Hello everyone! Today, I thought it would be nice to have a coffee chat!

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But first, what do you think of the updated featured image graphic? I haven’t changed the featured image graphic in literal years, and at some point the size of the old one suddenly went from the WordPress recommended size to being completely wrong because WordPress suddenly started giving me weird alerts that it wasn’t the right size. So I changed it! Well, WordPress started yelling me about it long ago and I ignored it until now HAHA. I think that line that goes outside the box was my bad, as I moved it and didn’t notice it was so long and I don’t think the initial template had it like that. I’ll fix it for any future posts though!

Also, as I mentioned on Sunday’s post, I had an important announcement that I felt I had to include but also had to wait to share! Normally, my coffee chats are how I open the month, but I just had a feeling that I should wait and so that’s why there was a change in my schedule.

Anyway, today I am making an iced coffee! I was always too lazy to turn my hot coffee into a cold one but it’s been so hot out lately that I can’t drink a hot coffee after morning walkies with the puppy niece! So grab your drink of choice and let’s chat!

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If we were having coffee I’d tell you my announcement, that I got a new job! You might be thinking “yeah we know, you haven’t shut up about it since you got hired at the end of April”. Well, let me explain that I got a new new job! It was super unexpected as I haven’t been at my current job for even three months yet but an old coworker recruited me for a job at her new company and after a few interviews I got the job! The job is back in my old industry, event management. I had such a negative experience at my old company because of toxic managers and coworkers so at first I was completely shut off to the idea of returning to the industry. But as I got more settled into my role in higher education, I realized that event management itself became a passion for me and I really, really missed it. I also realized a lot of people were at my new company because their career goal had been to be an academic advisor in higher education. So when I realized my passion was in my old industry and I got this new opportunity, I just couldn’t turn it down. Everything about it seems perfect so far. The mindset and culture of the company matches what I want, I’m getting a really large pay increase (much more than I was expecting or even asked for!), several former coworkers that I actually liked are there, some clients that I really enjoyed working for may sign with the company, and it’s a work from home job! I’m so, so grateful and excited for this incredible opportunity.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you, that I will miss my soon-to-be former coworkers. A lot of them are super cool and kind. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know them. But at the same time, I’ve seen a huge amount of turn over and generally I don’t think the culture is quite the right fit for me. Many of the really great people I’ve met there also seem to be trying to find new positions too. As I mentioned, a lot of them want to be academic advisors either in higher ed or high school but they view this role as a stepping stone as they gain experience to be able to get to better opportunities. Overall the culture just seems to accept the job sort of sucks in a lot of ways but there isn’t a lot they can improve on without support from upper management, particularly financial support for better systems, which I’ve heard is always immediately shut down when proposed. There is a lot of camaraderie in the shared misery I suppose. It has been made pretty clear to me from various people that the place is not a long-term position for most people there so in the end I don’t think it’s really surprising that I’m leaving so soon. Also, I think that I should make it clear that the main reason why I had to delay this post was because I hadn’t given my notice yet at my current job. I didn’t want to risk someone seeing this (even though I don’t share my blog at work) and then telling on me! I really don’t think anyone would have even seen this post, but I still wanted to be cautious.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you, one of the biggest reasons I did decide to leave my current job. Well, besides not being a great culture fit, I mean. A lot of my coworkers are really passionate about academic advising. They want to be academic advisors and they went into the job to get experience to later move onto more desirable advising positions at other schools. During my time there, I realized how much I missed events and how passionate I was about it, so that really inspired me to try again to get back into the events industry. I am so, so happy to be back!

If we were having coffee I’d tell you, that I am still loving having my puppy niece around! She is such a great little companion and I love having her here to remind me to take breaks and pet her. I am so grateful she joined the family and I’m going to miss her so much when my sister asks for her dog back.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you, that although I had my heart set on moving to Austin this November, I am wavering in my resolve once again. I just hate how the political climate of Texas is shaping up lately and I don’t know if I can look past that. I am starting to explore other options and it breaks my heart that I might have to postpone my big move once again while I find another potential new home. Right now I am considering Nashville, but I worry it might be too similar in what I’m trying to avoid with Texas. Otherwise I might look into Denver or California?

If we were having coffee I’d tell you, the car chip shortage is really stressing me out! If you don’t know, there is a severe shortage of some sort of chip that new cars require, so it’s been difficult trying to find a car to buy. My initial plan was to buy a car a few years old but those prices have shot up and the different wasn’t that big from a new car. I thought that was odd but decided to just buy new if the price was nearly the same. Well, turns out the reason the old cars are so much more expensive is due to this shortage that is making it hard to find a new car to begin with, hence why people are racing to buy older cars. I have pretty much accepted that I will need to wait to buy a car. In the meantime, I am looking at other car options besides just the Toyota Rav4. I’ve expanded my search to include Subaru Foresters and Ford Broncos. All of which are unavailable but all seem to be great options.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you, that lately I’ve been wanting more excitement in my life. I haven’t travelled anywhere in so long and recently turned down an opportunity to travel to Mexico for many reasons. Mostly the pandemic (although my family and I are vaccinated it’s still a little nerve-wracking with the new variants) but also because I’m starting a new job soon and I don’t want to risk not being able to get back in time if I get a negative test or something! But other than that, I’m hoping to be able to find more fun stuff closer to home.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you, all about how I really have come to appreciate short journaling and manifesting exercises. I’ve been using my bullet journal a lot for this, mostly prompted by TikTok. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve ended up on the “witchtok” side of TikTok and there are always videos on there that mention when the “best” time is for manifestation. I’m not sure if I necessarily think there’s a better time over another to reflect and really think about what is going on and what you want to change, but it’s been really helpful in figuring out where I want to go and what I can do now to achieve my goals.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you, my update on my goal to create peace. I think I’ve been doing a pretty good job with this goal this past month and set myself up for success in August. I’ve been exploring more “peaceful” activities, like the aforementioned journaling but also activities like tai chi and such. I also have been trying to focus more on a peaceful and relaxing evening routine after finally feeling like my morning routine is all set. I think my work life was still quite chaotic, especially after getting a ton of students that had very neglected records then having to cover other people who were out on vacation. But I’m not too worried about the work part now although I hope to have a better, calmer atmosphere in the next job.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you, about my other goal, positivity. I think August is already proving to be a super positive considering the exciting new opportunity! I do have a suspicion that maybe my last two weeks at my current job may not be as peaceful or positive as I want as I think maybe some people may not be all too pleased with my upcoming departure but hopefully I’m just overthinking it! Either way, I’m so excited at the thought of my new job and of a few other fun things I have planned!

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So, what would you tell me if we were having coffee?

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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