Category Archives: Job hunting

What I Learned This Week – 1/6/2013

Posted on January 6, 2013 by funnygurl2

This week I learned that taxes are all about rules (I LOVE rules!)…except for the exceptions (I HATE exceptions!).

For the last five days (including this morning) I took a 20 hour free tax class (i.e. unpaid training) for a potential tax preparation job (that I have to test high enough to get).

The media has banged the drum this week that employment is up. I think the 15 strangers sitting in a room for four hours a day on their own time for a 50/50 chance at a job shows that there is no improvement in my area of the country.

I also learned that in cases of divorced parents, if the child is treated as the qualifying child of the noncustodial parent, the noncustodial parent can claim an exemption and the child tax credit for the child, and the custodial parent can claim the child as a qualifying child for head of household filing status, the credit for child and dependent care expenses, and the earned income credit.

Did your head explode yet?

I am thankful for this potential job opportunity. But it totally drives me nuts to be learning this huge wealth of knowledge and not know whether I will actually be able to put it to use or not.

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What I Learned This Week – 10/28/12

Posted on October 28, 2012 by funnygurl2

The finished product: Spaghetti Squash with Spaghetti Sauce and Cheese

This week I learned that spaghetti squash is pretty good. My friend cooked some up using a Rachael Ray recipe. I found a recipe of Ms. Ray’s (not sure if it was the same recipe) and bastardized the hell out of it. I really only used the recipe to know how to prepare the squash. For final touches, I just put Ragu spaghetti sauce and an italian shredded four cheese blend on it. My husband liked it. My toddler son LOVED it. I thought it was kind of “eh”. But if it isn’t chocolate-coated, that is often my response.

A satisfied customer (And using a fork! So advanced.)


I also learned this week that I don’t seem to be qualified to work as a part time bank teller. It appealed to me because I thought I would still have some time every week to spend with my son and keep the house clean. I interviewed at two different branches. One went with someone with 20 years of teller experience. (My experience in banking? None.) I can’t compete with that.

I haven’t heard back on the second interview yet, but the job description and the manager made it pretty clear that they wanted someone who spoke Spanish. (Alas, more skills I lack.) The recruiter didn’t seemed as concerned by my lack of this skill.

Spaghetti squash have seeds?! But Rachael didn’t say anything about what to do with seeds!


I’m not stalking you. is NOW ON FACEBOOK! “Like” that I’m not stalking you and get an update when there is a new post to read. (It is sort of like YOU are stalking ME.)

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Shoulda been a writer.

Posted on August 23, 2011 by funnygurl2

As I am in the middle of job hunting, networking, perfecting my resume, a very dear former co-worker of mine complimented my writing skills on a Linkedin recommendation I wrote for another former collegue. She had no idea (well, maybe a little idea) that I have all these creative juices that can, at times, flow all over the place (In the words of Summer Roberts on The O.C. “Ew.).

I liked writing in school. Out of gym, math, and science, it was the least henious. My asbestos friend (I’ll explain it someday, promise) and I used to skip lunch in high school to go to the computer lab and work on personal stories. It seemed like a much more pleasant experience to escape into my creative dreamland than to negotiate the impending embaressment that is the high school lunch room.

I think I always thought I would be a writer someday. Of novels or poetry or TV scripts or newspaper articles. When I got my first grown-up job, I shelled out big bucks to buy a word processor (I know, lame. Even lamer, it was the year 2000!). I sat down one uneventful evening to begin my career as a writer. Then I realized it was work like everything else. That night is sort of when I let my writing dream die. But then…

THE BLOG WAS BORN!!!

The Internet created these things called blogs, where you didn’t have to have someone else “publish” your thoughts–you could just puke them out of yourself for your closest friends to read! Of course, the disadvantage is no marketing support and no paycheck for them. That is why I need everyone who reads this blog to send it to one other person, and so on. So that someday my words might support me afterall. Getting paid just to be me wouldn’t really be work at all.

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An Epiphany

Posted on August 15, 2011 by funnygurl2

I had an epiphany the other day. Unemployment is the new retirement.* Think about it. Ponder the deepness of my thought.

Now, past generations had pensions from their companies to provide them income in their retirement years. Gone. Social Security was always standby monetary security (it is in the name, afterall). Social Security will be gone sooner, rather than later. 401ks are a good idea, if your employer puts in contributions (mine stopped several years ago) and the stock market doesn’t take any giant nosedives. Oh, right.

So, from the unscientific examples above, you will see that people will have to continue working longer. This will cause them to miss out on those “Golden Years”, of providing free daycare to their grandkids, going on casino trips, and spending winters in warmer climates.

But, think about it. Retirement was at the end of your life! You had to WORK for 65 years (or 66, or 67,…) to get there. I don’t know about you, but 8 hours a day seems like a long time to me, let alone 8 x 5 x 52 x 65! And you could be in bad shape physically or mentally by then, and not be able to enjoy retirement. Or, the worse, YOU COULD BE DEAD BY THEN!

Now, think about this. In this economy, it seems as though everyone gets a year (or more!) to be unemployed. Hopefully congress keeps passing bills to keep the unemployment beneftis coming as well (fingers-crossed). This has become my current state of affairs. And I swear I am truthfully doing a dilligent job hunt. But I am also going to enjoy my time off. While I am young. While I am healthy. While I can watch my son master the art of crawling and buy him cute things at garage sales. I want to reconnect with my husband again. I want to shop at Ikea with my asbestos friend. I want to take a breath. I was at my last job for 12 years. In another 12 years I will be 47. Whoa. See, I need to take a breath.

I realize I should be worried. But I just am not. I had little control over my company liquidating and laying me off. While I look for my dream job or my next job to pay the bills, I am going to enjoy a little of my retirement now.

*NOTE: funnygurl2 is not a moneyologist and you should always make all money and life decisions for yourself.

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My company is dead.

Posted on July 21, 2011 by funnygurl2

My company is dead. They are finally going to close. I am relieved. Everyone else seemed stunned. I’m not sure what world they live in. The company has had a string of bad CEOs since I started in 1999. As a company, we did crazy things, like cut all our ordering by 30% for the holiday season, when the holidays are when we would have the highest sales. We also ignored a sector of the business that was high margin & high sales.

When I applied for jobs or went on interviews, I was always worried they would offer me the job, then I would have to make a decision if I should take a job with less pay and benefits, or stay with a job that could end any day or move 20 miles further from my home. See, a relief.

Now I will have to go all-out job hunting. I am ready for it. I think. Much more ready than all the previous times my company had layoffs in the past. Hopefully my new job will not have a 50 minute commute.

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