Job - like the Bible guy
Hello there, blog followers :) I know you're still out there...
So I'm sitting at home on this wonderful Labor Day after spending some time with my best friend Melissa and her family, and I thought I'd sit down and have some "blog therapy". It's been a long time since my last post, and, to be honest, not much has changed since then. I'm still unemployed, though I have had two different jobs in that span. They didn't work out, and I'm back to square one.
These past several months have been, can you say, rather expensive for Mark and me. Do you all know the story of Job? Well, let's just say that I can definitely relate to what he went through. I had started a new job in February, and it was going OK - not terrible, but not great, either. It was bearable. Anyway, our computer stopped working, and we thought that would be a great time to buy a new one since Mark would be getting some "back pay" from his job. So, a couple weeks later, we treated ourselves to a new Mac (note: it's pretty freakin' amazing). All was going well until our refrigerator went out. Well, you can't exactly survive without a fridge, so off to Lowe's we went. $900 later, we had a new fridge. All was well until late April/early May when we discovered that we had a broken pipe/water leak underneath our foundation. We quickly found out that insurance does not cover said leak because the water is "underneath the house" and is not causing any damage to the house itself. Thank the lord that we got our tax return, because $1250 later, the pipe was fixed.
Oh, wait, I think I forgot something: oh yeah, the car. For a long time, I had been hearing this weird popping/clicking noise every time my car would hit a bump in the road or I made some kind of turn (read: every time I drove anywhere). We thought it was the axles, so I got new axles - it wasn't the axles. Turns out that it was the bushings and ball joints, so at least we solved that problem. To add to that, sometime in May, my car made this horrible noise while driving and was towed home. We changed the timing belt, thinking that might be the issue. Well, it turned out that that horrible noise was my a/c system. It straight up imploded on itself, and cost about $1000 to fix (luckily, my mom and dad very generously helped us out with that one). Oh yeah, the beginning of May was also the time that I lost my job, so that didn't help matters any financially. I had a couple of interviews in May, and fortunately, I got a new job out of one of them.
I started working for San Bernardino County as a pool aide in June, and realized a couple weeks in that it wasn't for me. As a pool aide, I was driving around all day inspecting area pools for drowning prevention/safety things. It was just a summer job, and I was glad to have the extra money, so I wasn't going to make any rash decisions just yet. At the end of July, my clutch went out on the way to work. The pool aide job required a lot of driving - I was driving about 35 miles during the day in addition to my round trip commute of 100 miles, so I couldn't exactly do my job without a functioning car. Mark and I decided that it would be best if I resigned, since the job was taking an extreme toll on both myself and the car, plus I was spending about $80/week on gas. Fine by me, I figured. So, having quit that job, we were back to where we started. I eventually got a new clutch, which ate up my paycheck. God willing, that will be the last substantial expense we have for awhile!!
And here I am - it's the beginning of September and I'm looking for work once again. I had an interview with a wastewater treatment plant to be a lab technician, but that was two weeks ago and I haven't heard anything back yet... though I'm not expecting a call because the interview was friggin' HARD and I wasn't able to answer a good portion of their "lab" questions. But hey, at least I had an interview, right? Oh yeah, in July I was eventually convinced by some teacher friends of mine that I should/could work as a substitute teacher, so I took the CBEST, which is a test that you take to be a sub here in California. I passed my test, and I can now apply for different subbing jobs around the area. However, I didn't know that you have to wait for there to be an opening, and you're also not guaranteed a job even when you do apply. And then there's my anxiety about the whole subbing thing -- I am petrified of getting up there in front of a room full of kids and having them go completely out of control and me wanting to curl up in the fetal position against the wall somewhere. Well, maybe not exactly that but you get my point. I'm one of those people where if I do something, I want to be perfect at it. So, subbing for me is a like a huge question mark. "What if I totally suck?" "What if the teachers hate me because I'm too nice?" "How can I be assertive with a whole room of kids who want to run all over me?" All of these questions freak me out!! I'm second guessing myself, and I'm only making myself more nervous. Mark says I should just do it. The logical side of me says, "If you never do it, you'll never know how it really is." The emotional side of me says, "Screw that, it's gonna be awful. You don't even like kids that much. What the hell are you thinking wanting to sub?!" Internal conflict, much? So, yeah, that's where I'm at right now with that. Honestly, I'd still really like to do real estate. Perhaps it's just a dream, but it's something that I think I would enjoy.
Besides all of that... married life has been rather sweet. Mark and I are doing very well, and our relationship continues to be going strong. Seven and a half years in, we're closer now than ever before. If you've read my past posts, you know there have been some serious bumps in the road. But now we're on a smooth road with no potholes! We've started attending church again and I feel like that's contributing to our well being. As with anyone else, our marriage isn't perfect but we're making a conscious effort to make sure things don't get out of control again. Until next time!
So I'm sitting at home on this wonderful Labor Day after spending some time with my best friend Melissa and her family, and I thought I'd sit down and have some "blog therapy". It's been a long time since my last post, and, to be honest, not much has changed since then. I'm still unemployed, though I have had two different jobs in that span. They didn't work out, and I'm back to square one.
A Lego depiction of Job... yeah, I don't know either :)
These past several months have been, can you say, rather expensive for Mark and me. Do you all know the story of Job? Well, let's just say that I can definitely relate to what he went through. I had started a new job in February, and it was going OK - not terrible, but not great, either. It was bearable. Anyway, our computer stopped working, and we thought that would be a great time to buy a new one since Mark would be getting some "back pay" from his job. So, a couple weeks later, we treated ourselves to a new Mac (note: it's pretty freakin' amazing). All was going well until our refrigerator went out. Well, you can't exactly survive without a fridge, so off to Lowe's we went. $900 later, we had a new fridge. All was well until late April/early May when we discovered that we had a broken pipe/water leak underneath our foundation. We quickly found out that insurance does not cover said leak because the water is "underneath the house" and is not causing any damage to the house itself. Thank the lord that we got our tax return, because $1250 later, the pipe was fixed.
Oh, wait, I think I forgot something: oh yeah, the car. For a long time, I had been hearing this weird popping/clicking noise every time my car would hit a bump in the road or I made some kind of turn (read: every time I drove anywhere). We thought it was the axles, so I got new axles - it wasn't the axles. Turns out that it was the bushings and ball joints, so at least we solved that problem. To add to that, sometime in May, my car made this horrible noise while driving and was towed home. We changed the timing belt, thinking that might be the issue. Well, it turned out that that horrible noise was my a/c system. It straight up imploded on itself, and cost about $1000 to fix (luckily, my mom and dad very generously helped us out with that one). Oh yeah, the beginning of May was also the time that I lost my job, so that didn't help matters any financially. I had a couple of interviews in May, and fortunately, I got a new job out of one of them.
I started working for San Bernardino County as a pool aide in June, and realized a couple weeks in that it wasn't for me. As a pool aide, I was driving around all day inspecting area pools for drowning prevention/safety things. It was just a summer job, and I was glad to have the extra money, so I wasn't going to make any rash decisions just yet. At the end of July, my clutch went out on the way to work. The pool aide job required a lot of driving - I was driving about 35 miles during the day in addition to my round trip commute of 100 miles, so I couldn't exactly do my job without a functioning car. Mark and I decided that it would be best if I resigned, since the job was taking an extreme toll on both myself and the car, plus I was spending about $80/week on gas. Fine by me, I figured. So, having quit that job, we were back to where we started. I eventually got a new clutch, which ate up my paycheck. God willing, that will be the last substantial expense we have for awhile!!
And here I am - it's the beginning of September and I'm looking for work once again. I had an interview with a wastewater treatment plant to be a lab technician, but that was two weeks ago and I haven't heard anything back yet... though I'm not expecting a call because the interview was friggin' HARD and I wasn't able to answer a good portion of their "lab" questions. But hey, at least I had an interview, right? Oh yeah, in July I was eventually convinced by some teacher friends of mine that I should/could work as a substitute teacher, so I took the CBEST, which is a test that you take to be a sub here in California. I passed my test, and I can now apply for different subbing jobs around the area. However, I didn't know that you have to wait for there to be an opening, and you're also not guaranteed a job even when you do apply. And then there's my anxiety about the whole subbing thing -- I am petrified of getting up there in front of a room full of kids and having them go completely out of control and me wanting to curl up in the fetal position against the wall somewhere. Well, maybe not exactly that but you get my point. I'm one of those people where if I do something, I want to be perfect at it. So, subbing for me is a like a huge question mark. "What if I totally suck?" "What if the teachers hate me because I'm too nice?" "How can I be assertive with a whole room of kids who want to run all over me?" All of these questions freak me out!! I'm second guessing myself, and I'm only making myself more nervous. Mark says I should just do it. The logical side of me says, "If you never do it, you'll never know how it really is." The emotional side of me says, "Screw that, it's gonna be awful. You don't even like kids that much. What the hell are you thinking wanting to sub?!" Internal conflict, much? So, yeah, that's where I'm at right now with that. Honestly, I'd still really like to do real estate. Perhaps it's just a dream, but it's something that I think I would enjoy.
Besides all of that... married life has been rather sweet. Mark and I are doing very well, and our relationship continues to be going strong. Seven and a half years in, we're closer now than ever before. If you've read my past posts, you know there have been some serious bumps in the road. But now we're on a smooth road with no potholes! We've started attending church again and I feel like that's contributing to our well being. As with anyone else, our marriage isn't perfect but we're making a conscious effort to make sure things don't get out of control again. Until next time!
P.S. I apologize for incessant whining in this post. If you've made it this far, give yourself a hand! :)
I love you sis and I feel your job pain, albeit my situation is not nearly as hard as yours :( I too am in the midst of a job hunt. Let's just say it's DEPRESSING! But, on the bright side, for you (maybe?) a lot of the jobs I'm looking at are in California! Maybe we'll be neighbors someday ;) Hang in there!
ReplyDeleteSis, you know how much that would r-o-c-k if you moved to Cali? I would love it :)
ReplyDeleteYour Dad said if Alison moves to CA, we're listing the house and moving there too. Might as well have us all in the same place! The issue of income might get in the way though.
ReplyDeleteI'm pulling for you and your hubby from Iowa!! Miss you, girly.
ReplyDelete