New week, new job

So I think I’m officially changing blog update day to Fridays – it seems like that’s when I actually think of it, and put fingers to keyboard. Now when I’m late you’ll know it’s because I’m rushing out to Friday night plans as part of my Awesome Life, whereas missing Wednesday just meant I’m lazy and forgetful.

It was week three of work and my job description changed once again – I’m now focusing on www.hrdaily.ca three days a week with the goal of boosting content and making it more than just an HR focused press release regurgitation site. Until me all content was being produced in Australia, so it’s definitely an improvement to have someone working on our end. It’s nice to have some structure and direction to my work week, too. This way I can really focus on learning about HR, and the mortgage broker and real estate stuff can come more organically as I work on those stories two days a week.

I do have three profiles to write for Canadian Real Estate Wealth (yes, Mum, I’ll send you some copies when they’re out!) so that’s fun to work on. Profiles are a good way to ease my way into the industry stuff, even though one of the people I’ve interviewed is proving a little difficult… Most people don’t really know how publishing works so they have some odd expectations about what we can and can’t do, and what information they should provide.

Tomorrow is St Patrick’s Day and I have plans! I met a woman at a Meetup who’s really interesting and fun and I’m crashing her plans with some other friends (I was invited, so that’s not really crashing, but it sounds more fun.) Thanks to colleague Adrian, originally from Ireland, I have a green, glittery foam tiara should I feel the need to look like the Statue of Liberty. I’ll drink enough to make my ancestors proud, but hopefully not enough to shame my mother ;) It should be fun – I might even hit the parade tomorrow!

Oh! Did I tell you I found an apartment? And got the apartment? The room is tiny, but I’m super close to work and it’s right downtown. I move in two weeks! I do need to stock up on some furniture. Somewhere to sleep and somewhere to keep my stuff, kinda necessary. I can probably borrow a bed for a little while but eventually I’ll need my own!

So yeah. Big week. Catch you on the flip side. (What does that even mean?!) 

Moving on down(town)

Sorry it’s been so long! Not that I have any idea how often people are checking, but I feel bad for not updating on a regular basis. I thought working would add structure to my life so I’d be better but instead it added exhaustion and commuting to my life. Unexpected.

Work is picking up. It’s hard being the new kid – you know how I like being the know-it-all – but it’s pretty fun. I’ve picked up some stuff for the HR publication too, which has its pros and cons. Upside is I’m finding my own stories and always have something to keep me busy, downside is one more industry to familiarise myself with. So far I’ve covered changing legislation, the importance of pensions and the difficulties of hiring people with leadership skills. It comes a little easier since I’ve ever been part of an HR process, although on the other side of the desk. At core the issues are people-based, rather than money-based, so it’s a bit more intuitive for me.

The big news this week is that I found an apartment. I wasn’t planning to leave where I’m staying until next month so I was looking for places that were May 1 move in, but sometimes you have to jump when a chance comes up. This place is 15 minutes from work, 15 minutes from the Distillery District (cool drinkies area) and only a couple blocks from the TTC. The room is tiny, but that’s pretty inevitable when you’re looking downtown. It’ll hold a queen bed and hopefully a desk, and I’ve had fun googling storage/decorating solutions for small spaces. I see a trip to Ikea in my future…

Peggy has been away and gets back today, it will be sad when she really leaves for good because I won’t know when I’ll see her again. I spent so long looking forward to my family visiting that I’ll feel quite bereft when they’re all gone! Still, I have a couple friends planning trips in the next year or so and soon I’ll be so social I’ll have no time to be sad. Plus, my library pile is still daunting (must read three more books before Friday!) so any time spent with people is essentially lost reading time.

That said, I did spend Saturday night playing Werewolves with a group of people I met through a friend at book club. It’s essentially like mafia – some people are werewolves and everyone closes their eyes and they kill someone – but there are also players with special skills to help catch the werewolves. It’s fun, and it was interesting to play with a group of people who know each other well.

First payday this week – très exciting – but my list of stuff to buy (mostly wants rather than needs, to be honest) is probably three times my pay. I figure a thing a week will be fun. This week: shoes!

First work week

Gosh – I’m getting really bad at this! When I was unemployed Wednesday seemed like a great day to choose, but now I keep missing it. Blame Peggy – she’s very distracting!

So I’ve now completed my first almost-week (four days) of work. It’s been a slow start because both the magazines I’m working for are almost done this month so my real workload won’t hit until next week or the week after. I’ve written a few news stories, some for the mags and some for the websites (www.mortgagebrokernews.ca and www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca). My direct supervisors are nice, and quite funny, so it’s pretty relaxed so far. The only weird thing is that each magazine has a different style so that’s going to do my head in for a while until I get used to it. It is odd having to get up every morning, and I'm quite tired. I'll have to adjust to being a working person again!

Outside work I’ve had a lovely week. We headed to Hamilton for the weekend – had a family card game Friday night and a family photo shoot on Sunday so hopefully we’ll get a couple nice Nobettes portraits from that. Mum and Peggy and I went to a play on Tuesday night called Penny Plain, that was almost entirely marionettes. It’s this one amazing puppeteer, Ronnie Burkett, who puts together a politically and globally relevant show about once a year that sells out. He’s quite well known here, and deservedly so. The show was stunning, although I was occasionally distracted from the theme and plot by just how skilled he was with the puppets themselves. Some moved so naturally, and they even hugged and nodded and limped… It was very impressive.

Peggy and I went out for dinner last night to a Nepalese restaurant on Bloor that was delicious and I brought home what was left for my lunch today but I forgot it at home, which was quite sad, BUT the advantage of family visiting is that they might love you enough to deliver it to you :). Tomorrow we’re going to a “dub” event where “Youngsta” is performing… As you know this is really my kind of event with the noise and the crowds and the noise. Ha… no, I’m sure it will be fun, and we can leave early if need be. My cousins are going and are quite excited so it will be great to hang out with them, regardless of the rest.

Aaaand that might be it. I’m reading an excellent/odd book at the moment called There But For The, which is really interesting. It’s about a man who locks himself into the guest room of a house when he’s at a dinner party and just stays there for weeks. But really, it’s about the people around him, with this strange event at the centre as a starting point for the story. Don’t remember the author, but I would recommend it.

Better late...

Sorry to leave y'all hanging after last week's cliffhanger ending and then be late with this week's update... The answer is:

I got the job!

It was not quite that straight forward, and in fact I had quite a low moment when I was certain I hadn't gotten the job (build up of expectation can be quite risky) but it turned out the hesitation on their end was in changing the job description to better suit my background. Essentially now I'm a junior reporter for both the magazines (Canadian Real Estate Wealth and Canadian Mortgage Professional) rather than an intermediate reporter for just the first one. It's a better fit for me, and will give me the chance to learn a lot with plenty of support and mentoring.

This is, of course, a huge relief. I'm happy to be staying in journalism, but with more regular hours than daily papers. I've felt in limbo the last few months - no money coming in, no reason to go to bed or get out of bed, little structure to my days. I've had that song "Waiting for my real life to begin" going around my head for weeks... So now it can! I'll be able to find my own place eventually and stop freaking out about spending money. I'm already planning my payday shopping spree (within reason, I promise!) and hopefully Mastercard will increase my credit limit to more than $100. That's not even enough for a decent Book Depository run ;)

In other Too Good To Be True - But It Is! news, Peggy and Mum are visiting. It's very exciting. Peggy and I travelled for six weeks last year, but haven't lived together for almost two years so it's neat to see we still connect the same way. Today she made me snort cucumber up my nose when she told a story about me accidentally beheading a barbie doll years and years ago. We did Christmas too, because we couldn't be together in December and we're flexible like that. It appeared to be the Christmas of books and music, because everyone got a book and Peggy and I both got CDs (Florence and the Machine, The Baseballs, and Gin Wigmore) so we've been listening to fun new music the last couple days.

Tomorrow the plan is the science centre, then Hamilton to visit the famn damily. I'm trying to wrangle a girly spa day for Saturday.

So today we're celebrating employment and family, but probably not in that order ;)

The Waiting Game

I have spent most of the last week feeling quite sick from the stress of waiting to hear back from that job interview. I almost (almost) wish I knew it had gone terribly so I would know it wouldn't be a yes. The role will be quite a challenge – I'll have to learn a whole new world of financing, indices, interest, “joint ventures”. I know in my head that I'm up for it. I got my head around Glasgow leases for my regional council round, of course I can learn about flipping houses, but my stomach is in knots. I think it will be something of a relief whichever answer I get when they finally call back.

I spent Monday writing a “test” for the magazine, which consisted of turning around a press release from November last year. So being the good reporter I am, I got new quotes from a helpful but very confused French-Canadian man who kept telling me “There are new figures out.”... Thanks Marc.

The week has not been without its fun, however. In the interest of the long-term goals of making friends and learning about the city I managed two birds/one stone on Sunday with a Meetup organised Urban Scavenger Hunt. In teams of five or six we had to race around downtown Toronto taking pictures of things to tick off our list.

For example:

-A team member with a member of royalty

-The entire team on a floor higher than 15

-Three pizza places

-Five things that rhyme with “floor”

-A team member imitating a statue

There were 30 things all together and we had to hold a mini Maple Leafs jersey in front to prove we didn't just google image search it. Some required creativity (we found our royalty on a magazine cover and our “triplets” as mannequins in a store window) and our team was the only one that got 100% so we won! They're planning a summer version so we'll get to defend our title then. Each team had a slightly different list and some missed stuff like “A team member dressed as a superhero”, which we definitely would have achieved. A teammate suggested just holding our jersey up to a blank wall and calling it “Catie as the invisible woman”. Teeheehee.

It's funny how a good week (scavenger hunt, getting through two stages of an employment process) can still feel like a bad week when you're tied in stress knots. I should really take up yoga or meditation or something... Oh, actually, I took up shopping as stress relief. I got two dresses, a jacket and two belts for less than $30 at local op shops. Good for the budget AND the soul.

 This is me imitating the statue of Winston Churchill at Nathan Phillips Square. I do an excellent old man impression.

Wednesday already...!

So it had been an uneventful week and I was all prepared to blog about boredom and reading 12 books in 8 days (some were children's books, which count less) BUT then I got a job interview for tomorrow so instead I spent a few hours going to the library to print stuff and going to the dollar store to buy a professional looking folder to keep stuff in and then thinking maybe I should research real estate in Canada since it's a businessy/real estatey journalism.

I am very hopeful about the interview for a number of reasons (I don't know which number yet, I'll let you know at the end). Firstly, it is a real journalism job, not a communications or admin role. I would be perfectly happy to do either of those things, might even have loved it, but this is what I trained to do and it looks like a great position. Secondly, they called me literally within three hours of me sending my application. Three hours. And set the job interview for within 24 hours! So that means they're keen, right? Thirdly it is in central Toronto which would mean that I could live anywhere in the city and be at work within half an hour.

The small downside to getting the job is that it is only two weeks until Peggy and Mum visit. I don't know how fast the turnaround would be on this role, but considering how quickly they've done everything else I could be starting within two weeks. But long term, I would quite like to be employed in the industry I love, learning and "upskilling". We Nobettes are adaptable, we'll do the glass-half-full thing no matter what. And maybe I won't start until the 27th and will get five days with them. We'll see.

Otherwise, what's been happening in my little life? Saturday I hosted a Very Successful dinner party with my friends. I realised too late I should have taken photos as proof that a) I can cook and b) I have friends. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of effort, but everyone appreciated my effort so that makes it worthwhile. There was even cake!

On the Friday before was a get together with one of the Meetup groups I joined. Very low key, very fun. Just drinks and socialising with a range of people. I maybe made a new friend - there's a scavenger hunt on Sunday where we intend to cement our friendship. Then Monday was book club (Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night and House Rules) where everyone loved one book and hated the other. Next month is The Road and The Hunger Games so I don't actually have to read anything, just might skim The Road so I get some talking points.

And that's it - going to go read some more about investing in real estate. Maybe it'll give me some good ideas for the future (assuming I ever have any money to try and make grow).

Free the children

So yet another job has come up that I really want and think I would be perfect for - marketing and comms for Canada based youth-oriented charity Free the Children. It does good work, does not have a religious agenda and is, apparently, one of the "top employers of young people" in Canada. So everyone cross your fingers and toes and maybe this time, finally, I'll get a call.

It's been one of those slightly disillusioning weeks. There aren't as many things listed, I feel like I'm just shooting applications into space and no one's picking them up, and I'm kind of bored. I keep thinking I should pick up some volunteer work here, but then I worry that I'll get a job with weird hours and have to ditch it, but maybe two weeks of volunteering is better than no weeks of volunteering? I spent Wednesday watching Freaks and Geeks, reading Jonathan Franzen and stalking childhood friends on Facebook. Strangely, none of these things made me feel better.

I did have a really excellent weekend hanging out with people. Thursday night (I know, not quite the weekend, but it's not like I have weekly activities anyway) I watched Apollo 13 with some book club friends. Having never seen the film it was quite nail-bitey, except I knew it was based on a book by Tom Hanks (aka Jim Lovell) so I knew he lived, at least. Friday night was dinner and drinks with friends, then more drinks, which culminated in us, back at the house dancing to the Boat that Rocked soundtrack. Then I drunk-texted and -Facebooked, always a good idea, some of the people at home that I missed.

Tuesday I went to a really fantastic seminar about women in the media and the fact that just 20% of opinion pieces are by women and only 25% of what they called "newsmakers" - essentially the people being interviews - are women. The reasons were partly underrepresentation politically and in the business world, but also because women are more likely to say no due to thinking they have no time, or not thinking they are the right person to comment. It was very inspirational and now I'm going to come up with some strong opinions so I can express them frequently, at loud volumes.