Hello Corporate America!

I started a new job yesterday. It's not exactly a job worth shouting about from the roof tops, but it does feel good to be working again. I got the job through that loathsome staffing agency, who I would never recommend to anyone. Because the company I'm working for is currently under a hiring freeze, they can't guarantee the position will become permanent, although I've been told that "I can have it as long as I want it," because they'll just continue to renew my contract until the hiring freeze is lifted. Not only is this a job that I don't want to be permanent, but I HATE the idea of that stupid staffing agency making money off of my hard work for an indefinite period of time, so I'm hoping that something better will come along soon. The thought of Tara, from Office Team, getting a bonus every time my contract is renewed should be all the motivation I need to find something permanent. Did I mention that I strongly dislike this agency?

So a little bit about the job-- I work in the corporate office of a national retail store and I manage online accounts for customers (business owners) who have accounts with our stores. In other words, I provide technical support. I never thought there'd be a day when someone would pay me to give other people technical advice, but then again, I use the words "technical advice" pretty loosely. The majority of my conversations will consist of "sure, I'll reset your password for you" or "it's probably your pop-up blocker that's preventing the document from opening" and the occasional explanation of how to copy and paste. Luckily, the phone doesn't ring too often and most of my day is spent giving administrative support to the rest of the office. Overall, I'm definitely over-qualified for the job, but at the moment I sure as hell don't have any better offers, so for now I'll take what I can get and dream about the day that I can call myself a Successful Career Woman (although I have to admit, I use the words "successful career woman" the same way I use the words "technical advice"-- very loosely).

"Oh you thought you had an interview hahahahaha"

Well maybe it didn't happen quite like that, but it might as well have.

So today I finally decided to call and find out what the hold up is with this supposed interview. I've been trying to be patient, since I was specifically told not to worry if it takes a while, but I got tired of waiting around for my phone to ring. I'm really glad that I decided to do that, because when I called I was very casually told "we sent over your information for an interview, but the company decided to go with someone who had more experience."

I don't know how much explaining I did in my prior blogs, but for a little background-- I was approached for this position by a staffing agency, after applying for one of their other postings. So my first interview was with the staffing agency, but for this particular position with a different company. I did my research just to make sure that this agency was legitimate everything checked out. After interviewing with them and scoring well on some computer tests, I was told that they were going to set up an interview with the company. My interviewer said that hopefully it will be set up by the end of the next week, but due to the supervisor being out of town so often, it might take longer. Turns out that wasn't quite as definite as she led me to believe. Not once did she use the words "probably," or "hopefully," or even "if" when talking about this interview.

The thing that makes me the maddest, is that no one even bothered to call and tell me that I didn't have an interview after all. Here I was at home waiting around for something that wasn't even going to happen. I was so hopeful and excited for this interview, and now I'm right back to square one. I really wish she hadn't given me such false hope.

Tomorrow is a new day and I'm not losing hope that the right job is out there waiting for me (and by "right job" I mean "pays decently and doesn't suck"). If that means I have to work retail for a few months until it comes along, then that's not the worst thing in the world that could happen. I'm better off now than I was 6 months ago when I had a job that I was miserable with, and in another 6 months I know that I'll be better off than I am now....I hope.

Oh Mondays...

Even though I'm not working, I still hate Mondays. Every weekday that passes without a phone call or email from a potential employer is another day of worrying and feeling bad. I know that these things take time blah blah blah, but enough already! Even though I was warned that it would take a while to get the second interview scheduled, I still can't help but worry. What if the position fell through or they just changed their minds? Can't they just send me a quick email to let me know they're still working on it. Is it really too much to ask for everyone else's worlds to revolve around me? Haha.

As I'm writing this and looking out the window, the middle school-aged girl across the street is listening to her ipod and dancing in the driveway. I wish I could do that without being judged. People think its cute when you're 12, but when you're 26 it's just weird. I'd like to think that she's listening to Paula Abdul's "Straight Up," but it's probably more along the lines of Miley Cyrus's "Party in the USA."

Hopefully I'll post again soon with some news on the job front...

I'm officially a blogger...

I've never really considered myself the blogging type. I guess I'm a little more narcissistic than I ever wanted to admit. Instead of using my first blog entry to talk about blogging, I'm just going to dive right in. But first I feel the need to preface this entry with the following points:

1. I do NOT fancy myself a writer. I'm not in the least bit creative, I don't use impressive words, and I doubt that any of my blogs will be very meaningful. Pretty much I just want an excuse to talk about myself and everything that's going on with me. I can't imagine who wouldn't want to read that...

2. I'm not an expert at punctuation.

3. This will not be interesting.

4. This could very well be my first and last blog entry, so for that reason, it's probably going to be a long one.

Ok so now that I have lowered any expectations, here I go--

Last fall I quit my job as a social worker at a well known non-profit agency. I'd been a social worker for about about 3.5 years and I had finally started to experience the burn-out that everyone always talked about. I feel like I was really good at my job, but I was starting to hate it, and I mean really hate it. In the past I had worked with case managers who were so jaded and negative and I promised myself that I would quit before I got to that point. So last summer, after enduring months of whining and complaining, my patient, understanding, self-less husband said "why don't you just quit?" I love him.

So here I am over 3 months and hundreds of applications later. Not much to report really. I had an interview last week and it went really well. I did get a second one, but it hasn't been scheduled yet and I was warned that it could take a little while (because the head supervisor is out of town a lot). So that's where I am right now. I feel really good about this job, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. It sounds like I'd really like it, and it pays about the same that I was making at my last job (maybe even a little more.)

Being unemployed gives me a lot of time on my hands. Time that I appreciated for the first couple of weeks of unemployment and time that I will probably appreciate again, once I get offered a job. But for now, it's more time than I know what to do with. Actually I have a lot of things I could do with it--paint the trim in about every room in our house, rake leaves, put down fresh mulch, finally get my last name changed, clean the grout on our tile floor-- but it seems like the less I do, the less I feel like doing anything at all. I'm sad to say that all the things I thought I'd accomplish before I start my new job (whatever that may be) will probably not get done.

One thing that I have been doing a lot of lately is cooking. I really enjoy cooking. Unfortunately I'm not particularly good at it. I mean, I can throw some ingredients in a pot and call it a soup, but rarely do I fix something and think "damn, that's good." Today though, I impressed myself. I fixed a pork tenderloin in the crock pot with garlic, wine, and chicken broth. It was quite tasty. Even Hunter seemed to be impressed, and that always makes me feel good. To go with it, I made a Mediterranean-type couscous salad. I started with a recipe and changed half of the ingredients, which I do a lot and might explain why things don't always turn out so great, but this time it turned out really good. I cooked pearl couscous in chicken broth and then added fresh lemon juice, olive oil, ground cumin, fresh mint and cilantro, and grape tomatoes. It was so fresh and light tasting...I'm definitely going to make it again.

Well that's it for now.