Catching Up

Yikes. Over ten days since my last post. Updates in brief:

• I only made it to Thursday and then we went out to eat. So easy to cave...


• On Friday of two weeks ago I spent the day interviewing 6 candidates to fill my position when I leave. None of them are prepared or possibly able to face my daily workload. The experience of interviewing candidates with a Board member and my boss was a unique one. There's an entry to this blog entitled "Dufus, Sourpuss and Miss America" that will never be posted for legal reasons. Inquire in person if you want me to characterize the day further.


• I had an informal interview with the manager who is losing her staff person due to the internal hire. She seems interested in me and I like the sounds of the job. I expect to go through a more formal interview process for this position in the coming week(s). Meanwhile, the HR department from the company contacted me to say that they are considering me for another position and I should hear from the manager to schedule an interview soon. My favorite line from her message was when she said "and if he is as impressed with you as Pat was, then we may want to fly you out here." Anyone else hear that maybe the airfare lands on their credit card instead of mine? I'm feeling good about this company - especially now that they're considering me for positions for which I didn't apply and advocating for me to get the position higher on the hierarchy. (This new position reports to a VP instead of an AVP or a Director.) So I interview with the VP on Wednesday.


• In other good employment news, I got a call for a first interview for a position with an employer that offers really great benefits and has a good salary range. The web page describing employee benefits actually mentions domestic partner. I was really happy to get this call. I interview with them on Friday.


• On the home front, we had a crazy, trigger-filled 20 hours with my wife's parents this weekend. In theory this should also be the last visit we have with them before we move, as they go to Florida for the next 2 months. Let's just say they have a hard time thinking about anything else other than their million ailments and how the world is out to screw them (as rich white Republican rural folks). My wife wanted to cry from the moment we began driving home. We raced across the state at speeds of 85mph to get to a birthday party Mr. Man was attending. We arrived only 10 minutes late. The party was at the Y, so my wife and I got a day pass and spent over two ours walking together and working out to burn off the stress and frustration of the parental contact. As a bonus, we got to soak in the whirlpool together.


• Today was designated a cleaning day. At breakfast I announced a great plan to reorganize Mr. Man's art supplies to make them more accessible. We had been talking recently about going through his toys to decide which ones he didn't play with, which ones were for littler children and which ones were simply "cheap pieces of plastic crap." While I was cleaning up breakfast he marched upstairs and started to bring his first load of toys down for processing. He and I spent at least an hour going through ALL of his toys. He put a LOT into the "go" pile. I am so proud of him. We consolidated his toys easily by half. The only thing we didn't tackle were the stuffed animals. After a day's worth of work, the office and the living room are much more organized and pared down. My wife did a great job taking everything off the porch that we don't want to give away and loaded up all the stuff that we do want to freecycle on the porch so it can be easily distributed. We're getting it together!


• I tried a new recipe and made some biscuits for breakfast and they were pretty good. They weren't light and fluffy, but great with the vegan sausage and bacon and/or margarine and jam. In an effort to begin celebrating Imbolc, I made a pot of Brigid's soup containing all red ingredients (kidney beans, carrots, tomatoes, veg stock) and pureed most of it. Mr. Man ate it up! It was very tasty. We discussed transformation (and did some in our home) and fire and Mr. Man did a lot of creative things today. We're planning to make flaming bananas as a treat on Wednesday night. Stay tuned, I've never flamed anything before...


• If the flaming goes poorly, there's always an insurance payment to get us out of here, seeing as the sale of the house is stalled again because the buyers are having trouble getting approved for a mortgage with a real lender. Damn.


• On a personal level, I've put concerted effort this week into getting back onto the Weight Watchers plan. After growing out of most of my business clothes and gaining about 15 pounds in the last year, I had enough. I remained on plan all week. Instead of binge eating, I've taken up binge sleeping. Mr. Man and I are fighting a bit of a cold. On at least 2 or 3 occasions this week I went to bed with him at 9pm and chose not to get up and do work, sleeping through to 6 or 7 am.

I hope more frequent posting will resume, especially given the minimum of 2 interviews I have this week and the potential for things to fall into place for another trip to Portland.

P.S. Don't accidentally put a full bag of carrots into the freezer instead of the fridge. Once they freeze solid, they don't really thaw out into their old selves.

Rollercoaster

Yesterday was my monthly Board meeting. I generally hate these days and yesterday was complete with the typical frustration of listening to leaders prattle on about things they're never going to do...unless, of course, I do it. These meeting are very stressful with 25-50 people asking me questions, for information, or the usual piling on of more work. I held my breath all day hoping the phone would ring to tell me that I had a job so I could leave this ineffective organization behind. But it didn't.

I didn't cave in (totally) to depression and I did cook dinner:

• sweet and sour tofu (which Mr. Man devoured!)


• bulgur - some plain and some seasoned and with veggies (also a favorite of Mr. Man's)


• random leftovers from my Board meeting


• desert made from leftover poppyseed dinner rolls - buttered with cinnamon, sugar and toasted brown and drizzled with honey

During the consoling game of Parcheesi (which is fun with my wife but just plain frustrating with Mr. Man), the phone rings! Thus begins the best rejection I've ever gotten. The manager tells me that I was one of the 2 top candidates and that other managers wanted to support the internal candidate, but if it was up to her she would have hired me. She continues for an embarrassingly long time about how I'm really great and how she really wants me to work for her company. She has even gone to the length to contact the manager of the person she hired away to recommend me for the vacancy in that department and instructs me to email and call the other manager. She insists that I should apply for other positions and not limit myself to admin positions because I have great skills to grow into other roles. It was not a job offer, but it was an awesome back patting.

The day is over. It's been a rollercoaster. I'm ignoring my mountain of work and checking out to watch Firefly.

Challenge

The checkbook draws nearer to bouncing with every passing day that student loans aren't disbursed, the house doesn't sell and the car isn't paid off. My challenge to myself this week is to make it to Friday (payday) without going out to dinner. In an effort to hold myself accountable, I am subjecting the public to my daily dinner menus. (Warning - I am no Jennifershmoo.)

Last night:

• Southern fried tofu. Who said vegan food was healthy? This recipe is awesome and the batter is crunchy and satisfying.
• Southern fried squash. Same recipe as above. In the vegan diner my wife and I fantasize about running, we agreed we would have a fried basket on the menu - fried tofu, zucchini, squash, whatever else is good fried.
• Oven baked homemade french fries.
• Frozen veggies. Sue me - at least they were organic.

Tonight:

• Ope's veggie burgers. We hadn't tried this brand before. They're a bit pricier, but bigger and very yummy. I love all of Ope's products. It's the second best thing Kalamazoo has going for it after Bell's.
• Macaroni and Cheeze. This is my second attempt at the famous comfort food and this one takes the cake. It was lighter and smoother. We drizzled extra sauce over our...um, frozen vegetables left over from last night.

In other fun news, the transit company has an identical opening for the position I was rejected for. I remain highly qualified (perhaps overqualified) and so I submitted my resume tonight.

Mr. Man has an awesome vocabulary. We knew he was smart and that we don't dumb him down by reading mindless crap to him. However, even I was surprised to hear him use the words "assure" and "research" correctly in context in the last two days. Not bad for a 4.75yo! My wife and I got a chuckle when he surprised his teaching assistant by using the word thwart in context. My wife used the word in context and Mr. Man inquired what it meant. He has trouble pronouncing the "th" sound, and thwart is just the word to challenge him! He thinks it's a fun word and uses it often.

Rejected and Moving On

So the answer is that I got the courtesy call to tell me I did not get the job - yes, the one I really wanted. Big fat bummer. My love brought me a mocha at work and I buried myself in the chaos of my life to avoid how disappointed I am. Later that same day I did two more interviews for a position that I've become much more interested in after learning more about it. I'll find out next week if I get that one. I feel uneasy about the prospects of getting this job. I have now done three phone interviews for this position. I will not be interviewing in person at all, rather they will make a determination on the basis of my phone interviews. All three of the interviews went well, but it seems weird to me that they don't want to see me in person. This I interpret to mean that I'm getting the shaft, but it could just be me feeling especially gloomy.

In other interesting news, I got a great email today that said I was a top candidate for a position that I applied for so long ago that I thought I had been rejected and not notified. Turns out they would call me for an interview, but they've changed plans and have put hiring for this position "on hold" until further notice.

Meanwhile I've lunged myself back into the momentum of applying for more positions. Progress is also being made in the sale of our house and we've targeted early February for a closing date if all goes well. My wish is that we can move in early February so we don't have to pay rent to the new owners of our house for very long and I can start a new job for my birthday.

January 9th

This date has been floating in my head for almost a month, as it was the anticipated deadline for a hiring decision for the job I am most interested in. Many good things happened today. I picked my wife up from the airport, and she is now safely at home with us where she belongs. We stopped for a bite to eat on the way home from the airport and got home around 7:30pm. I was dreading the mail because I feared the bright orange and blue logo would appear on an envelope, politely telling me I was not selected. The only bad news in the mail was the fact that I bounced a check. The good news in the mail is that I advanced in two more positions - one for the state and one for the county. I should expect a call to schedule an interview with the county soon.

As I helped prepare Mr. Man for bed, took out the trash and scooped the cat's poop (only to have him poop again), I began feeling glum. I glanced at the Bach flower remedy, Gorse, for hopelessness and contemplated a shot. Instead I went upstairs to get in pjs and prepare for tonight's work. I notice that I have new voicemail and so I listen. I am surprised and my heart pounds when my contact in HR at the job I'm very interested in asks me to return her call before 4:30PST. She says she "looks forward to my call." (and yes, I just listened to the voicemail again). When I retrieve the voicemail, it is 4:50PST. I have missed her. I can't reach her again until 10:30 a.m. EST. A long night of waiting ahead to determine if I'm getting eliminated, getting an offer, or if there are yet more hoops.

At least I can sleep knowing that if I don't get the offer, I have interviews tomorrow and I just got word that I will be interviewed for two more positions. So now I'll begin screening the first 100 resumes from candidates who want my job.

New Years Eve to Jan 9

At a New Year's Eve party, Mr. Man asked where the hosts' tree was. I clarified to determine he meant Christmas or solstice tree. I suggested that he ask our hosts if they had a tree, as I wasn't sure what holiday they celebrated, if any. He paused and replied that perhaps they're Kwanzaas. There's a new song for Dar Williams - The Christians and the Kwanzaas!

Tonight the boy tried in vain to describe an emotion. He couldn't elaborate on how the new children in his class bothered him. He put forth many excellent attempts to describe how he felt, but finally he stopped and said he couldn't explain it.

I love Mr. Man so much. I'm looking forward to quality time with him this weekend while my wife goes to a seminar in Denver. Just wish my wife didn't have to go to Denver...

Meanwhile, I'm waiting, hoping to hear very soon about the job I really want. They told me they'd hope to decide by January 9th. I'm holding my breath for the phone to ring.