Time of Doubt

Things are going well at work of late. We're all working hard to keep the customers busy and coming back to us. Even with short staff at times and major surges of customers (like we had this morning), everyone in the branch in pitching in to make it happen. I'm glad to be a part of such a team, even if I do leave the branch at night rather tired.

This past Saturday morning (10 October) found me at the St. Louis Artists' Guild (http://www.stlouisartistsguild.org/new/) in Clayton for the Missouri Professional Communicators (MPC) meeting. There was a panel discussion of children's books, with three local authors of these works telling about the processes they followed to get their books published. It was a rather interesting program, and I mentioned this to one of the authors that spoke. This was also the first time I visited the guild, which was located at the basement of the old Famous-Barr store, and which had an exhibit of textile art, which I found pretty interesting. For more on MPC, visit their site: http://www.mpc-nfpw.org.

After the MPC event, I shopped for work shoes at a Famous Footwear (http://www.famousfootwear.com) store in Brentwood before going to Cafe Ventana (http://cafeventana.com/) near the Saint Louis University (SLU) campus in midtown St. Louis. At Cafe Ventana, I met Lisa Baudendistel-Suntrup, a SLU grad I met at the party at Humphrey's late last month. We talked over coffee for about three-quarters of an hour, getting to know each other more. Lisa particularly wanted to know more about me and to try to help me out as much as I can. It was a very nice time and I really appreciated Lisa meeting me for this.

That night, I went to Amsterdam Tavern (http://amsterdamtavern.com/) in south St. Louis to watch the CONCACAF Cup match between Mexico and the USA on TV. I joined with other USA supporters to eat, drink beer, and watch the game. We came away disappointed, as Mexico won 3-2 in extra time.

Sunday (11 October), I helped my friend Linsey Daman with a letter of recommendation for the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), in which she serves in a communications role. Linsey asked me to recommend her for promotion in the organization, so I wrote a letter that she gave to her superior that night. Hopefully, this helped her. I was to have seen Linsey the next night at the CAP meeting in Hazelwood, but she mentioned that afternoon she would not be able to come, so I passed on the meeting. Maybe next time.

Lately, I've not been feeling very well about myself. I'm greatly concerned about where I am in my life, and wondering if I will ever get ahead. I want to find a better paying job doing what I love--paying enough to enable me to move out on my own. (Nothing against my current employer, of course; I just don't want to be cleaning cars all my life.) Also, I want to find a girlfriend, not really having had one ever. This makes me wonder if I will ever find true happiness, whether I will ever have a viable future. I just feel so frustrated right now.

Anyway, I am off tomorrow (Thursday), so I should have some time to recharge.

Later.

Nice First Week of October So Far

The weather has been nice--not too cold and not too hot. That's fine with me.

The week has been good at the branch this week. Enough to keep us busy. Yesterday, I said goodbye to Katie, one of our management assistants, who's leaving the firm this week. She's moving to Chicago and pursuing opportunities there. I certainly wish her all the best. We hope to touch base soon after she settles into her new place.

After work Tuesday night (6 October), I was at Mark Twain Hobby Center (http://www.hobby1.com/home.php) in St. Charles for the IPMS/St. Louis (http://www.ipms-stlouis.com/) meeting. We had six members and guests present and we talked for a bit about our latest projects, news from around the hobby, and admiring two figures one member brought in. I also browsed for a bit in the store before the meeting.

Off work today, I typed up a short article for Middle Marker, the Missouri Aviation Historical Society (http://moavhist.org/) newsletter. It was a summation of our most recent meetings. Still feel good about editing this newsletter, after my initial anxieties subsided. Still wish I had it all ready for us to put it out by our next meeting (Thursday, 15 October), but it should be ready by the beginning of November.

Also, found my backup thumb drive that has my resumes and related materials on it. I was able to call those files up and print out several of them, and save the files to my computer's hard drive and external hard drive. I plan to update these materials in the coming weeks, and let some of my trusted connections have a look over. I'm looking to get myself out there and see about opportunities in publishing or public relations. (Not that I hate what I'm doing now; it's just I want to do something more in my career wheelhouse.) You can check out my LinkedIn profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsdelaney

Later.