Turning Over A New Leaf

Its time to do some changing. The last couple of months I have been bummed about not having any girl time on a regular basis. Sure I meet up with my friend Ashley, who lives in Bethesda now & so busy, every once in a while & I have been spending more time with my neighbor Laura who has two adorable little kiddos (Audrey & Finley) but even her time is limited because she is a stay-at-home Mom & very, very busy also. After months & months of complaining to Dan I finally decided to do something about it and signed up with some social groups on meetup.com. So far I have joined three groups that seem to have some promising get togethers coming up. Normally I wouldn't be so open to an idea like this but I need to step out of my comfort zone & just dive in head first. I'll keep you updated on some of the get togethers that are coming up next week - I'm surprisingly optimistic about them.
On another changing note, I have decided to look for a new job. After being at the law office for almost 4 years now, I have had enough of the stress & unhappiness & have finally reached my breaking point so now its time to do something about it. I have found out that trying to actively look for another job & try to keep up with your current job demands is very difficult. Of course I want to spend all day searching online for new employment but that's just not possible. Cross your fingers for me!
Keeping my promise to change alive, I have also had an itch to do some volunteer work. Yes, you can laugh because Dan even laughed when I brought it up; I have never been the volunteer type of person but I figure it will put me in some more social settings & plus I will get that warm & fuzzy feeling after I've helped out. After doing some researching online I realized there are a TON of obligations in order to volunteer in Northern Virginia. I was completely shocked. One of the main ones is completing 75 hours in a month. 75 hours?! First of all, I was hoping to do this volunteer thing on Saturday or Sunday mornings because those are the only times I have available; there is no way I can complete 75 hours in 1 month. So, those requirements limited my scope of volunteering. I did sign up with the Volunteer Loudoun - Hands On Network but most of those programs don't start until the warm weather gets here so I'll just have to wait. I had also went on the St. Jude At Home Projects website & got some ideas on how to help while at home & I plan on sending them some craft projects so they can do them with the children. In an attempt to get that warm & fuzzy fix now, I have decided to donate blood this weekend at one of the INOVA Blood Donor locations (there is one over by the Dulles Town Center). I looked on their website the other day & apparently they have an inventory status chart that lets you know when they are getting low; I checked out the O negative status which is in the red (meaning low & in need) & since I am O negative I thought I would help out. Now even though I have two tattoos, I am not a huge needle fan so I'm sure my warm & fuzzy feeling won't come until after they have poked me with the needle.
If you're like me & suddenly get that feeling to get involved with your community or just want to help out in some small way, feel free to click on the links that I've listed above.

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. ~Andy Warhol