The Hunt

It's kinda quite around here...

The phone's certainly not ringing, I can tell you that much.

Being unemployed doesn't mean I have a lot of time on my hands. In fact, just the opposite.

The first few days of my job hunt were great, most likely because I was OUT there. I made a round up South First and down South Congress, which are likely the trendiest streets in Austin right now. I dropped resumes and completed applications at coffee shops, restaurants, one bakery, and a few bars. Every manager who happened to glance at my resume had encouraging words to say, one even promised to give a call back if his most recently hired employees didn't work out. A few told me to come back in a couple of days to talk.

Day three I started making return trips and branched out a little, going so far as to pick up a lead on Burnet and dropping off an application at Wheatsville. A handful of managers smiled "thanks but no thanks," this time, many had just finished hiring for South by Southwest. By day four the drizzle and chill that had pervaded my entire hunt had turned into cold rain, so I limited my activity to two second-interviews. Yesterday I arranged an interview for next Tuesday with Wheatsville over the phone and spent the day at the house.

Today I spent the day at home with Darling. He just left for the second part of his double, so a housemate is going to drop me off at a nearby bar so I can do some searching this evening. 7 pm is pretty late to be slinging resumes, but there are a few places that don't have managers available until after dark.

February 2010 Net Worth

It's day three of job hunting, and I'm still feeling great about it. After months of disappointment and boredom it's awesome to have people look at my resume and application and tell me how qualified I am! It's just a matter of walking into the right place at the right time, which may have already happened.

What I'm not super-excited about is checking out my net worth...

We currently have $3,181.74 in assets, a drop of $1581.27. Which is a pretty impressive drop.

Our debt dropped a less impressive $489.97 to $1,2743.61.

This gives us a net worth of -$9,561.87.

It's nice to still have such a low net worth, and I can't wait to have a good-paying job soon so we can keep this number above -$10,000.

The first $200 I earn at my next job is totally going to my brother to pay off my debt to him :)

Job/unjob update

I spent today at Baby-O's baptism. No job hunt, and I have to admit, I didn't resign either. To be fair, the bakery wasn't open today. And I want to pick up my W-2 before quitting. It's frustrating not to have it yet, but employers are legally required to have provided them by, well, yesterday, so one would expect that it will be waiting for me tomorrow. (Slightly related funfact: for the fourth week in a row I didn't receive a copy of my schedule by e-mail, so if I weren't afraid of being fired tomorrow I'd have to wake up at 3 in the morning tomorrow and call the baker to see if I was supposed to be there by 4).

A New Day

I'm quitting my job with the bakery :D

If this seems sudden, it's because I've done my best to avoid airing my dirty laundry on this blog. I haven't mentioned how my employers' have been acting in increasingly irrational, how my days at work are spent cleaning up the messes made on my off days, how my schedule was cut from four days a week to three days a week without warning or comment. I've worked hard to keep my chin up and my nose clean pretty much until yesterday when I went to pick up my paycheck and was informed of a number of wrongs I have apparently committed in the past several weeks. It seems that every mistake made in the past month or so at the bakery is somehow my fault, despite the fact that I only work 27 hours a week and have almost no influence on the hows, whens, and whys of what goes on. Orders I didn't take were prepared incorrectly on my days off. Accounts I don't manage weren't paying invoices I could not deliver.

Long story short: Mama didn't raise no fool. I took a pay and status cut for this job with the intention of learning valuable new skills. I don't need "scapegoat" on my resume. I'm picking up my W-2 tomorrow and turning in my letter of resignation.

Today was spent scoping out nearby restaurants and cafes, and it doesn't look like the recession has done much damage to the customer service industry. I've already been offered one job I don't really want and prospects look excellent for jobs I would like.

It's such a relief that this unfortunate employment experience is coming to such a clean - albeit sudden - end.

Increase in transport price

Yikes, Austin Metro passes have gone up to $2 for a day pass!

On the one hand this is an amazing price. On the other hand, I wasn't prepared for a 100% increase...Even though it's been mentioned more than once in the local media.

Might be worth investing in the monthly pass again. $28 is steep, but manageable, especially since Darling gets a "free" student pass.

How on Earth can people afford cars?!

Defining Family

I applied for the Careington 500 Family Plan yesterday. At the section requesting "family members and dependents," I couldn't help but noticed the bold explanation that all members of the household are applicable members. After checking the FAQ section and double checking the Terms of Use, I ended up calling the customer help line to get a clearer idea of what "household" meant. After all, my own house is less than traditional.

To my amazement, the customer care representative insisted that a "family member" could be anyone who is a permanent resident of the house. After consulting with Darling, I very tentatively signed up a few of my housemates (with their permission, of course). Adding names to the plan did not increase the cost, but everyone said that if they used it they would pay their share. I also got a coupon code online, which knocked down the price by nearly $20. The next step is making a dentist appointment for next week and making sure the plan works properly.

YumGums

I spent $584 to get a hardcore gum cleaning and four shots of antibiotics today. Take that, gingivitis!

My next step is to look at dental plans and choose the best one for my needs. My housemate showed me Dentalplans.com and I am in love. This website shows the cost of every plan, the price of every procedure offered by every plan, and which dentists accept the plans (narrowed down to an area code).

It appears that the Careington 500 Family Plan will be perfect. For the fee of $189 I can get all of my work done for less than $2,234. Castle Dental quoted me $4130 for the same amount of work and recommended I get a credit card to pay for it. If I end up needing two root canals, as was suggested, I'll be able to get both for less than the price Castle is charging for one.

I'm transferring the sign-up fee from my savings account right now :) Monday I'll do the actual signing up, and by this time next week I'll schedule a dental appointment to get my fillings and caps.

**Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I would totally go to a dental school if there was one in Austin. The nearest is in Dallas - over two hours away by car, much longer by bus or train - and requires the commitment of several visits a week.