to work, or not to work

i’d say “that is the question”…

…but that would imply i get to answer it. and clearly fate plans on answering it, and not giving me a heck of a lot to say about it.

take today for example…

on only four and half hours sleep (and a big thanks to ME for calling and waking me knowing i got to bed late last night – more on that later) i got up and drove to work in bastrop to find out i didn’t have a job.

what the fuck? i don’t know if i’d discussed this, but i’m thinking i hadn’t.

i applied for an account manager / sales position with a sportswear company that does screen printing and embroidery and shit. i applied off the texas workforce site while in the library one afternoon (and to show liz raised me right my phone is on ‘silent’ when i’m in the library) so i didn’t notice that the lady had called me back within ten minutes of me sending my resume her way…

…apparently i make quite the impression, even on paper.

so, i called her back, we had a mini phone interview and i was asked to come out the next morning for an in-person interview. i thought it went well. so well in fact that i didn’t bother doing any more job searching that day (it was a friday) and figured i had found my new place. i was supposed to get a call back the next week…

…i didn’t.

tried to get ahold of them repeatedly to no avail, and then when i finally did (a couple weeks later) i was told, “oh, you’re still looking for work? we still need somebody and you were by far our favorite. i’m with a customer right now – let me call you back this afternoon ’cause i had a couple things i wanted to talk to you about…”

i was all sorts of excited – and got NO call that afternoon.

i tried back a couple days later, asked for the lady i’d been talking to, and was told “sure, she’s right here – may i ask who’s calling?”. when i gave my number the phone was covered by a hand, and then i was told she was busy and asked for my number and what this was about. once i mentioned i had come in my name finally clicked and, through the person who was covering the phone, i was asked if i could come in the next day for a second interview to meet her husband, the other owner of the business.

at this point we were almost thirty days from the first interview, by the way.

that second interview was on the morning of august 14th, and i was told, “we still have another candidate to interview this afternoon, but you’re blowing her out of the water and by FAR our favorite. the couple looks at each other knowingly and the husband told me to just plan on being there to start on august 31st, as they were moving locations and that would be there first day in the new spot, just a couple blocks down the road. i was told that was my “tentative start date”, but to “just plan on it”, and even given directions to the new location.

but i was also told, again, that i’d get a call the next week just to touch base, yadda yadda yadda. more like nada, nada, nada.

i tried in vain to reach and confirm. for two weeks. called. left messages – including one excruciatingly detailed (anybody who reads this regularly knows i have a gift for such things) all with no response. so this morning, at 3:00am i realized i had a choice to make – sleep in, which i desperately needed to do, or crank my ass out of bed since, last i’d heard, today was the day i started my new job – and you just CAN’T pull a no show on your first day. not after seven fucking months of unemployment, damn it! i’ve got a house to save…

…i rolled out of the house, monster energy drink in hand, and mumbled one thing to myself as i felt my back tires hit the street:

this morning either gives me a new job or a new whore bit…

i got the latter.

showed up only to be told that the husband of the couple was taking over my job as the hours had been cut back on his (welcome to the obamaconomy!) so my services were not currently needed – but they had my contact info and maybe, in a month or so, they can take me on.

dude, your wife couldn’t remember to call me back within an HOUR of telling me she’d do so. i’m not looking for your call anytime soon.

so, hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to look for work i go…if i don’t end up homeless first.

to contradict ice cube, today was not a good day. yesterday, on the other hand, we’ll get into later…