Fighting MAN (Ruby)

So the search continues for the job of my dreams, or just the one that will pay me, and some days I am more engaged in this search than others. There are so many days when my kids just look at me and repeat the following, without a pause: “…what are we doing today? Can we go somewhere? There’s nothing to do. I’m bored. Can’t we just go do something? Are we going to the pool? Can I have ice cream? Can we go to a movie? Can we rent a movie? Can I have a ride? Can you make me my lunch? Did you do my laundry? Can you cut my hair? Can I have ice cream? Can we go shopping? Can we go to the pool? Can we have lunch there? Where are we going? Can we do something?”…which can slow me down a little. And my classic response - “I’m trying to get some WORK done” – does not go over well because they cannot comprehend that you actually have to “work” at finding work. Hmmm. So I try to balance it all out. Typically Scot and I work out in the morning AFTER getting Louki on the bus to his morning summer program and after both of us squeeze some “work” in. By the time we return, charged up and clean, those kids are drooling for some ACTION, after their fourth or fifth breakfast-snack-lunch-breakfast-snack. I squeeze in a little more “work” and then often take them to the city pool, which loses its appeal within one hour or as soon as the six - or so - busloads of camp kids arrive, turning the place into an asylum with lifeguard whistles blaring, children running, screaming, shrieking, drowning, fighting for their lives in the deep end. Medusa sits in the shade, with perfect posture and an increasingly annoyed look on her face. The boys like to spend the whole time eating after one quick trip down the slide. But, remember, we are on the austerity plan and so I beg them not to beg me for food but often give in because of my failing parenting skills.

Then I return home for more “work-to-find-work”…if I can get OUT OF THE KITCHEN which is, more times than not, set with booby traps that capture and hold me hostage for hours at a time. The sink is one of those traps… I often don’t walk by it without staying for a full week. And then my children remind me that they have not actually eaten any food yet on that particular day (????) and so I prepare something…then clean up…they could clean up themselves – I know what you are thinking – but let’s be real. By this time, it is 3:oopm and time for me to do some “work” but my children are already eager to talk about what’s for dinner and don’t really want to hear me say that I am “working”…

Then there are the days like last Monday, when I hunker down with NO DISTRACTIONS because I am in a dead panic about being unemployed and I make it very clear that WE ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING TODAY…I am WORKING all day and that’s that!!!

And so on Monday I applied to several jobs and then signed up with yet another employment agency online. I probably have two thousand username / password combos for all the various ones I have signed with but this one TOOK THE CAKE. I spent much longer than I typically spend, creating my profile, answering a multitude of questions, uploading my resume and cover letter. This particular one seemed to be more focused, asking more relevant questions, offering more options for location preferences and lines of work, and it felt very worth my while. Literally three hours after I had started this search, I was ready to hit submit and get my first peek at the available jobs, hand picked for me. Yay!!

And this was the intro at the top of a list of job possiblities that were pooled just for me:

“… these are the best jobs which match your primary job category and the list of desired work locations in your Account Profile. They are ordered by Relevance (best match).”

All the jobs were in the Air Force. I get nervous just saying “Air Force”. I am terrified of my own shadow. I listed Advertising, Design, Writing…things like that, in my Profile. I also divulged that I am FEMALE and WHITE, which is optional information to reveal. So this and many of the hand-picked jobs they came back to me with said (at the very end of the job description) FOR MALES ONLY…hmmm. Makes me just kind of scratch that girly head of mine and ask “what part of GIRL, CREATIVE, etc. did you not get?” This was my favorite:

Job Description
COMBAT CONTROL APPRENTICE A Combat Controller is an air traffic controller in remote and sometimes hostile areas. He is a precision parachutist capable of penetrating hostile areas to perform his duties. He is skilled in water operations using both scuba and amphibious techniques, and he's been trained on motorcycles, snowmobiles, rappelling and fast-rope procedures, all as ways to get to work. The combat controller is an expert with maps and compasses, capable of overland travel in any environment. Survival training in various climates enables combat controllers to function under the most demanding conditions. As an air traffic controller, he establishes assault zones and directs aircraft within those zones. Combat control is a very physically, mentally and technically demanding job, one of the best and most prestigious the Air Force has to offer. The faster an Airman can run and swim, or the more repetitions he can do on each exercise, the better…

Needless to say, I applied immediately. I am particularly intrigued by the “fast-rope procedures” as a means of transportation…which could totally come in handy during summers in Madison when EVERY street in the city is under construction. And then “….capable of penetrating hostile areas to perform his duties…” caught my eye as well; this can’t be too far of a stretch from life in Corportate America, right?...nor all that different from certain days in a house full of teens and teen-wannabes, right? And since extreme fluctuations in temperature would NEVER affect my mood or stamina, I am IN!!!

Tuesday was a day off from searching for a job for me (and maybe simply because I sensed that I’d finally found my calling??)

Yesterday I found a smeared and tattered UPS envelope leaning against the front of our house so I brought it in and opened it, with Scot as my witness. CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR WIN, it said, and I almost threw it out because it looked like all that JUNK mail that we’re all drowning in. Scot took a few more minutes to read the pages and pages of stuff and we then realized that yep –indeedy! We have won a 3-night stay and airfare for 2 to this lovely place in Lourges, France…at a winery in the heart of Provence. It all started with a “French Cocktail Party” that a friend of mine had invited me to. It was an online thing that was taking place at many locations across the country at the same time and anyone who participated had the opportunity to enter to win this trip; the password that I had initially chosen, just to RSVP to the party, alluded me at one point and I couldn’t get a confirmation that I had entered the trip contest, so I said…”stupid thing!” and told Scot that if he wanted to do it he could figure it out…which I guess he did. This is the first time I’ve ever won anything, although I have been purchasing Power Ball Lottery tickets sporadically since I lost my job…

So we are working out the details…how exciting is that??!!!! And then I’ll have to get my combat boots polished up and SWING into action as a FIGHTING MAN when I return!!

Another day in the life…

Ruby