I have a job. I HAVE A JOB. I have a job !!!! Admittedly it's much easier to add inflection and excitement to my voice rather than to my typing, but I have a J-O-B that will pay me in actual dollars. Technically I have two jobs that add up to forty hours a week, and they both will hopefully start in the next two weeks. So while my house may be dirtier from now on, my bank account will be a lot healthier, as will my outlook on life. Depression and unemployment are ugly things and make an even worse combination and I have been coping with both for two months now.
It's been an emotional roller coaster ride for me this week. First I was absolutely frustrated out of my mind because I just couldn't seem to find anything jobwise out here in podunk Salem Oregon. Then I interviewed on Tuesday for a position as an in-home care provider for a really sweet lady in a wheelchair. It would work out perfect with my afternoon tutoring gig and be a low-stress job which is really what I need right now. Yesterday I received the call that I was hired! Oh hooray, hooray! Words cannot describe my relief at having a full-time job again. All I had to do was jump through all the Oregon Department of Disabilities hoops to become registered and hopefully start on Monday.
I went down to accomplish that today and after waiting around for a good half an hour to see a caseworker, learned that I couldn't start working until I had cleared a background check. Which could potentially take up to a month. You have got to be kidding me. The current caregiver was planning on leaving next week at which point I was to take over and I just learned it is anywhere from two weeks to a month to pass a background check. At that point, my heart just fell into my shoes. I drove home in a semi-comatose state, and fortunately arrived there in one piece. I was terrified that with this news my employers would just hire the second person on their list because they needed someone now. Sudden bad news usually triggers anxiety and/or panic attacks in me, and my reaction this time was no different.
I pulled myself together however to let my employer (the woman's daughter) know this new situation. Her reply was 'that was ok, the family had picked me to take care of her mom and they would wait.' Wow, I really liked how she said the family picked me. Not just her, or her mom, but the entire family. Ooooh they like me.
So to recap, Monday and Tuesday I was hugely upset, frustrated, mad, etc, etc. Wednesday I was absolutely elated. Then this morning (it is Thursday right?) I went for panicked and devastated (I also very nearly got killed by a driver running a red light). So what is for tomorrow? I would personally prefer calm, cool, and serene. Ha ha, yeah right. That is not in my nature.