In the immortal words of Inigo Montoya…”Let me ‘splain. [pause] No, there is too much. Let me sum up.”
LOL
Backstory:
About two years into our move to Vegas for That Man’s job, he was laid off. Luckily for us, he was able to land another job within a month. However, he took a pay cut to do so. At the time we were just happy he HAD a job and figured with belt tightening and some creativity we would survive until the industry picked up and he was once again earning a decent wage.
That Man is extremely generous, with his time and talent and often monitory. I love this about him. He’s also somewhat old fashioned and has always dreamed of supporting our family so I could be a stay-at-home mother. The amount of his pay cut prevented this from being a reality yet he struggled, often silently, to maintain it.
Fast forward to this summer:
In a week that could have been a scene from the old Airplane movie, y’all know the one, “I picked a bad week to quit X,” it was hammered home just how much That Man had been hiding.
Thus began my job hunt. Oy. The economy sucks. There’s not a lot out there, especially for someone who has been out of the work force for five years. Positions I was more than qualified for weren’t interested because of the employed gap. Positions I was qualified for but in an industry I didn’t have experience in weren’t interested because of that lack of industry experience. And then there were the scams!
I’ve never encountered so many scams. There were an extremely depressing couple of weeks where the only responses I received were scams. PSA: while there are some legit reasons for a business to run a credit check on employees it is NOT something that should ever happen PRIOR to your interview. Ugh. I lost count of the number of “positions that would require me to handle large sums of cash and it was company policy to run credit checks.”
I got mad too. I flagged every last ad that resulted in one of these scam like responses.
This week:
Finally, while I was in Oregon no less, I was called in for a legitimate interview. Whew. I had a first interview on Thursday, a second on Friday, and on Saturday I picked up my uniform. I start Monday!
So, now I’ll have to juggle my writing around not just family stuff but work. However, it was like the entire house sighed in relief when I got the call back Friday that I had the job.
That was some of the personal stress going on behind the scenes. The stuff I hadn’t been ready to share.
ROW80:
I’m still on the fence about ROW80 R4. I think I’ll get this first week of work under my belt then see where things stand.
Coyote Con:
The panels are in place. I’ll be working with Joely this week to finalize the schedule so be looking for it to appear on the Coyote Con site soon. The chat rooms are up, you can register through WordPress, Facebook, or Google. It’s coming together!
Oct 07, 2012 @ 09:15:23
I only have one wee beastie and often end the day a tad extra tired from working a full 8 hours, coming home to prepare something for the Chipmunk to eat, help with her homework, make sure the Chipmunk does all the things she needs to do to get to bed, sneak in 10 to 20 minutes of exercise somewhere in there then, after putting her to sleep, get in some writing and reading time. So I don’t think anyone will be too upset if you’re not able to participate in as many things as before now that you’ve picked up a paying gig and still have to do things at the house as a wife and a mother. Yeah. I think most of us will completely understand
Oct 07, 2012 @ 09:27:00
Oh I had no doubt y’all would understand because you guys are all awesome like that. And I know a lot of that stress is what was sucking the creative out of me, so I’m looking forward to the creative coming back
And as my new office is just 3 miles away, I suspect some of my exercise will come in the form of walking either to or from work…at least over the ‘winter’
Thanks for stopping by Angela! I BOW to you single parents, y’all are my heroes.
Oct 07, 2012 @ 09:33:03
Uniform? What kind of job did you get?
The economy sucks on top of everything else.The media was driving me crazy with ‘oh, the job market is better’.
Idiots. Of course, it’s better. The retail market is hiring for the holidays. It’ll get back to abysmal December 26.
I hope you like your job. It might even be nice to get away from the family once in a while too. But Roxie will miss you I’m sure.
Oct 07, 2012 @ 10:07:11
Roxy is going hate me with all the new smells I’ll be bringing home, LOL. I’m working at an animal hospital so I get to wear nursing scrubs
I’m sure I will. Thanks for stopping by Maria!
Oct 07, 2012 @ 10:52:24
Ref: animal hospital
Of all the jobs and careers I’ve had, working as a vet tech remains my very favorite. Enjoy the perks of having your personal vet on call too.
I would do that again in a heartbeat if my vet was closer.
Oct 07, 2012 @ 11:06:48
LOL, with my menagerie, I’m sure I will
Oct 07, 2012 @ 17:23:58
Congrats on your new position in the traditional job force! Hope you enjoy it.
Oct 07, 2012 @ 17:39:09
Thanks Kitt!
Oct 07, 2012 @ 17:50:00
Congratulations on the new job.
Oct 07, 2012 @ 18:09:47
Thank Brinda!
Oct 08, 2012 @ 13:10:40
Job hunting is absolute torture! Landing is a job is far better. Best wishes with your new employment, Raelyn! I’d love to see you for ROW80 Round 4, but I will certainly understand if you need to take a break. Hang in there and keep writing!
Oct 08, 2012 @ 15:52:39
I’m planning to reevaluate after I’ve worked this first week and have a better feel for things. Definitely plan to keep writing, well, editing anyway
Thanks for stopping by Julie!