From Rob Brezny for the week of April 23, 2009:
“Being understood is not the most essential thing in life,” said actress Jodie Foster. While that may be true for her, I bet you won’t turn it down if a flood of appreciation and acknowledgment comes your way in the next few weeks. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you now have the potential to be better understood than maybe you’ve been in a long time. I suggest you take maximum advantage of this good fortune. Make it easy for people to see you for who you really are.

I interviewed for two jobs via a recruiter in the past few weeks. They were scheduled before the lay-off. I guess I had really good timing in terms of getting in touch with them, except I didn’t get offers for either. One, I didn’t appear interested in their company. Two, I was a bit more qualified than they were looking for. Someone else interviewing with one year less caught their eye. Oh well. It’s good practice, and with each interview, it seems that I am getting feedback to work on. I’m also figuring out what I’m looking for and how I want to present myself, at least in a way that truly reflects the matching of my needs and the companies’ needs. While the thought of interviewing still makes me nervous, the actual experience itself hasn’t been so bad, so I’m not dreading it when it happens again next.

The economy is tough though.

The weather is once again gorgeous out. How I love living here – moderate year-round. While it was only in the 60s in SF, a quick drive down the Peninsula, and it was basically 20 degrees warmer. We attended a pool party, soaked in some rays, and enjoyed drinks and desserts. Hopefully the extra vitamin D will kick me back into shape. Usually gloomy weather brings me down, so I’m hoping the sun will have the opposite effect on me.

In other news, I have two exams coming up this month – one at the beginning and one at the end. It’s weird being so close to a turning point. I’ve always seen the passing of exams and the fact that I’m only a few months away from a possible promotion to manager as a marker, a goal. What lies beyond that point is not completely clear to me, but I’ve started thinking about it.

I’m starting to think outside of my auditor box. Industry, perhaps?

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Rob Brezny!
Maybe someday you will allow yourself to act more like an Aries. You know, you’ll barge ahead along a path of your own making. You’ll follow the siren call of your good instincts instead of the waffling questions of your fine mind. You’ll relish the scary sounds from up ahead as potential opportunities to triumph over your fear and hone your willpower. Don’t do any of that stuff yet, though. You’re not ready for the challenge. Maybe in a few years. APRIL FOOL! Here’s the truth, Libra: Now is an excellent time to act more like an Aries.

From Rob Brezny:
Cartoonist Gary Larson defines luposlipaphobia as the fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a newly-waxed floor. According to my reading of the astrological omens, there is a real danger you could fall victim to that deluded phobia. And it is definitely a delusion. No timber wolves will be in your immediate future. If you hope to avoid this mistaken anxiety, as well as other equally irrelevant and unproductive superstitions, you should have a nice long talk with yourself as soon as you finish reading this. Be very clear and strict and rational as you explain how important it is to be very clear and strict and rational right now.

Clear. Strict. Rational. Right.

From Rob Brezny:
“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle,” said George Orwell. While that’s true for many of us most of the time, I’m betting you’ll be an exception to the rule in the coming week. You will find it easier than usual to escape from the trance of everyday life. As a result, perfectly obvious secrets that have been invisible to you will tap you gently on the forehead and say “Look at me!” After the initial shock, there’ll be a release of tension you didn’t even realize you were carrying around, followed by a warm, fuzzy explosion of raw hope.

It seems to me that this is exactly what I need. I’ve told RV in the past week how much I want to go on a vacation, to just throw everything aside and rest my mind. Work is wiping me out. I’m not one to want to give up, but there are frustrating times when I wonder what it’s all for. What’s it worth to me? I even have these conversations with my equally frustrated manager. It’s no wonder there is such high turnover in this industry! Spending free time scanning job listings may very soon be part of my routine. You know, just to see what ELSE is out there.

Anyone in need of a senior accountant, accounting manager, or an assistant controller? Those are just job titles. I’m a Number Muncher! Remember that game? Hah!

Anyway, I hope that the next week brings me something new. Not new for the sake of being new, but something that’s always been here right under my nose that I’ve failed to see. I want to experience an awe similar to how I feel when I spend weekends wandering the city that I grew up in still discovering the new.

From Rob Brezny:
Evolution has given the human body a profound capacity to cure itself with its own resources, writes Roger Jahnke in his book The Healer Within. And yet most of us neglect to call on this inner reserve of natural medicine, looking mostly to drugs and doctors for the miracles we long for. Whether or not you read Jahnke’s book, I hope you will deepen your relationship with your inner healer in the coming weeks. It’s prime time to take a more active role in shaping your well-being.

I’ve been rather busy lately, working the long hours. I’m studying a little bit in between, which is really good. I’m expecting to take an exam at the beginning of April and another at the end of May. They’re scheduled, so I’m doing it. Valentine’s/President’s Day weekend came and went. Another weekend is upon us. RV had a job interview yesterday, and a few other friends have offers. It’s looking better.

On a side note, I’ve been getting a lot of comment spam lately. Luckily, Akismet catches them all. It must be the word “vagina” in my last entry.

From Free Will Astrology:
“Everything has been figured out, except how to live,” sneered the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. That’s not completely true, of course, which he might have discovered had he not closed his dogmatically cynical mind to the countless humans (many unknown to history) whose lives have been great works of art. Starting from these thoughts, Libra, you are hereby invited to regard the next 11 months as a time when you will make your own life a masterpiece — a labor of love that is ingeniously imagined and lyrically wrought. Unseen forces and unexpected allies will come to your assistance if you do.

A masterpiece, eh? Labor of love?

I’m waiting for these unexpected allies and unseen forces. I can’t do it alone.

From Freewill Astrology:
Poet Jack Spicer was a native Californian who wrote most of his poetry while living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He did, however, spend a short time on the East Coast. “Like most primitive cultures,” he reported after returning home, “New York has no feeling for nonsense.” I don’t agree with that assessment. Some of the best nonsense I ever experienced transpired during a November night in 2005 on New York’s West 23rd Street. In any case, Libra, your assignment in the coming week is to avoid primitive environments that have no feeling for nonsense. You need a maximum dose of silly, goofy, loopy bursts of diversion. I promise it’ll make you both smarter and wiser.

Okay, folks. Bring on the silly, goofy, and loopy! I need everything I can get to make me both smarter and wiser.

On a side note, I’ve changed the look of the sidebar and have also added my link to a few sites. I’m more okay with my web presence now, considering someone out there has been searching for me on Google by name. Who are you??? The first site that pops up is this one, so I’ve got nowhere to go.

Still I’ve nothing to hide nor is my life all that interesting or incriminating. Google away!

From Freewill Astrology:
While working on his first draft of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson hung out at a tavern in Philadelphia and drank beer. While contemplating how best to motivate you Libras to seek more autonomy and self-determination, I was strolling along a California beach sipping a piña colada and watching windsurfers. In the grand tradition of Jefferson and me, I hope you will put yourself in a relaxed and playful mood as you dream and scheme about all the things you could do to emancipate yourself in the coming months. For God’s sake, don’t make it a grave and ponderous meditation.

I don’t understand why he keeps telling me to relax. How can I relax at a time like this? Work is busy, busy, busy. I have so much to do… What is the message he is trying to get across to me?

I need some time to ponder.

From Freewill Astrology:
“It takes a lot of time to be a genius,” said author Gertrude Stein. “You have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.” I agree with her statement, which is why I have high hopes that you’re going to tap into more of your dormant genius in the coming days. The cosmic rhythms are nudging you to enjoy a time of profound slack, and I think there’s a good chance you’ll agree to that.

Hahahaha! Not likely. It’s busy season, kids. Very busy. I guess, unless I get laid off or something. Not to jinx myself or anything, but UGH! Way too busy…

From Freewill Astrology:
“I saw the angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free.” That was Michelangelo talking about how he approached his work as a sculptor. He didn’t build the statue, in other words, but got rid of the unnecessary stuff that was surrounding it. I suggest that you try this approach in 2009. You have the potential to create a great thing — maybe even two great things — by chiseling away the extraneous material that’s obscuring their unique beauty.

Got it. Will work on chiseling away and removing the unnecessary and extraneous. Merry Christmas!