Truth.

In a letter, I've said something like, "I'm interested in a salary in the range of X-Y, but am glad to discuss in more detail." You can put X close to your current salary, if you'd be willing.

That's what I was thinking the best approach would be.

The only risk is underselling yourself, if they have the position budgeted higher. (And on second thought I would use "and" instead of "but." Always and!)

I just changed my resume to switch all the verbs in the bullet points listing my current job activities from present participle to present tense based on askamanager's advice.

Still haven't begun tackling the cover letter, though.

Of course I immediately think of reasons why none of my ideas or these meet ups will change that, after all, I have met a few people I get along with, but they live in another town, or they are always busy, or or or.

msbelle, when I first moved to L.A., my only people were Buffy people. A large part of the reason I was able to make the move was because I knew there were Buffy people here. And then I eventually became friends with my work people (took years, 'cause I always assume no one wants to spend more time with me than they have to).

And then Allyson tasked me with making a non-work, non-Buffy friend. Literally, it was an assignment. And together we chose a woman from our kickboxing class to reach out to, and bring into our fold. Which worked.

And then, years later--years where Suzy was still my only non-Buffy, non-work friend--I was in a rut and desperately needed to get out, and I joined a Meetup group that played word-related board games, and a pool league. I actually joined a lot of meetup groups, but the word-game one was the only one I ever went to, because I had an acquaintance who was also in the group. Joining--and going--to those two groups were the best decisions I've made in the past five years, as I've made lots of casual friends and several really good friends.

This is my long-winded way of saying, just go. Pick some groups of varying interests, and just go. They won't all work out, but some will, and then things will get awesome. I know it's hard, but it only takes one moment of courage to actually walk through a door, and then the rest takes care of itself.

Also, {{{hugs}}} and I love you!

And now I'm invited to another meeting I don't want to go to. And payroll had to get in touch with me because of a glitch that made it sound like I had no money. I have one more thing I absolutely have to wrangle today, and after that I'm dropping the mic and getting myself a beer.

Today is all the last-minute prep for Emerald City Comic Con. Pick up badges, hit the grocery store for portable snacks, refresh the pink streaks in my hair, all that sort of stuff.

And now I'm invited to another meeting I don't want to go to.

You need a place where you can hide from the meetings. And the meeting requests.

msbelle, I second the rec for joining Meetup groups. I've joined three since I moved to C'ville. One didn't work out, two did, and I've made a few friends out of them. Plus every two weeks I go to the board game group and have fun with people I know and people I don't know, and that's a huge positive for my anti-social anxiety-ridden self. In short, like Pix said, just go, and see what happens! After all, you already know what happens if you stay home.

I've made most of my friends in Baltimore either through patronizing their shops or through the volunteer stuff I do for Moveable Feast. It took a good long while to start building that social circle but, once started, it has grown exponentially. I've actually made very few friends through work, which is one of the reasons my job depresses me. I'm friendly with people at work but it's been really rare that that has led to outside work ongoing friendships. One notable exception is someone who is now one of my closest friends and we started relating to one another on more than a work level once we identified each other as sort of weirdos in our work world.