That 11 buck an hour job decided not to hire me. So my whining about the pay was all for naught. They actually passed on all the candidates, and the HR person told me that if circumstances were different (i.e: they are facing some layoffs and couldn't justify bringing on someone they NEED at this time) that I was their choice... so instead of axe-leveling in the group, they'll restructure the department and take one of the tech support people off phone and train them for this job. Such is life. It would have been fun to work there and God knows I need the job.
I had another interview today. Pay is the same but there is commission. Essentially, the job is for an auto dealership in the area and they want to put all their cars which are coming off of lease out onto eBay. So they can auction them off. I thought it sounded weird, who buys a car sight unseen on eBay... but the guy interviewing me said that other dealerships buy cars online and then sell them on lot.
The position is primarily:
1. enter the cars into eBay
2. monitor the auctions
3. answer customer questions
4. finalize the sale and initiate the wire transfer or payment process, whatever it may be
5. send the information to the sales office and they do the title work and ship the car
Commission is 5% for me. Not too shabby. It doesn't seem too too challenging. He asked me if I'd be bored. I told him that it sounded to me like it's initially going to be a very busy job, and once a month when the cars all come off lease it'll be super stressy, but the monitoring the sales and taking care of business part of the job would be a nice and even keeled position, thus making up for the initial madness.
The guy seemed to like me a lot. We had a few good laughs. He didn't know about nettiquite where you don't type in all caps at people or it LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE YELLING! So I did something good today. I taught someone something. Nice.
I went over Leigh's after the interview because she lives a stone's throw from the location where I hope to be working. She bought her car at this dealership. She knows people. She offered to waltz in there and name drop for me, how very Kennedy-esque "do you know who I am?" of her. It made me feel good. Hurrah. networking at its finest.
I'm still sending out the resumes like mad, of course, and we'll see what happens.
In the meantime, we decided we'd try and refinance the house, consolidate our credit card debt, lower our rate, and see what kind of money we could save that way. I have dealt with one guy so far and it doesn't look like it'll work out for us with them. With me unemployed, they ran the numbers on Doug. They could DO it for us, but all we'd really be doing is rolling all our credit card debt into our home, and that isn't good.
So I don't know where we stand with that. I asked him if we should wait like three months after I get a job and he told me that it wouldn't make a difference because most lenders want you in a job for at least a year before they will work your mortgage. I seem to feel that isn't so. They want you to stay in your field, which is why this position at the car dealership would be great because I'd continue yet another job in my actual web design field.
Gah.
Professor CM is also waiting on a grant that he wrote for a 3 year position for me at the college.
He has a title for me too "Director, Center of Teaching and Educational Technology."
Damn. I SO want that. I'd take the eBay posting job for certain, and work it until CM's job comes through. Watch it not come through. Gah again! That's MY job. And the great thing about it is I'd be working for him. No one else. Well, the other faculty of course. But for him. And to be honest, he and Brian are the only people I'd ever even consider working for at that college again.
So.
That's where I find myself. Still searching, hoping for a job that doesn't yet exist. Wishing for a low-paying but kinda cool job which may just come my way. Sigh. What will happen to your intrepid narrator? Will she sink? Will she swim? Stay tuned and find out.
I went to the grocery store tonight (warning! Class for Kill Storm happening right now. Go buy bread!) but I didn't bring anyone with me. There was a boy there, a tad younger than Jessie, and he was pushing his dad's cart all around. When he and I would spot each other at opposite ends of the aisle, we'd rush at each other and pretend to crash, veering off at the last second, laughing. Grocery stores are my playground.
I went with a mental shopping list, got all I need for A&M's visit this weekend. Got the mixin's for an old fashioned Corned Beef & Cabbage dinner. Aye, 'tis good.
Got lots of crazy shit that we can eat, cookie stuff to bake, pie stuff to bake, lasagna mixin's, fajita mixin's, breakfast mixin's. We'll have a good ole time.
We need to come up with something fun to do this weekend. Usually we hang around and talk about doing something fun, and then get out on the late end. It's still too unweatherly to take everyone geocaching (although Medoue and Michael at chaos factor are both starting to get interested in joining the caching crowd... and talking to them makes me long for it).
I wanted to mention some of my thoughts and feelings about the Elizabeth Smart situation.
First -- Praise God she was found alive. And pray that whatever happened to her in these last 9 months doesn't scar her so deeply that the harm is irreversible.
Second -- what kind of idiots are her parents?
You guys know I'm a Christian. Or at least I try and rise to the level of doing right by God. I don't always. I'm pretty judgmental (and am about to be so in spades) but I believe in helping others. I do my best to do so.
That having been said...
I don't bring homeless strangers into my house so they can do odd jobs, have a meal and a shower, and then not think twice about them when they vanish and I don't see them again.
The Smarts often brought home the indigent, the weird, the down on their luck types. They hired them to do all sorts of work. Thing that bothers me most is, sure, it's all fine and good to give someone a chance and an opportunity, but you don't do it in your HOUSE. Where your CHILDREN are. I mean, what are these people thinking?
But more than that... and here is the thing that I haven't heard a single person say -- I think they are not so much nice as they were cheap.
Christians, and in this case a Mormon family, often feel it's so much better to give someone a helping hand up by having them come on over and do some work around the yard or the church or whatever. Perhaps it's a great witness, feed his soul, fill his wallet, and take the opportunity to let him know that God loves him. Sure. It's a nice thing to do. Christians are notoriously cheap. And if you try and charge them money which they think is a little too much they will nickel and dime you to death in the name of God.
I've witnessed it, I've been victim of it. Babysitting? Oh, we could pay you 10 dollars an hour to watch our four kids, but the Lord would like it if you only got paid 6 because otherwise you're being greedy, aren't you Christine?
Hiring a certified and licensed contractor or qualified professional to do your roofing costs a boatload of money. That's a pain in the wallet.
So, it looks good and feels good to hire someone off the street, turn to the more needy of God's children. Pay them a lot less money to do your framing, shingling and roofing. Or your drywall. And see, you're helping!
I can't believe that anyone on this earth, no matter how good their intentions would bring the unknown into their house.
When I was younger, I picked up hitchhikers, gave money to street dudes, I did a lot of that kind of thing. Doug participated in a homeless ministry that ran out of our college, where they'd go round up homeless people and bring them to shelters for the night.
Once you have kids, your priority and focus needs to be adjusted. I would never bring someone back to my house if they needed a place to sleep, I'd find them shelter and find it elsewhere.
Caring for the whole world NEEDS to come second. Caring for, protecting, and setting up all safeguards for your offspring is tantamount. Letting all the down-and-out dudes of the neighborhood in to get some work done is just not right.
This guy, this Emannuel homeless prophet guy, was only in their house a couple times. The fact that Mrs. Smart invited him in, but didn't include him in the initial lists of people she'd invited into her house as workers only shows me that she invited TOO many damn people into her house and she couldn't keep them all straight.
This guy saw opportunity. He saw a gorgeous young woman. And he took her. Figured it out, figured out they were easy prey. And the fact they picked on a guy with a record and priors instead of thinking to look at the guy who was the holy Mormon street preacher only shows me that this is the kind of stupidity that got Catholics in trouble with their own kids. Just because someone is perceived as holy and wonderful and in-the-know about God doesn't mean they are to be trusted.
I'm just relieved that she's alive. Because when she was taken there was a huge string of little girl-takings that resulted in a lot of bodybags. Good for Elizabeth. Please, will people learn something from this whole thing. Please.
Oh, and by the way, last night on Hannity & Colmes they had on a trio of talking heads discussing this newsworthy event. One of their expert guests was the insufferable Mark Fuhrman, the notorious detective of OJ Simpson fame. He was in Idaho or something, I guess he lives there and writes books and does a radio show or something.
He said at one point, and I can't quote because I didn't memorize it verbatim, that he had a woman on his show from California who did some deep research into the Bible. She found something in the book of Isaiah that was "downright creepy" in Fuhrman's words. Then, he recited:
"'For lo, a virgin shall conceive, and shall call his name (and then he said it all creepy, like it's the first time anyone has ever heard this...) Emannuel.' Isn't that creepy, Sean [Hannity]? Isn't that downright eerie?"
Mark Fuhrman is an idiot, bar friggin' none.
Like the name Emannuel (which, by the way means "God with us," and is the name for Christ... God with us, as opposed to just God up in heaven) as used in the book of Isaiah is some sort of unbelievable prophecy that this would happen. It's only been sung for hundreds of years in Handel's "Messiah." Jews recite it in temple, and they believe Emannuel has not yet come. One of the best Christmas hymns is "O come, o come Emannuel, and ransom captive Israel..."
Fuhrman showed himself to be one uneducated boob. Sean Hannity didn't even respond to what Furhman had to say, he just asked the Washington DC detective who worked on Chandra Levy's case a totally different question.
Gah.
Off the soap box. Gotta go make dinner. Feed my hungry brood for which I am responsible
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