So, job interview #2 is over and done with. That was stressful! Of course, I totally psyched myself out about it last night, so that wasn’t helpful.

Job interview #1 went really well, I thought. Smallish company, pretty casual environment. The President/CEO had read my blog prior to the interview and joked about it a few times. This position would be similar to what I came from. Except, they have one person who does programming, one person who does graphics, one person who does content management, etc. Where I came from, I helped with everything. Seems like being stuck with one thing would became rather mundane after a while. He did seem intrigued by the fact that I blog, and mentioned some possible opportunities that they just haven’t fully implemented yet, simply because nobody there blogs.

Job interview #2 was with the company that owns 6 radio stations here in Smallville. The position involves coordinating the 6 station websites. It sounds like an enormous and daunting endeavor to me, but so much different from what I’m used to. I don’t think I’d be stuck behind a desk programming all day. I’d actually get to meet with other departments (programming, marketing, sales) and share input and ideas. At my previous job, the CEO and President were the idea guys. I just implemented whatever they came up with. I think this interview went okay. I met with the General Manager/Vice President, the Operations/Programs Director and some other guy who I should have remembered who he was, but I don’t. It was a pretty impressive audience, to say the least. But there was never really a lull in conversation where I was at a loss for words. I nailed all of their technical questions though, which I should have. I’ve seen this position around on the job boards for several weeks and always talked myself out of applying. I have no experience in radio, or knowing how to market and advertise for radio, nor do I have a college degree. I was very surprised when they called me first thing Thursday morning, having only sent them my resume at 10:30 the night before. But, I still don’t think there’s a chance in hell I’ll get this job.

Enough about me. Kendal had a job interview earlier this week too. He thinks it went well. He believes he is what the department is looking for. However, he would lose his opportunities to travel. I can’t really divulge too much about his situation, but at this point, he hasn’t heard anything anyway.

But you know? The questions asked in job interviews are just insane. At my previous job, I managed to sit in on, or just plain overhear, some job interviews that took place. One fella, Dan, would ALWAYS ask his victims “How many traffic lights are in Smallville?” Now, if someone asked ME this question, I would either laugh, or get mad and demand “What the hell does that even have to do with this job?” I told Dan this at one point and he just smiled and said “That is because you are not an engineer”. Ah, duly noted.

Turns out, Dan was right. While Kendal was not asked about traffic lights during his interview, he was asked about a 3-legged martian. Intrigued? Read the rest…

I have ANOTHER job interview scheduled for tomorrow morning!

That’s all.

Yes, I’m entirely aware that it’s been nearly a week since I last posted. Ya’ll just seemed to enjoy my last 2 posts so much, I thought I’d let you savor them a bit longer.

But hey! I just booked a job interview for tomorrow! (If you’re keeping score at home, that’s 2 interviews in 3 months. I am one hot commodity!) Husband has an interview tomorrow as well (within his current company), but maybe I’m not supposed to mention that. Anyway, the President/CEO, whom I will be talking with tomorrow, e-mailed me this morning with some “concerns” regarding things I’ve mentioned on this here blog. Neat, huh? I’m not so much worried about the items he brought up in his e-mail though. I’m much more troubled over the thought that when he meets me tomorrow, he’ll be consumed with visions of me running through the Dillon’s parking lot chasing feminine products.

In other news, our little family packed up and drove down to Oklahoma this past weekend for Kendal’s great-uncle’s funeral. It was kind of an all day event with a lunch beforehand, the funeral, then the burial. But, it was rather calm and relaxing and really nice to meet some people I’ve never met before, but have heard many stories about. After the service, we all just hung out at my mother-in-law’s house with Kendal’s brother and sister and her husband…plus the 5 kids we have between us. And even that was calm and relaxing. There seems to always be drama when the family gets together, but I’m happy to report that there weren’t even any tears shed on this trip (not by the 10 and over crowd anyway).

But, if you’ll excuse me, I must go now. My job interview attired doubled as my funeral attire, and I just realized that they’ll need laundered before tomorrow.

So, one of my faithful readers had to e-mail me and ask me how that job interview went, because I never uttered another word about it. The whole thing has been rather unorthodox, so I really haven’t had much to report until today.

I interviewed with the owner, and his general manager daughter, of a local printing company. Super nice people. When I first got there, they even admitted to having just looked at this here blog. Of course, that caused me to shriek with embarrassment and cover my face, but they didn’t have security escort me out or anything.

The interview itself went well. They didn’t so much interview me as they just showed me different portions of their website that they wanted updated. They asked me if I could do the work, and I said yes. They said they weren’t ready to hire anyone full-time and this would be part-time work at best. Honestly, the project they showed me looked like a days worth of work to me, so I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I told them that I’d have to discuss this part-time situation with my family, and they were completely supportive and cooperative with that response. Then Kendal’s business trip came into the picture and we decided that I couldn’t do anything beyond part-time for the next two weeks anyway. So, I met up with my printing company friends again to discuss. Unfortunately, they had already given the website project that we reviewed the day before to someone else. Like I said, it was a day’s work, so I wasn’t too offended. Plus, they showed me a Bigger! and Better! project that they had in store for me. Only, Bigger! and Better! project was totally beyond my capabilities. I do think I could have eventually figured out how to do the project, but not within a timely manner. So I had to decline on Bigger! and Better!

Which brings us to the here and now. I just got home from a meeting with the general manager. We discussed another website that they have and all the work needing to be done to it. Now we’re back to something I CAN do. Phew! Details are still being worked out, but this looks promising.

I certainly wouldn’t say I have a job, but I have work. And work = money, so YAY ME!!!

I just got off the phone with a gentleman from a company I had sent my resume to several weeks ago.

I have an interview tomorrow! Yay!!!

So I’ve been going through the file cabinet drawers, purging old records and filing what’s left. There was an abundance of manuals and papers for our household appliances (washing machine, dishwasher, refrigerator, microwave, etc) that were getting out of hand, so I headed out to OfficeMax to get a couple of large envelopes to store them in.

As soon as I walked in the sliding front doors, I hear “Hey, how’re you doing?” Caught by surprise, I look up to see McZany, the president of the company that I just got, uh, “let go” from. I smiled and said something extremely intelligent like “Hey!” He made some joke about how I probably didn’t recognize him seeing as how he had a baseball cap and overstuffed coat on. I laughed and stood there awkwardly, when out walks McMeany (CEO of the company that I just got, uh, “let go” from). He said “Hi Kim!” I, being the very articulate and profound individual that I am, replied with “Hey”. Then McZany said “See you later”, I said “Okay” and we went our separate ways.

I’m sure they are kicking themselves for letting such an enlightened, intellectual conversationalist get away.

See? Now that I’ve had hours to contemplate what I should’ve said…I totally should have thanked McMeany for the letter of recommendation he wrote for me. It came in the mail earlier this week and it was so good, it almost made me cry. But nooooo, “Hey” is the best I could come up with. *hangs head*

I had been at work for about 30 minutes this morning when the company CEO and HR lady walked in my office and shut the door. I knew what was coming. Well, I knew some of what was coming. I knew the company is going through major changes and several of my friends have already been laid off. I knew that my boss has been whittling my project list down to almost nothing over the past 3 weeks. I knew that with nothing for me to do, there’s no reason to keep me around. I didn’t know that meant TODAY!

I shan’t say a bad thing about that company. I worked there for 6 years. I loved what I did, had uber-flexibility with my schedule, was able to bring my kids to work if necessary (heck, I even took my dog in one day) and, hopefully, made some lasting friendships with my former coworkers. I understand that there was no longer a need for my position and I hold no ill feelings toward them. Plus, they compensated me nicely, so there’s that.

I don’t like the idea of being unemployed, however. I don’t like this sense of failure having gotten “laid off”. I don’t like thinking that maybe if I were a little smarter or knew how to do this or had learned how to do that, I could have kept my job. I don’t like knowing that we still have two house payments to make, dozens of bills to pay, Christmas just around the corner and just one income. I don’t like the idea of having to go “out there” and sell myself on my accomplishments, without a college degree. I don’t like feeling…scared.

So, my darling husband seemed troubled/disturbed/concerned yesterday after reading my post about the animal cracker thief here at my office. He asked if Animal Cracker Thief was some dirty, gross guy or something, to which I replied “absolutely not”. There may have been some coworkers whom I would apply that description to, but not this guy. I mean, there are those people whom I’ve watched sprint to the bathroom and emerge 30 seconds later, and think to myself, “there’s no way he washed his hands in that short amount of time”. We’re a small company, and getting smaller every day, but I really don’t make a habit out of watching people go in and out of the bathroom. So see? I’m not crazy (shut up, I am not), I just don’t know. I don’t know if Animal Cracker Thief washes his hands when visiting the bathroom. I don’t know if he sits at his desk, picking his nose all day long.

Okay, seriously, I’m a nail biter. When I’m not typing or using my mouse, I’m probably sitting here at my desk, gnawing on my fingernails and staring blankly at lines and lines of PHP code. Fully aware that I do this, I don’t go rifling through, say, McGeekys’ can of Altoids with fingers that I’ve been drooling on all afternoon. I pick up each Altoid with precision and clean fingers.

And also? Animal Cracker Thief did not even ASK if he could have some animal crackers.

Now that’s just rude!

I had a bowl of animal crackers on my desk that I’ve been snacking on for the past couple of days. Just moments ago, one of my coworkers came in to talk to McGeeky, and then grabbed a handful of animal crackers out of MY bowl! With his hands!

It wasn’t a large bowl. It didn’t have “community cookies” written on it. It was just a tiny little bowl with tiny little cookies to satisfy my tiny little hunger pangs.

Gah, who does that?

(By the way, the bowl and the rest of the animal crackers now live in the trash.)

My officemate, McGeeky, and I were just discussing our weekend plans.

McGeeky: “I’m having a barbeque on Sunday, you’re welcome to come.”
Me: “That sounds fun. I’ll have the kids with me though.”
McGeeky: “That’s okay. I’m getting knocked up, but that may be too mature for them to see.”
Me: !!!???
McGeeky: “Haven’t you seen that? Were you the one telling me that it’s pretty mature?”
Me: Unable to breathe from laughing so hard having finally realized that she’s talking about renting the movie Knocked Up