from famine to feast

the week before Christmas?? I can't believe the news held in this post. 

So this morning I woke up like so many other mornings, thinking, 'why do I even have to get up so early?' and then remembering that B needs a lunch and my pets will all be demanding their various attentions.  So I dragged myself down, made coffee and fed dry food to all (the cats don't like when I do this, I tell them the lions are fasting today, based on an old sign in the zoo that said that the lions fasted one day a week) since I ran out of wet food yesterday.

I had promised to stop in at the temp agency and show proof of who I am as well as my face in person to the rep who is placing me in an assignment for two weeks in mid-January. First, I made an appointment for my two little cats to get their shots updated tomorrow morning (there has been rabies in the news in town!!) and called the unemployment office to reschedule my final 'workshop' appointment, which falls in the midst of my two week assignment.

As I pulled into the agency's parking lot, I checked my phone for the first time today. Thinking this week and next should be pretty slow, I'm not really in hyper-job search mode, and in the spirit of the tone of the previous post, I am inclined to temporarily direct my thoughts elsewhere.  But there was a message! I played it, and it's from an ad I answered in yesterday's paper. Again, a job much like the one I just lost, but this one is part-time and local, right around the corner from  my former office. I put the phone away for the moment, and went in to the agency offices.

We made some small talk, mostly about the puppies who have been in the news, and then sat down to business.While we were talking, my phone rang again. I checked and the area code was from the southern part of the state. Hmm, thought I.  So I hit the red phone to make the ringing stop.  The rep told me that I have to schedule a medical for this job (it's in a hospital and even temps need clearance) and we wrapped things up. I went out to my car and played the other message: it was the job I was sure I had blown when I blithered like a fool during my first-ever-phone-interview!! And she wants me to come in. This is the one of which I was told "if you don't hear from us by the end of next week, you are not selected to come in." Hmm, I thought.

So I returned both calls and now I have three interviews. The one from the post prior to this one, which is the job in the city. I'm very much on the fence on this one for several reasons, not the least of which being the location. But there are some other red flags as well. However, probably a good idea to go on as many interviews as possible, and one never knows what the real chemistry will be like without a face-to-face meeting.  Tomorrow, I will take the little cats for their vax's and then come home and dress to impress at the non-profit, affiliated with a major university (for now) and head out there for a 1pm meeting.

The would-be employer was anxious to set this up so I imagine her top picks didn't pan out, for whatever reason. Either they were just more skilled at the the art of the telephone interview than I, or the job has less to offer than the process to hire would justify. But the problem to me now is that I am committed to a temp job two weeks in the future, and I will be there for two weeks. I won't be available for work until after the 20th of January! Of course I can always back out but I hate to do that; so we will see.

Finally, I have set up a meeting at the other office for Thursday afternoon, which falls right after the luncheon at my old office, which I will now be able to attend.  That job is part time and may not pay well. But it allows me to keep the flexibility I have enjoyed for the past two years and may not be quite ready to give up. Three very different options, and the variables of the temp job and the appointment at the unemployment office which I am trying to reschedule. If they dispute my claim because I didn't go to the appointment due to a temp job, I will be most unhappy (I'm going to have to suspend the claim for those two weeks anyway, even if I don't find a job - because the hours are full time).

Oh well I do feel as if I ramble so I'll just move on to other news.  I can't believe it's just six days till Christmas. So much is going on this week, it's very exciting. B is trying to stay focused in school, somewhat unsuccessfully. I'm trying to catch up on laundry and groceries, also somewhat unsuccessfully. And Wilbur and Abby had their baths yesterday. Abby must have been terribly disturbed by the bows they put on her head and the way her back hair is curly (and she looks plump!!) because while we were out at a party, she ate another string of lights off the Christmas tree!! :-O I fed her a giant piece of Italian bread which she devoured and seems to have passed this morning, but devoid of shards of glass. I think she mainly chews and spits rather than actually ingests all these things that she destroys in the house.