Ending One Chapter, Beginning Another

Hi everyone. I really wish I was better at updating this. The last time I posted on here, I had just found out that I would be the new editorial assistant at Charisma Media. It's been almost three weeks since that post, and a lot has happened since then. I realize that if I kept up on this I could write shorter posts, but it's becoming my style now I guess.

I did give Applebee's my notice, and they were not as grateful as I thought they would be. When I turned in my notice, my general manager wasn't there. He never once mentioned me leaving. He didn't ask about my job opportunity, congratulate me, say he would miss me, or anything like that. He is a nice and personable guy, so this felt uncharacteristic. For my last week, I worked Friday through Friday. That is eight days in a row with no day off. I also had a double on two of those days. It was completely awful, but I did make a good amount of cash. I was just SO exhausted by the middle, let alone at the end. I think I used all of last weekend to recover.

It was so nice to know, though, that there was a light at the end of the tunnel! I put in my time at Applebee's (in June it will be two years since I started at the one in Bloomington) and I finally started a full-time job related to my degree. My first day was Monday, March 14. Let me start by saying that I work for a great company. I have not met one person I haven't liked. Everyone has been so nice and welcoming to me, some even coming up just to meet me! I was even greeted by a wonderful sign on my office door, and candy and flowers sitting on my desk. I have never felt so special. :)

For those who are curious, the editorial department puts out three magazines and two e-mags. These pictures are the covers of the latest issues of our print magazines, Charisma, Ministry Today, and Christian Retailing. As I mentioned, I am in an administrative position. The editor hopes to give me some editorial tasks as well, but not right away. So far I have mostly been doing administrative things, but I still like it. There is a lot to learn and I haven't felt too overwhelmed yet. I've been working things like budgets, author agreements, and copyrights. I go through all of the e-mails for each publication (there are A LOT, so that takes up a good chunk of time) and I even worked on one of the e-mags. We put out one called SpiritLed Woman, and I got to put that together last week. If you'd like to see it, let me know and I can e-mail it to you.

I am looking forward to getting into even more editorial things and not having to ask Leigh what I should do every time I have finished a task. Leigh is a copy editor in the department and she has been training me. My predecessor left a few weeks ago, but Leigh did this job a while back and has been helping me with everything. She is so wonderful and I am sad that she is leaving soon. She's getting transferred downstairs to the book group, and I'm afraid that I'll be lost without her. I'm grateful that we still have two more weeks with her on our team though. Our team is pretty small right now, but everyone seems to be making it work. They are all really hard workers, and I am really going to enjoy working with them.

I am excited to possibly write for some future issues and to be involved in their publication. I will mostly be working on Charisma, but will also be helping with Ministry Today. I may do a few things for Christian Retailing, which is an industry publication, but not as much as the others. My background is in newspapers, but I am loving working with magazines so far. I'm praying that I will continue to love it and that this job will open some wonderful doors for me

I am not used to an 8:30-5:30 schedule, so I felt pretty tired a lot of the week, but I know my body just needs some time to adjust. My wonderful husband has been trying his best to wake up with me, even though he doesn't need to start his day for a few more hours. He gets up anyway though and helps me pack my lunch and makes my breakfast for me. Bless his heart!

I am definitely loving having the weekends off. It is still kind of weird not having to work. We were supposed to volunteer for Give Kids the World this weekend with our life group, but that fell through last minute. =( We're still going to hang out with friends from our life group though, which we're excited for. Tomorrow we're going to see Anberlin at the UCF Arena, woot woot! Well I hope you all have a great weekend, and thanks for reading! :)

Two Week Notice

Hi everyone! Please welcome me back from my hiatus. I don't know why, I just haven't been feeling the blogging lately. For a while there I was slacking on writing but still staying faithful with reading the few blogs I follow. Lately, though, I haven't been doing either. However, I got some great news today and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to jump back into the blogosphere.

I GOT A JOB TODAY!!!!

I will officially be putting my two weeks in at Applebee's tomorrow, and it feels GREAT! It has been a bit of a process, but I did not want to get my hopes up (like last time) so I waited to post it online until it was official. At the beginning of the month I interviewed for an assistant editor position for a couple of the magazines produced by Charisma Media, which just went through a re-branding (up until Feb. 1 they were known as Strang Communications). I went in for testing and an interview and I thought it went well, but the person who interviewed me, Marcus, was very up front about the fact that they weren't exactly sure what they were looking for and that it could be a while before I heard anything back.

I found out last Monday (Feb. 21) that Marcus did not think I was right for the job. I was really sad, but tried to remain positive and keep in mind that God has a plan for me and will provide for me. Just two days later, the HR person I have been in touch with called me and said Marcus did not think I was ready for that particular position, but was impressed with me and had another role in mind. They let their administrative assistant go on Friday and need to fill the position immediately. He thought of me and wanted me for the job. Although I did not go to four years of college to become an administrative assistant, this role is great because it will also include some editorial responsibilities as well, including copy editing and writing.

This is the perfect role for me to start in, and is what I have been praying for! I went in today for the final step in the hiring process. I met with the woman who is the assistant to Joyce Strang, the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and co-owner. She asked me a bunch of formal questions and it went really well. The interview was not over until 3 p.m., so in no way was I expecting to hear back before the end of the day. Best case scenario I was hoping to get a call tomorrow morning before work. Imagine my surprise and delight when my phone rang at 4:57 p.m. and I got offered the job!!

Thanks to everyone who has been encouraging me and supporting me through working at Applebee's, being unemployed, and working at Applebee's again. This has been a tough year and a half, but also so rewarding and full of blessings. God is so great, and I am really happy and encouraged about this opportunity he has provided me with. I am hoping to start as soon as March 14, so I will (try to) keep you all updated!