Value

Sea lion dancing for food

I stay in hotels about once or twice a week during the school year. I have always tried to keep my expenses low to save the company money. We are given a per diem, daily limit, of how much we can spend and I try to stay below that. I usually stay at lower end motels because they are more affordable. I was talking to someone last week that reminded me that even expensive hotels know they government rate and they will keep their prices down to that level if you can show identification. I have 84 days left in this job, and probably 5 or 6 more trips that I will stay overnight.

Purple carpet

A higher class hotel will have their rates different for government workers than their regular rates, sometimes 25% - 40%. A higher class hotel will have a gym for me to work out in rather than have to walk around the strange neighborhood. They don't have complimentary breakfast all the time, but I don't usually eat it. I can bring a small carton of orange juice and a wrapped pastry and it will be the same thing. Internet used to be a problem, but that has changed recently too. I found that to get a better value isn't always more expensive, it just sometimes takes looking a little harder.

Carmel Mission

People still don't believe me when I tell them I am looking for another job. All my friends and family know that I have been going through this process for the past 5 years at this time of year. They don't realize this is different. Before I was always given hope and told to work a little harder so people would know my worth. This time I have been told there is no hope and I need to find another job. It is frustrating and a little demoralizing. I refuse to go into a slump again because I allowed myself to give up for a week and now I need to fight back.

But has to come down sometime

Jumped over the water

Today I sent out some resumes. I'm not sure I want to job yet, but I need to start trying.