Arrrrgh

So. Christine and the kids returned Sunday night, to much relief and joy on my part. I'd really hit the wall on being apart from them and was getting seriously funked out and depressed. So that was good.

Unfortunately, thhings have been in something of a spiral ever since. Yesterday was Christine's 40th birthday, and the events of the day went as follows:

• Shopped for and purchased a bicycle for her (from her parents and sister).
• Shopped for and purchased nice new sneakers for her (from me and the kids -- part one of a two-part gift which will be completed once she decides on part two...).
• Contacted Company A about the fact that I've not yet received the offer letter I was promised. No response.
• Received notice from Company B that, although I was a solid candidate with no weaknesses of note, they had decided to offer the job I've been pursuing for 3+ weeks to "the other candidate."
• Found out that the job I originally was interviewing for 2 months ago, before I'd wrapped things up at my last company, with another local company (we'll call them Company C) which ALSO went to a candidate that suddenly came in and wowed them, is going to become available again in the very near future (i.e. someone's gettin' fired). I am strongly in consideration for it again, which is nice -- I'm actually pretty much certain I can get it as long as things move forward quickly and the offer is in the same league as the one from Company A. But what amazes me is that, according to my buddy who works at Company C, they hired some idiot who must have lied her way through the interview process, didn't really know what she was doing, and then didn't show up for work for nearly three weeks. This is the "stronger" candidate they hired instead of me. So while I'm happy that I may almost certainly be able to land the job I was trying to get nearly two months ago, BEFORE I was out of work and stressing out and eating through both my stomach lining and my severance pay, I'm furious that people with little or no qualifications land these jobs because they lie through their teeth, while I am scrupulously honest about my qualifications (which are considerable, and more than adequate for the jobs to which I've been applying) and remain unemployed.
  
• Noticed that, despite the AC being turned on, the temperature of the upstairs of our house was steadily climbing into the mid-to-high 80s. Perhaps due to the AC not blowing any cold freakin' air.
  

So, yeah, as 40th birthdays go, Christine's didn't fall on the best of days. We tried to make the best of it, training together last night and then heading out for a late dinner and drinks with several of our friends, but overall it was a pretty piss-poor day.

Anyhow, the AC guy has just arrived, and I called Company A to find out what's the what. I was assured that despite the radio silence from their end I am not being given the runaround on the job offer, and it looks like the AC problem might be nothing more than very clogged up condenser coils and perhaps low refrigerant levels -- an easy fix, and one that shouldn't set me back more than a few hundred bucks. Fingers crossed. And I should hopefully get a bit more info regarding the status of the position with Company C later this evening. In the meantime I'm just trying to shake off this sense of frustration and disappointment and continue marching forward.

Update: The AC work actually came in at less than $200, including a tip for the nice guy who came out. I've never been so relieved in my life! At least something is going right.

Mood: Bummin'
Now Playing: Nothing

Whew!

Well, it looks as though my jobless slacker lifestyle will be coming to an end in the near future. I got an entirely reasonable offer (verbal -- will be receiving the offer in writing later this week) from one of the companies I've been interviewing with today, so I have a solid opportunity to return to the productive working world Real Soon Now. So, that whole "will I ever actually earn, you know, cash again?" stress has nicely vacated my life.

Only to be replaced with a whole other kind of stress, of course. The main obstacle right now is that I am still VERY much interested in The Other Company I've been interviewing with. The ones I've already spent the better part of 8 hours talking to. The one where I've sat and interviewed with, like, almost 20% of the company already. They have a far more interesting product set, and also have a much more energized and excited team. And their offices are attractive and well lit and aren't located in a hellishly overcrowded pit in a warehouse district. All in all, a far more attractive situation, and one which I sense has far more long-term opportunity, particularly given how well connected these folks are in the Austin tech community at-large.

So, I've got Company A's offer on hold, pending the hoped-for closure of my interviewing process with Company B within a week or so. So far everyone is being cool, and I've advised Company A that I'm currently wrapping up a series of interviews with another company and told Company B that I have an offer in hand but would prefer to work with them, so could we please get all the damn foreplay over with and get down to business already? I understand wanting to be sure that you've got the right candidate for a job you feel is important and significant, but come on, what else can I do? I'm not entirely sure what it is they are looking to find, here, but I hope we can get to that stage sometime before Company A starting getting pissed off about my keeping them waiting.

So yeah, now that I no longer am worrying about never getting paid again, I'm instead worried of either A) having to jump at a job I'm not overly excited about out of a sense of financial necessity and responsibility or B) waiting too long for the "exciting" prospect, only to have it evaporate and potentially damage or lose my current opportunity. Right now, there's no pressure -- everything is above board, and I can keep things in the slow lane until at least the end of next week. But soon, I'm gonna need to shit or get off the pot.

So, stress. Blah. Looks like class tonight will be dominated by lots of forms work, which is perfect. Exactly what I need.

Mood: Stressed
Now Playing: Raul Malo, "After Hours"

Lonely, Preoccupied

So, I'm finishing up week one of solitary, with only about one more to go. Christine and the kids are still in North Carolina, while I float around here in Austin, jobless but interviewing like mad, and keeping pretty darn busy for a guy without a darn job. Once again, Tang Soo Do has come to the rescue, giving me a solid community to fall back on for companionship and activity that doesn't involve sitting in a bar somewhere with anyone else with nothing to do. Definitely an enormous improvement over the ways I used to fill up my spare time.

Still, it's tough. I don't like coming home to an empty house, or waking up late every day simply because there's no one to get me up and no reason to drag myself out of bed at the crack of 7:00. So, instead, I tend to sort of muddle away the mornings, sipping coffee and peering into my computer for a couple of hours, before I get my butt in gear. My energy levels are, as a result, kind of low. I'm just sort of displaced. I can't wait until they get home.

A big part of my being able to get through this, though, has been all the energy I've been putting into interviewing, which is obviously a good thing. One of the three prospects I'm pursuing looks fascinating and challenging, an enticing opportunity to work with a group of fantastic people (9 of whom I've interviewed with so far). But simply put, all the interviewing is wearing me out. I'm new to this sort of interviewing, having been cherry picked and "pulled" to all of my previous positions since graduating from college. The process of going in and going through the more grueling professional-level position interviews has been a real test of my nerves.

Of course, from the look of it, if I don't get this position I'll have no one to blame but myself. I've solidly messed up at least once, sending a few links to very substandard docs as examples of my work. In my rush to show the range of the types of docs I've done over the last 7 years I included some very quickly written support docs I put together just a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, they were never really adequately edited or reviewed, and they were written during what can only be described as stressful work conditions ("Hey, where'd everyone go?" "Am I going to have a job next week?" etc.). Sloppy, with typos and some obvious organizational problems. And considering I'm a writer these things stick out like a sore thumb.

No excuses, still -- my work, my mistakes -- but I should have been more careful about the sorts of stuff I sent over and limited it to my "premium" pieces in my portfolio. Incredibly stupid, and I've been trying to explain and demonstrate that these are not even remotely typical examples of my work ever since. So freakin' dumb, and such an amateurish error on my part. I'm certain that, if I don't get this job, this will be the reason and it will be entirely my own fault.

Well, I think I've done everything I can to settle those concerns -- I sent a selection of far better work, and I think they were pleased. And I think that aside from that foible my interviews have been solid, if occasionally nervous. This whole process is so new to me that I was initially really overwhelmed, and I'm sure it showed. On the second round of interviews though I think I was way more solid and comfortable.

Agh.

I need to wait up to one more week to find out where I stand. I'm going to go nuts. I do have two interviews lined up for other, less interesting opportunities, and will be heading down to New Braunfels on Tuesday to spend the day with some TSD friends at Schlitterbahn, but I'd be lying to myself if I didn't just accept that this will haunt me throughout the week.

Anyhow, fingers crossed. Time to run to Saturday morning family class for a 45-minute workout.

Mood: Kinda melancholy
Now Playing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, "Hairspray"