progris riport
Mar. 18th, 2006 12:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kip_w.
I finally wrote an e-mail to catch my family up on my recent doings. With some slight editing here and there, there's no reason I shouldn't share it with my friends here as well. Some of this you already know.
Having moved to western Massachusetts at the start of August, it's been a long seven months of unenthusiastic job seeking, but now I'm a gainfully employed member of society AND a well-known printing company.
One day, I put in an application for another pre-press job (having lost my inhibitions against applying for stuff I'd never done over the months of applying fruitlessly for stuff I was expert at), and the same day I had a call from the owner. He wanted me to come on down to Connecticut, so I did. Then he called me back to see when I could start. Just in case, he said they'd hire me as a temp for two to four weeks, and then ask me if I thought I could do it.
So for a week, I was tutored by the outgoing person in the position. That Friday, we ate pizza and she said her farewells -- leaving her cell phone number for my questions -- and that was that.
There's another pre-press guy who works from two to ten. They had him coming in at noon this week to give me additional help as needed. Today, they told him he can start coming in at two again. My worst day was the Tuesday of last week, when I was convinced it was all going to end badly and soon. It didn't.
In the interview, he asked me how much money I was looking to get, and I named a figure slightly better than what I was getting at my previous job after fifteen years. They'll start me off at the hourly I left the old place at, with the prospect of a raise after I'm permanent. I get paid weekly -- a real boon for the old cash flow -- on Wednesday, no less.
Today was another Friday. They ordered Chinese food for everybody. I plowed resolutely through the piles of urgent jobs -- actually, they're "Hot," and they hang on hooks -- and I think this is going to come out just fine. Oh yeah, the woman who was hired the day after me quit today, depriving me of that 24 hours of seniority over someone.
In other news, Sarah is still cute, albeit dangerous. The former Danger Baby, now Danger Girl, is still "a danger to herself and others," according to family members who should know. She is coping with her father's new employment, generally leaving the house for daycare at the same time as the old man trudges wearily off to the salt mine.
It's my longest trudge yet, by the way: 35-40 minutes each way. I'm turning into one of those crazy nuts who drives from Newport News to Richmond and back every day. Another 20 minutes, and I'm as crazy as any of them. So far, the iPod is helping keep it from being a mental drain (a lot of my Jean Shepherd recordings are between a half hour and 45 minutes long, and I am thinking of ordering some old-time radio shows from this one web page I found). I'm exploring the back roads to and from.
Anyway, that's where things are at just now. Cathy is still happy in her job, and fighting a persistent cough that's leaving her just a little tired and irritable. We've got![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gerisullivan coming in tomorrow, so that'll be swell too. We are happy at the thought of climbing out of the debt we've incurred since the move, and getting a monitor that doesn't randomly change color. Code yellow! Election's a-comin'!
Oh, and right now, I think I'm going to go to bed. Night all!
.
I finally wrote an e-mail to catch my family up on my recent doings. With some slight editing here and there, there's no reason I shouldn't share it with my friends here as well. Some of this you already know.
Having moved to western Massachusetts at the start of August, it's been a long seven months of unenthusiastic job seeking, but now I'm a gainfully employed member of society AND a well-known printing company.
One day, I put in an application for another pre-press job (having lost my inhibitions against applying for stuff I'd never done over the months of applying fruitlessly for stuff I was expert at), and the same day I had a call from the owner. He wanted me to come on down to Connecticut, so I did. Then he called me back to see when I could start. Just in case, he said they'd hire me as a temp for two to four weeks, and then ask me if I thought I could do it.
So for a week, I was tutored by the outgoing person in the position. That Friday, we ate pizza and she said her farewells -- leaving her cell phone number for my questions -- and that was that.
There's another pre-press guy who works from two to ten. They had him coming in at noon this week to give me additional help as needed. Today, they told him he can start coming in at two again. My worst day was the Tuesday of last week, when I was convinced it was all going to end badly and soon. It didn't.
In the interview, he asked me how much money I was looking to get, and I named a figure slightly better than what I was getting at my previous job after fifteen years. They'll start me off at the hourly I left the old place at, with the prospect of a raise after I'm permanent. I get paid weekly -- a real boon for the old cash flow -- on Wednesday, no less.
Today was another Friday. They ordered Chinese food for everybody. I plowed resolutely through the piles of urgent jobs -- actually, they're "Hot," and they hang on hooks -- and I think this is going to come out just fine. Oh yeah, the woman who was hired the day after me quit today, depriving me of that 24 hours of seniority over someone.
In other news, Sarah is still cute, albeit dangerous. The former Danger Baby, now Danger Girl, is still "a danger to herself and others," according to family members who should know. She is coping with her father's new employment, generally leaving the house for daycare at the same time as the old man trudges wearily off to the salt mine.
It's my longest trudge yet, by the way: 35-40 minutes each way. I'm turning into one of those crazy nuts who drives from Newport News to Richmond and back every day. Another 20 minutes, and I'm as crazy as any of them. So far, the iPod is helping keep it from being a mental drain (a lot of my Jean Shepherd recordings are between a half hour and 45 minutes long, and I am thinking of ordering some old-time radio shows from this one web page I found). I'm exploring the back roads to and from.
Anyway, that's where things are at just now. Cathy is still happy in her job, and fighting a persistent cough that's leaving her just a little tired and irritable. We've got
gerisullivan coming in tomorrow, so that'll be swell too. We are happy at the thought of climbing out of the debt we've incurred since the move, and getting a monitor that doesn't randomly change color. Code yellow! Election's a-comin'!Oh, and right now, I think I'm going to go to bed. Night all!
.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-03-18 05:29 am (UTC)iPods, yeah. Podcasts.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-26 01:37 pm (UTC)Hey, now I need to find someone to give your former adaptor to. It has to be somebody with a mid-size iPod (mine won't work with it, sadly). Must remember to write an entry about that.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-18 11:33 pm (UTC)It's always wonderful to see Geri -- I have another three weeks!
no subject
Date: 2006-03-26 01:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-20 11:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-26 01:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-22 04:51 am (UTC)Sorry about the commute, but at least it does sound as if you can alternate routes for some variety.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-26 01:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-26 08:51 pm (UTC)