writers block I guess. ;-)
SO, I can write about some general stuff that I've been up to.... so here comes long boring stories....watch out people, I'm reeeally good at typing looong stories. ;-)

As many of you know I was laid off from my job back in February. I can't believe its been this long already...it really is too bad. I have gotten to the point where I am OK with it and I don't feel sorry for myself because it has become all to common around here. Unfortunately, people are STILL getting laid off in my industry. Anything related to building and construction and architecture is pretty much in the crapper right now.

The Chicago architecture and design industry is HUGE, there is a great network of professionals here and SO many people are out of work, its crazy. The architecture firm that I worked for is down to a pretty small group of people now. The interiors group that I was in within the firm is pretty much non-existent. Its crazy to have so many of my friends unemployed. People keep saying that this happens a lot in my industry and it always bounces back...but it sure it taking a while!! I guess its good that it happened early in my career because I will be "more prepared" when it happens again (right?!)... ha-ha....I don't know if one is ever prepared for getting laid off. Even though I knew it was coming eventually I was still shocked. I must say now that the experience I got there was good and I am glad I got the chance to work in a firm and get my foot in the door! Even though I wasn't the happiest there and it sort of was a blessing in disguise to be laid off, I sure wish I had another firm to go to! Too bad no one is hiring. :-(

All I have to say is thank god for unemployment and thank god that Joe still has a job that doesn't seem to be in jeopardy at this point! Whew! Not that things have been easy for us though...living on one income, especially here in a pretty expensive city, is not easy to say the least.

I have been able to earn some extra cash by doing private tutoring at my Alma-mater, Harrington College of Design. I pretty much started tutoring on the side soon after I graduated in 2007. I am hired privately by students to tutor them in Auto CAD, Photoshop, and other courses that they take for interior design degree. Its a good gig because it keeps my skills up to date and its pretty good money.

So, I was doing the tutoring privately, but recently I was hired on part-time at school as a Teaching Assistant in the classrooms and a tutor/learning assistant in the computer labs where students go to work on their projects. Luckily that is giving us some extra income for now that's a little more steady. Its pretty fun, the only thing is that I am gone for long hours on Wed and Thurs nights.... until like 10pm....darn those long night classes! Sure makes me miss regular work days! Poor Joe has to fend for himself with dinner those nights. You don't even want to know what he has called "dinner" for the past few weeks! Someday he will learn to cook something other than mac 'n' cheese! ha-ha.

Along with TA-ing and tutoring, I am also keeping busy serving as the board Secretary/Treasurer for my school's Alumni Association. Seems like I always have a meeting of some sort to attend. I go to the regular board meetings, plus two different committee meetings, PLUS the executive committee meetings since I am part of that as well. It keeps me very busy and the experience and contacts I get are great! Our board is really gearing back up again after some time of having no active alumni board. We are going to get some neat things done for the alumni and the school. Looking forward to what we have coming up.
Below is a link to the last newsletter that we created. Alumni newsletters are a semi-new thing for our school, so please ignore the awkward formatting, we have students working on it! ;-) It still looks pretty nice.
I wrote the article about Kickball and organized that event, it was fun! http://www.fathompbm.com/CEC/Harrington_College_of_Design/200908-HCD-Alumni-Newsletter.pdf

I also serve on the Membership Committee for the Chicago Chapter of IIDA (International Interior Design Association). Those meetings are only once a month, but with all of my other meetings, it sure seems like they are all the time! http://www.iida.org/

So needless to say, I am definitely keeping myself busy...more busy now than I was when I was first laid off which is good because at times I was getting stir-crazy just being home all the time! Luckily, during the summer I was able to get out and walk the dogs a lot and try to enjoy it. Now that Fall has arrived I am definitely going to be more of a homebody when I am not working at school or at meetings! Brrr!

So that's my life right now, or most of it anyway...more to come....
Time to relax now and watch the news, I had a long day of tutoring and meetings (shocker!).
Good night for now!