So this past couple days I have been sick. 

The kind of sick that makes you hole up in your bed all day, watching Netflix, using toilet paper as tissues because you can't be bothered to actually find any tissues and spam texting your boyfriend pitiful messages so that he will come and bring you hot cocoa during his break. 

It all sounds lovely in theory but I am ready for this to be over. I have missed two classes already and I have been an unfortunately negligent mother to my little puppy who has so much pent up energy that after we gave him a bath/shower today, he did laps around the apartment. Thank God tomorrow we both have the day off and can throw Moose at the dog park for an hour or two to make up for our horrible parenting while I have been sick.

Other than that... life is good. Since I've been sick I have not had time to head over to my new gym. I get a free assessment which sounds great until I remember that Dominos pizza I ate last night. But I am determined to get healthier. My immune system sucks and I just need more energy to handle this crazy schedule!

So I am off to rest my head, read a bit for some classes and then try to sneak in a good 10 hours of sleep- with some help from some NyQuil and call it a day/night. 

Here's to hoping tomorrow I wake up healed!

Eek how does time pass by so quickly?

Almost 1 month since I last blogged... I love writing, but it seems my true skills are in my ability to actively not blog.

What have I been up to?

• Still working at my job at the domestic violence shelter. Seriously, though: never a dull moment. Never.
• Still in grad school. Twice a week at nights so it's manageable. I like it a lot. Which reminds me I have a paper due next week. Riiiight.
• Still madly in love with the boytoy. We are almost 1 year together and it's just great and wonderful and hearts and unicorns and rainbows everyday. 
• Still completely lacking a social life. I work weekends and am either in school or at work. Legit that is my life. #noshame

So everything is still going well. I am finding myself surprised at how I am turning into such a ... townie. The girls at the breakfast place recognize us, I frequent the same stores and get recognized there and any time I am required to be anywhere 40 minutes or farther away, I just dread it. I am what I have always mocked. 

Life is funny.

But, I do have some surprising/exciting/amazing news. 

I am getting a puppy!

A brand new, adorable pint-sized puppy!

So obviously pictures will be posted when he arrives. He is arriving Sunday from North Carolina via car and I will be unable to pick him up since I will be at work. But my parents will be there to greet him and keep him company until I run home at 9pm. 

I can hardly contain my excitement. The past two days I have been running around the apartment "puppy proofing" it. And reading up on training techniques. And buying wee-wee pads. And trying so hard to resist buying bedazzled dog collars. So hard. 

So that is my news! And I know once that little 3lb nugget comes home, I will literally never leave this apartment again. So that basically means I will be filming non-stop videos of my puppy to put up on YouTube and having photoshoots every hour. 

Let the madness begin!

My first week of job training has officially been completed! I survived! It wasn't terrible at all, in fact I really enjoyed it but I am definitely happy it's over; it was a really heavy week.

I am starting to work for a women's domestic violence shelter in the area and in order to begin working, I had to complete a certain number of hours of training. I am officially now a Sexual Assault Advocate and a Mandated Reporter. It's a little heavy knowing now that I have these responsibilities- essentially 24/7- but it's a good burden to carry. 

Training condensed a lot of information into a short 24 hours and at the end of each day, we spent the last 15 minutes devising a strategy for ourselves to 'self-care' and decompress from the day. Easier said than done. The first 3 days were fine for me and then on the last day, I left training feeling very... angry.

We had spent that day discussing sexual assault and childhood sexual assault. We then discussed safety planning and how women who have left a domestic violence situation need to prepare themselves. Some preparations included switching supermarkets, parking in different areas, changing bank accounts... And I thought about how predictable my routine is. I am at Target at least once a week. I am addicted to frozen yogurt and am there at least once a week. I coupon at the same CVS on the regular. I am a creature of habit. 

Why did this particular moment in our training make me so angry? We had discussed so many more  intense subjects and yet this safety planning discussion was the one that stuck with me the most. 

I think the reason was that I reached a boiling point. I was just so... pissed. Why should the woman have to change where she shops? Where she parks? Why can't we simply tell the man to stop hitting his wife?!!?

Is it really that complicated?

Apparently, yes it is. And it made me think of male privilege and all the times I have felt so uncomfortable or violated by men in my life. About all the times I am walking, minding my own business, and a man passes me and smacks his lips at him. About all the men who feel the need to tell me "You're a pretty girl, why don't you give me a smile?". About all the times I felt the uncomfortable touch in a bus or a metro train. And it angers me. 

I am educated. I have traveled the world. I read books that (sometimes) don't have pictures in them. 

And even if I did none of the above, the same is true: JUST BECAUSE I AM A WOMAN, YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO DEMEAN ME AND TREAT ME AS IF I AM JUST ON THIS PLANET FOR YOUR SHEER ENTERTAINMENT OR PLEASURE. 

I DO NOT owe you anything. Not a smile, not a response to your inane questions or pick-up lines. Nothing.

You see how I went from 0 to 60 there? 

And it is exactly how I feel. Why do I need to change the way I dress? To make sure my skirt is long enough, my boobs are tucked in enough, my make-up is not too dark.... Why can't you just control yourself and treat me like... a human being? This is not such a revolutionary concept, but unfortunately today- in the year 2012- we still need to be reiterating this. 

So if you ever see me on the street walking one day, and I look angry or upset, don't ask me for a smile because chances are you are the reason why I am not smiling in the first place. 

One week ago I was reeling from a slew of job rejections, a general feeling of deprime (depression in French just sounds so much more sophisticated) and having just an overall tough time with life. Ever since quitting and committing my life to living in this suburban hell (melodramatic much?) I have been in a bit of an existential funk. I have also been really lonely as it has been hard to make friends and I have no job so essentially my life has consisted of a lot of Tostitos and Jerry Springer.

Until Friday of last week. In which I, hopeless and forelorned, received a job offer which took me about .005 seconds to accept. And not any job. It is not administrative job that I resigned to applying for, nor the front staff at a local gym. No, I actually somehow managed to score a job in my field and more importantly, something that is related to Social Work, which I will be studying starting in the Fall.

Additionally, the job is super flexible. I sign up for shifts a month before and can make my schedule around my classes. It almost is too good to be true. Almost.

Also, since I won't be starting school until the fall and my training for work does not being until the first week of September I came to the very astute observation that I have a good 2.5 weeks to kill.

So, in the good nature of spontaneity that I sometimes possess coupled with a recklesness that I have never possessed, I booked a plane ticket to Israel for 2 weeks leaving in less than a week. Yep, I dropped $1,000 on a plane ticket across the world to go see my friends, party and work on my tan.

I reckon it will totally be worth it.

So I am leaving for Israel to hang out with all my lovely friends for 2 weeks, have a great job lined up and am starting graduate school in 2.5 weeks. Awesome, right?

I am a little nervous about how everything will work out. Will I be overwhelmed working, studying and volunteering on weekends? Will I be able to balance everything and still be able to relax once in awhile and see my boyfriend?

I think know that it will definitely be a challenge, but I think I am ready for it. Or at least I will be after 2 weeks of fun in the sun... Right?

So as the title so mysteriously proclaims, I have quit my job! Celebrating tonight with a bottle of champagne and some form of chocolate cake.

Let's rewind. I got this job at an art gallery in the local mall back in October. I had just come back from Chile and was super lucky in that I got this job relatively quickly, it paid pretty well and it was incredibly easy. 

I was looking for a basic, part-time job that I could use for some extra income as I went ahead and proceeded on my plans to move to Israel.

But like my best friend, Gabby, has told me a thousand times over "Every time you make plans, God laughs in your face."

And laugh he did, because while I had closed out all my bank accounts, sold my belongings on e-Bay, and had a hanging calendar counting down the days to my flight (which actually would have been today!) I managed to somehow meet the love of my life and after spending an incredible New Years together, I made the fateful decision to stay back and be with him. And I haven't looked back since.

But I knew that I could not stay in a part-time job in the mall. I needed to get experience and have a job which didn't have hourly salary, but a yearly one. And while I totally think free wifi at work is a benefit, I do also appreciate health care coverage and vacation days.

So last week I got an offer to work for a company about 45 minutes away that organizes destination weddings. So, sure- it doesn't exactly scream "4.0 GPA International Affairs Major with a concentration in Conflict & Security and minor in History" graduate, but it seemed fun and to be honest- they were the only company to reply to me after spending about six weeks searching and sending my resume out around 150 times (I kept a spreadsheet record of every place I had applied. It wasn't pretty).

The job sounds interesting. It's a relatively easy commute. The people there are all really young so there is awesome friend-making potential. It's an internet based company so I can wear jeans and don't need to to have a wardrobe overhaul of Anne Taylor separates. I think I'll be happy. 

I have also had to recently re-evaluate a lot of my goals and life plans. It's only been about six weeks that I have actually decided to stay in the States and now I am still trying to piece together my life. This has sort of been my motto for this year. When I come to think of it, I shouldn't even have been here now. I should have been living in Chile, working as an ESL teacher and drinking pisco sours all day while lounging in a beach chair. 

But that is life. The only thing that is guaranteed in life is change. And ever since graduation, that has been the defining feature of my life: change. And more specifically, unexpected, cataclysmic, earth-shattering change- good and bad. 

So while my career and life goals have changed, a lot, I can't be deterred. I have new goals, new dreams and new hopes. And already I can tell how far I have come these past few months, because if the past version of Jessica had seen present version of Jessica working part-time in an art gallery, still living at home, in love with a Mexican bartender and planning to work in a destination wedding company- I think she would have totally freaked.