I woke up this morning with one thing on my mind – NY DMV! I was nervous about sending the documents and couldn’t wait to get to work to take care of it.
First thing I did when I got to my desk is put down my stuff and go down to the mailroom. They will send out packages for you, and you just bring a check to pay for it. I sent the envelope NEXT DAY (which means it should be there by 10:30am tomorrow) and put a return envelope inside for the same delivery back.
Now, it’s out of my hands (literally and figuratively) and I just have to hope for the best – and you know how THAT can go! I do have a tracking number, so I’ll check tomorrow morning before I leave for work to see where it is.
I had a super-busy day at my morning shift, but I did have a chance to speak to the boss. She started telling me about a new responsibility she wanted me to take on, and I had to stop her and tell her that I was not going to be there much longer. I really wanted the girl in HR to tell her (she had a meeting with her this morning – but not before this conversation), but I couldn’t just sit there and nod and say okay when I knew I wasn’t going to be there.
I explained the whole situation to her – how working the two shifts was getting stressful for me, because I felt like I never was caught up at either job and it was frustrating, too. I also explained that I had “some things” going on in my personal life which was adding to my stress and I was afraid I wouldn’t do a good job, because I was very distracted. She was REALLY understanding. It seemed important to her to know that it wasn’t them – that I wasn’t unhappy with the department, or my co-workers. I explained that I loved them, and that they were wonderful to me, and I really even enjoyed the work, it was just too hard to do it for just 4 hours a day.
She asked if I would be okay working one day in one department and another day in another department, but I told her that it would be exactly the same thing – I’d just be a whole day behind somewhere!
Later that morning the girl from HR came up to talk to her. They were behind closed doors for almost an hour. I was nervous, but confident that it would turn out okay.
When I got down to HR she immediately brought me into her office and explained the situation. She was going to start looking for another temp right away, but she thought it might take up to two weeks. I couldn’t do anything else but agree, because I don’t want to leave them high and dry, and a few more weeks won’t kill me (I hope!).
She said they want to try to hire a temp-to-hire, so they’re going to telephone interview them and then bring them in for a face-to-face, which they usually don’t do with temps. They are still trying to get this job qualified for a full-time employee, which is one of the big frustrations, but if they can get a temp who will eventually come on staff when the job is approved, then they won’t have to train someone else. It really is a very complicated job and I’m just now – after three months – feeling really confident about some of the procedures, so training a temp and then having to train a full-time employee would just be really hard. I offered to help train the temp, and they really appreciated that. It’s not something that they would ordinarily do – having a temp train a temp – but, hey, I trained the girl who replaced me at my other job!
I’ve now been with the firm for 8 months. It’s amazing. I’m learning more and more in HR. I’m getting trained a little bit every day by the woman who sits right next to me and who is going on sabbatical next week. She’ll be gone before I get down there full time, but the new HR temp is starting tomorrow. She’ll be doing a lot of filing work for some of the other girls (because I’m too busy to do it!), but they said she’ll also be assisting me. The only thing I really need her to do is print out all the resumes and save them to the appropriate folders, because that takes hours every day and for the last two days there have been 100 or more resumes in the inbox every morning!
There is one job that is called a Research Associate and they hire 5 college graduates who commit to work for a year. It’s a job that’s posted on different college job websites – like Penn State, Brigham Young, and other schools. Since we’re a top firm, and they know there are 5 positions open, we’ve been getting 50-60 resumes for that job every day. It’s CRAZY! They’re all college students, so they don’t have much work experience, so it’s mostly about their student records.
Having a job with this firm on your resume is an excellent step in a career in investment and finance. Therefore, this job posting is getting a LOT of attention.
At 4:30pm my phone rang. It was a woman from the Focus Group and she needed to interview me more (why, I don’t know). I told her I was at work and to call me back at 5:30pm, when I got home.
Elsa was going to a concert tonight, so we snuck out at 4:30pm, so I was home a little before 5:00pm. I got undressed and called Eric, so I could talk to him for a while before the woman called back. We had a great conversation. I feel bad, because some of his family are questioning my commitment to him and are asking him if our marriage is over. Did you ever? Even if you thought that might be the case, would you suggest it or bring it up and ask a man who’s seriously depressed? They are just not the most considerate people in the world, and I am not there to speak up (which has always been the case).
Eric told me that he told them we’re fine and we’re together, and that I’ll be coming to him, but they don’t believe it. He also told them it’s his fault this happened (even though that’s not true – it’s no one’s fault – things just happen), but of course they blame me. It’s always been that way – for 25 years. Some of his family doesn’t think I’m so great for Eric. They always thought I pushed him around, or “led him around by the nose.” I admit I have a strong personality, and maybe I’m more controlling and outspoken than Eric, but everything we did, we did together.
Every decision we made, we made together. Eric knows I never pushed him to move to California. It was a dream we BOTH had. He just didn’t know how it would turn out. I didn’t either. Who could know? If you knew something bad was going to happen, would you still do it? Would ANYBODY? No. But they love to place blame, and it’s a lot easier to blame someone who’s 3,000 miles away, isn’t it? I know I sound bitter and angry, and maybe I am. I have been a great wife, a wonderful sister-in-law and a fantastic aunt to all my nieces and nephews. But they just want to find fault. It’s really sad. Thank goodness it’s not ALL of them – just some of them.
Some of Eric’s family has been extremely supportive. My nieces have shown their support and love, and some of Eric’s sisters are behind us 100%. They are very understanding and it means the world to me. After 25 years, they’re really like sisters to me, and it’s nice to know how much they love and encourage us. Thanks to them, I think Eric is on the road to recovery.
Anyway, after I spoke to Eric, I decided to lie down and wait for the call. Next thing I knew, it was 8:00pm. I had slept an hour-and-a-half and she never called! I hope she calls tomorrow, because I’m assuming this conversation was necessary in order for me to participate on Saturday.
I decided to have a bowl of cereal for dinner. It’s one of those healthy cereals Eric bought at COSTCO. Not very tasty, but very nutritious and filling!
I watched THE BIGGEST LOSER. It’s a great show, but I feel awful guilty when they’re working out and sweating and crying and losing weight and I’m laying in bed talking to Conrad on the commercials! I just cannot get myself motivated to exercise. Every day I say, “Today’s the day!” and then it isn’t. I’m eating well, and I have lost 2 pounds, but think of how much more I could lose if I actually got some exercise!
Oh, one thing I forgot to mention. This girl at work (who has seen my jewelry mosaics) gave me a bag of vintage clip-on earrings that belonged to her mother and grandmother. It was all fabulous – exactly what I love to use in my crafts! I told her I’m working on a commissioned piece for someone and she requested purple and there were two pairs of gorgeous purple earrings. I SO appreciated that she thought of me and gave it to me. I can’t wait until the hand mirror I bought on ebay arrives, so I can get started!