The Christmas-New Years-Back to Work-Blog

It’s the start of a brand new year and I do have some resolutions, but I’ll keep some of them to myself. For starters, though, I resolve to keep a positive, open-minded attitude while searching for a new job. It is disheartening sometimes; after all, I had a whole week off work to job search, yet I didn’t find anything until Sunday evening. As Mitch pointed out, no one wanted to hire in December with the holidays, but hopefully things will pick up. I am a bit nervous, though, that I won’t be able to find anything up here. Most of me really wants to find something here so we can keep trying to make a go of this up North thing, but part of me sees a benefit in looking elsewhere. There are more options, for one thing, in Grand Rapids and even down by my parents. Yes, I know I have been saying for years that I do not want to live there: too much urban sprawl, not enough open space, can’t see the stars at night, etc. But part of me, kind of a significant part of me, wants to be closer to the people I love. I miss my family most of all…they are stable and are not going anywhere for awhile. I miss my friends, most of whom are either in their first jobs, which many say are dissatisfying like mine, out of the state/country (you know who you are!) or still in school with no solid plans of settling anywhere. I guess what this all boils down to is wherever I am, I’m going to be missing someone, particularly those of you who are globe-trotters. But here, it seems like I miss everyone because there’s no one here. For practical reasons, though, moving would not be a good option I guess. Mitch enjoys his job and is still in training, so I don’t think they’d be too happy about trying to relocate him in another branch. I would feel bad about uprooting him just for the sake of my own career, but I think he would move if I couldn’t find anything up here within a decent amount of time.

Let’s move on to something more pleasant – Christmas! Mitch and I drove down to my parents’ house on Friday after he got out of work, dropped of Chip and went to my cousin Rosie’s house in Livonia. She and her husband, Chad, just bought the small brick house about a year ago and have been doing a ton of work to it, so it looks great. It was, however, a little small for a group of 27-odd loud, rowdy McGraths. First excitement of the evening: my Uncle John Ravida goaded my 20 year old brother into having a beer, which was uncomfortable for him to be doing in front of my parents, but all right in the end. Second excitement of the evening: my father cornered my cousin Joe in a spare bedroom and sat him down for a “talk” about whether or not he was stoned at my wedding (Cousin Joe has a history of drug abuse and trouble with the law) and about the importance of staying clean since he now has a wife and a baby on the way. My Aunt Mary, Uncle Chris and Mitch were all stationed in the hallway timing the event – it went over 20 minutes – and reminiscing about my little cousin Dayna’s “talks” with my dad when she would throw temper tantrums. Apparently Aunt Mary still uses the threat and it works. Anyway, when we got home, Dad said the conversation went well, that Joe was not stoned at my wedding and that he admitted he had done some bad things but really wanted to change now. Third excitement of the evening: someone forgot to buy my cousin Dan a Christmas present. We draw names because there are so many of us, but somewhere in there he got lost. I would have liked to be him, though; he made out like a bandit with some ski clothing and $50 from various people who felt bad about him getting skipped. Fourth excitement of the evening: when we got home, we discovered a rather plentiful smattering of blood on the wall in the hallway, right about doggy-nose level. Turns out the dog my parents were watching, an energetic black lab named Casey, probably antagonized young Chipper a little too much, resulting in a swipe of the claws across her nose. For the rest of the evening, they were very wary of each other, but it got a lot better over the rest of the weekend.

On Christmas morning, we woke up and did the traditional present-opening, complete with a tray of Christmas cookies (since Santa no longer gets them, I guess we eat his share before breakfast) and Christmas music. My mom, as usual, hits the stores with a vengeance and got us all some Spyder gear for skiing along with the traditional Christmas ornaments and calendars. She also got us clothes (Express for me, Marshall Fields for the boys) and got Mitch and me each a Camelback for mountain biking and other adventurous pursuits. One of my favorite gifts, though, was this year’s Santabear, who is a ski patroller complete with a Saint Bernard puppy. When I was in eighth grade, all I wanted form my little boyfriend was a Santabear, and he dragged his mom all over southeastern Michigan to find one a few days before Christmas. Can you tell I’ve always loved those fuzzy white bears?

Here’s a side note about gifts: I felt a little guilty getting so much for Christmas. After all, Mitch and I have been opening gifts for at least two months, with all the showers and then the wedding. We got so many wonderful things, more than we need. I just keep thinking about one of the songs on the new Caedmon’s Call CD, with a lyric that goes, “But the TV’s always on and the phone it won’t stop ringing, and these bills they keep on screaming, to pay for all the things that I never really needed.” I have so much that I don’t really need (I like and appreciate everything, though!) and there are people who barely have the things they absolutely need. I don’t believe we have a legal obligation to make everything equal in society – hence the Republican voting tendencies – but I believe we have a moral obligation to help those in need. Does that make any sense?

Back to the Christmas narrative, we spent the rest of the morning eating a wonderful breakfast and cleaning up in preparation for another day of festivities. This time it was my dad’s side of the family – a calmer, quieter, significantly smaller set. The best part about this get-together was that my older cousins, Todd and Ryan, were home from Arizona for the holiday. They are both in the mortgage business so Mitch spent quite a bit of time talking finance with them. I spent a lot of time sitting there, trying to decide if it was better to a) continue nodding absently; b) join my dad and Uncle Beau in a discussion about beer; or c) help my mom and Aunt Linda with the dishes. I’m ashamed to say I continued my absent-minded nodding while letting my mind wander to other things.

After the Eccles crew departed, Aunt Mary and Dayna showed up with more gifts. I should explain the special bond we have with them: my Uncle David died when I was in seventh grade, about a year after they had Dayna. We’ve always been close to them, but since his death, we’ve played a huge role in their lives. We watch Dayna when Aunt Mary goes on vacation and my dad fixes, builds and hangs things and does whatever else needs to be done around the house. Because of this, I think, they always bring us gifts aside from the big family celebration. We always get Dayna a gift, too, but everyone in the family does because she is the baby and the light of all our lives, I think. Anyway, they hung out for awhile before heading home and we called it quits around 11:30 pm.

On Sunday, Mitch and I left earlier to meet Matt in Lansing for lunch. When we were at Alma, we always made an effort to go out to dinner together to celebrate the holidays with all our friends, but this year it just didn’t work out. They planned a New Years Eve party, which we couldn’t attend, so we thought we’d at least see a few people the day after Christmas. It ended up just being Matt, because Sumit was sick. I was bummed that we didn’t get to see Sumit because he is going to med school in Dominica so we never get to see him, but we are trying to make plans for another time. Anyway, lunch was great and we even stopped at Alma on the way home to see the new dorm they are building. It looks great but kind of out of place amidst the older buildings.

Yes, I still miss Alma. I hear Shaking Tree music and miss climbing. I think about finding the job of my dreams and miss SIFE. I smelled spring the other day, when all our snow melted, and I missed walking around campus. We talk about camping and I miss the Adventure Club. I look around my apartment and I miss the simplicity of a tiny single in Bruske. I go to a new church and miss chapel probably more than anything. But then I look at my husband and I love that we are together in a way we’ve never been before. I hear about my friends’ new jobs and accomplishments and I know we will change the world, maybe just in small ways, but change it we will.

OK, sorry for the tangent. Those are probably more interesting then the narrative, though. Anyway, on Monday I called Mitch in “sick” because he hadn’t used any sick days and we wanted to go to Traverse and trade our Best Buy gift cards for a new surround sound system. On the way, we dropped off my skis so I could get my new bindings from Mitch mounted in anticipation of some skiing later that week. It was a successful afternoon of shopping and we even got everything all hooked up by dinnertime. On Tuesday I ran a bunch of errands, cleaned, unpacked, etc. etc. and found out that we would have company for dinner on Tuesday! Yay, Jeff, Carla, Minda, Derek and the kids would all be descending upon our apartment on Wednesday! I spent most of that day cooking and cleaning and looking forward to having people there, and the evening was everything I hoped. Next time, though, I hope I remember the potential consequences of having Italian food with three children under the age of four!

Thursday was great and disappointing. Great because Adrienne, her boyfriend Kyle, Amanda’s husband Nate’s sister Danielle and Danielle’s boyfriend Adam all came up to go skiing. Disappointing because the weather was rainy and warm and we didn’t ski. Great because I got more picture frames from Pier 1 and sour gummy worms from Target. Disappointing because the movie we saw, “Closer,” sucked and I think I was the only one who hated it with a burning passion. Great because I got to have dinner company again. Disappointing because the first batch of chili burned in the crock-pot while we were in Traverse City. Great because everyone loved Chip. Disappointing because no one wanted to watch “Aspen Extreme.” Great because my best friend was there. Disappointing because sometimes I feel more like myself around friends Mitch and I have made together, like all the ones from Alma.

New Years Eve brought a virtual heat wave…it was so warm I grabbed my bike as soon as my friends left and headed out for a nice ride around the lake. Let me tell you, the wind was blowing right in my face as I rode south! It was super strong and almost blew me right off the path and into the lake! But when I turned the corner and started heading back north, it was one of the fastest rides of my life. Exhilarating. Probably the only description. Anyway, when I got home I discovered that our wedding pictures were online, so for anyone who wants to see them, go to www.pictage.com, make a username and password and search for “Eccles.” So after I browsed through the pics, took and shower, packed and cleaned up the apartment, I took off for Big Rapids where I met Mitch at work, parked my car in a safe spot and headed to his parents’ house for the family Christmas celebration. I was bummed that we wouldn’t be able to go to Matt’s for New Years with the Alma crew, but it turned out to be a really fun evening. We all got some very nice gifts, and Christa’s fiancé was definitely pumped that we bought him a blue and green hammock in Mexico. The three kiddos were fun and crazy, and after they went to bed, we all got a little crazy ourselves over a card game called Nertz and then a game of Scene It. We continued the craziness on Saturday by riding quads on Grandpa DeYoung’s property and even venturing into his dilapidated barn. Also, we got to see “Ocean’s 12” that evening in Alma…very good movie, I might add.

On Sunday we came back to Cadillac to a kitten who was oh-so-lonesome. He was such a cuddler, letting me hold him an extra long time and purring like he would never stop. I hate to leave him home alone because he’s such a social cat, but I don’t think we’ll be taking him to Mitch’s parents’ house because (1) he doesn’t get along with the cats Carla has started letting in the house again and (2) the noisy, unpredictable kiddos scare him.

So now it’s back to work, which is as dissatisfying as ever. I actually have some projects to work on but it’s hard to get motivated and actually do them because my heart is not into it. I have very few new job possibilities right now, but I am looking hard. I applied for a director of membership services position at the Chamber of Commerce in Cadillac and I plan to apply for a job at the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy. Actually, I kind of just want to get in front of them, even though the position is just for a receptionist and it’s only about 30 hours a week. But, they are a neat organization and they have staff positions that appeal to me. If the Ann Arbor Art Center is any indication, nonprofits tend to turn over their staff quickly because the pay is not the best, so if I can get an interview with them and they like me but I won’t make enough at the receptionist position, maybe they will keep me in mind for future openings. That works: I applied for a job at the United Way of Muskegon County this past spring and though they didn’t hire me, they called me a month or so ago because they had a new position open and they liked me. I’m attempting to set up some volunteering with the United Way in Traverse, but nothing has come of it yet. I’m wondering how that would work with a fulltime job down in Cadillac, but we’ll see. And this week it’s time to get in contact with the Traverse City Chamber to send them an updated copy of my resume and contact information. So I guess things are progressing, slowly, but I am not the most patient person and really want something to happen soon.