Sleepless Nights – Not Always a Bad Thing

I meant for this to be posted yesterday but so much has happened that I’ve been distracted. Bad blogger! Yesterday was one of the most spectacular days for a morning walk with Bruno. He loves to shuffle through the leaves. When you have 4 inch legs, shuffling is about all you can do, really, so when there are leaves to trudge through, they tickle your belly and put a funny spring in your step. Both days we’ve been able to take particularly long walks which makes for a very sleepy basset the rest of the day. Ahhhh, the sound of a sleeping hound.

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to chat online with friends Doc (my husband, Bill – see, I told you that you’d get to know him as Doc) and I recently re-connected with. When we last moved, we lost touch with quite a few people. Bob and Robin (or Bobin for short) were in that group. They love re-enacting and Halloween so we had lots in common. Through Facebook, Bob tracked us down a couple months ago. It was so wonderful to catch up on Saturday when we were both a bit bored and appreciated the company.

Since we’ve reconnected, I’ve been watching Bob’s FB posts. Bobin generally have a difficult, but very happy together, life and it seems this year has been especially tough. In the past, Bob has managed FrightFest at Six Flags Great America, a gig kept them afloat pretty well for an entire year. Since he lost that position a while ago, he’s tried to find other work and has had on and off periods. Robin has worked in the past at a Subway sandwich shop that’s close enough for her to walk to (she doesn’t drive) but it sounds like that job is over, too. Anyway, late this summer, they had the electricity shut off, have been trying to qualify for utility and food assistance but it’s been really tough to get it – too many people ahead of them in line. So, Doc and I told them that even though we’re far from rich, we’re going to take them to dinner at a reasonably nice restaurant on our next trip to LG (probably November). It will be a treat for us but we know they really need it more. I can’t imagine having the difficulty they have and so we will try to make their life a little better. Pay it forward, if you will.

After that chat, I had trouble sleeping on Saturday and then again on Sunday. I kept thinking about where we are in our “plan.” This plan has specific dates and tasks that MUST be accomplished in order for the money we have left to sustain us as long as possible. It’s very freeing to have made decisions when you’re not deep in the emotion of them! As the days tick by and no job offer comes of the many calls I seem to be getting lately, life still weighs on my mind and I wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning in a pseudo panic attack. I get myself back into my happy place and go back to sleep sometime before 5 o’clock and I hate that I can’t control this behavior. Probably never will.

That isn’t the only reason I have sleepless nights. Monday, as I checked email for the last time, I saw a LinkedIn post by one of my connections. He’s a recruiter looking to fill a marketing position. Hot dog! I looked at the full post and realized this was a job I interviewed for in December 2008. After that interview, I felt there wasn’t a good fit, it required a pretty healthy move and since it was still quite early in my search, I decided it was best to let this one go. But I’m part sleuth and decided to do some research about why this really great position was open again. Through my network I learned what I needed to know and I became very excited about the possibilities! I sent an email to the recruiter and a sleepless night ensued. My mind kept racing about what I could bring to this employer and their needs and, oh my goodness, I felt valuable! It was such a great feeling that I didn’t care that I was losing sleep.

That was Monday night. Yesterday, my hopes were dashed because it seemed that my network didn’t have all the critical-to-me information quite right so that opportunity was dead. The rollercoaster strikes again! I picked myself up, put on my devil horns (really, I wore horns), and went to my Tuesday CCN meeting. I gave everyone a laugh and even though I was really hurting inside, I felt so good giving everyone a moment (OK, two hours) of giggles. I can be such a dork and my husband encourages me.

I know this post is long but it’s not over. I got home from the meeting and there, in my email, was a message from the recruiter. Things had indeed changed at this company and would I like to throw my hat back into the ring? Heck yes! So, another sleepless night.