HOWDY all!!! Yup, long time no post, but hey…Sweetie and I have been furiously juggling relocation plans and complications with the movers (let me just stress that U.S. Van Lines hasn’t been the most helpful, and I only selected them because they were the only option available that could accommodate our tight schedule) lately, so I think you can understand what’s up. 
As you can see from the most recent photo I took while Sweetie was behind the wheel this afternoon (as he has been for >98% of the trip so far, as he is a much better driver than I am, and I feel safer with him at the helm!), Abilene and Texas in general are now far behind us; we’re currently holed up for the night on the eastern outskirts of Knoxville and should arrive at our destination either late in the day tomorrow or…should we care to relax a bit…early Saturday.
There’s just so much going through my head right now that I’m not able to completely spill everything I’m feeling: the last 8 months of being unemployed have definitely been the hardest that I’ve ever experienced in my life, yet I do think that there are some positive lessons that I’ve been able to take away from them. More on this later, but for now I’m going to finish sipping a bit of wine and relaxing prior to tomorrow’s leg of the journey to Rockville.
The local paper, the Abilene Reporter-News (known instead by quite a few disgruntled individuals under a broad spectrum of creative monikers), ran an article today about locals affected by the fact that Congress has allowed extended unemployment compensation claims to lapse. One rather consistent asshole who regularly posts to the online edition commented (after saying that people need to “just get a job”):
I saw the signs yesterday at WingStop they are hiring and so is Taco Bueno on Buffalo Gap Rd.
Others go on and on for more than 50 comments after this doing little more than accusing one another of sucking up to either Democratic or Republican party intentions (the majority, however, representing hardcore though vastly…and obviously…undereducated conservative mindsets who in actuality could no more afford to align themselves with steadfast Republicans than anything else). Having experienced unemployment in this godforsaken place that I actually began to think I might be better off dead in for approximately 8 months total, I thus submitted the following comment under an alias; the local paper is very choosy (heh, imagine that) about what they will and will not post, however, so I suspect that it may not ever show up there:
Wow…what a compassionate (and may I also add articulate) bunch the majority of posters here are.
I will be leaving Abilene next week and do not intend to look back. The rednecks among you will simply say, “So long, don’t let the door hit you in the @ss on the way out”, but that response is old, beyond tiresome, and sadly reflects nothing but the leftovers of a dying town.
Back in early November, I was laid off from an incredible job here, which I specifically moved to Abilene to take, due to not only local but global economic circumstances. Unfortunately, having a Ph.D. (in addition to a B.S. and an M.S., and being required by law to reveal all educational degrees obtained, let me just assure the doubters and/or clueless among those who have posted that – INDEED – Walmart and Taco Bueno among others will definitely call and tell you that you are overqualified for what they do offer, which is AT BEST 10 hours a week at minimum wage; no 40 hours offered, obviously, or they would have to pay benefits), I could find no work here.
As far as I can tell, unless this town (in terms of population it *should* be a city, but the general mentality has a lot of room for productive growth that should take place) ACTIVELY tries to improve on the business front rather than blindly rely on Dyess AFB…which may cease to exist anyway if the B-1 bomber is rightfully phased out of existence as recently discussed…and a jillion supporting burger-flipping jobs for existence, there is no happy ending. Quit pointing fingers at one another and various political parties and MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN if you actually like Abilene.
If you don’t like it here, then I wish you godspeed in finding a way out as quickly as possible; it’s definitely not a pleasant place to be unemployed in if you are qualified to do more than punch a cash register or wash dishes.
Despite the fact that it is currently 2:48am on Monday, July 5th…I felt that an update here was extremely overdue! 
Sweetie and I have been making preparations to relocate to the Washington, DC area (our precise destination has not been finalized yet, but Rockville seems likely) within the next week and a half, and we are excited beyond words to be leaving the armpit known as Abilene and get on with our lives elsewhere.
We will be without internet access for awhile once the movers pack up our stuff and things are sorted out on the other end regarding a broadband service provider at home, but I am going to try to figure out what needs to be put in place to blog from the road via my phone; I’ve got a camera equipped, so perhaps we can give you a tour of our cross-country drive!
Take care all, and I’ll continue to update this thing until we leave.
It is 1:21am right now.
I’m quite exhausted, but as of 3:13pm on June 25, 2010…I verbally accepted an employment offer for a position that I’m dying to get started with in a city quite beyond Abilene. 
Tomorrow will be a time for updates, but for now, I’m celebrating! More to come, I promise.
Whenever I’m away from the blog for this long, it’s usually a sign that things definitely aren’t flowing along festively in life…and when I even lack the energy to be nit-picky about Sweetie’s last blog post (typically I nag at him until he lets me clean it up to maintain uniformity of capitalization and punctuation here, as randomness like that bugs the hell out of me!), things just downright SUCK.
Though I continue to apply for openings everywhere and have had the fun of distracting myself for periods with a small writing assignment a friend offered me (you know who you are and THANK YOU!), I have essentially been told by local placement agencies that with my background, there exists no work for me in Abilene, obviously, and that I should get out of here as quickly as possible. That would be fine, of course, if we could afford to. As it stands, the bank account is running on fumes, and only a few weeks remain of unemployment (which according to the latest votes today by the Senate doesn’t look likely to be extended…and no, I’m not among the folks who have been nursing away on it for 99 weeks and not actually looking for work). I have even applied to Target and Walmart and banks and other such places here in town for something, but the ones that have so far called back after receiving my applications have stated that I’m overqualified. Too bad that legally I can’t withhold education information on the applications I fill out, as it would make things a tad easier to just get SOMETHING.
I did get called this morning from a company in the DC area that I did a writing test for recently and who then looked into my references and have been invited out for a face-to-face…however, here’s the kicker: I am responsible for all travel expenses to the interview, thus I’m likely going to have to tell them in the next couple of days that I must withdraw from consideration altogether. When contacted this morning, I told them that I needed a couple of days to look into travel plans, but after having done that, I see how monstrously expensive it would be (a gamble that could jeopardize Sweetie and me having a roof over our heads for a few more months at least). I have given thought to sending an email to explain the direly stretched finances, but I’m pretty sure that would do nothing more than exclude me from the company’s field of interest anyway. Ah, the irony of it all!
Browsing the news definitely isn’t a spirit-lifter either; as stated in this article run today by CNN:
Employment experts say they believe companies are increasingly interested only in applicants who already have a job.
If anyone has any suggestions or advice, I’m all ears at this point; things are beyond depressing right now, and it would be nice to hear your thoughts.
I work helpdesk for a US cell carrier.
I’m a contractor.
I make $9/hr.
Lots of folks I talk to are decent, but then there are
you motherfuckers.
So here’s a shoutout to all the stupid jackasses who:
- Call on the device that needs troubleshooting after the recording SPECIFICALLY stated NOT to do so
- Ask me to hold on so you can scream at your 3 fucking rug rats to shut the fuck up. IN MY GODDAMNED EAR!
- call me while taking a shit or piss
- ask me to hold on while you “take this shot” or “hit that”
- call in pissed off and screaming at me because the previous rep gave you shitty service. yeah. *I* control those offshore motherfuckers who can’t speak proper english. right.
- use 3g cards for your primary home internet connection and bitch about slowness or overage minutes. HELLO. it’s a fucking portable aircard, not 20mbit cable. dumbass…
Indeed, I haven’t posted much of anything here lately…and that’s primarily because I’ve been feeling just completely blah about the whole job search thing. I keep pushing on with it, get an interview here and there, but time and again end up with absolutely nothing to show for it. The trips I took recently to Miami and the Dallas area are now BOTH failures (I just found out about the Dallas one a few days ago). I thus have absolutely no enthusiasm left anymore even if an interview carrot is dangled millimeters from my nose.
Oh well. I’ll try to do a better job of keeping everyone posted here about what’s going on.
Just passing through to let you know that, the morning after I turned in the writing test that I mentioned recently, I received a phone call from the company’s HR representative to arrange for a SECOND phone interview next week! The first phone interview was only with the hiring manager, whereas this one will be with the hiring manager as well as other employees currently working for her. I’ll definitely keep y’all posted as things lurch forward!
Howdy again, folks! Well, my temporary silence here yet again in terms of fresh posts was indicative of me having wrapped up for the past several days with writing a document to send in after last week’s phone interview. I emailed it to the hiring manager this morning and am still hoping that something works out (in hopefully the not too distant future) so that I can once again be called “gainfully employed”.
I’ll be posting more over the next few days, so watch out!
