So, after being jobless for almost two and s half year, I’ve finally decided to get some training to get back in the field. I can’t say that I’ve been jobless, but it’s not the job that pays my bills without stressing out. I’m working 15-30 hours at HomeGoods store and 40-50 hours as caregiver for Home Instead per week. So, yes, it pays my bills, but I end up working 60-90 hours per week to barely survive. Any month that I don’t have to get help from kids is the good month.

Anyway, I’m scared about the training, it’s not what I’ve normally done before, but as always, no pain, no gain. It’s 8 weeks training program. I think class meets once s week, every Saturday. Not sure for how many hours. I haven’t figured out the details yet, one thing I know is that I have drained my saving account for this class ($995), do I have high hopes that it will pay off in the end. 

So, it’s been a week already! I wish I can say that I’ve loved being home, but I’ve hated it! Most of the time, it feels so suffocating.

On Monday, we had a little scare.. Ba was complaining about her left arm hurting. So, I took her to get it checked out at Valley Care Hospital. They did EKG, checked blood pressure three times at intervals, did the blood test, did the sensory tests on her arm.. everything came out normal. Which makes me feel better, but I sure hope, it doesn’t come up later as something that went undetected.

Neil had his Court of Honor at Boy Scouts. He got his merit badge for cooking. Finally! He had completed  everything in last May, but obviously, the paperwork didn’t get done for it.

Rest of the week has been a blur. I’ve hardly done anything. I did go for workout on Wednesday. That was a good change. But I will still continue to go in early morning on my regular days. After workout, I stopped by at Costco and New India Bazar for grocery shopping. Hopefully, I’m good for 2 weeks.

Friday, CrossFit Games started and I was tempted to sign up for it. But I know that I’m not there yet. My numbers won’t mean anything. I still did the workout (AMRAP  in 10 minutes – 15 Power Snatches, 30 Double unders). This was the first time I actually did the DU as part of the workout. I always end up doing singles (x4). So, that felt good! I ended up with 95 reps.

I needed to stock up on groceries from Sikandar, so after the workout, I went to mom’s home till store opened. Kalpu was gone for her workout, so I didn’t get much time to hang out with her. Mom had her annual check up at 11 too, so they needed to leave at 10:30. I think I’ve stocked up enough for 2 months ($165 later). Now, this month starts with real challenge of lower grocery budget.

After I came home on Friday, Pooja and I had our Downtom Abbey date! We watched 2 episodes. As we were done watching and admiring that this was the best season so far, we said that only one more day till next episode! It wasn’t till later that I realized that it was the season finale!!! We totally didn’t see that coming! No wonder, the episode was 1.5 hour long! But there were no real cliffhangers. I’m already going thru withdrawals!

Friday evening was quiet without Neil and Avni. Neil left for his chill camp and Avni had soccer tournament. Avni returned on Saturday around 5. Neil got back at 11:30 on Sunday morning. I made Poha Aloo Tiki for lunch. Kids loved it!

Today, I got confirmation of my Unemployment Insurance. Along with that, got some other forms to fill out for job search. Getting it in the mail makes it a reality that I may have been ignoring. I just hope that I’ll survive next 6 months.

There was a function for senior citizens at Livermore temple today. JK took Ba-dada to the temple at 10 and then, went to office. Pooja was working at library at 12, so I made masala pasta from last night’s leftover pasta. As I was cooking corn with jalapeño, garlic, ‘lasaniu marchoo’ and garam masala, Neil came to kitchen and frowned at the thought that we still needed to finish the pasta from last night. Just then, I dumped entire container of pasta in corn! LOL He was just shocked at that. he didn’t see that coming! LOL

Avni had soccer practice at 1, so I dropped her off at the park. I would’ve let her take the car, but I was expecting a call from Ba-Dada at 2, to pick them up from temple. JK ended up picking up Avni from the park as he was just leaving from office. I asked him to pick up milk from Costco on his way home as we were completely out and would save me a trip. Just as he was picking up Avni, I got call from Ba, so I had JK pick them up too. I saved myself 3 trips!!!

Pinka was on FB and we ended up talking for a bit. Then, I just decided to call her instead. Once I gave a phone to JK, that was end of it! We had been talking to her over hour and half. I had to remind him that it’s already midnight for her in UK! She’s going to Mansarovar, India in June and want me to join her. That would be one awesome trip. Let’s see how things go by then!

JK had picked up baby spinach from Costco to make masala palak paneer. He wanted to try it out after it was posted on ShowMeTheCurry yesterday. It turned out really good! He had told Pinika that he’s making it tonight, so he wanted to make sure that I post the photo on FB and give him the credit for it! Neil didn’t get to try it because he was gone for birthday party at his friend Andrew’s home. But he made sure that we save it for him for tomorrow. He hates it when we try out new recipe in his absence.

I did my one last splurge on scrapping supplies. But I got really great deal at $8. I got 5 items (journaling cards, alpha, templates.. ) from Julie Billingsley and photo masks, alpha, notecards, paint cards by Misty Cato. I had $13 coupon from Juile. On top of this, I got 3 mega kits for FREE!  Couldn’t beat that! But this is it. I won’t be buying anything more until I have better income. Oh, I also got mega journal card sampler pack from the Lily Pad. The pack contained 50+ cards!!! What a great freebie! There are some really good cards in that pack!

I made tiny progress on my Project Life page. I want to finish journaling on it before I go to sleep! Let’s see if I can make it happen!

So, today was my last day of job. I don’t know what future holds for me. But I have a feeling that I’m really off to a great start! Let’s see how my day went today. It was full of little bursts of happiness!

I woke up at my regular Friday morning routine at 4:30, but hit the snooze button twice and finally got out of bed at around 4:50. I don’t know how, but I found myself with so much extra time before I was supposed to leave home. Even though, I took my time making smoothie, getting ready, I got to my CrossFit training almost 15 minutes early! Oh, and on the way, I called MJ. I told him that it was my last day of work. I also told him that I was ok with it and that everything will be ok. He told me that his blessings are always with me and that I’ll be fine. It was just so good to talk to him after so long!

At CrossFit, I hit 135 wall balls in 12 minutes. I was hoping to finish 150 in 12 minutes, but ran short by just a few. However, I didn’t feel it as painful or annoying as others did. I don’t even feel any kind of soreness or anything. I know that I should’ve used 14# ball rather than 10#. But I wanted to see it first if I can finish it with 10# before I move on to 14#.

On my way to work, I called Hasumasi in Nadiad. I haven’t talk to her in a while either! It was great to catch up with her.

Just as I parked my car at work and I was looking at Facebook, I saw that Kalpu had posted a photo of sunrise from her early morning hike. Just as I was about to type a response to her, she called me! She was planned to go to Mt. Diablo in afternoon with Sapna and wanted to see if I would want to join her. After some back and forth, I agreed to join her. since it was going to take same amount of time as I usually go to her home for lunch.

When I got in office, I checked my emails and guess what? I had a message that I had won $13 gift certificate to one of the designer for my scrapping goodies!

Now, if you’re keeping count, that’s 5 happy moments. And it’s only 8 o’clock!!!!

I had few emails of goodbyes and how they’re going to miss working with me. It was heartwarming that they actually marked their calendar for today!

At 12, Kalpu and Sapna came to pick me up for our drive to Mt. Diablo. Weather was gorgeous! We stayed up at the summit for about half an hour before heading down. It was just so refreshing! As Janis said, that was my little celebration for my last day of the job.

Because of our drive, I missed having lunch at home with mom. So, mom called me later asking me about lunch. But I just couldn’t take another half hour for lunch after coming back from Diablo. I’ll have to make it up another day.

Kalpana was still around when I got back, so I had a chance to talk to her for few minutes and say proper goodbyes. Kerry had Dr. appointment, so she came to hug goodbye before leaving.

Hardest was to say goodbye to Tina. Oh, I’m sooooo going to miss talking to her! But even she had some good news to share with me. She is pregnant!!!!! I’m so happy for her! It was just so emotional to turn off my Q from her. Finally, I just had to shut it off. Otherwise, I would’ve been there for another hour and wouldn’t want to let go of her! I didn’t think it would be so hard for me, knowing we still stay in touch by text messages and emails over the weekends. We can still do the same on daily basis. We both agreed that it just won’t be the same!

Finally, I went to Janis and said that I’m ready to leave. That was another hard one. Not emotionally as charged as with Tina, but I’ve worked with her for 5 years. We had some great times and laughter over some wacky test cases. She had been a great boss to me. I can’t deny that.

After work, I was meeting Jody for dinner at Chili’s. Linda Funderburk was there too. I had a great time talking to them. After the dinner was over, Jody and I talked in parking lot by my car for over 40 minutes! It felt good to have some heart to heart talk.

Got home at about 9, soon after, Neil and Avni came home too. They had gone out with friends. Today was Avni’s first day with car all by herself. Spent some time with Pooja and Avni , hung out with them for few to catch up with them.

Overall, it had been a great day!!! I couldn’t have asked for a better beginning of my new journey to wherever it’s taking me!