Stay at Home Cat Mom: Funemployment

So I wrote this post last week, and in that time I got a job offer! It's exciting, and a little nerve wracking that I'll be living a conventional work schedule for the first time in over two years. It definitely feels like the final return to reality after Peace Corps.

We've been in our apartment for almost a month, and for that whole month I've been funemployed. I cook, take mid morning and late afternoon naps, and go on interviews that leave me standing on the border of the abyss side of hopeless. In a way I've been lucky to have the luxury of moving into a new place while unemployed - I'm always home for deliveries and cable guys, I can spend hours rearranging my collage wall of decorations, and I can drink wine at the pool. I also spend hours worrying about getting a job, looking at my budget sheet with an existential sense of doom, and regretting spending twenty dollars at Half Price Books.

quality time with Tut

When I'm in those deep, dark miserable worries about getting a job, I try to think about how some time soon, I will have a job and I'll be grounded and can look back at this relatively brief time of funemployment with fondness and envy. Who else can go grocery shopping at 10:30 am with all the senior citizens in the area? I'll miss afternoon walks to the library and getting to lay around all day meow-ing with Tut.

I try to be peaceful, I try to be present. I think about what Warsan Shire wrote:

“The sun is perfect and you woke this morning. You have enough language in your mouth to be understood. You have a name, and someone wants to call it. Five fingers on your hand and someone wants to hold it. If we just start there, every beautiful thing that has and will ever exist is possible. If we start there, everything, for a moment, is right in the world.”

That's almost a good book reccomendation. Here's a few good looks from last week:

top- j crew outlet, leggings- Victoria's Secret, boots- Target 

I wore this outfit to tailgate Pittsburgh's Rib Fest [and to eat ribs].

denim vest- thrifted, tank top- tj maxx, maxi skirt- target

Even though its been muggy and humid all week, all I want to wear is boots. Tights would've been miserably hot and sweaty, so I wore my thigh highs. Cool crotch for a cool girl.

so cool. thigh highs- torrid, boots- deena & ozzy

I wore this headband all weekend to try and hide my constantly sweaty bangs. It's an old piece from NY&Co.

eye liner: elf, lips: OCC lip tar

I wore this on a friendventure:

blouse- weird indonesian shop, jeggings- target,  boots- deena & ozzy

Once again, needed to put my bangs back as soon as I went outside. Also, I bought these nonessential sunglasses at Target and felt wildly extravagant, but, whatever I have a job now.

all I'm wearing here is Bare Escentuals Prime Time primer & matte foundation

current arm party: coin bracelet- cambodian, glass bracelet- smithsonian, hamsa bracelet- indonesian,
claddagh ring- thrifted

bonus face: wearing NARS The Multiple Orgasm stick as blush and lip, elf eyeliner 

Stay At Home Cat Mom - An Introduction

Welcome to one of my few niches of internet presence. I'm Emily, a recently returned Peace Corps volunteer (Indonesia 2012 - 2014), a loud mouthed feminist, eagle eyed thrifter and currently a funemployed stay at home cat mom. I live with a tiny candle hoarder (but not a hoarder of tiny candles) who has been my roommate since college, and her cat.

He's very handsome. 

I care a lot about social justice, reading, practicing mindfulness, and DIY culture. I dislike wasteful paper products, rape culture, and dry skin. 

I prefer to make things myself before buying something, and if I have to buy it there's no way I'm paying full price. I'm a sassy drunk. I consider myself a fat babe body acceptance warrior, and I was published in Hot and Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion. I don't think there's much more you need to know.

So, this blog is for chronicling my re-acclimation to the United States, setting up my first real apartment, and whatever else tickles my fancy. I'll definitely be posting about cooking in our petite kitchen (see One Counter Cooking), and what I've recently thrifted and crafted, and my unqualified opinions on literature and foreign policy. Check out my various social media accounts for obsessively curated images, music, and links.

Peace, Love, and Pizza
Em