I Got the Job!

I got a call a few minutes ago from the HR person at the company where I interviewed this past Monday--I got the job!

I start Monday at 8:30 to fill out paperwork and stuff, but my regular hours will be Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Only one thing though: in my excitement to write my new schedule on the white-board calendar we have in our kitchen (and to cancel the interview I had at another company this coming Monday) I forgot to ask the HR lady what the dress code was for my new job! Oops.

What an Awful Time to Be Sick

Yup, I'm sick. Which sucks, because that means I can't even go to the temporary manual labor agency right now. It started Monday night, when I kept sneezing and had a really stuffy nose that wouldn't go away. I also had trouble practicing my trumpet without getting dizzy (though I made it the full 30 minutes), so I've decided to amend my first New Year's resolution to include the words "health permitting."

Tuesday morning, I got a phone call from the temp place (I hadn't even gone in to say that I was available) asking if I wanted to drive for the company I drove for the first day I worked for the temp place. My head was so fuzzy, what with the stuffy nose, clogged and ringing ears, and overall blah-ness that I doubted I would be alert enough to drive my own car, much less someone else's expensive company car. So, I had to turn the job down.

Before I went to sleep the night before last, I took some NyQuil, because I wasn't getting any better--in fact, it seemed worse than the day before. I briefly woke up around 1:30 or 2:30 (can't remember which), took another dose, and then went back to sleep until 4:00.

I could've slept longer, but I wanted to actually do something besides sleeping that day, so I went downstairs and got some beef stew before coming back up here to read. Then a little later, when Anna came back from Mom and Dad's house, we watched the first episode of Birds of Prey (I'd NetFlixed the entire series, and the first disc came in the mail a few days ago). By that time, Tim was home, so we watched Good Eats and Unwrapped before they went to bed.

I was still pretty awake at the time, so I watched the rest of the disc, plus the little Gotham Girls cartoon that was on the disc as well. Then I came upstairs, read a little bit more, and went to sleep.

I woke up a little after 1:00 this afternoon, called Bryan to let him know I wasn't going to be playing in the regular Thursday-night Serenity game at the Haven, then called a different temp agency to find out what I'd have to do to be considered for a position they'd contacted me about a week or two ago. I took their online assessments, then called the lady back, and I've got an interview on Monday now.

Now, I just have to find some work tomorrow and Saturday--probably at the manual labor temp agency--to get some money in order to pay the bills that are due before next Monday. I'll take some more NyQuil before I go to sleep tonight, and hopefully that will help me to feel well enough to work.

The Patheticness of Me, and New Year's Resolutions

Man, you know what sucks? During the second semester of my senior year of high school, I was in both Jazz and Concert Band. Those classes were back-to-back, five days a week, from right after lunch until the end of the school day. That's a total of about fifteen hours a week, playing my trumpet.

This afternoon, after taking a shower, I decided to practice a bit on my trumpet. I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere near three hours, since I hadn't done any serious playing for almost ten years now, but I thought I'd at least crack half an hour, y'know?

I couldn't even make it fifteen minutes before my lips gave out.

Of course, it probably doesn't help that I was trying to play songs from my Disney Star Trek and theme books, which have a lot of notes on the top half of the staff. If I'd gone through and practiced some of the stuff in the books I used in middle school concert band, I'd probably have made it to half an hour, if not forty-five minutes or so.

But that stuff is boring, and I wanted to at least get half of the Star Trek: Voyager theme song played before my lip gave out. Only problem is, I'd played too many other Star Trek theme songs before I went for Voyager, so I only got a few bars in.

I think I want to start practicing every day again. Until I get a job, I'll probably go for early to mid-afternoon, for half an hour (using the boring books only), and then when I get a job, I'll re-evaluate my schedule and see what time is good for practicing then.

I've got an interview on Monday morning at an electronics manufacturing company for a stockroom associate position. The application, and the two little tests they had me take at the time, went pretty well, so I'm hoping the interview goes well too.

But enough of the depressing stuff--it's a new year! I've never really made--and kept--New Year's Resolutions before, but I think I might want to start. Here are three:

1. Practice trumpet for at least thirty minutes every day.
2. Practice guitar and/or piano at least twice a week, for at least thirty minutes each time.
   
3. Call at least two of my really good old friends (the ones I don't see all that often) at least once a month, just to catch up. Text messages, Facebook messages, and e-mails don't count--must be telephone calls.

I went to the Haven New Year's Eve party on Thursday night. It was fun. I talked to a few people I hadn't seen in a while, since the only time I'm really at the Haven nowadays is when I'm playing in Bryan's Serenity RPG, and we're sitting in the tiny gaming room where we can't see anyone else at the time.

I also creamed Steve at Warhammer--his ogres versus my Bretonnians. He literally had only three models (not units, just models) left on the table by the time we called the game at the top of turn five. He'd managed to take out my general and one entire unit though, so I only won by a little over 400 points--still a decided victory though.

I decided not to stay there for the night, since at home I had flannel sheets, but I was walking around the Haven for a while with my favorite blanket wrapped around my shoulders. It's the blanket that I got from the airport in Phoenix, on my way home from visiting Heather and Stephen back in October 2008.

The Scoop

All right, some of you have heard, and some of you haven't, so I'm going to explain now.

The last few months were kind of crazy at work, and due to the stress (and somewhat due to not having certain skills when it came to MSAccess and/or a new eCommerce software we were using), I kept making mistakes. The last mistake I made was on Friday, September 11, and when I went to work on Monday the 14th, my boss told me about it and said that my other (higher) bosses said it was the last straw and she had to fire me.

So I went home a little shaken that day, and used the time I had at home to relax, as I found out this past Tuesday is usually recommended to people who just lost their jobs. The next day, I started my job search and looked into unemployment benefits, but I didn't sign up for those until the day after that.

That first week, I looked at the prospects for seven different jobs. On Friday the 18th, I had an interview at Colonial Jewelers. Sarah Horwitz said that it was kind of interesting that I'd chosen to walk in and apply the day before, since they were only just thinking about adding an office position to their staff. They hadn't even decided whether or not to create the position (or what the duties would be), but they liked to interview everyone who applied for a job there anyway. I also applied for a job at Dulles Airport that week, because I think it would be fun to work at an airport. I had to take a computerized assessment. It was scheduled to be 2½ hours long, but I got it done in less than an hour, and passed.

Getting jobs with the Transportation Security Administration can take up to a year or more though, so I'm not holding my breath on that one just yet. I'll just get a different job for now, and if the TSA people offer me a job then I might even take it, even if the just over $30K they're offering for the position is less than what I make in that other job, just because it would be fun.

The next week, I applied for two more jobs (as is required by the unemployment people), and had an interview at FSK Automotive. They told me that they would make a decision on Tuesday of this week--I didn't get a phone call, so I didn't get that job.

I applied at Jo-Ann Fabrics and CitiBank yesterday. Jo-Ann's said I didn't meet the requirements of the position for Merchandise Team Leader, and CitiBank said they'd forwarded my application to the hiring person, who would contact me later.

I got half a paycheck from my old job, and I'm about to use the few hundred dollars that gave me to pay the bills that matter most right now, and then I don't know what I'm going to do. I haven't gotten any money from the UI people yet, but I've got a phone interview with them to talk about eligibility. If they somehow decide I'm not eligible, then I will have no income whatsoever, and I'll have no way to pay my bills.

I've thought of getting a part-time job somewhere to at least help, but that won't pay all of the bills. The pros of getting a part-time job are that I'll at least be getting some money, I'll get out of the house for at least a little while during the week, and I won't be bored all the time.

The cons are that the schedule I'd have could prevent me from accepting a full-time position right away if one is offered (which is what I have to do per the UI people), it would possibly make me get less UI money than they'd give me if I actually am eligible, and most of the places I can think of to apply for part-time jobs also have full-time positions but I wouldn't take the full-time position since the pay is little more than half of what I was making before.

So getting a part-time job seems like a waste of time, but not a waste of time also. Anyone else have any thoughts on that? I could use a second opinion.