Unemployment Over!

After 5 months of what I like to call a 'very frugal and stressful 5-month staycation', I will be going back to work Monday!

After exploring options in Atlanta, Albuquerque, Bakersfield, and even Ohio, I got an out of the blue invite to come in and interview for an architect position at a very good local firm, AndersonMasonDale Architects. And after meeting me they still decided to hire me!

I'll be starting Monday, and am still a bit floored by the opportunity to get back to work, at a firm I have huge respect for, and most of all, that we'll get to stay put!

Of course, in typical fashion, after accepting the offer, I've started getting calls about more interviews, and have had to turn them down. If only I could spread some of that interview love around to some of my friends who are still looking, it would be a good deal for everyone.

We are feeling hugely blessed with this new development, and can't wait for life to re-emerge from the strange limbo-state it was in for the last several months. Of course, Jenna will miss having me available so she could work at the barn more often, but hopefully we'll be able to come up with a solution for that. And I'll miss spending a lot of time with Laina, but really I'm trying to look at it more that we got 5 months of lots of daddy-daughter time, which is something we never would have had the opportunity to have otherwise.

Massive thanks to all who helped us through this period in all kinds of ways: prayers, connections, advice, opportunities, encouragement, etc. In the end it was a connection with a friend at the firm that got me in the door, which eventually got me the job.

It will definitely take some adjustment to get back into work mode, but I'm looking forward to it, and I hope more of my colleagues can make the same transition soon. There are too many of us out of work right now. I'm definitely encouraged in general by the very sharp upturn of job postings and interview calls over the last few weeks that we may be working our way out of the year plus funk in the architecture world...