And so it begins....

Fun fact: College students who graduate during an economic recession feel the pain for at least 15 years after economic recovery (something I heard on the radio in Ohio).

Second Fun Fact: Unemployment rate for people aged 20-24 is hovering around 16%.

Lucky me.......

So to say the least, I am unemployed recent recipient of a Master's of Science in Biology. What a useless degree. I wish I had known that I could apply directly for PhD programs right after undergraduate. Or maybe no one wanted to tell me because the knew I wouldn't be ready (but I so am now). With my master's degree I am either way too over-qualified or one degree short under-qualified for any real job I want. To make things better, I recently moved to Florida with the long time love of my life, Mike, so he could pursue his PhD in medical sciences. You may or may not know that Florida was hit super hard by the recession (just look at the Florida housing market) which makes finding any job almost impossible (I can't even get a freaking job at Publix! Seriously?!?). 5 months and counting of unemployment....

What have I been doing? Well I work sporadically for my Aunt's home improvement company that is located about an hour away from my home. Let me tell you that this job dose not take up any my time. So I have finally had a chance to pursue interests in needle craft, sewing, and cooking (pretty much homemaking). I honestly don't know why I didn't start this blog sooner, some pretty funny shit has happened since we moved. My mother is a seamstress by trade (she owns a bridal shop - All Brides Beautiful Main Page - and be sure to check out their blog - All Brides Beautiful's Blog) but I never really got to spend time learning all she knows. My grandmothers are both excellent cooks but, again, I never got to spend time learning from them. I grew up with three younger brothers and the most supportive, loving father ever but he is a sports buff who works with computers and always told me to do what makes me happy. So I am learning and doing all this stuff on my own now and it is making me happy (granted I would love to be in a PhD program learning and teaching, but I am trying to make the most out of this time). I hope to use this blog to share some of my creations with you......

Like this one (a squirrel shirt I made for Mike since he hates squirrels):

I recently completed a massive amount (at least for me) of projects for Christmas presents (no money!) this year, so photos should be in order soon of the stuff I remembered to take photos of. Now please note that I am not a photographer. Mike is really good and hopefully I can convince him to take photos for me.

I am also exploring the world of cooking and cooking on a budget. Since I have no job we are on a very tight budget. We have been trying (unsuccessfully by a few dollars) to stay on a $150 a month meal budget for 2 people. Some one suggested that I blog about all the food I make and what I did for a month so that other frugal people may learn from it. I am thinking that February may be a good time to do this (since I have company coming in January for a week and I don't know how that is going to work into it). Please stay tuned!

In case you were wondering about the "Okay Tokay" thing. I did all my master's reasearch with geckos, inparticular tokay geckos (Gekko gecko) and have quite a fascination with them (and really with any reptile in general). When ever I would ask my advisor to do something for me, he would jokingly say "okay tokay".