The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

This is yet another is a long list of my blog rambles....I love to ramble.

The GOOD: Had a great weekend with my grand-daughter Cassidy. Here she is next to the fake butler I have had for years. She loves this thing and calls it man. She has to go to it constantly to touch him and kiss him.

More good: I have great friends. One of my longtime friends, Jan, got me a temporary job for 5 days doing some clinical supervision of Geriatric Nursing Assistant students. Listen, 5 days of work is better then none. And I am so looking forward to this. And I will need the money as I expect a COBRA bill any day. I have not yet been told if I am eligible for the Recovery Act Cobra relief which would only charge me one third of the payment. So I am expecting the worst. This work will definitely help.

The good: Had a job interview with a local hospital. No matter what happens, I met the most wonderful people and thoroughly enjoyed my interview. Nice to meet people who care about what they do.

The Bad: the media reporting on Micheal Jackson's death and life is overwhelming. The focus is always on the what ifs, and pontificating cause of death, financial woes, child custody, rehashing the past. Let it go and just celebrate the life, the good, the music and frankly his donation of millions of dollars to charities.

The Ugly: even after the incredible memorial, the headlines on today's news is about the custody of the children. Doesn't anyone care about these kids? Leave them ALONE. The daughter of MJ spoke at the end of the memorial. She alone made it human, made it real. The simplicity and sadness of a child's loss was overwhelming and pure innocence.

The constant bringing up of the child molestation trial. MJ was acquitted. I try not to judge people though sometimes I slip up. I believe MJ was asexual and while others call his behavior strange, I believe the man never had a childhood and lived to be a child. But who knows....maybe the Shadow knows. If you don't get this statement, you are entirely too young to read this.

At any rate, MJ life is over. He leaves 3 children. This man was their father. LEAVE IT ALONE. Be considerate of the children.

Going to my Mom's with my brother today to finish cleaning out her apartment. She is in a great assisted living facility and doing very well. This is good. Always good to finish on something positive.

Moving On

So today I got back to work, homework that is. I followed the guidelines given us at the outplacement sessions last week. I did my CAR: challenges, achievements and results for each of three jobs I had over the last 10 years. I dropped off the other jobs because at my age, I need to remember, this resume is my brochure, a teaser to get through the door. The more work I add to my resume, the older I will appear. So, even though I twitched from writing job withdrawl, I got my resume to 2 pages at a decent font: 12. It looks clean, neat and hopefully says enough. So off it went to the outplacement service to review, edit and format. Whew....done.

Then I went online and looked at jobs. Felt sick but applied for a couple. One is for a huge ad agency for executive account manager for a major beer company. The description says you work from home with 20% travel and the travel is local. So off my resume went (yes the unedited one except for my edits). And applied to 2 other jobs also. The truth is I don't think I qualify for any of them but will try.

Next week am going to one of the career centers to see what is available for jobs and assistance. I am still considering all options. I am a former nurse who, while working in an allied health position, has not given patient care in years. I can't do patient care in this day of techical and strong assessment skills. But I could do utilization review. There is a 3 day certification course for this and may do that. It will be boring but I will get paid and benefits.

Got my approval for unemployment which I will have to stop once my Social Security comes through as I am income restricted on this, at least till next year. I am hoping I get a job and can suspend this till next year.

And, drum roll please, today I got my Medicare card. A major benchmark in one's life. I earned it. I am still awaiting COBRA information but if that doesn't work out, will apply for a medigap or Medicare Advantage plan. Medicare does not cover everything, no matter what you hear. Not to mention, it does not cover prescriptions. I will have to get Medicare D at least for that.

Please read one of the comments from my prior post. Lisa posted a great article for us older folk who are looking for jobs. Thanks Lisa!

More to come, stay tuned....tomorrow: letting go, trials and tribulations.

The dislocated, outplacement part 2: what I learned

The second outplacement session was also very productive. We learned more about resumes; creating concise brochures to reflect your skills and accomplishment; and talking points you need to have to back up those points. CAR: the talking points: C, the challenge; A, the accomplishment; R: the results.

We learned about more places online to find jobs, recruiters, and more. But the most effective way to find a job is to network. I will tell you more about this next week.

What I really learned is that a great bunch of people, talented, skilled, loyal, smart, funny, kind, and more, are out there looking for jobs. Many if not most of them, are in their forties, fifties, and yes sixties. Too many to equal the number of available jobs; the challenge for most of us will be the white elephant in the interview room: our age. This is a blog in and of itself.

This weekend is filled with wedding, family and rain. So much to say; so little time....more to come...stay tuned.