April 2020

Life During COVID-19 (4/28/2020): Job Search, Internship and Opening Up Utah

April 28, 2020July 9, 2020 Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

Job Search

I am focused on applying to jobs. I’m specifically looking for remote work because I think in the long run it makes sense to work from home in case Covid-19 flares up later this year. It’s hard to find remote work, especially in writing fields that isn’t freelance. Finding positions that offer full benefits, time off, a flexible schedule and a good 401k are rare. My goal is to find remote work so I won’t have to work in a restaurant after the stay-at-home order is lifted in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Internship!

Yesterday, I got a Literary Internship for a publishing house. This internship is unpaid but requires only 10-15 hours of work per week. It is valuable experience that I know I need to help build up my resume. My career goal is to work for a publishing house in publishing/editing. This internship is an exciting opportunity and I get the feeling it will be a positive experience.

I know that I can balance full-time work (when I find it) and my internship with everything else I do: blogging, writing, reading, art, and music.

Utah & COVID-19

The stay-at-home order issued by Governor Gary Herbert through May 1st, will presumably be lifted by the end of this week. I am still checking twitter and local news for updates from Salt Lake City’s Mayor Erin Mendenhall. We’ll see what happens, what regulations will be put in place by the Utah Department of Health for restaurants to be have dine-in service. It will be interesting to see what happens this week and the next.

Current Covid-19 stats for Utah

Summary: Total Cases 4233, Total Reported People Tested 100195, Total Covid-19 Hospitalizations 349, Total Covid-19 Deaths 41

Population of Utah (estimated) 3,282,115

A Tiny Opinionated Rant

I believe it is important to save lives and stop the spread of Covid-19 as effectively as possible. It is frustrating to hear about protests saying the stay-at-home order is unconstitutional. I think these people fail to realize the gravity of the situation and that having no vaccine for Covid-19 makes this a serious matter. The argument to sacrifice the weak to open up the economy is revolting.

If anything these people that are protesting against the stay-at-home orders across the nation should be protesting against Trump’s failure as POTUS to handle Covid-19. They should be protesting the government’s pathetic attempt to ‘help’ Americans financially: a one-time check of $1,200 is a slap in the face, the $600 add-on to weekly unemployment is more helpful right now but not for those that are having trouble filing for unemployment.

Trumps response time to Covid-19, his ignorance to take it seriously, his continual suggestions to ingest disinfectants, his failure to help state governor’s, and his continual back and forth indecision about almost every little thing is unacceptable. The man is an idiot and his presidency is a joke. My main concern is voting for this years presidential election. With the spread of Covid-19 and everyone trying to just make it through, the risk of the election being ‘manipulated’ with the excuse of Covid-19 I think is a very real possibility.

End of My Poetry Workshop

Yesterday was the last day of the Free Poetry Workshop taught by Natasha Saje. This workshop was about four months long and I absolutely loved it. Saje is amazing, she taught me so much and I look forward to staying in touch with my fellow students.

Facebook

I finally caved. I am extremely opposed to Facebook but over the last few weeks I have realized when it comes to putting my writing out there and connecting with readers, having a Facebook Profile and Page is a necessity. Below are links to my Profile and Page.

I will be using my Profile for personal/writing updates and my Page is specifically for all content I post to my blog.

Alina’s Facebook Profile

Alina’s Facebook Blog Page

Reading

I finished reading Joan Didion’s Where I Was From

This was a great read. I started it the last week of March and took my time with it. Didion talks about her family history which creates a sort of ‘bookend’ structure for the rest of the book. The meat of it is a detailed history of California, specifically Sacramento where she is from. It was an informative read and I have a craving for more Didion, so I might be raiding my boyfriends bookshelf very soon (he has most of her books).

Uncertainty and Relief

I am hopeful that a gradual re-opening of Salt Lake City will be successful. Our case counts and deaths are very low in comparison to the rest of the nation. But I think there is a real risk at opening the state too soon and a second wave could rip through Utah and our deaths could increase rapidly.

Thank you

I hope that you are safe and well wherever you are. Thank you for reading about my life during Covid-19. Feel free to respond, comment, or contact me directly.

Best,

Alina

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If you enjoyed this post, check out these:

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Life During COVID-19 (4/21/2020): Poetry, Sylvia Plath and My Novel

April 21, 2020July 9, 2020 Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

It’s disturbing how normal this is all starting to feel. Staying home, my routine, knowing what to expect at almost every hour of the day. It is becoming tiresome so I am trying to invigorate my days by switching my schedule around.

Normally, I get up read, write a little, have breakfast and then start my 3-4 hours of job searching and applying. I’ve changed this the last few days because I realized applying to jobs, checking my email, and getting no response or just responses that say “we are moving onto other candidates” or “this position is no longer open” was stressing me out. So now I spend my mornings reading as much as I can and then I start looking and applying to jobs around four or five in the afternoon.

Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar

20200421_113035 — Trade gift from a friend for a Poem

I finished The Bell Jar yesterday and it was amazing. I can’t believe I’m almost 27 (next month) and I haven’t read this. It was brutal, depressing, heart wrenching and woven with poetic language, I loved it. I couldn’t get enough of it. Now I am reading Plath’s The Collected Poems now; It was included with The Bell Jar copy I have. This was a trade gift for a poem that I wrote for one of my friends a couple of weeks ago and I completely love it!

Original Poem by Alina Happy Hansen (a Poem for $)

POETRY

My Poetry Workshop is coming to an end. I just finished submitting the last assignment on Sunday and now I am working on revising 3 poems and putting together my final portfolio for submission. This is hard, considering the 3 poems I have chosen to revise need A LOT of work and it will take up the rest of this week to even try to get these poems near “finished”.

I am sad that the Poetry Workshop is coming to an end and I have scrambled to find other classes. I ended up enrolling in four free courses through Harvard’s Free Online Courses.

I’ve enrolled in, Intro to Music Theory (I was going to take this class at SLCC but it would’ve costed me around $500), Ancient Masterpieces of World Literature, The Icelandic Sagas, and Writing for Social Media (starts on April 25th). Besides Writing for Social Media, the other courses are self-paced which will help me complete them all.

There is the option for all four to be “verified” so you can receive a certificate for completing the course but you have to pay. I don’t think it’s worth the money for three out of four of those but I am debating on getting a certificate for Writing for Social Media to put on my Linkedin profile, I don’t think hiring managers are going to care about a certificate when they want experience but I am still debating on it.

ART

I’ve been trying to sketch, paint, anything really to take my mind off of things. A couple things I’ve done or that I’m working on:

two works in progress, blue haired gal has been a work in progress for years now but I actually worked on her a couple days ago

STAYING SANE

April 20th, 2020 visit to the Salt Lake City Cemetery (practicing social distancing works great here so I can enjoy the weather and fantastic view)

Yesterday I ended up going to one of my favorite places, the Salt Lake City Cemetery in the Avenues. It has been a place I go to for over a decade now to get some peace and quiet so I can relax.

I think cemetery’s are beautiful and the memories, the tombstones, the act of remembering and respecting the dead is a wonderfully unique human habit that shows compassion and love for those that have come before us and reminds us to respect life and not waste it.

MY NOVEL

This is a first in a long time. I don’t think I’ve posted any updates about My First Novel in months. Finally because of COVID-19, being stuck at home has made me pull out my manuscript and start the final editing process which I should’ve-could’ve started back in January. One of my friends, who is a Grant Writer, actually read my entire manuscript and made notes, edited it for grammar and punctuation. I’m using her notes finally to work on it.

Yesterday I completed about five chapters. I have realized that my book jolts and jumps gears frequently after I completed another read through last week. So right now I am rewriting, rephrasing, mixing around the sentences for each chapter so it flows better. I know this means I will need to have it proofed again and most likely by a couple different people to get a more accurate estimate as to what needs to be fixed but this is just a necessary step in making my novel better, more coherent, and readable.

This is exciting for me and I finally feel like I’m making progress so this has relieved a little bit of stress and tension that I’ve been feeling lately.

Thank you for reading and being a part of my journey!

How has your Stay-at-Home time been for you? Are you reading or writing or doing both? Do you have any recommendations for keeping life interesting during these strange times? If so, please comment below!

–Alina

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If you enjoyed this post, check out these:

Life During COVID-19 (5/5/2020): Tutoring, Freelancing on Fiverr and Job Searching(Opens in a new browser tab)

Life During COVID-19 (5/30/2020): Reflection on George Floyd, Protests Turned Riots and Growing Tensions in the U.S.(Opens in a new browser tab)

My Stories on Medium: Poetry, Writing and Freelancing(Opens in a new browser tab)

Life during COVID-19 (4/13/20): Poetry for $ and more poems

April 13, 2020July 9, 2020 Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

It’s almost been a month since the last day I worked (March 17th). It’s bizarre to think that time has passed so quickly and somehow so slowly at the same time. I feel like I’m utilizing my time well but I’m so frustrated I haven’t landed a job yet.

UNEMPLOYED AND JOB SEARCHING

I’ve done interviews and skills tests, I’ve written cover letter after cover letter and still nothing. Right after graduation I spent six months applying to jobs requiring a BA, specifically in English or related fields, nothing. I gave up. I needed a break, now I’m doing the same thing again. What does it mean to keep pushing, keep trying for a job that requires a BA? I don’t know. I hope it’s worth it. I don’t want to cave in and get a Customer Service Rep job for a call center. I don’t want to get another job that is the complete opposite of what I want to do with my life, my career, my writing. But it is so hard.

I am grateful for my unemployment checks. They are small but something and I’m hoping the extra $600/week from the Cares Act Stimulus bill that was passed last month kicks in soon.

RECEIVING $500 FROM THE TIP YOUR SERVER DONATION

By some weird stroke of luck, I ended up winning the lotto for the $500 from the Downtown Alliance’s Tip Your Server donation. I’ve decided I want to help my co-workers so I am building a list of all my friends that need the money right now that are unemployed and looking for jobs and really strapped for cash. I hope to shell out at least $100 each and spread the money out. Thanks to a $100 contribution from one of my friends, this will now be $600 that I can spread out among my friends.

MAKING $ FROM MY POETRY FOR $

I’ve also had quite a bit of luck with my POETRY for $, to date I’ve completed 14 poems for supporters. I accept any $ via Venmo then write a personalized handwritten poem with a little bit of my own stylized art. I send a digital copy (pdf) via email then the original through the mail.

I’ve done two poems barter/trade style. One poem I wrote for a friend who bought me Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (including her collection of poems). And another friend I wrote a poem for is brewing me my very own small batch of beer (he brews beer for Wasatch Brew Pub in Salt Lake City, Utah) I am so stoked for this!

20200322_175024 — Original poem I wrote/made for a $upporter

MAKING A ZINE

I also drafted up an outline of my upcoming digital zine in InDesign. It will have all the poetry I’ve written during the Pandemic/Stay at Home order. Pretty much since I was laid off. I am including copies of all the poems I’ve done for $upport as well as some art and photography. This is such a fun project and it will be free to the public when it is finished.

I feel so fortunate to have such caring friends and because of their generosity right now I’ve been able to pay a few bills and have extra money for groceries, saving anything extra for the future.

END OF NATASHA SAJE’S POETRY WORKSHOP

My Poetry Workshop at Westminster (online now) is coming to a close. There’s only a couple more assignments left and then it will be over. I am not looking forward to this since I’ve really enjoyed this workshop; reading other students poems, the poetry books, assigned reading, and pushing myself with the poetry assignments. I’m really going to miss it.

CANCELLING MY SUMMER CLASSES

I’m bummed out because this summer I was going to start pursuing an AAS in Music Recording Technology at Salt Lake Community College but since I was laid off, I can’t afford it so I had to drop the classes I already registered for. I just plan on taking free courses online, finding tutorial videos, and continue to make music and publish my songs on soundcloud.

OVERALL

It’s been a good experience thus far, I’ve kept to my daily routine, and I’ve made my daily quota for the number of jobs I apply to, and I write and read and write and read and write and read…

I just have to keep going.

TALK TO ME

How are you getting through the Pandemic? Have you been ordered to Stay at Home? How are you coping?

I would love to hear about your experiences during this time.

Please feel free to comment or message me.

Thank you for reading!

Stay safe and stay well out there!

-Alina
XOXO

Become a Subscriber! Get notified when new posts are published plus once a week I will send content just for you: poem, personal update, reading list, writing tips and more!

If you enjoyed this post, check out these:

Life During COVID-19 (4/21/2020): Poetry, Sylvia Plath and My Novel(Opens in a new browser tab)

Life During COVID-19 (5/13/2020): Freelancing, Patreon and New Toys(Opens in a new browser tab)

Life During COVID-19 (5/30/2020): Reflection on George Floyd, Protests Turned Riots and Growing Tensions in the U.S.(Opens in a new browser tab)

‘Poem to Read Aloud’ by Alina Happy Hansen (April 11th, 2020)

April 11, 2020August 15, 2020 Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

Decided to do something different, here is a video of me reading one of my poems, this one titled (for now) ‘Poem to Read Aloud’.

I wrote this poem as an assignment for the Poetry Workshop at Westminster that I’m in.

POEM TO READ ALOUD (working title)

I cut a glance

your direction, aflame you look back

linger. Craving gaze, a charmed doom for

me later. Flesh, veins,

flayed bones on bones desire, not now.

I smile, a fire.

Your glutted eyes hold me. Turn away, wait no

yes wait until

the sun goes down so the neighbors don’t see our shadows.

I hope you enjoy my poem! Any comments/feedback I would deeply appreciate.

Stay safe and stay well out there!

–Alina

Become a Subscriber! Get notified when new posts are published plus once a week I will send content just for you: poem, personal update, reading list, writing tips and more!

If you enjoyed this post, check out these:

My Stories on Medium: Poetry, Writing and Freelancing(Opens in a new browser tab)

Podcast Sesh #2 June 18, 2020: Writing, Freelancing and Coping with the George Floyd Protests(Opens in a new browser tab)

Life During COVID-19 (5/5/2020): Tutoring, Freelancing on Fiverr and Job Searching(Opens in a new browser tab)

Life During COVID-19 (4/7/2020): Unemployment, Poetry for $ and Staying Positive

April 7, 2020July 15, 2020 Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

UPDATE: 4/8/2020

I was notified by Squatters that our company was picked out of the Tip Your Server Lotto, and that I was one of the five tipped employees randomly chosen to receive $500 from this donation.

I have decided that after I receive this money, I will be dividing it up equally among my co-workers that need it the most. I want to say thank you to the Tip Your Server Donation, the Downtown Alliance Salt Lake City, Thank you to Ty Burrell and the Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall. Thank you for your help, I deeply appreciate it, we deeply appreciate it!

GOOD MORNING!

Checking my blog posts this morning, I didn’t realize the last time I posted anything was six days ago National Poetry Month!

I’ve been so busy applying for jobs and working on poem orders, the time has just flown by. I have gotten more donations from friends through my POETRY FOR $. The past three days, I had a poem request every single day which is amazing. Thanks to donations from friends, their $upport is helping me pay a few bills and put some money aside for groceries.

More about POETRY FOR $:

To date I have completed 10 personalized handwritten poems for $upporters. I accept any amount of donations via my Venmo, whatever people can give, I deeply appreciate.

How I Create Personalized Handwritten Poem:

I spend a few hours writing a poem, this takes the most time, then conceptualizing a design. My poems are more like little art pieces synthesizing my writing and my art style.

After I complete the Poem/Art piece, I offer to send a pdf copy of their poem to their email and then ask if they are comfortable with me mailing the original to their home address. I have mailed 7 poems to people. If they don’t feel comfortable receiving mail during COVID-19, I hold their poems (right now I currently holding 3). My poem also comes with a Thank you card and I mail them within 48 hours of receiving their $upport via Venmo.

UNEMPLOYMENT CHECKS & PAYING BILLS

I am relieved because today I received my 2nd unemployment check. If I continue to receive a check a week, which I am figuring out may be how often I receive one? (the unemployment site is not clear on this) then I will be barely getting over $1,000 a month. This doesn’t even cover rent but it’s something. Every Sunday I have to refile so I have set up reminders for myself so I don’t forget.

STAYING POSITIVE & FOCUSED

I have been applying to a minimum of 2 jobs a day. I have only taken two days off since I was LAID OFF from job searching/applying. It is exhausting. I have reworked and redone my cover letter and resume tons of times already and I plan on doing more revisions. I have been utilizing the unemployment job search tools and my various online work profiles such as LinkedIn and Zip Recruiter.

It’s so tiring and I am trying hard not to feel like a failure but I feel the pressure to get a full-time remote job as fast as possible. Yes, I’m being incredibly picky about what jobs I apply to right now (I am only applying to writing related work that require a Bachelors of English or similar degree). It’s my goal to take advantage of this time and try to find work that requires my degree because that would mean a minimum boost in my annual income (compared to last year) by about $15,000 or more. I am also looking specifically for companies that provide full benefits (health and dental) as well as a good 401K plan.

It’s difficult but I’m not going to give up. I don’t want to live off of unemployment. But I have a plan that if I get close to depleting my savings, I will get a Customer Service Rep job (remote call center work) or maybe a Data Entry job to tie me over while I continue my search. The downside of those jobs, I’ve found that the hourly wage is significantly less by $10-$15 of what I used to make working in a restaurant and more importantly about the same amount less as a job that requires a BA. So I will persist and not give up.

HELP MY FRIENDS

So many of my friends are my co-workers and more than half of them had only their jobs at restaurants as their sole income. Many of my friends don’t have degrees, or any other work experience besides restaurant/service/hospitality. Most of them have been able to file for unemployment successfully and have started to receive their checks but many of them are having issues with DWS (unemployment) and issues with discrepancies on their file, so they have still not received any checks.

As for our employer Squatters Pub Brewery and Wasatch Brew Pub (owned by CANarchy) there has been little help. Thankfully, they have started offering to LAID OFF employees the choice to come and get free fresh fruit and produce that is extra from the bi-weekly deliveries and have given the option (within the last week) of getting two free meals a week from the restaurant. I have received emails from our Human Resources department and it has been suggested that they don’t plan on opening in May which means another month of no work.

If you would like to help out my friends, I have posted in LAID OFF: HELP MY RESTAURANT FAMILY Venmo links to some of co-workers (that wanted to participate) and need $ help right now. I think that direct donations are best.

We were expecting some help from the Downtown Alliance “Tip Your Server” donation program but it has been revealed this is a lottery donation,

excerpt taken directly from https://downtownslc.org/tipyourserver

Fund Distribution FAQ

Q: How does selection work?
A: Recognizing that there are more restaurants and more servers than we can fund, we pulled a list of all eligible establishments licensed with approved NAICS codes. 560 restaurants and bars licensed in SLC were compiled and then randomized. Owners from randomly selected restaurants will be contacted in rounds by the Utah Restaurant Association, with the first round consisting of 40 establishments. Once contacted, those owners may submit up to five displaced workers to receive a $500 grant. Owners may select the workers based on their own criteria, whether those individuals with the greatest need, a random selection, or otherwise.

Once the employer has filled out the form, the employees will be contacted directly by the Downtown Alliance with a request to submit a W-9 in a specified period of time. Payment will be sent directly to the employee within two business days.

Additional notification rounds will commence as long as funds are made available through the Tip Your Server program.

Workers that have applied for unemployment are eligible for this grant. However, workers who have not been displaced or currently have income in an establishment should not be included.

This has been a complete let down and I have not heard of a single one of my co-workers receiving any funds from TIP YOUR SERVER.

I WILL CONTINUE TO WORK HARD

It is so important to stay positive during these strange days. I keep up with the news but stay busy. I am positive that I can turn these events into something beneficial for my life. I am focused on my job search, reading, art, and writing as much poetry as possible and I think this has really helped.

Thank you for reading about my experience and I hope you are doing well and staying safe out there!

–Alina

Follow me on Instagram!

For National Poetry Month I am doing live videos on Instagram of me reading a poem a day and talking about poetry. I am doing this around the times of 2-7 p.m. MST, and posting my LIVE feed to my story which is available for 24 hours.

Liked this blog post? Check out there:

‘Poem to Read Aloud’ by Alina Happy Hansen (April 11th, 2020)

Podcast Sesh #2 June 18, 2020: Writing, Freelancing and Coping with the George Floyd Protests

Life During COVID-19 (5/30/2020): Reflection on George Floyd, Protests Turned Riots and Growing Tensions in the U.S.

Become a Subscriber! Get notified when new posts are published plus once a week I will send content just for you: poem, personal update, reading list, writing tips and more!