In the Past Month…

… we have gone from no interviews, or possibilities thereof, to my having three interviews lined up within a matter of days, and another possibility; and Matthew finding job opportunities that he can apply to, as well as advancing his work on selling paintings. During the beginning of the month, I signed up with Manpower (a local temporary placement service) to hopefully find work. They also do permanent placement, just in case you are wondering. Well, to start that off, they had me take two assessments. One to measure my data entry skills and another to measure my Microsoft Word skills. I placed as a “master” in both. They were very happy about this, and immediately hired me to be either a temp or permanent employee; although they did not have any jobs to place me in at that moment. They apparently forgot to have me to the Microsoft Excel assessment, and so brought me back to take that assessment after I had an interview set-up with them because the job required the use of spreadsheets. Well, I took it and received a “master” grade in that as well. While this was happening, I got a call from the local JcPenney and Opportunities for Otsego, for interviews; and also came across an ad in the local paper from the company I used to work for before I had my son. They were advertising for an Executive Administrative Assistant, which is exactly what I went to college for. They said that they would consider me, and when I called to confirm that they had received it (I sent it via email), she said that she had forwarded it on to the “powers that be”, and would let me know if she heard anything. So we’ll see what happens there.

I think it would be really cool to work at my old workplace, since I already know the people and the business is thriving and they are local. It would also be really nice to work for Opportunities for Otsego as well, because they help local people and helping people is important to me.

I’ve also been working more on self improvement lately. I’ve been reading books on language self-defense (specifically for work situations), communication, finding joy in everyday life again, decision making, and reading body language. I’ve started the self-defense one, but haven’t gotten very far yet. I’ve also started relearning the piano.

Financially right now, I need to get one of those jobs. We were forced to take food stamps so that we could feed ourselves, and even that isn’t doing much for us right now. We only get $115 dollars a month to feed my husband, myself, and our son. Our son also gets WIC for things like formula, baby cereal, and juice. So at least he does get some nutrition. We’ve decided that we have to cut meat out of our diet for the time being and eat beans instead (cheaper sources of protein). On Sundays we normally go to my parents-in-law for a family get together, and normally have meat then, so we will get it once a week. I’m hoping that if I nail one of these jobs here soon, we will be able to eat more nutritiously again.

Stress and a Good Book

Strange title, I know. But it makes complete sense to me. Lately Matthew and I have been going through a lot of stress lately. You know how it is, dealing with family (mine is currently moving out to Montana), finances, work, and everything else. I just got interviewed for this job the other day, and the interviewer told me how much I would make, what the uniform is, what shift I would be working (or a general idea thereof), asked if I would be willing to do another part-time job, and told me that she was just going to check my references and give me a call on Tuesday (the interview was on Friday). Well, Tuesday came, and she didn’t call and didn’t call. So I called her right before I had to go to work and she said that she hadn’t been in the office most of the day and would call me on Thursday. Thursday came and went. Nothing. So I called her Friday afternoon, and she said that she was busy at the time, but would call me back in 10 to 15 minutes. Well, over an hour and a half went by and she never called. So I called her back around 3 p.m., and the receptionist said that she was in, but for some reason I just got her voicemail and have not heard from her since. Now, she doesn’t know this, but I really needed that job, both for financial, emotional, and mental reasons. See, the job that I currently have, well, the best way to say this is the nicknames of the people I work with most often are as follows: Crazy, Creepy, Perv., and Stinky. Sad isn’t it?! My husband says that I have a case for workers comp. and a sexual harassment case. Only thing is, I can’t really prove any of it. I’m just hoping to get out of there as soon as possible, but employers are not exactly helping. Why is my work so awful? It, in short, is mostly because I am a woman, and all of the managers that work at night are men. In fact, I am the only woman working at night, except for once a week, and I never work with her. I have had a reaction to the chemicals that we clean with for a couple months now, and I have spoken to my managers and to the store manager, and none of them care. They say “buy your own gloves then”. There’s only one problem with that. Because they pay me such a pitiful wage, I don’t have money to purchase gloves. Oh well, that is enough ranting for now. On to the good book…

I am currently reading Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. It’s actually very good, if you can comprehend the older English. Somethings have been rather interesting, such as when one has a headache, one is “knocked up”. Funny, isn’t it? Anyway, I won’t give away the story, but I do identify with some of it, and the scenery it paints is just wonderful.

Well, got to go for now.