Ken and Lauren's Blog

Saying Goodbye To Work

Sometimes people surprise me. My last job, when I left, the entire staff got a set of those wine glass rings (whatever the hell they are called), the ones that tell you whose glass it is and go for 10 dollars.

This job is completely different. The synagogue board gave me a $100 gift certificate to Barnes and Nobles at our annual meeting on Wednesday. I was a kid in a candy story yesterday. Simpsons and Philosophy is the first on the reading agenda, followed by a Bill Bryson book (Sunburnt Country).

Tonight, I have my End of the Year Banquet for USY. I just found out last night, that the assistant rabbi (the guy that conducted my wedding), sent out an email to our community inviting them to come tonight as a say goodbye dinner to Lauren and me. So much for being lowkey, but that is really touching as well. It is nice knowing that you have made a difference and people want to say goodbye to you.

Cicadas

I am starting to believe they are a myth that Cincinnatians tell newcomers as a hazing ritual, and to sell beekeeper style hats.

Sure there are some cicadas out and about. But this place made it seem like the plague. I was expecting the cicada equivelant to fire and brimstone, blocking out of the sun, slaying of the first born. Ok, maybe that one is taking it a bit far, but you never know what a supposed 5 billion (plus a few extra million that were added) can do to a person. Yet they are barely here. You see shells, more than you see cicadas. This is wimpy.

Wagers on how long it takes me to eat my words since this is only the first week they are supposed to be here?

Job Application Role Call (reverse order of application I believe):

Program Director - Jewish Youth Philanthropy InstituteAssistant Director of Campus Activities at Johns HopkinsProject Manager, Jewish Civics Iniative - PANIM
Assistant Director Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington
Events Manager at Human Rights CampaignSpecial Events Coordinator at Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
Soref Director at Hillel International
Director of Hillel at Towson University


Have a few more jobs to apply for, but I was starting to lose track.

Return to Hopkins?

Could life really come this full circle? I was looking at different job information, so I started to peruse my alma mater to see what jobs they might have and this is what I saw:

Assistant Director Campus Programs/ Levering Union

Anyone that has known me for a while, knows that this type of job is what got me excited about Student Affairs and sent me to graduate school. What am I talking about? Doing this same exact job in a student version is what sent me to graduate school.

So I have sent out an email to my old boss and friend who is still there. Not even sure when the job begins or application deadline is.

Could life really come full cirlce like that? Just in case, I think I better call their human resources right now.

My plan of sending out a resume a day is working. I have another one set up to send out this evening.

I wonder what half of these companies are thinking when they look at a time stamp of an email sent to them for a job, and see 1am. Leads to the question of what type of stuff makes an impression on people.

In other areas, it seems that most of our friends are now gathering (and keep moving to) in 4 places, which is really cool: Chicago, Philadelphia, D.C., and of course Jersey still.

One of our buddies from here just got a job at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, Dave and Nina have just moved there, Rachel and Jon have moved to the Northeast where Scott and Kathleen live.

In D.C., Josh and Jenny are moving there around the same time that we are, my father started his job today, and then my brother is already there.

I like this bang for the buck style of visiting people that we will get to do. Visit one area, see a whole bunch of people.

So my father has a new job and is now moving. (Coincidentally to Washington D.C., so not only will we be near my brother but also my father). This means that he will sell the house I grew up in. I have known this was coming for a while, but it just hit me this evening while Lauren and I were taking the dog for a walk.

My brother and I had a strange conversation tonight about it. He started quoting Billy Joel, stating that home is wherever the family is. (just for a pause, on Crank Yankers they are saying the Mourner's Kaddish, a Jewish prayer, that is a little bizarre) 8 years or so ago, when our parents got divorced, he was hit hard by it. I was perfectly content knowing that the divorce was necessary. But I always kept the connection to the house as my connection to family and home. I have friends that still give a call when they see my car in the driveway.

And now my real substantive connection to home is going away, and that is just weird. Not good, not bad, just a lot of memories. It is a good thing that I think my brother is right. Home is wherever the people that you care about are and wherever you are happy, which is probably why I have been able to make myself feel at home pretty much whever I have moved.

I haven't posted in a while. Not as much to say while the job hunt is in full gear. Lauren has now received a job in DC and my search is in full throttle.

Which leads me to two dilemmas that I am currently facing:

Dilemma 1: I have two jobs that I am extremely interested in. One is located in DC, good hours of work, good job for me, lots of management experience to be gained, and it would make my life much easier in terms of seeing friends and family and doing the all important happy hours. Taking MBA classes while actually seeing Lauren would also be much easier.

The other job would give both Lauren and I a 45 minute commute (we would have to live inbetween Baltimore and DC), and it seems like a great career move. I would get supervision experience, fundraising, budget control, and vision setting. Great for my future career goals of nonprofit management. However, I would have evening programming that I have to do, erratic scheduling, and especially if I took Business school classes not nearly as much set quality time with Lauren.

So the dilemma: Short term personal happiness vs much better career possibilities for the future. Couple this with the fact that I believe if I went up to either job and told them that this is the job that I really want, it would improve my chances.

Dilemma 2: Apartments or house/condo - This one is much more dependant on dilemma 1. If we live in the DC area, do we get a condo or an apartment? Is the cost of the apartment comparable to the hassle of moving into an unknown neighborhood and settling down? Or do we wait a year (or half a year) and then buy a place.

Aye, decisions, decisions. All I know is someone better offer me a job soon.