I am social life-d out. Have a houseguest who is lovely but it's just so hard to entertain all the time. It's beautiful weather and there are so many fun things to do- beer festivals, crawfish boils, parades, concerts, clubs, bars, restaurants - that I feel guilty about staying in and chilling out. On the heels of Mardi Gras and St. Patrick's Day.

It's enough to kind of make me wish for a New England winter for hibernation. I *am* looking forward to summer though. New Orleans summer tends to be hot, steamy, and sloooooow.

OK, tired rant over.

Oh, Nora. Hope we can find some lowkey hang time while I'm here. I totally get it, though.

Speaking of lowkey, after having brunch at La Peniche with 10 of my favorite people, I'm sitting on the porch of our shotgun drinking white wine and listening to the Treme soundtrack in short sleeves and bare feet. Ahhhh....

how long are you here again?

Also, you wanna come over for red beans?

I'm here till Saturday afternoon. We got time.

Looks like Bacchanal is back on, because no one can say no to Burke R. But I don't know what time. I'd love to see you for dinner but would need transport, or to bring someone along.

Gorgeous day today. A few degrees more would have made it perfect. That, along with the combination of Zyrtec and a treatment from my friend the acupuncturist (bless her!) have conspired to make me feel much, much better.

I'm still having sneezing fits, but the pain is gone and I'm breathing better.

My friend has convinced me to do a cleanse for the next few days to get back on track...so that will happen except for a business dinner tomorrow evening.

Really, really looking forward to feeling even better.

I'm glad you are feeling better, bonny.

Erin, speaking from an HR perspective, it would be really good for your resume if you could stick it out one more year. Seeing a lot of short jobs an a resume is a HUGE red flag. Some screeners won't even look beyond that. If you could deal with one more hell year, you will put yourself in a position to get a MUCH better job down the line.

Yup, I am certainly thinking that. I am having back-up plans for back-up plans.

If they offer me a job, I will accept, prep this summer and kiss ass (ugh) but am sending out resumes right now in case (a) I don't get renewed, and (b) to see if I can get a different position.

I get renewed and am offered another position, I will consider pros and cons carefully, look at our budget, see what administrative changes (if any) happen this spring/summer, and go from there.

They also have a rep for offering renewals on contracts and then pulling offers in June or July, so I am going to send out resumes regardless, and just not ask for references from this job. It's a balancing act, but I know that if you are looking for a teaching position, you have to start NOW. Not June or July.

And I can always (truthfully) say that I was not sure if my contract would be renewed, so I am putting out feelers in the community.

Scrappy (or anyone, really)- can you offer any suggestions as to how we can make Joe stand out as someone to at least call in for an interview? He's been out of work for two years, but has been in school the whole time (graduates in May). But between 2005 and 2008 (when he lost the job he'd had for 5 years), he had 3 jobs. One he left because we moved to Michigan, one he was laid off from when everything went to shit, and he was let go from AIG because they suck.

The market is really competitive here because of the high unemployment so is there anything we can do to make him seem more -- desireable? We've been working with a really kick ass coverletter that someone here wrote for us (I am blanking on who), but so far, we aren't getting any calls.

I'm trying not to panic because as of June 10th, we officially have no income. If I need to work this summer I will, naturally, but Joe just really needs to get a job. He's been trying really hard and is starting to get a bit desperate.

Aims, one thing we've liked to see is a Summary of Qualifications at the very beginning that covers all the basic stats like years of experience and relevant certifications as well as the obligatory flowery adjectives (although flowery adjectives are less effective than a list of concrete skills and contributions). It's nice to see all that right up front, as it puts the rest of the CV into perspective.