Of Course

Spring semester: day fifty

On the good side, I delight in saying "day fifty" because it means we're in the home stretch; the semester is 2/3 over. On the bad side, the semester is 2/3 over, and I have no clue as of yet what the future holds for me after that.

It is once more 75 degrees and gorgeous this afternoon, and again I am sitting here fighting off my allergies. It's been really windy -- such as, some days having 50-60mph gusts -- since last week, and warm, really nice weather + wind = pollen and allergens everywhere, pollen and allergens that clog up my nose, throat, lungs, etc. Last night I had a terrible sinus headache in my forehead and face, and had to take two different kinds of medication to get it to go away (sinus/pain pills and a double-dose of Mucinex).

Of course, because I have to go teach as per the usual this week, this gorgeous weather is short-lived. Of course it is. They changed the forecast last night; the highs for the rest of the week are barely supposed to reach 60, and it's supposed to rain for a good chunk of the week. I mean, this is fine; it's better than highs of 20s and 30s...it's just not the 75 it's been for the past few days.

I mentioned earlier that my classes this week are basically on autopilot, and that's because they are. The classes themselves, anyway. Collecting papers tomorrow morning, grading what I can of them in the afternoon (read: hopefully all of them) and doing conferences with my students tomorrow night. Wednesday consists of collecting a set of drafts from my 210 students and talking to them more about their grants. Thursday consists of me covering Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" out of the workbook in my 102 class, and (if they're done being graded) giving their papers back to them. And then my weekend starts again. I'll be busy doing my grading and the like, but the classes themselves are pretty much already taken care of.

I have to get gas in the morning before I leave town and drive south to go teach, but right now that's the least of my overall worries -- last night I went to Walmart (where yes, there was stock in the aisles, but apparently nobody was stocking it -- the aisles were basically deserted of all workers), and when I fired up the Monte Carlo, it...I don't know exactly how to put this...jumped for a second, shuddered, and stalled briefly when I was starting it. I tried again and she started up fine, drove normally, acted normally with no (new) problem indicator lights on the dash or any other problems, etc. She was fine when I came back home with the groceries as well. I couldn't tell you what it was aside from a normal case of "my car acts weird sometimes." Mind you, she has new oil and coolant, and I put one of the expensive Gumout engine/fuel system/fuel-injector cleaners into her last week when I filled up, so I don't know. Again, it's not like it's been cold or anything like that, and it's not like the car sat for a long amount of time without being driven anywhere -- it was three days. Just odd, that's all.

As you folks know, my car -- while I love her dearly -- is falling apart. It's not going to last forever, and I don't expect it to. You folks also know that I'm generally of the mindset that if it runs and drives and gets me to school and back for my job without dying on me, I don't have the time or money to be incredibly concerned with it about 90% of the time. I just don't, and I can't do anything about that until I get a better job and get more money to either fix it up really well (probably about $2k, roughly, to fix all of the stuff that needs to be fixed) or just buy a newer car. I can't do that when I'm making about $1000 per month. Total. If the Monte Carlo lasts me until after the wedding, when I'll be able to get a different, better job (hopefully), then I will have put about 25k miles on her over the course of three years, and it will have been a good, respectable run for my road tank.

Of course, I expected to have a better job a year ago, too, and a year ago I was crossing my fingers even then every day when I made the trips to/from campus, saying things like "if you just last until graduation, if you just last until graduation..."

Anyway. It would just be my luck if a major part on the car blew right now, as I'm trying to save all the money I can for living expenses after the wedding, my high-limit Discover card is half full, my pay has been reduced by about $200 a month because of health insurance, and my tax returns haven't come in yet.

As an aside, I expect at least one of the returns to come in over the course of the next week or two, if not both of them.

Last night I applied for more jobs in the Omaha area -- another at a college in the city, and an English Instructor position in a college right outside the city. The latter was not an easy application to do; unlike other institutions of higher learning who leaped into the 21st century many years ago, this school has not -- their application is paper-and-snail-mail only.

Yeah, I know.

So I printed out their general application form, wrote and printed out a cover letter with my salary requirements (which they requested), printed a copy of my CV, professional references, and teaching philosophy statement, and included an official transcript from the university (I was able to get five of them for free when I picked up my diploma last year), tucked them all into a manila envelope, gauged the weight on my hand and decided to use three stamps, and stuck it in the mail this morning. I told Daisy that this probably makes my chances a little better -- most people will see that they're only doing snail-mail applications and will pass on applying for the job. Not me; I'm desperate, and if possible I'd like to keep teaching...as long as I can make a live-able wage from it, of course. The college in question is about 20 miles or so to the west of the city of Omaha proper, so if I get the job I'd better be making a live-able wage just to pay for the gas alone.

I also told Daisy that regardless of how much I want to keep teaching, it's not like I'm going to pick a $10k a semester job over a $30-40k a year job just because I'd rather teach. I'm not an idiot, obviously. And we have to survive.

One of the jobs I applied for over the weekend was the same job she does, at her company, and possibly even on her same shift.

"Do you think we could work together?" she asked me. It wasn't a question of wanting, it was a question of feasibility and workplace compatibility.

"Honey, I don't care," I said. "If we're both working the same job, whether it be the same shift or different shifts, we'd be making close to $60k a year combined. That's new(er) car money for me. That's money to pay all of our bills and get groceries without any problems. That's money to help pay off our credit cards and student loans. That's money that will help us pay for children, because I'm guessing you'll be with child by Christmas this year."

Boom. Pregnant.

Ahem. 

I don't really care about workplace BS or drama -- I'm the kind of guy who operates on the outskirts of all social interaction anyhow. I care about the paycheck and what that paycheck could/would do for our standard of living.

Of course, I applied for other positions in said company as well -- four different ones in total. And that's just for her company, and just what I've applied for there right now. In the past week or so, I've applied for ten different jobs (that I remember, anyway). I have a decent shot at any one of them, to be honest with you. I don't apply for things that I have no experience in or knowledge of -- I'd rather not waste my time or the time of anyone else reviewing applications, and I'd actually like to get a callback or an email asking me "hey, you sound awesome, would you like to interview with us?" Etc. Obviously, these aren't the only jobs I'll apply for; I'll be applying for many others over the course of the next month or so. I don't want to slack off on this, and I want to be able to secure something for the foreseeable future after the wedding so that I can, y'know, help pay the bills and survive.

And possibly get a newer car.

Since it's going to be considerably chillier this week than I previously expected, I don't even know what I'm going to wear to teach in. Again, most of my colder-weather clothing has been put away and/or otherwise boxed up for the spring and the move. I left out some pants and a few jackets, but it's slim pickings for a lot of it because, ahem, it's supposed to stay in the 70s once it gets there at this time of the year. I mean, for fuck's sake, tomorrow is April. The past few years has been terrible when it comes to flip-flopping temperatures in the spring. In the fall, yes, it'll be in the 80s and 90s one week and then in the 30s and 40s the next, but at least it stays there and we know what to expect.

On that note, I'm going to cook something to eat (since I can, well, do that now after my trip to Walmart last night) and see if Daisy's around when I get back to the computer so that I can take my normal Monday night sleeping pills and go to bed.