My name is Jen

Wow, a new blog! I kind of don't know what to say. The first post is always a little awkward. You know where you want to go with the project, eventually, but how do you start it off? Long, rambling self-introduction? Poetic discourse on the day's events? Some intelligent, witty remarks about society?

Personally, I suck at poetry. And I've been away from the U.S. for so long that I'm fairly behind on even the most mundane and common knowledge about culture and current events. So... I guess I'll go with option 1.

My name is Jen. I used to live in Japan. Before that, I lived near Denver, and I worked as an environmental scientist/ geologist for a relatively large consulting firm, for 2 years. Before that, I was in graduate school, and before that I was in college. I don't think we need to go any further back, it's essentially the same story every American has, and will eventually lead to a hot steamy night (or possibly afternoon, morning even) in the summer of 1979 that I'd really rather not think about...

Aaaaanyway, like I said, I've been living in Japan for the past 3 years. After much soul-searching, and consideration of the potential damage my science career had already taken, I decided not to renew my contract and returned to the U.S. in August of this year. For those of you unaware of, and interested in my exploits in Japan, I did keep a blog while I was there, which you can find here. This is, of course, assuming there actually is anyone reading this, which I would be surprised and amused by, considering I intend not to advertise it beyond putting up a final post over on the Japan blog about moving on...

So what's the point in creating this one? Well, basically, I have a lot of time on my hands. I came back from Japan and found myself, like so many in my generation, jobless, 30, and living at home. I've been networking, got my "profiles" out there, resumes up, troll the job boards, all that. But in this lovely economy, it's just going to take time.

I'm lucky in that I find myself in a situation where I can be picky about what I apply for. I saved a decent amount when I was in Japan, and living at home my expenses are pretty low. I'm well-educated, have some experience, and know what it's like to live abroad. I've decided I'm not going to apply for something unless it really piques my interest and gets me excited about it; which means, basically, that it might take me a looooooooooong time to find something.

So, in the meantime, here I am. There's only so much time you can spend in a day looking for work, especially when there are so few good ones to be found. I haven't had this much time off since I was in college. And once we get into November (and pass that 3 month mark), it will have been since before I started school... which I really can't remember anyway. I always said when I was in school, and then when I was working, that I couldn't wait to be retired. And now that I'm basically living that life, I find... it's kind of boring. Perhaps this endeavor will help to alleviate that, if only a little bit ^^

And so, welcome to my blog!