There Is A Reason Assume Begins With Ass

I woke up this morning in a much more positive mood. As I drank my morning coffee while on the computer, I decided to send my daughter an email at work thanking her again for bringing me flowers last night. The email she sent me in response was so touching, I was at a loss as to how to respond.

Hi!
You're very welcome! I wanted to remind you of how much I love you and I thought you needed something to brighten up your day. I know how hard this time has been for you and I pray constantly for strength for you to continue pushing forward when it feels almost impossible. It’s so hard to understand why everything is working out this way but I guess the only thing we can do it try to understand that everything happens for a reason and that eventually this will make sense. I also want to tell you that I have never ever seen you as a failure and I hope you do not think that at all. Growing up and seeing your strength and how hard you work has helped me get to where I am today. Just keep doing all that you can and everything will pay off! I love you so much!

These are the things in life that really matter. After my most recent interview resulted in yet another rejection, I really started feeling like a failure. I divorced my husband when my daughter was not even two for reasons to horrible to write about here. I raised her by myself and always worked fulltime. My world has always revolved around her and being able to be self sufficient. She is on her own now, but this past week more than ever, I really started to feel hopeless. I am facing the very real possibility of having to move from my very nice apartment that I just moved into three years ago to a not so very nice apartment that would be half the rent of what I'm paying now. If I don't find a fulltime job by the end of the summer, I'm going to be forced to find a second part-time retail job in addition to the one I have now and work 50-60 hours per week just to make ends meet. I can do that, and will do that if I need to. But while I was worried that she saw me as a failure, she was praying for me to find strength. Lesson learned - sometimes we project our own feelings about ourselves to others, assuming they feel a certain way about us.

I worked until 10:00 tonight and came home to find two more surprises. The first one was a voice mail from a guy friend of mine who was also unemployed until about one month ago. Since he went back to work, we have kind of lost touch, unless I call him. Can you guess where I went with this? I assumed he didn't care because I was always the one calling him. So I didn't call for awhile. And much to my surprise, he called to see how I was doing. After I listened to the voicemail, I sat down at my computer and there was my third surprise.

Two months ago, I sent a resume to a blind job posting on Craigslist. (I do not recommend doing this - most of the postings are scams) This eventually led to a phone interview and it turns out it was for a position at a subsidiary of a company I worked for years ago. The interviewer said she would be back in touch within 1-2 weeks. Two weeks go by and she sends me an email letting me know there is a second position she would also like to consider me for. She asks me to apply on the company website. I call to follow up with her and she says it has to go through HR, etc. and she hoped to get back in touch to schedule an interview. I hear nothing for a very long time so I assume (there's that word again) that I am no longer being considered. Tonight there was an email from her asking if I was still interested in one of the positions, and could I come in for an interview next week.

Three times in one day I am reminded why the word "Assume" begins with "Ass". Before today, I assumed my daughter viewed me as a failure, my friend didn't care and the company no longer was interested. I really need to get a grip on keeping my thoughts more positive.

Finally, today was a good eating day. I started the day off with a spinach and fruit smoothie and made wise choices throughout the day.