Concept image for English to Spanish Translation Mark

We are moving imminently to Palo Alto, California on a new adventure.  WOW! If you had told me this even 3 months ago, I would have responded with an incredulous Nuh-uh! Just goes to show you, what can happen when you remain open to new opportunities and are willing to go with the flow.

Truth is, I did not initially consider leaving Austin (or Texas).  I, like so many, have fallen in love with Austin.  Many of my fellow laid-off-from-the-same-company colleagues adamantly refuse even to contemplate any other option.   However, I’m not the type to wait around collecting unemployment (which does not even cover health insurance, let alone food or mortgage), hoping the economy will recover.  I don’t have enough patience for that.  I also think I can be happy in many places, as long as I have my family with me.

In addition, I already took time off to adopt my daughter, hence, that restless desire to vacate the corporate world was out of my system.  At that time, I thought I was going to retire and dedicate myself to full time Momhood.  But after awhile, I discovered that I enjoyed working, and though I delight in my role as Mom, it’s not enough for me.   And hubby Ronny was willing (itching?) to try the “Chief Home Officer” role for awhile (he’s very good at it, by the way).  Thus the role switcheroo.  I think it’s an arrangement that works well for us, apparently it’s even stylish these days.

Finally, I came to appreciate the value of working (call me crazy!).  It’s full of opportunities: for growth, for fulfillment, to interact with others and build meaningful relationships, to team together to build something, to strive for a goal and savor the satisfaction of achieving it (and yes, the challenge and excitement of competition and “the thrill of the chase”).  Of course, it’s also a way to provide for my family, and Ronny’s golf addiction

I thus was happy and grateful to accept an exciting Industry Marketing position with a financially solid, established smallish company (~$600M revenues),  in the bay area.  It took 14 weeks from the time I was officially informed that my services were no longer needed, to accepting the offer.

How did I do this? I learned to execute a job search; I’d never needed to before!  Realizing everyone’s situation is unique, I thought it might still help others trying to land a job in this challenging job market if I gave the detail.  Here is the formula that worked for me:

• Reactivated my network by sending personalized, not blanket, emails to folks in my network asking for help, references, and introductions.  Luckily, I already had a good 300+ documented in linkedin.
• Networked my way to interviews by first finding a posting, then identifying someone in my network who worked at that company, contacting then for intelligence, and asking them to call/send an email of recommendation and my resume directly to the hiring manager.  This was the singlemost effective action to acquiring the position.
• Spent ~ 4 hours a day on average a lot of time on my job search.
• Focused my search – Started a broad job search, but realizing that hiring managers who get 50 (or 500!) resumes for an opening can afford to be very picky, I focused in on jobs and companies where I would be as exact a match as possible.  (Unemployment stat says 6.3 people per job – huh!  I heard anecdotes more like the above numbers).  I identified about 10 companies that I felt would be the best fit, and visited their job webpages at least weekly (and actually identified my current position this way).
• Linkedin was a wonderful tool for managing my connections.  Also, I used it to find colleagues-of-colleagues, and do research on individuals.  I also reworked my profile.
• Broadened my search geographically – Started looking only in Austin, but about 8 weeks in, decided to broaden to US wide, as Austin alone was not producing for me (news about Austin being less affected by the recession notwithstanding), and I suspected it was very competitive for marketing positions.
• Studied diligently for any interview – easily spending days prior, to understand as best I could the company, market, and specific position requirements.  I trolled the company website, downloaded and read their whitepapers and case studies, studied the competition, googled industry opinion, read analyst articles, practiced whiteboards of their products, watched webinars and listened to podcasts.  I created a “notes” file where I summarized the relevant information, and studied that.  I also got the names of the interviewers ahead of time if I could and investigated them, to try to glean a sense of their background/motivations/interests/personal brand.
• Created, practiced, and memorized a personal elevator pitch.  Who am I?  What are my strengths?  What are the top benefits I bring to an organization?
• Paid CareerBuilder to modify my resume, then took the results and punched it up even more to tailor to industry and role.  It took many iterations to get to “ready”.
• Created different “flavors” of my resume (one for sales, one for marketing, etc), as I have different skillsets, and then, when applying to a job posting, adjusted it further to match the requirements in the job posting.
• My resume, elevator pitch, and Linkedin efforts helped me become succinct about my capabilities and helped me clarify what I wanted as well.
• Started this blog!  Not sure it helped secure a job, but it has been fun, helped keep my sanity, and and advanced my understanding of social media.  Also utilized twitter, RSS feeds, google reader, and linkedin groups to learn about social media.
• Aggregators simplyhired and indeed became my job boards of choice, as they provided more useful results/better matches.  I started out paying for TheLadders but did not feel it yielded as good results.  Eventually, I set up alerts for my areas of interest/skills ie. “BPM Marketing in Atlanta”, for automatic delivery via RSS or email.  While I did not get my job via these mechanisms, they were still useful, as over time, as I got a sense of what types of jobs were out there, what was popular, who was hiring, how quickly posts would come and go, what key words to put on my resume, and how to better position myself.

Also,

• Ran a lot, nearly every day, as a therapeutic outlet and because I love to (even ran 4 5K races!).  I even managed to lose the 5-7 pounds that I’d gained in the last years of a sit-down-for-8-hours job.
• Kept my conscious contact with my Higher Power (HP) frequent and strong.  I kept in the forefront of my attention that 1) I don’t have the big picture, I just need to remain open 2) I have a unique destiny 3) my HP is looking out for me and my family 4) I have faith in my HP to show me the right path 5) I have so many blessings.  I tried not to insert my will, but just do my part as best I could, take action, and leave the results up to my HP.

I hope this helps others who are still looking.  I also want to thank EVERYONE who helped and supported me.  There’s too many to name, but YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!  My musical pick for this blog post is: Roll with It Baby, by Steve Winwood

As Wes Miles sings at the top of his lungs, “My beds too big for just me,” I am not too sure if I still whine about this.  I went through a phase of repeating those seven words thousands and thousands of times a day.  Of course, that might have been the one statement I have ever said so many times in my life and meant it each and every time.  Ever since I had a bed, it has always been too big for just me.

As a young kid, I’d make my mom sleep with me.  I’d make sure to tangle my arm in hers so that if she were to try leaving during the night, I’d wake up and notice.  The same with my dad.  I always made him watch TV at the end of my bed every night until I fell asleep.  It’s only with my sister that I didn’t mind having a bed to myself.  I’m a still sleeper.  My sister is the one who makes loud noises, grinds her teeth, and kicks during the night.

Minus the unconscious beat up I’d get from my sister, having someone sleep in bed with me has always been a priority.  Lately, I don’t really care too much.  I’ve been so sleepy that I just pass out without remembering much.  It’s basically like I get very wasted every night and wake up by myself in bed.  It’s not that bad.  I mean, I wouldn’t mind having someone to sleep with me, but it’s not that big of a factor as it once was.

Does this mean I am growing out of myself?  If that is the case, I’m relieved.  I’m tired of myself.  I’ve had to live with mirrors of myself for the past 15 years.  I don’t consider the first 4 years of my existence as the rest of the other 15 years.  It might be because I vaguely remember my first four years of living.  That, and I think I was actually truly happy from ages 1 – 4.

It’s strange how loving life is so much easier than hating it.  I mean, I can do whatever I want in this life of mine.  Whatever I want.  Of course, there are consequences for all my actions, I still have no right to say, “I hate my life because of x and x”.

Alright, well other than my rambling over no particular subject, I’ll be seeing Dignan tonight.  It has been a few months since I have seen them.  Last time was with O’Brother, if my memory serves me right.  How I miss O’brother.  Those are some of the most amazing people and musicians that are in this world.  But, yes, I’ll be seeing Dignan tonight in which I am pretty excited.  Even though I’ve seen them hundreds, literally hundreds, of times, I still get as excited as the first time I saw them.  Tomorrow night I am seeing Say Anything, Miniature Tigers, Moneen, and another band that just slipped my mind.  And Wednesday I am seeing The Get Up Kids and Keving fucking Devine.  You have no idea how I am excited for that.  Seeing KD in the flesh is going to a highlight to my life.  Of course, seeing Rob Pope (bassist of Get Up Kids, Spoon..) is going to be very enticing, as well.  Despite our age difference, I swear I love him more than a lot of things.

I still can’t believe I saw Conor Oberst again.  I mean, wow.  Seeing Monsters of Folk had to be the best gift ever.  I really will never be able to explain how happy that made me.  Really.

Alright, I’m starting to sound more and more like a girl.  Better stop before my entire self gets raveled up in this.

Take a leaf of paper and draw your mind.

Amazing.

It’s been a wild, brain straining, stressful, yet enlightening, few months sense I’ve even considered doing a blog entry. Losing my MP3 player hasn’t helped, and the lack of worthy material also contributed.

Diamonds in the rough are everywhere though, and I certainly found one in “The Temper Trap”. They’re from Melbourne, and have just this one EP out, but damn. Inspirational. I’ve uploaded what I could find HERE.
Quick fix ——> Youtube vids.

What really would have happened.

Moving on…

Neon Indian is another band I’ve been diggin’. They came out late, last year but only got popular threw blogs by the middle of 2009. Based from NY to TX they display such a robust, eclectic, nerdy vibe that grows on you so quickly. Their videos are just about as good as their music. Enjoy.

Until next time ladies!

A.

I almost forgot…

It's ok Obama. We're here for you. Sleep tight.

10-foot-tall guitars sit on a baggage-claim carousel in the Austin, TX airport. The decorated guitars are a fundraiser for several Austin charities. (Photo by Sara Humm)

I was fortunate enough to visit Austin, Texas last week and I’m not disappointed in its claim to be ‘live music capital of the world.’  And it’s been that way for a while, since 1991.

While walking on 6th street (similar to Lawrence, Kansas–but with more bars) all you could hear was live music coming from various bars that were hoping to pull you in.  The town was plastered with posters and signs that said ‘band unloading zone,’ which I thought was awesome, too.

After looking why this is Austin’s claim to fame, I found that they have a ‘Live Music Task Force’ that works with the Austin music scene and the community.  They meet to address issues, developments and challenges that are happening within the music community.  Not only do they have this organization, but there are many annual concert series and live music going on every day.

Love for local music seems to be a common thing for the residents of Austin–the bars were packed and the people seemed to be into it.  The city also has a program called ‘Music on Hold,’ which plays local bands when a person is put on hold during a phone call. (How awesome is that?!!)  Bands even play at the City Council meetings.

As if all of this isn’t enough, the city of Austin has released a study measuring the impact of their music scene.  In short, it states that live music is great for the Austin community because it defines the town’s culture.  Not only that, but that it’s great income for the city.

“City government recognizes the role of music in Austin in a variety of ways, including providing music by local artists at the airport, funding a cable access channel devoted entirely to local music, and administering a loan program specifically for the music industry,” the study states.

While Austin, Texas is quite the drive or plane ride away, downtown Lawrence Kansas also thrives on local music–Jackpot Music Hall is one of the places where bands are playing each night.  A list of venues can be found on Lawrence’s city website. Not only is live music a great thing in Lawrence, but KU’s student station, KJHJ, is an awesome student run station as well.

I believe supporting your local music scene is important to keeping bands around and doing what they love (and what we love–too).  It’s really refreshing to step outside the local scene of the Kansas City/Lawrence area and find another town who really supports those local bands.  And in an age where CD sales are declining and illegal music downloading is becoming more prominent–why not show you care about your community (& the economy) ?

Shows coming your way:
Tomorrow - Paramore @ Uptown Theater (Kansas City)
November 6th - Joshua Radin at the Granada (Lawrence)
November 14th – Cage The Elephant at the Beaumont Club (Kansas City)
November 20th – The Republic Tigers (KC local band) at the Granada (Lawrence)
November 14th & 20th-The Dead Girls (Lawrence band) at the Granada (Lawrence)

Get an Auto Insurance Quote in Austin, Texas

Austin, TX Insurance – Using the right tool for a job is key to success in any profession. Experts say the same principle applies when selecting an Austin auto insurance policy. Having the right type of policy can help ensure that you, your employees and your business are all protected in the unfortunate event that one of your vehicles is involved in an accident.

If you’re a business owner and you or your employees use a vehicle for business-related deliveries or to carry certain materials to and from a job site, you may need a commercial auto insurance policy that’s tailored to more closely suit the needs—and risks—of a business vehicle operator.

Here are some questions that can help you determine if you might need a commercial auto policy instead of a personal auto policy, courtesy of Texas Prime Insuranc

• Do you need more liability coverage than your personal auto policy provides? Generally, a commercial auto policy provides higher limits of liability, but less or no coverage in areas that are typically not associated with commercial auto risks.

• Do you need special coverage for situations associated with con-ducting business? Commercial auto policies also usually offer certain coverages—such as hired and non-owned auto coverage and coverage for towing a trailer for business use—that are not available with personal auto policies.

• Do you need to list any employees as drivers? You can do this with a commercial auto insurance policy.

• Do you use your vehicle for business purposes? If you use your vehicle for things like pizza or newspaper delivery, catering, door-to-door consulting service, landscaping or snowplowing service, logging business, day care/church retreat van service and/or farm-to-market delivery, you might need a commercial auto policy.

Texas Prime Insurance is an independent insurance agency – trained, licensed insurance professionals who offer personal service and advice. We can help match you with the type of policy that best suits your needs and those of your company.

To learn more about all an independent agency offers, visit www.texasprimeinsurance.com or give us a call.  We represent companies like Progressive Insurance, Travelers Insurance, Unitrin Insurance and more!

Hi Everyone, We are moving to Austin so we need to sell everything! Whatcha want? We got it!!! Let me know

Tea Party Express II Schedule

Sunday, Oct.25
San Diego, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Monday, Oct.26
Bakersfield, CA
Fresno, CA
Tuesday, Oct.27
Tonopah, NV
Hawthorne, NV
Fallon, NV
Wednesday, Oct.28
Carson City, NV
Walnut Creek, CA
Thursday, Oct.29
Redding, CA
Medford, OR
Friday, Oct.30
Portland, OR
Tacoma, WA
Saturday, Oct.31
Tri-Cities, WA
Spokane, WA
Sunday, Nov.1
Helena, MT
Bozeman, MT
Monday, Nov.2
Rapid City, SD
Tuesday, Nov.3
Cheyenne, WY
Fort Collins, CO
Denver, CO
Wednesday, Nov.4
Wichita, KS
Oklahoma City, OK
Thursday, Nov.5
Amarillo, TX
Lubbock, TX
Friday, Nov.6
Abilene, TX
Austin, TX
Saturday, Nov.7
Houston, TX
Beaumont, TX
Sunday, Nov.8
Baton Rouge, LA
Jackson, MS
Monday, Nov.9
Birmingham, AL
Atlanta, GA
Tuesday, Nov.10
Augusta, GA
Beaufort, SC
Wednesday, Nov.11
Jacksonville, FL
Thursday, Nov.12
Orlando, FL

Read more here:

http://www.teapartyexpress.org/

Hey Beautiful People!

It’s been a while. I thought I’d catch you up on the latest. The wait is over!  I have a plan. Or at least I have a plan for a plan!

I am headed out to scout out the perfect place to make music and revive my musical career. In hindsight, it feels like this year has been about deconstruction, this might be true for a lot of you. In a lots of large and small ways, things have fallen apart, fallen away, or changed in big ways.

Change as they say, is inevitable. It’s what you do with it that counts. I feel as if I am suddenly awake after a long hibernation.  The world looks new and intriguing, instead of daunting to me.  And now I am finally ready and able to start the reconstruction process.

There is a concept I’ve heard about being responsible for your own happiness -   I feel I finally beginning to have a handle on that one. I’m so happy to be alive and feel my fire and drive return. And I am so excited and happy to jump back into music with both feet.

I have continued to write and create, and now I want to find the perfect place, and an incredible musical partner to bring my music back to life on stages all over the world.

So I am headed out for a scouting trip back east, or maybe more accurately southeast. I am visiting Asheville, NC, Nashville, TN and then later on  Austin TX. I want to feel into each location and see if I can imagine my life blossoming there. I’ll be on a road trip between Asheville and Nashville and flying the other legs of the trip.

I am curious as to whether any of you might have friends and contacts that would be good for me to meet? There is nothing like getting a locals inside view of their city.

My dates are a bit flexible for the first part of the trip – I will be In Asheville around the 9th of November, Nashville Nov 11-18ish.

I would love to meet some other musicians, songwriters, industry people, or just your good friends and get the lay of the land and check out the music scene in each city. I’d love advice as to what to see, and where to stay or a place to stay. You can email me at annie@anniemacmusic.com Thank you for your help in advance!

In other news, my new venture with my business The Mistress Mind is a success! I am having a blast helping women to live their biggest lives possible. My partners and I will have new openings for more of our intensives in the next few months. There seems to be a big pull for us all to really find our place in the world and do what we are most passionate about.  Our process helps you figure it out. If you are interested in finding out more,  please let me know and I will keep you updated.

I want to thank you for your support and your help, and I wish you all the best in your lives.

With love,

Annie xox

From The Onion – America’s Finest News Source

————–

Redskins Hold Press Conference To Announce They Are Still Sort Of A Football Team

Redskin's Jim Zorn

WASHINGTON—Washington Redskins head coach Jim Zorn held a press conference Sunday to reassure fans that, despite an inability to effectively execute their offense, defense, or special teams, the Redskins were still somewhat comparable to a real football team. “It’s been a tough season so far, and even though we are 2-4, we still have players, uniforms, Motorola headsets—all the components that technically constitute an NFL team, sort of,” Zorn said while grimacing and making a “so-so” gesture with his hand. “Sure, I was stripped of play-calling responsibilities by team management, and I really don’t have any clue who will play quarterback for us this Sunday, but I swear to you, in a weird, very convoluted way, we are in the NFL.” Placing his hand over the microphone, Zorn then spoke briefly with an unidentified man near the stage, and announced that, for what it’s worth, the organization owns the Internet domain name washingtonredskins.com through 2010.

—————-

Snyder is just going to have to limp across the finnish line leaning on his crutch, Jim Zorn.  Snyder, please let your new head coach hire his own staff.

i completely forgot i had a last.fm account…
jesus.

went to austin this weekend for my birthday.

worked in the morning.
had trouble renting a car
got a ticket in george west (my first)
missed our where the wild things are showing at 9 in IMAX so saw it the next day.

bought:
an albatross – freedom summer live LP
cheap trick – heaven tonight LP (surrender is a great fucking song)
led zeppelin – led zeppelin IV LP (for $6!)

and as always…lots of cheap used movies from waterloo.
found akira and oldboy for really cheap.

went to a hispanic art museum with gab, clopine and fernie which was really nice.

bought a tentacle pillow at urban outfitters for $10
and a nice shirt.

great overall weekend.
but i miss living in austin.

-t

Shanahan tells the Redskins "No"

According to nfl.FanHouse.com Mike Shanahan, 2x 90’s Superbowl winner and recently fired head coach for the Denver Broncos, has turned down Dan Snyder’s offer to take over for Jim Zorn as head coach for the Washington Redskins.  Since clenching the title for worst team in the NFC East Zorn has been scrubbing up the resume anticipating the pink slip.  Shanahan said that taking over in the middle of the season rarely works out for both the new coach and the team.

Secondary coach Jerry Gray may be tapped at the Week 8 bye to take over for Zorn but it looks like right now the organization is “trying to give Jim every chance to turn it around. The move to [bring in offensive consultant Sherm] Lewis is to take more off Jim’s plate, especially the play-calling, because it is not working, and that is where Jim is spending much of his time. Now he can coach the entire team. Let’s see where that gets us.”

Yeah… Let’s…

Learn more about the neighborhood areas and associations Austin, Tx has to offer. You will be able to determine where neighborhoods are located, learn a general price range for the area. This site will also help you relate neighborhoods to the real estate areas in our market.

I am getting a bit frustrated with trying to figure this blog thing out. All these different widgets and I cant figure out how to get a picture and bio of me on the side bar. Normally all this computer stuff I just figure out pretty easily so I am a bit confused and it’s makes me wanna shine the whole thing on. Ok, that sounds like I am more upset than I really am. I will get it. There is just SO much stuff to figure out.

Well, I haven’t had any time to take any shots and my new camera for some reason wont upload to my mac. My hubby and I got back from an awesome 2 week trip to Austin TX (which we LOVED) and DC to visit family, so I have been playing some serious catch up with work. Teaching my yoga butt off. It’s great though! I thought I would post a picture that Jude took of me in Austin doing Down Dog at the Fire Hydrant. LOL. Well I know it’s not my photography  but at least I directed it. That’s a step.

Oh. P.S. The Magnolia Cafe in the back ground is Awesome! You gotta check it out when you visit. It’s open 24 hours. A funny thing we noticed in Austin, and maybe this is a Texas thing, but everyone serves breakfast tacos instead of breakfast burritos like out here in California.

Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow at the Black Sheep Lodge at 12 noon. Drink specials are $3 Bloody Mary’s & Sangria, buy 4 beer bucket get 5th beer free, and $2 off pitchers.

We found two weeks ago that the best deal is on the pitchers with a greater alcohol oz to dollar ratio.

In less time it takes Jason Campbell to throw a pass come on out and meet a fellow skins fan, have a beer, and some tots.

As part of our informal “Austin Professional Women Who Lunch” group, I had lunch with 9 smart, successful women today at Chez-Zee.  What a blast! It was energizing to be in such great company.   The more I “hang” with professional women, the more I appreciate them.

It wasn’t always that way.  For much of my career, I didn’t have much occasion to either hang with or appreciate them, starting out as a programmer, then progressing to technical sales and then sales: these are such male-dominated areas.  I often marveled how I was the only female in a room of 20 guys or 1 of 3 women in a room of 80.  Sadly, it’s still seems to be so today.  I even challenge the statistic of 25%, at least anecdotally for me, that’s high.

But in the last several years, I’ve really started to treasure the relationships I have with the few women I did meet in the workplace – we are such mavericks after all.  And in my last position, I reported to a headquarters site for the first time, complete with Exec Admins and Marketing – ah, here’s where the women populate!

Women and networking – here’s an interesting article that posits that men have stronger networks than women, and that this is the real reason the glass ceiling has not yet been smashed to bits.  For me, during much of  my career, I’d been so intent on proving my competence, growing my skills (and working hard to do this), that I didn’t have the time to network – no, truth is, I’d not taken the time, I’d not prioritized it as important enough, I’d not appreciated the value of relationships. (!Ah! – and the networking I did was hangin’ and partying with the guys).

However, over the past few years, I’ve come to realize just how important people are to me (finally! at least not belatedly!).  They’re everything to me!  Now, I don’t network “just to network so I can advance my cause” but rather because I “get to” network with these people that I appreciate  in my life.

And the women?  I especially relish my relationships with them, maybe I’m playing catch-up.  They’re so wonderful, so resilient, so admirable…I’m in awe.

My husband likes to announce “it’s all about the girls” when referring to the rest of our household (our daughter and I, and well, the two cats too).  With that sentiment, this week’s music pick is dedicated to “the girls” in my professional life who grace me with their presence – Just Stand Up (performed by many women artists)

Michael Berryhill: Basement States at Horton & Liu in New York, September 10-October 10, 2009.  More Michael Berryhill.

ACL 2009 starts this Friday, October 2, 2009 and ends Sunday night, October 4, 2009. This year, visitors to ACL 2009 can also take advantage of First Thursdays on South Congress Ave. First Thursdays are a fun (Austin) way to enjoy all the businesses located on South Congress Ave. If you are coming to Austin for ACL 2009, please be safe and have fun.

On another, but related subject – It has been a while since I last posted to this space, and I don’t think I’ll have time to post anything meaningful before ACL 2009. However, please feel free to search the site for places to eat, drink, and things to do while in Austin. I created many lists in February and March for folks attending SXSW 2009, that might prove helpful to you…

From Budapest, city of legendary cafés and all-night parties, comes this very strange report. This seems a bit like the attempts in Austin, Texas (which claims to be “The Live Music Capital of the World”) to limit live music.

So, how does one sleep in a city that doesn’t? And is it necessary to be quiet in the morning so the musicians and party-goers can sleep in? Or are the musicians getting up in the morning to get to their day jobs, and do the party-goers go off to work as well?

There seem to be more issues lurking here than I care to consider tonight. It’s quiet here now that the festival season has ended.

I just got back from a trip to Michigan, where most of my family lives.  I guess, my earlier posts might have sounded a bit -dare I say it- whiney? (but sincere nonetheless)!  Luckily for most of my brothers and sisters up there, they’ve still got their jobs.  But the economic picture is grim – given the dramatic slide of the auto industry, the bread and butter of Michigan, many are hurting.  Foreclosures abound, housing is depressed, and anecdotally, I saw that spending is down down down.  And not just for the past year.  Michigan has been in economic straits for years, and many have responded to the “news that we’re in a recession” with derision.  Unemployment is 15%, more than double that of the Austin area.  And that’s considered a low figure, since many are under-employed or just not looking anymore, having long since exhausted their unemployment benefits. 

Take my brother for instance.  The GM plant where he worked was closed down and he was forced to take retirement.  He’s looking… he’s a tool and die guy.  He recently applied to a job posting and was told there were 5600 applications for the one position.  No that is not a typo.  Reinvention, anyone? 

And many others have left.  Unlike here in Austin, where one could already speculate with cautious optimism on the return of good times, the outlook doesn’t look rosy.  The state badly needs to diversify.

Now back to the positive.  Those Michigan folk are resilient.  My bro is working part time on a couple of nearby farms (for $9 an hour!) while he casts about for his next move.  I heard this phrase several times: “It is what it is.”   They are loyal too.  The ones I talked to, were pragmatic and commited to Michigan for the long haul – whatever form that takes.  My sister, who directs a non-profit choir for girls, continues to face financial uncertainty with a stubborn chin and fierce look in her eye.

On another note, every time I visit Michigan and in particular Grand Rapids, I’m always struck by the plethora of 70s and 80s music on the radio – given I grew up here in these decades, it always takes me back.  Some things never change.

I admire the commitment, acceptance of reality, and stalwart tenacity in the face of challenges, that I witnessed in the folks in Michigan.  Michiganians/Michiganders – you are an inspiration!  In tribute to “you guys”, I’m dedicating my weekly pick, Bob Seger’s “You’re Still the Same”, to you.