The New Year

Hello from one half of Pearson and Pearson!  My very tactful friend Heidi up in Dallas sent a note prior to Christmas saying, "Hey, you haven't posted anything since August.  Are you guys still alive down there?"  How time flies.

It's a chilly 38 degrees here in Austin this afternoon.  We nipped down to Central Market earlier for some onions and milk.  Jamie is going to make a gorgeous white onion soup, a recipe that his friend Steven in Yorkshire shared with him back when they were both working in the kitchen at Oswald's in Sowerby.  It's definitely soup weather and there is homemade bread to go with it tonight as I've been brushing up on my bread skills, much to the delight of my husband.  Over the past several months I've made jams-strawberry, peach and orange marmalade, baked up rugelach and shortbreads and gingerbread cookies, and even made mince pies with Jamie for Christmas treats.  I'm so thankful my mother taught me to bake and instilled a love of creating in the kitchen.  Jars of marmalade lined up on a sunny railing can manage to convince me that there are some things I still know how to do well.

As I explained in my post back in August, I had my hours reduced and my benefits cut at the library in a very tactical and disheartening way.  That went into effect on September 1st.   Sadly, the situation at the library did not improve, even by being there less and so I took a deep breath and put in my letter of resignation.  Halloween was my last day.  I awoke on All Saints Day knowing I had made it through the fire.  And then I was promptly sick.  Who on earth leaves a job in this economy?  Evidently, I did.

I have applied for countless jobs:  filing clerk, personal assistant, programs coordinator at a wildlife refuge, office assistant, paralegal trainee, junior editor at an erotic literature publisher, library clerk, dishwasher/gardener for a small Montessori school-my resume is being kept on file in case the new person doesn't work out.  Yes, my resume on file for a dishwashing position.  God bless my liberal arts education.

A job came up with a bookstore that is a 15-minute walk from the house.  It is run by the City of Austin library and looked really super. It offered a decent wage and the possibility of health insurance.  I was chosen for an interview, which went well, and told it could take up to a month for Human Resources to let everyone interviewed know the decision.  Like a good girl, I waited.  Periodically I would check the city website and my application status which still said In Progress.  By the time six weeks rolled around I had an inkling that something was amiss.  I tracked down the store manager who had interviewed me and sent an email asking the status of the position.  When she didn't respond via email, I called the store directly the next day it was open.  She said she had indeed read my email and that the position had been filled three weeks ago.  She was surprised HR had not contacted me and noted that she would pass the information along to the two ladies in the office.  I thanked her for the information and hung up.  I was furious that she had read the email but not bothered to respond and furious that HR hadn't done their job.  Of course righteous indignation is only good for a little while.  I chalked it up as yet another cock-up living in this city. 

Out of curiousity, two weeks later I checked my application status again on the city website.  It still said In Progress.  I sent an email to HR thanking them for not doing their job as laid out by city policy.  I told them it was no small irony that the future of my employment was in the hands of people who were not doing the jobs they had.  I suggested they consider themselves very fortunate to be employed.  Two weeks later, I received a form email from City of Austin Human Resources notifying me I had not been chosen for the position for which I had applied.  Eeeh....it's funny now.

I wish I could say things have been going better for Jamie.  He received his Green Card in August and has been on the trail of work ever since.  There was a brief stint at a coffee/gelato bar a few bus connections away.  The owner turned out to be a real arse.  He refused to call Jamie by his name but instead insisted on the spanish pronunciation which is "hi-mee".  He was rude and condescending to me when we met and so anal and brow-beating to Jamie and the rest of the young staff that Jamie finally told him this just wasn't working out and he didn't have to take such treatment for minimum wage.  Crikey, what a horrible first experience for my sweet husband working in a new country.

We found out later at a bbq that the owner is known all over central Austin for being a terror to work for.

Then there was the job at the coffee shop/bakery just down the street.  Jamie had seen a posting for a sandwich maker for which he applied and heard nothing.  A few weeks later, the ad was posted again.  Jamie applied again and heard nothing.  Then a few weeks after that he saw the ad posted yet again.  He sent this email with his resume attached:  You have posted this ad three times now and three times I have applied.  Just hire me, would you?

And they did!  For six weeks he walked to work in the mornings and walked home in the afternoons, often with meat and cheese ends that earlier to his being hired had simply been thrown away.  Such a waste would not occur with a Yorkshireman in the kitchen!  Thus we were treated to a steady supply of Boar's Head ham, roast beef and smoked turkey; swiss, provolone, gouda and sometimes bleu cheeses; and left over bread and rolls with the occasional sweetie from the pastry case.  The only drawback was his immediate supervisor with whom he shared the position. 

She had been promoted to help in the bakery, decorating the myriad of theme cookies they sell in great bunches, but she still retained some duties making sandwiches.  While Jamie always made sure to leave his shift prepped for her on her days, she would rarely do the same for him.  Instead, she would call an hour before her shift and ask him to cover for her.  Or she would text around midnight asking if he would cover for her tomorrow.  This behavior began the day after he began work there.  Being new and lovely and ready to help out, Jamie always said yes at the last minute requests, even if it meant cancelling plans we had made.  We needed the income.

So it was with great surprise that he received a raging text from Stephanie the Tuesday morning before Thanksgiving.  She was enraged that he had not prepped enough for her which evidently caused her to be in the way of the bakers who were trying to get out pies and cookies for the holiday while she used the slicers. She blathered on about how busy she was and ended the text by telling him not to come in to work Wednesday or Friday and she would discuss this with him Saturday.  Of course Jamie called her right back but she would not answer her phone.  He left a message and then texted as well, but she would not respond.  The situation could have been addressed within minutes but it seemed drama was more to her liking.

Later that night she texted that she was home and did not want to discuss it and that she would talk to him Saturday.  Seeing as we now had several days free, we called Jeff's dad to see if the house in Rockport would be empty for Thanksgiving and could we go down.  The answer was a resounding yes and have a good time.  We were looking forward to some time by the sea and a respite from this sudden upheaval and our perpetually noisey and drunk neighbors.  But that wasn't to be.  Stephanie called on Wednesday but left no message.  Jamie returned the call but she would not answer.  He texted that he was in Rockport on holiday with his wife and that he would be back on Saturday for his shift.  She texted later that she was very busy and repeated her grievances.

We got through Thanksgiving day without a peep but first thing Friday morning there was another rabid text telling him not to come to work until Monday, at which time she would discuss the status of his position.  What???  This meant he would have lost a total of five days of work now.  He called but she would not answer her phone.  He texted asking if he had a job to come back to.  She would not reply to the text. 

It was at that point I had had enough.  I rang her cell phone but naturally she did not answer so I called information and dialed through to the bakery.  I asked for Stephanie and when she came on I explained that I was Jamie's wife and we simply wanted to know if he had a job to come back to. She said she would only discuss this with Jamie, but when I offered to immediately put him on the phone she launched into the same spiel that she was too busy and would not discuss it.  I asked again very simply, does he have a job to come back to.  She continued to wail and bemoan her lot, finally saying she was going to hang up now.  I hung up before she got the chance.

Shortly after, a text arrived saying Jamie still had a job for now and that his wife was never to call the bakery again.  Well, at long last, a response to a question.  But it made things very, very clear.  While it's very easy to say, "oh, don't let it get to you" and "just roll with it", the fact is that when one person is having such a negative effect on your life, it's time to make a decision.  With my full support, Jamie decided to hand in his notice. It was clear the bakery was not going to deal with her antics or they would not be going through sandwich makers every few weeks.  He typed up a letter Friday night when we got home, planning to drop it off Saturday morning and explain to the owner what had transpired.  We got into bed with a sense of relief but also a sense of sadness.  It had been a good enough job which Jamie had done well and it was a pity that one person had ruined it without seeing that in the end, she was only making more work for herself.

It was, therefore, with yet again great surprise, that the phone rang at 7:30 on Saturday morning. It was Stephanie, asking if Jamie would cover her morning shift which was to begin in 60 minutes.  What????  Jamie said no he couldn't because she had told him not to come in until Monday and he had made plans.  As if she hadn't heard him she continued on, saying she had all the prep done and he would just need to make the sandwiches.  Again he said no.  No, he would not come in because he had plans. 

She hung up.

He handed in his notice later that morning.  The owner said he was sorry it had worked out this way and that was that.  We went down to the Triangle park where Jamie met up with some fellow yo yo throwers who were back in Austin on Christmas break from Dallas and Waco.  I photographed them throwing then wrote some letters.  We were now officially a family of unemployed.

Well, that's not quite true.  Since last January, we have been working in various capacities for Jeff's crime papers, Busted in Austin and Mugly in Dallas/Ft Worth.  So there is a tiny stream of income trickling in.  I have access to the Dallas County police site and pull mugshots and information from the daily booking sheets.  Jamie does the same for the Austin paper and also collects the remaining content for both papers.  Lists of  sex offenders, death row, restaurant scores and such.  Jeff writes the spotlight articles and the graphics team puts it all together.  I love this job and there is a possibility that a major expansion will happen in the spring which could give us full-time work.  That remains to be seen.  Strangely enough, we'll have our first really big fish gracing the pages of Busted next week as Tom DeLay was booked in today here in Austin.  All that money laundering couldn't keep him off the pages of Busted!  hehehe.

Speaking of Jeffrey, he's now a married man with a baby on the way.  Amanda doesn't want to know the sex of the baby but Jeff does.  He says he'll need time to prepare if it's going to be a girl.  He says he'll need all the fortitude he can muster if there are going to be two red-headed women running around his house.  It's wonderful to see him so happy and grounded.  The last time we saw the Wards up in Waco, Jeff arrived with his jeans tucked into his Lucchese cowboy boots.  I asked when this phenomenom had started and he said he saw a guy at the feed store doing it so he figured it was cool.   That's Jeff for ya.

Well that's the latest from here regarding employment.  It's my goal to start writing again on a regular basis to log some social media hours.  Our long-term goal is to organize enough accounts of our life and adventures here to create a book which will includes photographs as well.  Another goal is to get me writing in various venues about various things so I have a portfolio built up and can apply for magazine and online writing work.  Ideally, I'd like as much telecommute work as I can find.  My whole experience at the library has left me very tired of working with the public and with people who have such inward focus that it takes a day long retreat to come up with the radical idea that maybe people who work with the public should actually talk to them.   

 

Anyway, I'll send out alerts when a post is up.  And don't be shy in telling me if you'd rather I remove your address from the list.  One brave soul actually did just that.  He said he never bothered to read the blog so take him off the list and have a good life.  Snap!

Wishing you all the very best for the new year.