June 2018 Reflections

June was a very long month.  Normally, June starts to perk me up with the close of the year end schedule at work and the warmer weather and the fun summer things to do.  This year though it dragged.  Once I gave my notice, it felt like it took forever to get to my end date.  I gave them a 3.5 week notice, which I still think was the right thing to do given the circumstances, but it meant a very long wind down period.  On top of that, many of the things I was looking forward to doing either did not happen or were disappointing.  Looking at my list though, the good still outweighs the bad, so maybe a better month than I realized.  Without further ado, here are my reflections for the month.

The Good

Quit My Job – I gave my notice last month, but now I am officially done.  Honestly, it does not feel real to me yet.  I have been unemployed for one week now, but I mostly feel like I am on vacation instead of unemployed.  The wind down at work was very weird.  Although no one really did much to try to talk me out of leaving, neither did they seem too concerned with dealing with all the stuff I do.  There was very little talk about who was going to take over my tasks, except the acknowledgment that my actual supervisor position would not be transitioning to the person replacing me until after the July quarter end.  I did very little training or reviewing with anyone.  My boss was on vacation my final week, and her boss did not even say goodbye to me on his way out the door on my last day.  When it got to five o’clock on my last day, I just put my pass in a drawer and walked out.  It was very weird.  Of course, now it is not my problem that no one seems to have made any plans for how to handle my crazy workload for this coming month.  I am so glad I am done.  So far no calls, but we will see if that lasts through the quarter.

Husband Got a Job – Hallelujah my husband has a job.  First, this is great from a money aspect.  Although I was prepared for us to have zero income, his having a good paycheck again will make my own time off much more relaxed.  Now I feel like I can put off looking for my own new job for a month or so, giving me time to focus on studying and trying to decide how I want to proceed.  Even more important though, he will not be at home with me during my time off.  I was getting really anxious about the idea of having to spend every day with him.  We have had one week overlap (his job starts July 2nd), and I could not bear it.  He is driving me crazy.  He craves human contact after four months of unemployment.  I just want to be left alone.

PA Trip – My annual picnic PA trip was a success this year.  I left the day after my last day of work and I stayed three nights.  The first two were up in Greenville, PA near the friend who was having the annual picnic.  The annual picnic was great this year.  It rained, so we were a bit confined to the garage (big spacious garage that fits several tables comfortably), but we had a good time anyway.  We ate great food, played a crazy card game, and hung around talking.  I had an unexpected bonus in one of my college friends who has not made it the last several years was able to come.  My last night was in Pittsburgh because I wanted to see my family and check in with Grandma who has been struggling health wise a little bit.  Grandma seems like she is hanging in there, but I am still glad I booked the extra night to be able to see her.

Books – I had been trying very hard to limit my book reading to two or three books a month because of work demands, domestic responsibilities, and the supposed studying.  However, once I made the decision to quit my job, I immediately picked out five books to read for the month of June.  It was so nice to just breeze through books this month.  Of the five, two really stood out to me.  The first was The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.  This was a sad beautiful story that also invoked some Pittsburgh nostalgia in me.  The second was the controversial but oh so amazing All the Ugly & Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood.

Festival Food – In last month’s blog, I was looking forward to June festival season.  Overall, it was a bit of a bust (see below), but the food was wonderful.  One of the major reasons, I like to go to festivals is to experience the food.  The food did not disappoint.  I had hot sausage (my favorite!), meatballs, quesadilla, and soda.

The Challenges

Diet – If you remember, I changed my diet plan for May and was planning to bring it forward into June.  The goal was to try to keep doing the 1200 calorie days twice a week and keep the remaining days under 2000.  I actually did worse on this plan in June than I did in May, maintaining the schedule less than 50% of the month.  I am basically the same weight at the end of the month as where I started, so I guess maintenance is good.  However, I really want to lose about 20-30 pounds, so I need to do better.  I am going to try the under 1200/2000 plan again in July.  Hopefully, less stress from quitting the job will make it easier.  Plus, I no longer have candy dishes, birthday cakes, and Friday breakfasts to navigate.

Husband Home – I mentioned this briefly above, but my husband is driving me crazy.  I cannot wait for him to go back to work.  He is starved for attention and for some reason cannot seem to maintain enough friendships to fill this need.  He expects me to fill the void, jumping at me with dinner and a stream of dialogue the moment I walk in the door after work.  On top of that he has become a somewhat weird health & fitness junkie, which has lasted a lot longer than I expected.  Now I have a constant stream of updates on how much body pain he is in (ignoring my recommendation to rest a day here and there), criticism on my food choices in comparison to his, and complaints about how big his clothes are.  I assume this obsession will drop off once the work picks back up.  Finally, none of the house projects I wanted him to do have really seemed to make much progress.  All I really wanted was the bathroom on the main level, the guest bedroom, and the deck.  While I understand the deck being a bit hard due to the amount of rain we got, the rest of it just seems to be uninteresting to him.  Instead, he has done some various cleaning projects which I guess I cannot complain about too much, redid the paving in the backyard which I thought unnecessary and he does not seem to be satisfied with his work anyway, and attempted to install a microwave above our stove which went badly (currently no microwave is installed) and I never wanted in the first place.

Festival Experience – The food was great, the rest of my experiences not so much.  First, Herndon Festival was a wash.  I never went.  I asked my husband to go after work on Friday because there was a band there that he supposedly likes.  He claimed they could not play the songs he would want to hear because of the family atmosphere (wtf?).  I should have just gone without him, but figured I would go over the weekend.  It ended up pouring most of the weekend and I never got there.  Celebrate Fairfax was also rained out, but I do not think it had to be.  They ended the Gin Blossoms set a bit early because of a storm blowing through, and my husband did not want to wait it out to go to Sugar Ray.  We were a bit underwhelmed by the Gin Blossoms and are not fans of Sugar Ray.  Still it would have been nice to just stay, hang out with our friends, and enjoy the night out.  We went home even though the friends did not and it seemed like it turned into a pretty good evening for them.  Taste of Reston turned out to be nice weather, but I did not get to enjoy it much either.  I wanted to go on my own or meet my husband there, but he wanted to go together.  He spent the whole time giving zero opinion about what we should do or eat or anything, and my stepson complained every little bit about how boring it all was.  Rain may not be under my control, but I am going separately to these events in the future so my husband cannot make me miss out on my fun.

The Future

Fourth of July – We have one event planned for July so far, the fourth at Great Meadows with some friends.  I did not really want to do this, but I am sucking it up and hoping to have a great time anyway.  I actually used to love this holiday, but it has felt a little underwhelming the past few years.  I am kind of glad we are going out for it this year, but I am a little upset with the pricing.  It is a flat fee that could have been split by up to 15 people.  At 10-15 people, I felt comfortable with the price.  It looks like we are only having 5-6 people which makes it a bit pricy for what it entails.  However, my ever annoying husband committed us to it, and so we are doing it.  That said, I do actually expect it to be a good time.  There will be friends, good food, some music, and fireworks.  I love fireworks.

What to Do Next – Now that I have no job, I have to figure out what to do next.  I plan to enjoy some time off before really committing to a job search, especially now that my husband is going back to work.  I have all kinds of thoughts about what to do with the time off.  There are things I want to read, things I want to watch on TV, cleaning projects that seem necessary, exercise I want to do, trips that are probably more than I should spend but I still want to take, activities to try, places to visit, etc.  It is probably not feasible to do them all, but hopefully I will get some clarity on how to actually spend my time once I have been off for more than a week.  Eventually, I do need to start brainstorming, researching, and working on what the next step in my career will be.  I am not ready for it yet, and I do not want to rush into something I will regret.

CPA Studying – The one solid goal for the summer is to make some progress on studying for the FAR section of the CPA exam.  I did nothing in June as my attitude seemed to turn into I will have plenty of time once I am done working.  I did get the exam schedule for September 8^th.  I can still reschedule with no monetary penalty through the beginning of August so if I cannot make the progress I need over July I will do that.  For now though, my plan is to dedicate a few hours most days to CPA studying and get the second one done in September before really turning too much to job searching.

Hiking – I made zero progress on my twelve hike goal for the year during June.  The weather was pretty bad and too many things were scheduled over weekends.  This is another thing that I hope to make more progress on now that I have no job.  Weather tends to be a bit brutal in July and August, but hopefully a few cooler days will pop up where I can take advantage of them.  There is no real change to target hikes from last month.  I still want to go back to Harper’s Ferry again and I still want to do some of the many options in Shenandoah National Park.

Blog – Still no promises, but I am still considering if I want to change up the blog now that I am done working.  I am still thinking of chronicling how my adventure quitting work and jumping into the unknown is going.  Recently, I have considered moving that portion of the blog to Youtube.  It would still be very blog style not really true vlogging.  I just kind of want to play around with something new.  I am not sure though.  What do you think?

There you have it, my month in review.  See you next month!

May 2018 Reflections

May is an interesting month.  It is still dominated by work because of all the reporting and audit requirements.  It is also a month of celebration because my birthday, my husband’s birthday, and our anniversary are all in it.  You will notice below that I have my normal three categories plus one extra item.  The standalone item cannot yet be categorized as good or bad, maybe it is a little of both.  Without further ado, here are my reflections for the month.

OMG – I Just Jumped Off a Cliff

I put in my resignation at work this week.  I have no job lined up, and I am not entirely sure what my next step is.  I just know I needed to make a change.  I also know I would never do it if I stayed in my current job.  My stress levels are through the roof.  It is taking a toll on my health, my marriage, my ability to make any progress on my goals, and my general well-being.  So I just did it, hoping to give myself a bit of room to breathe and figure out what to do.  I am so excited and terrified at the same time.  I am still working out my notice period for most of June, and there is the potential for some part-time transition work after that.  I am on my way out the door though after several years of complaining.

The Good

Birthday – May 3 was a good day this year.  I was able to take the day off work.  My husband and I went to Harpers Ferry National Park.  We did a bit of hiking, ate lunch, and bought some treats at the old fashion candy store.  Then, I had the afternoon and evening to myself to just read and relax.  We waited until Friday the 4^th to go for my dinner at Cantina D’Italia.

Philly Trip – I went up to Philly for a visit with my cousin.  She and I went to see Jewels performed by the Pennsylvania Ballet Company.  Afterward we had dinner at Alice Cucina Romana, which had fantastic pizza and gelato.  Saturday we went to one of her friend’s houses for a picnic.  It was a little weird at first since I knew no one, but once I relaxed I had a good time.

Hiking – May was a good month for hiking.  I got hikes 4 and 5 done for the year.  The first one was the aforementioned birthday hike to Harpers Ferry.  We did the Visitor Center Trail down to Lower Town.  There was one really steep section next to a nice waterfall series, but the rest was pretty much flat.  From Lower Town, we hiked up to Jefferson’s Rock, then went across the trellis bridge, and then returned to the Visitor Center the way we came.  In all, it was about 5.7 miles.  The second hike was back to Manassas Battlefield Park on Memorial Day.  I did the Second Manassas Trail this time, which was 7.2 miles of relatively flat albeit muddy terrain.  I enjoyed myself both times and feel great that I am getting so much hiking in this year.

Hawaiian Luau – One of our friends threw a Luau for her husband for his birthday.  I am normally not a big party person, but I had an especially good time at this one.  It started a bit slow, and I was a little overwhelmed by the number of people milling around.  At 9:00, she had some dancers come to perform Tahitian and Hawaiian dancing for us, which was very cool.  When they left, half the crowd dissipated pretty quickly too.  I started dancing with some other people, and all of a sudden I was having a great time.  I ended up staying until about 11:00 which is way later than I intended.

Avengers:  Infinity War – I finally saw the new Avenger’s movie in the theater this past weekend.  It was fantastic.  All the characters from all the movies were in this one (with a few minor exceptions like Antman and Hawkeye).  It has the usual Marvel downfall of way too much going on in the 2.5 hours that it runs.  However, it also has a lot of fun action and good humor throughout.  The plot on this one is phenomenal and the stakes are high.  It basically ends with the worst outcome possible.  I cannot wait for the next one next year to find out how they manage to move on from here.  In the meantime, I need to rewatch some of the older ones to make sure I understand all the nuances referenced in this movie.

The Challenges

Diet – I changed up my game plan for diet in May.  I noticed that I was recording well over 2000 calories a day, except for my under 1200 days.  So I said, forget the rules, I can have whatever I want as long as I am under 2000 a day.  I did try to maintain the low calorie 1200 goal on Tuesdays and Saturdays still.  I have had mixed results this month.  I was under my calorie goal (2000 or 1200) about 60% of the month.  I am going to keep the same goal for June and see if I can increase my percentage.  May is bit hard because of all the celebratory days in it.  Weight-wise though I am a teensy bit down for the month though, so I guess from that standpoint I did a good job.

Work – Obviously work has not improved given that I just quit my job.  May was another month of requests.  The auditors were very active, the tax department was trying to reconcile their stuff, and management was trying to make sure everything was as it should be.  While I understand the importance of all of this, I was resentful of every question, every request that was sent my way.  I also felt like I spent all my days in fear of the next shoe dropping.  I know it is just a matter of time before we buy a new company or set up a customer to do deals in another currency or have a customer request to extend 120 leases.  Every morning, I wake up and say I do not want to go to work today.  I still go 99% of the time of course because that is what a responsible adult does.  I know it is time to go though, so as scary as it is I am taking the leap.

The Future

CPA Studying – I have done some, but not nearly enough on the CPA studying front.  I will keep limping through sections as best I can until I am done working full time.  One of my goals for my summer off though is to study every day and get FAR done by end of summer.  I should have a much clearer head to tackle it when I am not dealing with all the work drama.

Hiking – Obviously I will keep working on my hiking goal for the year.  I want to take another trip out to Harpers Ferry because I loved it.  Eventually I want to tackle the Maryland Heights Trail which is labeled difficult.  I do not think I am quite ready to do it now, but future goals.  I also want to get back to Shenandoah National Park.  There are so many trails there; I have barely scratched the surface on the few trips I have taken so far.  Maybe with my summer off, I can work out a few trips further from home too.

PA Trip – My friend’s annual picnic is at the end of June this year.  My last day of work is the Thursday prior to it.  I have two nights scheduled in a hotel, per normal for picnic weekend.  I am considering extending my stay a bit since I will not have to return to work.  I will need to find someone to let me stay with them though because it does not seem prudent to put a week of hotel nights on my credit card when I will be without income for an indefinite period of time.  Regardless of whether I go for the weekend or the whole week, I always look forward to picnic weekend.  I am so lucky to have such great friends who have stayed in touch all these years after college.

Festival Season – June is a big festival season here in Northern Virginia.  There are three that I try to hit every year:  Herndon Festival, Celebrate Fairfax, and Taste of Reston.  Of course weather, my hubby’s mood, and money will play some part in my participation of these events, but I really hope everything works out for these this year.  I absolutely love festivals and fairs.  While they do not have quite the same homey feel that Pennsylvania Fairs give, Northern Virginia ones promise good food, fun music, and lots of vendors to peruse.

Blog – No promises, but I might change up the blog again once I stop working.  A big part of changing the format to the monthly reflections had to do with no time and too much stress given my work and study schedule.  No work will definitely change that dynamic.  I am considering doing a bit of chronicling about how my adventure quitting work and jumping into the unknown goes.  What do you think?

There you have it, my month in review.  See you next month!