Desperate times call for creative measures, I suppose.
Let me explain.
Daisy and I are currently okay financially. We're not great, but for the moment we're doing fine. She has a job that pays much more than I've ever made in any position I've ever worked before (more than double what I made, yearly, as a professor), and that's good -- but both of us have bills, of course, not just her. While there are few things in my name and my name alone here in our new place in Omaha (I think our internet account being perhaps the only thing that's completely in my name), it's not all I personally have to worry about -- I have my credit cards that I slowly have to pay down every month, and I try to cover as many other expenses as I possibly can when I can.
The fact remains, however, that it's not like this is a lifestyle that can continue indefinitely. I had a finite amount of savings, a finite amount of use-able money that didn't involve credit cards or anything else of that ilk after I moved out of my old place in Newton in May, and now that it's almost July, most of that money is gone. After I pay this next month's cable bill and the minimum payment on my Discover card bill, about half of what's left now will be gone...and it's not like it's going to get any easier until I can secure some form of stable employment and we can become a full two-income household.
I told Daisy a few nights ago when we were sitting on the porch that I have experienced the same sort of situation every time I've made a move somewhere new, especially an out-of-state move -- I don't exactly have any really marketable skills save for teaching and writing (and, I suppose, teaching writing), and every time I enter a new environment I have a really rough time finding employment someplace. My Master's degree didn't help with that, though it does look nice on a resume or CV -- I haven't done anything but write and teach for the past five years, and good luck trying to find even an adjunct teaching position here in Omaha for English, because they don't exist. It's nigh-impossible, even in a city this large with a ton of industry and employment available, to find something I can actually do or something I could be hired to do.
Well, let me clarify -- if I wanted to work in fast food or as a barista somewhere, I could do that tomorrow -- but that's not going to be something that Daisy and I can depend on for sustainable money, and it's certainly not a career. Daisy has a sustainable, stable job that may not be fun and games, but her schedule isn't too bad and it allows her to pay the bills. She didn't get it from her degree, but from her experience working similar jobs, and she's working her way up the corporate ladder in the company slowly but surely. If I'm not going to be paid to write or to teach, I need to find something similar to her job with similar pay, soon, period. Do I necessarily want to work a job like hers? No, but I can do it. And it wouldn't kill me. And it would make me more money per year than I've ever made before in my life without manual labor or fry-cooking being involved. So that's where I stand right now.
To those ends, of course, it's not like I haven't been trying. Over the course of the past month since we've been married, and basically since before I've been living here in Omaha as well, I have applied for over 100 positions. That count went up by ten more last night as well. What have I gotten out of it thus far?
One questionnaire "interview," one in-person interview, and one call for a phone interview on Tuesday morning.
That's it.
As you folks know, the former two were at Daisy's company, for doing the same job she started out doing there about eighteen months ago (roughly, anyway). I went in, I had a questionnaire session, and the next day I had what I would describe as a good in-person interview with one of their management staff. And then nothing. I waited a week before I sent an email to the recruiter -- the same one who had basically begged me to apply and come in for an interview before I moved up here, and the one who had scheduled these interviews -- and asked when I would hear back about something. He never replied. Meanwhile, two more people were hired for Daisy's shift basically sight unseen, even though Daisy is a manager, has some "pull" there (not much, but some) and all of the other managers on her shift know that her husband -- me -- has applied and interviewed there. Still nothing. Today I got another email from the same recruiter that was another "job fair" email, saying they're doing the same thing I went through with the questionnaire session again on Monday...yet he can't answer my question of when I should hear something back, and I've still never heard something back. This leads me to believe that I wasn't chosen to be hired for any position there, and that they don't care enough to tell the people who aren't hired that they haven't been selected.
I'm not going back down there and doing the same bullshit again for the same position when I've already filled out their questionnaire and have already interviewed for it. If they can't get back to me, that's on them -- not on me. I've already jumped through their hoops before.
"You should call and ask, babe," Daisy said.
"I've already emailed [recruiter] about it and he apparently ignored it, since I never got any sort of reply from him."
"Part of the job is being pushy."
While that may be the case, it's not like there's much else I can do on my end. About the most I could do would be to send him another email and say that I've already done that and would like to hear an update on the status of my application/interview; Daisy says to call him, but there's really no point in doing that unless I'm trying to piss him off by bugging him. If I get no response? Fine then -- they lose a potentially great employee, and I move on and basically give the company the finger. My patience for being jerked around and ignored only goes so far, and I have many other applications in at many other places...such as the university up here, who has scheduled a 30-minute phone interview with me on Tuesday morning.
Well, they will schedule an interview with me. It's between two times, 10:45 or 11:30; the lady who called me said to pick one, and I told her whichever one is better for her -- I'd be available regardless.
The position at the university here is recruitment counseling/campus visits or something like that. It's also a temporary position, from what I've been told -- so don't get too excited. But, even in a temporary position it may make me eligible for internal-hire-only jobs at the university, it's better than nothing, and it tells me that the university is finally processing the applications I put in and I should be getting more calls soon for said applications. Most of the jobs I've applied for at the university here are between $31k and $39k per year, and all of them are full time except for this temp job -- which may be full time while I would work it, but the position ends in December. Even that is $13.50 an hour, though. And $13.50 an hour is a hell of a lot better than I'm currently pulling in...which is nothing. If I get it, I mean.
In my job searching I not only have those applications in, but I've put in apps at our bank as well; our bank seems to be a pretty nice place, and while I don't necessarily want to work in a bank, it is really close to the house and it would probably pay comparably to the salaries I listed above. And, well, I could do the work. Our bank is one of many banks in Omaha (obviously), and I plan to apply at a lot of them. It just takes time, that's all. Banks were my go-to when I lived in Missouri and was looking for work anywhere but the grocery store where I was then currently employed. I interviewed in at least two or three banks there when I lived there. I didn't get hired, but then again, I was younger, it was the Bush-era "great recession" when banks were failing left and right, and I didn't have a Master's degree then, either.
Overall, I'm optimistic. At least I'm beginning to get calls -- which is good. When I get some positive reinforcement on my efforts -- like, ahem, people actually noticing that I've applied and that I'm qualified to do all sorts of shit, thus making them call me -- it motivates me even more to keep moving forward and applying for new things. I'm averaging about 5-10 applications a night when I take the time to sit down, look through postings, and actually fill them all out.
As for everything else going on in life? Well, it's pretty normal, I suppose. At least this new normal that comes with being married.
I take care of almost all of the household chores -- cleaning, vacuuming, the cat box, the laundry, and I even do most of the dishes. Daisy's mother bought her a bread machine for her birthday, and for two of the past three nights, I've made a loaf of bread in it, trying to test out new recipes for us. I'll even ask Daisy what she would like to eat so that I can make it and have it done for her in the middle of the night when she comes home on her lunch hour -- which has become, at least on her work nights, our "family dinner" together. I don't mind doing these things, of course. They're all the things I did when I lived alone before I was married, and none of that has changed or will change even when I get a new job. It's important to me and makes me feel like I'm contributing something to the household.
Tomorrow night is the last night Daisy works for the week, and she got paid tonight. We already have plans for her days off this time around. For one, we have to pay the rent for July, since it's due on the first (Tuesday). On Sunday, we're more than likely making our customary trip over to the parents' for family time and dinner. On Monday, we're spending the day cleaning this house -- actually going through the boxes and bags of things left over from the move, including all of the wedding gifts and bridal shower gifts, and we're re-organizing everything so that it has its place. On Tuesday? Well, in the morning I have my phone interview, which I'll have to do on Daisy's phone (since mine gets basically zero signal in Omaha), and she has dinner plans with one of her friends she hasn't seen since the wedding. Then, again, she goes back to work.
For the entire weekend we're basically under fire, however -- The Weather Channel is calling for severe storms from now until Monday night, with all of them set to start in a few hours' time. We've had some storms and rain off and on almost every day for the past week or so, which is a delightful change from the "110 degrees and no rain every day for 3.5 months" summers of south-central Kansas which I'd (sadly) gotten used to in recent years. I don't have to deal with that anymore and I can't say I'll miss those days -- we have a good air conditioner here and Daisy sets the thermostat anywhere between 68 and 70 at all times. Yes, it is hot when I go outside to smoke sometimes, but when I'm done, thankfully I can walk back inside to the comparably arctic air of our home.
The cats have adjusted really well to their new home as well; they have their favorite sleeping spots and places to lounge, and they have barely fought at all here (compared to their near-constant fighting, hissing, and growling at one another before). Pete loves to lay on the bar table in our kitchen, and if he's not there it's on the couch where we have some quilts. The girls, especially Sadie, have warmed up well to Daisy -- Sadie loves to jump up on Daisy's lap now and go to sleep, purring until she does. Sadie has also been proclaimed to be Daisy's "favorite cat," an honor which I always thought would go to Pete (since he's the most social and most active).
Almost a month on after the wedding, I suppose everything is finally reaching an even keel of what can be assumed is normality. As I've written here before, we've slowly gotten there, settling into what appears to be a normal routine of daily activities, tasks, discussions, work, and sleep. This will, of course, change as time goes on -- it'll change dramatically once I get a job, no matter what hours/days I work -- but it's primarily a comfortability thing right now. We know what it's like to be comfortable with one another, we each always know where the other is both mentally and physically, and we've worked ourselves into a nice little post-nuptials daily groove.
On that note? I'm going to get some breakfast and go to bed, as the sun has been up for nearly an hour now, and I have no other plans for the day except to get up and continue job hunting and chore-doing.
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