Fortythird - If the first step is the hardest…-Eighteenthjulytwothousandnine.tenthirtytwopm
What about the first step in a long time?
Yeah, been four and a half months. Probably the longest I’ve let a blog die and then come back to resurrect it. My tweets have shown up, but there’s only so much you can say in one hundred forty characters. Sometimes that’s enough, but lately there’s been so much I feel as though a proper blog is in order. I won’t even attempt to go through the entire time since my last official post, but…
I told a lady in my photo club that I had a new job. And she said that I always have a new job. Well, not always, but, guess what? I have a new job
Looking for a job.
I was terminated from my last employer for not meeting daily performance guidelines. I’ve heard that some other people got let go for the same thing the same day that I did, and we were all working through a temp service, so there exists a conspiracy theory that they just took the people who had the least seniority and came up with something. Well, whether or not that is the case, the fact remains that I did not meet production guidelines and was terminated. Which meant that I probably not get unemployment compensation through the state of Virginia. But, I figured it was worth a shot anyway, so I signed up. And got a letter from the Virginia Employment Commission dated 05/07/09 that said:
“A telephone fact finding interview may be conducted by a Deputy of the Virginia Employment Commission in connection with your unemployment insurance benefits on the
4th day of June, 2009.
The following issues(s) has been raised concerning your eligibility for unemployment compensation:
Whether or not you were discharged for suspended for misconduct.”
Muh fucka, why tha fuck y’all didn’t just say no?
Now y’all makin me wait a month for y’all to say no. And even if y’all say yes, what I’ma do til June fourth? Rent is due June FIRST, muh fucka!
And then I got a letter from them the next day with a determination of benefits and instructions on how to make a weekly claim over the phone. So I’m like, does this mean that I got it and the other letter is null and void, or that I have to pretend like I got it, but I won’t git nothin til (unless) y’all say yes next month? Well, this letter came on a Saturday, so I called them Monday.
Busy signal.
Busy signal.
Busy signal every time I called.
Well, I’m doing my job search as directed by the Virginia Employment Commission, kinda hopin against hope that the second letter somehow canceled out the first one. I wait a week. And they make you put in a waiting week, so I didn’t expect nothin that week anyway.
I wait another week. Nothing. Did y’all switch to paying every other week?
Another week. Nothing.
I finally go over there.
“Oh, you have to wait for your hearing to determine if you get your benefits, but you should still do your job contacts just in case you do get approved, and if you do, you’ll get back pay.”
What good is back pay if the hearing isn’t until the forth and bills are due NOW?!
Well, light bill was due, so I sacrificed my 360 to get that paid. Thankfully a local store offered me what I needed to pay the bill for the system after another store wouldn’t. So I’m 360 less and moneyless, but I have lights. For now.
The hearing comes. The rep from the temp service is on the other line.
It doesn’t sound like it went well. So much for unemployment. So I call this other temp service that usually offers this job that I really didn’t want to take. Heard that they overwork you and underpay you. From a friend whose mother used to work there. From a lady I used to work with. From my uncle that used to live with me (you know, the one who wrecked Cole.) I alllllllmost took this job to get away from my last crappy job, but I didn’t have my social security card on me the day I went to sign up and they wouldn’t even see me. And then a girl at work told me that they’d probably cut way back on hours once the holidays were over. But I figured I’d try them out anyway.
The temp service said they didn’t have anything.
So now I’m in trouble. I ended up in the middle of the floor crying and punching the floor. I had fucked up. I had no income, no way to pay my bills. Not to mention that my landlord had threatened to evict me for lack of housekeeping. There was the incident where their bank had switched to another insurance company and the house had to be inspected, so I had a whirlwind cleaning day and hadn’t heard of the impending eviction since. But I didn’t know if that had made any difference in terms of the impending evictino. And now I had no way to pay the rent and one less reason to keep me in the house.
Well, my great aunt across the street had offered to pay my cousin to braid my hair since I didn’t have it to. And she had proven a touch difficult to get in contact with. Which prompted me to dip into my dimes and come up with some change to put on my prepaid cell (it’s a bit old and I really want another, but for now it’s what I got.) And I put the money in the account, but when I went to check that it was indeed in the account, the site was down for maintenance. This was about threeish in the morning, though. So, I went to bed and checked it when I woke up.
Wait, what’s all this money doing in here? It looks like… Could it be? I don’t touch it quite yet, just in case. But when the mail came, there was a letter from the Virginia Employment Commission (this a praise report, y’all) And it read thusly…
“Based on facts obtained in connection with this claim for unemployment compensation filed effective 05/03/09, the undersigned deputy pursuant to section (blah blah) of the Virginia Unemployment Compensation Act renders the following decision…
The claimant was discharged from his job by the above employer due to unsatisfactory job performance. Although the claimant did his job to the best of his ability, he was unable to meet the employer’s standards for performance. There was no evidence of misconduct on the claimant’s part.
The Virginia Unemployment Compensation act provides that an individual shall be disqualified if it is found that he was discharged as a result of misconduct in connection with work. Misconduct exists if it is shown that there was a willful or substantial disregard of the employer’s interest or standards of behavior that an employer has the right to expect of the employee.
Since misconduct has not ben shown, the claimant is entitled to benefits.”
Ok, some of the wording and ordering was changed for dramatic effect, but most of the legalese remains intact. And I praise God for my unemployment! It’s not out of the woods, but some boys is leavin some fish and stuff to grub on, and that is so good. But that does leave the question of where do I go from here. Back to another job like the other job? I do feel that this is and opportunity to take a moment and find something better. Especially when there are so few jobs that erbody tryin to get, I want to try to find something that I can do that not erbody can.
I did get some money for school in the fall. Scheduled classes today. Drawing I, Intro to Computer Graphics, Public Speaking, and College Composition II. Wanted to try and sneak in Intro to Welding, but since it’s not part of my degree, I’d have to pay for it out of pocket.
Hey, hope abides. I do still want to learn how to weld.
And animate.
And play guitar. And piano. And bass. And flute. And vibes. And drums.
I have been experimenting with making bread. Got a recipe from Instructables.com. Seemed easy. Tried it. It was good bread. I’m not there yet, but I am on the path to knocking “learn to make bread” off of my list.
Speaking of lists, I got a few things accomplished this week. Had been meaning to do up a list of jobs that I had applied for, to avoid redundancy. Did it. Had been thinking of taking the spreadsheet software on this computer that I hadn’t even given a first thought, let along second, and doing up a spreadsheet of my bills. Did it. Recovered the login info for my Verizon and AEP accounts, so I can more easily pay those bills online. And I’d bout given up on the AEP account, it had been so long. Got out to see a friend who that I hadn’t seen in forever who scavenged parts off the bikes sitting around the yard to get my bike running after it had been sitting crippled my front porch for a little bit.
Shame my trunk was so small I had to take the wheels off the bike to fit it, and when I was putting them back on one of the lug nuts on the front wheel broke in half. Replaced it while I was out the next day, and we are mobile. Got in a couple rides in today. In part because I’m low on gas.
Did you know that today, eighteenth June, two thousand nine, is the first annual International Sushi Day? Facebook said so. Had a two piece o’ eel downtown (respect to Jui Lin’s Tea Room on Ninth Street.) Was gonna make some, but I was out of nori (the seaweed that you wrap the sushi in.) And I was low on rice and rice wine vinegar, and I didn’t have anything to put in the sushi, so I rode to Walmart to save gas.
Glad I saved the gas.
The only nori they had were these half sheets. And the only rice they had was long grain and extra long grain. You use short grain or medium grain to make sushi. Long grain won’t get sticky. Felt bad about getting the oil I had went there for.
And I forgot plastic wrap!
Oh, well. just be thankful..
