Centered Self May 2014

May 5, 2014 ~ ghostfaceknitter ~ 4 Comments

Happy Monday. I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was very nice aside from my normal GMAT angst. I’m sadly just not doing well in the practice exams anymore. I excel and make huge progress in the practice questions every night when I study for 2-3 hours, but not on the exams I take Saturday. I think, and I know it may sound like I’m ‘opting-out’, but that I may just stop taking the full length practice exams now that there is 1 month till my test. They do not help me confidence wise nor do they help me focus on my ‘weaknesses’ I seem to do poorly/strongly in a new subject each week – making it so nothing is consistent. I’m gonna try for this approach since my 8 weeks of weekly CAT exams have not seemed to help me. I realize that I am rushing, because once I ‘get it over with’ I can actually enjoy my weekend. Honestly, it’s going to come down to that day of the test. All I can do is keep practicing out of my OG book 2-3 hours a day and pray to God and to all the underdog stories of all time that I will pull a decent score out of my ass on May 31. But, worst case scenario I take a formal course with Manhattan in the late summer.

le sigh. Aside from that I had a really nice reflective weekend. I have to marvel at how much I have grown in the past 9+ months mentally and physically. I am able to do things and experience emotions I would have never thought I would work through and make work for me. Mentally, I concurred my anxiety and overcame the insecurities that plagued me for most of my adult life. I am able to accept my faults and to gain strength from my successes. I’ve kicked the negativity to the curb along with all the people that facilitate negative thoughts and actions for me. Living a life without being brought down by others is marvelous. I have never been so free in losing myself in what I love. I finally have found what true security and self-love means.

Plus, I am so lucky to have a strong support group, that only wants to support me and see me succeed. Likewise, I have found immense happiness in inspiring others and trying to infuse a positive support system from myself to anyone I talk to. That doesn’t mean I still don’t have emo or bad days, but I sure as hell snap out of them more quickly and find myself engaging in more meaningful ways of coping with ‘the blues.’ I do have a hard time with expectations, but honestly my core group of friends and family always exceed any expectations that I would have. I’m truly blessed to have people that genuinely care for me and want to see me succeed and be happy. On the physical side of things, I have never been more strong and motivated. I can run like the wind! Well an 8-10 mile an hour breeze, but still that’s GREAT! I also have achieved my handstand goals and now can do unassisted handstands for 30seconds – 1 minute. I’m working on movement poses, but with a curious unnamed kitten – being upside down and trying to switch pose positions is quite difficult. I have to say I really enjoy knowing that I am strong from the inside – humble confidence radiates out of me these days.

I also made this ADORABLE geisha girl from Benartex Panel Prints. I got mine here and it actually took about 2-3 days to receive her! I had a blast putting her together at my friend’s house (duel sewing machines!) and then hand stitching at home (which I still need A LOT of work on).

Last weekend I decided to plant some kitchen herbs and I was so excited to see that 3/4 have already germinated! I’ll have Basil (pictured), Oregano (still waiting on it to germinate), Cilantro, and Rosemary in a few weeks! I also bought an organic Mint plant from Wal-Mart on Saturday and made virgin-zero calorie-full fun juleps/mockjitos with some lemon-lime soda water and stevia. 🙂

I also will admit my favorite treat are those super cheap ice cream cups from Wal-Mart. They have a birthday cake one that is so so tasty. I have friends that help me eat it. *note I was done eating it – I am not that gross to share food with the cats.

I attempted to ‘sun-proof’ and thus heat-proof my living room this weekend also. I used some of those emergency thermal blankets, as I read a HOW TO HERE. Boris was the foreman for this job and inspected my work. I don’t know if this is gonna last/work. The crinkly noise is kind of annoying. TBD. If this <$5 experiment does not work I may splurge and get these real thermal black out drapes. Or I’ll buy those car window black-out foam things and suspend them… God things are getting weird at my house.

This might explain what’s up.

xxx
GFK

Generous Peeps.

October 30, 2013October 30, 2013 ~ ghostfaceknitter ~ Leave a comment

Share a generous act that you did to a complete stranger.

Geez. I don’t really want to get all ‘look how I help/give to others’ memememe on this. Instead let’s take a walk on the other side of the prompt and talk about what we can all being doing more of to help out in our world.

1. Volunteer – Elders / kids / animals } there are so many that need attention/help/aid. If one of these groups interests you, then why not get involved with your local Salvation Army, Little Brothers, Humane Society, Dumbfriends League, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Toys for Tots… the list goes on. PLUS you don’t have to give every weekend to a cause – sometimes even two hours of your time a month is enough to give (seriously). Participating in a volunteer community matters a lot. You may not think you have time or the drive, but if you find an organization that speaks to you, it won’t be a hassle. Look at me with the Elders! Do some research and see how you can give back to the world.

2. Conserve – You know I push the eco-scene… I was force-fed this at Aveda plus writing my thesis about Organic Beauty really sent me over the edge. What we consume DOES MATTER. As consumers we can influence entire markets and truly change our current economic system with what we buy. We just have to tap into that power – believe in your power as a consumer!

3. Smile – this little thing changed my whole world. Even on the crappiest day a smile can produce radical results. Show those pearly whites and make the world a more positive place.

GIVE. RECEIVE. DO.

xxx
GFK

The Elusive Capture of the Dream Job and the Resume That Was.

May 4, 2013 ~ ghostfaceknitter ~ Leave a comment

I’ll be frank here – Job searching stinks. It’s one of the worst experiences we as a consumption-loving race of people have to endure. It encompasses all the huge crappy feelings – uncertainty, doubt, humility, blows to the ego, stress, worry, and sadness. The hunt for a position also has a process of getting one’s hopes up and then plummeting said hopes and aspirations right through the ground down to one of the inner-circles of hell. I felt sharing my story of how I got a job might help others re-examine their statuses, realize it’s not personal, and hopefully adjust current processes to land a job.

Okay so when I started actively searching for a job I really believed it would be so simple. I have my Masters (just about), I have experience, I have great references, but I didn’t understand until a month went by with no leads that my resume stunk. It was too vague – it didn’t have the right kind of experience on it for potential employers to even understand who I was.

Here is what my first resume looked like:

Not very specific huh? Well after getting help from a family friend, I worked on making my resume ‘mirror’ an actual job description of my ‘dream job.’ I actually used a statistician position from the treasury department and modified it to them using all their specific lingo and words. That is really essential in building a resume – it has to contain more than enough ‘buzz words’ so the computer filter that scans the document will send your resume on for the next round of judging. Think of it as a Hunger Games for your resume.

So here is my current resume:

I left my information on there because if you were paying attention you would have already seen my professional blog that is attached to this domain name. http://briannadconnelly.wordpress.com I have work examples etc. there take a look if you get bored and want to read some older, but riveting Economic work from me.

After completing this revision I started re-submitting and changing my resume .pdfs and the next week I got a call for the job I had first applied for (my dream job) that my old resume was not even considered for! So funny! Anyways if you’re currently in a job hunt and need resume help or advice you can always email me and I’d love to help!