After a mild freakout things are feeling better. Woke early today, 7am, and went to the cafe where Matt is finishing a plumbing job. I've taken notes and watched the process step-by-step and have a pretty good idea of how to fix a leaking ceiling, that is one that is caused by a leaking upstairs shower pipe. After reading for a few hours at the cafe and watching Matt finish up, I volunteered for the first time at a local garden run by a nonprofit called the People's Grocery, that supplies CSAs. Feels good to get back outside and my hands in the dirt, has a very cathartic effect on me, just chatting and asking questions and taking notes for my own garden which is soon to come to life in the backyard. Weeded a bed, airated the soil, and put down a cover crop to put Nitrogen back into the soil and prepare it for veggies in the spring. Today we'll be picking up some rich soil/compost mix for our own garden, and the chicken coop production should begin this weekend so things are finally beginning to take flight.
Feeling a lot more comfortable with unemployment as I have this opportunity to gain gardening, youth leading, wilderness, radio and video skills. Before the time was terrifying, the free time seemed to choke me everyday when I woke up without a defined task. Now I have a better idea of how I can make this time work for me and organize a schedule where I get my photography up in galleries in SF, learn to shoot and edit video, learn gardening skills, start writing radio shows for KPFA, and read. I have an interview next week for a waitressing job at a local cafe, which I wanted way back in September when I had no income and was desperate for any and all work. Since then I've interned at San Francisco Magazine, worked weekends at the farmer's market, gotten a DJ gig, a computer coding gig, and an Apprenticeship at KPFA radio, so you can't say I'm not keeping busy. Given this, I no longer feel so uncomfortable with being on unemployment. I admit, it's taken some time for me to get comfortable with it and come to terms with it, I would prefer a full-time job that pays my salary and is fullfilling but I haven't gotten there yet. I've applied to dozens of positions, but I don't always have the precise skill-set.
In other news, the photo editor at the Wall Street Journal responded to my email within minutes saying: "Hey sara - your work is really dope.. Thanks for reaching out.. We'll be in touch for sure. What's your favorite thing to shoot? What are you interested in shooting in SF? I see you're on bryan's site. They broke the mold when he popped out - love that dude. Talk soon." So I'm pretty happy about that. I hope they give me an assignment soon, although there are a lot of great shooters in the Bay Area right now, I'm sure they'll get to me eventually. It's just nice to have someone at a major publication be so human and warm, I've never really even gotten any kind of response from an editor at a major publication, the standard response is dead silence. So I'm very grateful for that.
