…filling out job applications. And then sometimes I wake up and decide to start my own business instead. Or at least that’s what happened yesterday.
Moving to a new place and in a new living situation means finding a new job, a process which for whatever reason has never come easily to me. I do already have a job teaching BodyPump classes at the gym at the college from which I graduated in May, but unfortunately I’m going to need more of an income than that can provide (especially given the rate at which I go through groceries!). Consequently, the job hunting commenced promptly upon my arrival here, and my time investment in said hunting has proven less than fruitful thus far.
After going to bed Thursday night somewhat goggly-eyed from rewriting my employment history, skills, and personal information many times over, I woke up Friday morning both disenchanted with the application and hiring process and determined to find some way to help pay the bills. I started thinking: what kind of good or service could I sell? Do I have any talents people would be willing to pay for?
And that’s when (with the help of my mom’s brainstorming) inspiration struck: a translation service! And behold! Spread the Word Translation Services was born! The plan is to offer English/Spanish document translation as well as interpreting and Spanish tutoring. This is a brand-new venture for me– fingers crossed it catches on!
However, even once I had that idea fleshed out, Facebook page made, and a few flyers posted, there are still a lot of things about my life around here that are pretty up-in-the-air right now, and despite my determination to maintain a positive attitude about it all, I was starting to get overwhelmed…
Between classes starting (I have yet to figure out locations for some of them), assignments due, books I can’t afford, my friends living far away, and general living details that have yet to be sorted out, lately I’ve been getting to feel a little scatterbrained. And kind of like I’m drowning in it all.
But thank goodness for loving friends and relatives :). Some uplifting conversations via text message from some important people in my life certainly helped to lighten my mood in the midst of all this, and in a little while I was starting to feel slightly more optimistic about all of the unknowns in my life right now.
And moving forward, I made lunch. And it was excellent. And I came to an understanding that I’ve reached a number of times in the past: that even when everything else in my life seems crazy and overwhelming and I’m stressed out and bogged down, I take comfort in the fact that food is something I’m really good at. Case in point: my lunch.
A delicious sandwich including turkey, cucumber, avocado, sushi ginger, and a spread I made with crushed garlic, laughing cow cheese, and wasabi. Add some sliced jicama on the side, and I was a (full and) happy camper :).
And besides, it was a good day in the mail room to boot!
My new Body Pump release, the *free* inov8 shoes I won from a raffle at a trail race this summer, and a card from the prayer circle at church :). So after lunch, things were beginning to look up!
But back to food. The flipside of, or perhaps some kind of corollary to, the comfort I find in my food talent comes in a tall squirt bottle with a green lid. Sriracha. Rooster sauce. Whichever name you call it, that’s a fiery, sweat-inducing, lip-burning bottle of comfort right there (and I know I’m not the only one who thinks so!). Because if things get really rough, you can usually rely on sriracha to cover it up :). Take this ice cream, for example:
Let’s be real: ice cream is pretty much always a good idea. And then Little Baby’s put sriracha in it. And when I spotted it (Earl Grey Sriracha) on the flavors list on their cart outside of Weaver’s Way, I knew it had to be mine. And between that and the cheese and Sly Fox beer samples also offered outside WW that evening, my mouth, my tummy, and my mind were all kinds of happy :).
And that, my friends, is a good start when you’re not really sure where to go next.
Pumped for Life 
