Sweet Skills, Part 1

This post and the one that will follow it started off as one humongous post-- a post so long that I kept losing interest and focus while I was proofreading it. Lucky for you, dear reader, I realized that if my writing can't hold my own attention, there's no way it will be able to hold yours. So I chopped the post in two, which means that you're about to experience a Why You Should Hire Me first: a two-part post. Whoa.

Since this is a blog that I hope potential employers will be looking at, I feel compelled to list some of my own skills, although I'm going to go somewhere else with this train of thought in the next post I write.

• organizational skills: I can organize files, inboxes, arts and crafts supplies, calendars, and groups of people.
• writing skills: I can write reports, handbooks, lesson plans, witty and not-witty emails, essays, and blogs.
• proofreading and editing skills: I can and have proofread/ edited just about every kind of document you can think of.
  
• people skills: I have worked in many different office environments and with diverse populations; I've also recruited, managed, and trained volunteers; worked at front desks; attended diversity workshops and trainings; and gotten along with just about everyone I've ever met.
  
• drawing/ designing skills: I can make visually attractive fliers, invitations, and signs (this may become its own post if I can ever get my hands on a working scanner; in the meantime, one caveat: I don't know how to use any sort of design software... yet), and I studied a lot of fine art in college (mostly drawing and painting).
• language skills: As I hope this blog has demonstrated, I am a good writer who truly loves the English language. I also speak good Spanish, bad Italian, laughably bad Portuguese, and perhaps three words of Arabic.
  
• computer skills: I am proficient with both Macs and PCs, Micosoft Office, and a variety of databases.
  
• being professional skills: I've worked in a wide variety of offices and have maintained a friendly, calm, and professional manner in all of them.
• tutoring skills: I have experience tutoring adults and children of all ages and in a variety of subjects.
  
• cooking skills: This may not have much to do with a job description, but any office I work for is virtually guaranteed to get tasty homemade treats at least once a quarter (more on that here).
  

OK, so those are the skills that ought to convince you to hire me. But what really sparked this blog post was my increasing frustration with my lack of tangible skills. It's great that I can analyze the heck out of a Victorian novel or a grant proposal, but I can't even tell you how much it irks me that I can't fix my car or build a bookshelf. Stay tuned for Sweet Skills, Part 2, in which I ruminate on some skills I would like to acquire and why.

I'm kind of a big deal (again).

Wow, so it turns out that maintaining a blog while applying to grad school (more on that in a later post), volunteering twice a week, working a full-time job, and still being a functional human being takes up a lot of time and brain power. Why You Should Hire Me has definitely fallen by the wayside, but never fear-- I have a couple of posts in the works that just need some finishing touches and then I'll be back.

In the meantime, I just did my first stint as a guest blogger! It's on my parents' blog, Free Range. Check it out!

Oh, Here it Goes Again

Several years ago a band called OK Go released an amazing music video for their song "Here it Goes Again." Those of you who've seen will doubtlessly remember their amazing treadmill choreography. Those of you who haven't seen it, you owe it to yourselves to check out this video:



Why am I talking about a video that came out almost five years ago? Simple: because the title of the song is perfect for the blog post in which I announce that I am polishing my resume, dusting off my cover letter writing skills, and generally gearing up for job search 2.0. So here it goes again. My last day at Theatre Action Project (TAP) is still a couple of months away, but this morning I took myself to a neighborhood coffee shop to test the online job-posting waters and they are not terribly hospitable-- lots of ads for executive directors and interns, and not much in between. Yikes.

However, I feel good about the decision I've made. I had the option for signing on for another year at TAP and, as much fun as it would have been to stay, it's not the right place for me at this moment. I have accomplished a lot at and learned even more, but it turns out that fine arts education just isn't a driving passion of mine-- though I'll also be the first person to say that I think arts education is incredibly important and that TAP does amazing things using it as a tool for social change.

I have no idea what the future holds, but I'm excited for it. I just hope I manage to move forward with as much flare as these OK Go guys... although it suddenly occurs to me that they don't actually move forward that much, being on treadmills and all. Hmmm. Well, I'll keep you posted on both forward and backward progress, because I suppose a bit of both is inevitable. Here I go again.

P.S. As long as I'm talking about OK Go, I feel compelled to point you, dear reader, to this link. It will take you to a music video of the only other song of theirs I know, and it will blow your mind. Seriously. Rube Goldberg would be proud and maybe even intimidated.