Just an update

It was an exhausting day and a bitter end to the week.

I've been going to Mass every morning, not so much to seek solace or ask for help, but because it does help 'center' me. If I didn't so thoroughly enjoy sinning I'd consider being a deacon, something I wanted to pursue years ago.

Frankly the Mass also helps kill the awkward hour between the time the kids go to school and the start of the business day.

Friday I missed it because LuLu forgot her cold lunch and I had to double-back to go get it. No biggie, but the start of the downward slope. Afterwards I went to pick up my final paycheck and some drama ensued, starting with the fact that I was told I didn't have a check (B.S). Then the story changed to say that it was there but being held, pending me teaching them some things they'd failed to ask about (such as the name of a service tech) when I was laid off.

Nuh-uh. You wanted to know how to do X or Y or Z, then ya shoulda thought of it before you got rid of 97% of the staff.

I got angry but stayed civil. I got my check.

Oh, I never did mention that 97% number did I? It's only mild hyperbole, as just two of the primary staff members that started the month remain. The rest have been replaced by members of the family that now owns the place or not replaced at all. I'll leave it at this. While I was there I saw customers wait about as long as I've ever seen someone wait there, and there were people in line behind them. Replace me and the rest of management all you want, but at the base level it's all about customer service; they should have left the people who were paid to smile and woo in place.

While this was all going on I got a call about my insurance. You may remember my (non-employer) insurance was cancelled because a payment was received late, or at least reported as such, and another was 'never received' (although for a check that was never received they sure cashed it easily enough).

Well earlier this week they acknowledged that all payments were in place and that the 'late' one was in fact on time, but it's still a brouhaha to get it back in place, which means I've gone without medicine since my prescription ran out on the 3rd. I presume the call today was to tell me yea or nay on getting it back up and running, but I had to put off the call to debate the owner's nephew.

I never managed the rep on the phone again.

On the way out of the parking lot I hit a large pothole -one of many fix-it projects the budget never had room for - and knocked a stabilizer bar loose.

Sweet.

Later I helped Lisa's Aunt purchase and install a large TV and went to the grocery store. Be still my heart.

Anyhow, on the job front:

Two interviews this week. The one on Wednesday was OK. I don't think I excelled or tanked, so any future there is strictly in the eyes of the interviewer. Thursday I had a second phone interview with a large company and was told I would move on to a face-to-face interview and told to prep for the long haul. From what she said, it could be a 6-8 interview process, assuming I make it that far, and there is typically a minimum of 4-6 interviews.

The weird part (and tell me if this is in fact common) was that on the last interview they require you to bring your spouse along to 'answer their [the spouses] questions' and see if I'd/we'd be a good fit for the 'corporate culture'.

Well hells bells, how very Stefford Wives., or am I wrong?

My main concern with the position would be going through all this and then getting turned down because of a credit rating. Mine is just fine to get a mortgage/car loan, etc, but it isn't Clorox clean, and that could be a deal breaker.

I'd never thought of that until one of Lisa's old friends brought it up. She was a friend eleven long years ago and then left our lives after a horrible bit of drama, but out of the blue she and Lisa reconnected this past week. I'm not saying I'm a great fan of this; as Bucko pointed out in a comment recently, I tend to find myself in adventures quite often enough as it is, and I was content to leave well enough alone. (adventure, as Louis L'Amour said, is just another word for 'trouble')

But lo and behold this woman is now a corporate recruiter and she mentioned that she herself had failed to get a job because of her credit rating (which is lower than mine, but still).

Her position would seem fortuitous for me, but not so; she's a recruiter for the legal field, which doesn't help me at all.

So I give it until midweek. At that point, barring a firm job offer, I hit the grunt path and get whatever gig I can to make ends meat (or is it ends meet?) while the longwinded professional search continues.