Here's what I've been up to, RL edition
So, since my last post in January, I've not been doing much. Not for lack of trying or anything. A few days after that post, I got a call from my temp agency when I got home from work, saying that my assignment was over and that I should call them. I love how they say it like that "your assignment is finished" rather than just being truthful and saying "they fired you". See, I had been expecting this call, since during my time with them I took a couple of days off for Christmas (they knew about this in advance), had a couple of doctors' appointments that I couldn't change, so I had to miss work (they knew about this too), and ended up getting sick/having a migraine and missing several days. The migraine was to be expected, since my doctor was changing the dosage of my medicine at the time and as a result I was still having problems, but the sickness was totally out of left field. I rarely get sick. I have problems with my allergies, sure, as well as the aforementioned headaches (which have all but disappeared thanks to my current medication), but I don't get sick. To give you an idea, the last time I had the flu was in 1999, when I got a flu shot. Yep, I'm one of that small percentage that gets sick when given the shot. So I just don't get it. Which works out nicely for me, since I hate getting shots.
Anyway, someone else in the office was sick and it spread around to a lot of people. I ended up having to go home early one day because I got so dizzy that I couldn't do much of anything, and I missed work the next day as well. And at that point I pretty much came in every day waiting for the other shoe to drop. I knew I'd missed too many days, so it totally wasn't a surprise when they called. Of course, they decided to leave me a message after I'd already left work, so I wasn't able to gather up my stuff and take it with me. If it had just been my tissue box and a few snacks or something, I would have taken the loss and stayed away. But, I'd been leaving a bunch of stuff behind every day since it was a pain in the ass to carry it in every day.
Because of my shoulder problems, I was told by the chiropractor to seat myself up higher from the keyboard, so that my hands weren't positioned so high to type. I tried a desk with the separate keyboard stand underneath, but that bumped into my leg and I couldn't cross them (seriously have to do this for my own comfort), so I basically ended up rigging my chair with a cushion that my mom let me borrow. The combo of the chair at its highest height and the cushion worked extremely well. I was leaving the cushion in my desk every day since when I brought it back to the car, I inevitably left in the trunk (or on the passenger seat, depending on how dense I was being that particular day). So there was that, the tissues, some snacks and a bunch of medicine (cough drops, Zyrtec-D, etc.). I wasn't about to give up that stuff, so I ended up calling the temp agency and leaving a message telling them that I had to go back and get my stuff, but I'd call them tomorrow morning.
I didn't want to go back and see the people I'd been working with and have to explain that I'd gotten fired, so I snuck in at like 7:20 or so when no one in my section was there, and grabbed my stuff and left. I am one of those people (maybe everyone is like this and I just don't know it) who is incredibly embarrassed by a situation like this and would rather just disappear than have to tell people that "oh, no I'm not here to work today, just to grab my stuff", so there is no way I was going to wait to talk to the girl at the agency before I got my stuff. So, I got the stuff and drove around until they opened at 8AM and then I called. I talked to my contact there and we had the following conversation. This is as word for word as I can remember almost four months later:
ME: [tells her who I am and that I got the message]
HER: [asks me if I went back to the place I'd been working]
ME: Yeah, I had to get my stuff out of the desk.
HER: [gets mad at me, saying I shouldn't have done that; doesn't say why this was a problem]
ME: [reiterates that I need my things and didn't get the message until it was too late to get them yesterday]
HER: Well, based on the number of days you've missed [temp agency] is no longer able to place you. Thank you, goodbye.
*click*
That last part is verbatim. [Agency]-is-no-longer-able-to-place-you-thankyou-goodbye. No chance for me to ask her any questions, she just hung up on me. And I totally had questions, too. Like if the agency not being able to place me meant that branch or the entire nationwide company (it's apparently on a case by case basis), plus some other questions I'd had before our call. I was so upset about her hanging up on me that it took me a week to call back because I was afraid I'd start screaming at her. It was pretty fucking rude, if you ask me. Definitely not how I'd handle myself working for a well-respected national company.
So, I basically drove around and hung out at random places until the house was empty and I could go back home. I had to avoid going home when my parents were there because they have been so supportively about me having trouble finding jobs, and not working in my field (and not using my degree right at this exact second, I guess; more on this at some point), that I didn't want to deal with telling them I'd been let go. I just came home at the end of that day and said it was the last of the assignment. Yeah, I probably should have been more honest, but if you all had to live with my mother, you'd have lied too. The part that drives me crazy about them is that sometimes my dad gets mad, and my mom is instantly like "well it will all work out", but when my dad is not mad, she's so fucking critical of me, it's ridiculous. She's constantly telling me I'll never get a job, I'll never work in the film industry, etc. In fact, when I told her I was going to move out of their house (which I've been living in since they were nice enough not to charge me rent, but it is driving me crazy), she was all "if you leave, you'll never get out of Scranton." Yeah, way to be supportive, Mom.
You can see why I haven't felt like posting to LJ much, right? As if this whole situation wasn't enough, I've been applying for jobs constantly when I can find them, and no one wants to hire me. I have hardly ever gotten called for an interview, and the couple I had didn't work out at all. Either that, or the only jobs available are industrial things that I can't do because of my back. Or the jobs I can do are temp jobs through that agency. Argh! I was able to get work for the election, which was nice, since I got to answer phones for Luzerne County, rather than having to rove throughout Pike County (cut my trip in half), but not anything that could support me. So, I am planning on calling the other agency I've signed up with (that hasn't had anything for me as of yet) next week (along with their Wilkes-Barre branch) and taking anything that I can physically do, regardless of whether or not it conflicts with my Tai Chi class (this lost me a job earlier this year, since everything seems to be second shift). I'm also going to the Wilkes-Barre office of [Agency] and begging them to let me apply for jobs through them. I have not really had any bad migraines since early this year, and I have been keeping myself very healthy, so I won't be missing work due to sickness again, unless it's an unforeseen plague or something. Also, I am not going to be missing any days of work for doctors' appointments since I have no insurance.
Oh, and there's that whole fiasco. I was rejected for that crappy insurance I was going to be forced to get, since I'm no longer covered through my father's plan (this was the plan with only five doctors' appointments covered for the whole year). Basically, they rejected due to my medical history, which is ridiculous, since I only take two prescriptions (now that Zyrtec is OTC, yay!), both generic. I also haven't had problems with my back that would require anything except chiropractic (which I figured wasn't covered anyway). So, what horribly expensive things are they covering me for anyway? Nothing really related to my medical history, that's for sure. @#%*$^ insurance companies.
Anyway, that's about everything that I can think of that I've been doing. Thankfully I am going to be pretty busy doing fun stuff this month. I'm going to see MCR on Tuesday(!) and the Honda Civic Tour on Friday, and Duran Duran on the 22nd. So, that will be awesome. Here's hoping I can also get a job next week, so I can work on saving up money to get the heck out of this house. I recently realized that a lot of my problem comes from having to be around my parents all the time. When I was in CA for wincon, I had a wonderful time the entire two weeks and got to relax and be happy and it was awesome. But I always feel pressured and upset/depressed when I'm at home, and I know my parents are the problem. It's not my fault that I hurt my back, and so can't get a retail job. It's not my fault that there are hardly any jobs around here. They just don't seem to get that it's hard to find something when you don't have a lot of experience. I could do any of those jobs that I applied for, but since my resume doesn't say "3 years experience", no one wants to interview me. They seem to think I'm not trying at all, which is just not true. It's really frustrating, and having no support doesn't help at all. Thank god for the Internet, that's all I have to say. You guys have really helped keep me cheerful the past few months. So, thanks.
I should probably stop typing now, since this post is probably hugely long as it is. Next up, some fandom talk!
Anyway, someone else in the office was sick and it spread around to a lot of people. I ended up having to go home early one day because I got so dizzy that I couldn't do much of anything, and I missed work the next day as well. And at that point I pretty much came in every day waiting for the other shoe to drop. I knew I'd missed too many days, so it totally wasn't a surprise when they called. Of course, they decided to leave me a message after I'd already left work, so I wasn't able to gather up my stuff and take it with me. If it had just been my tissue box and a few snacks or something, I would have taken the loss and stayed away. But, I'd been leaving a bunch of stuff behind every day since it was a pain in the ass to carry it in every day.
Because of my shoulder problems, I was told by the chiropractor to seat myself up higher from the keyboard, so that my hands weren't positioned so high to type. I tried a desk with the separate keyboard stand underneath, but that bumped into my leg and I couldn't cross them (seriously have to do this for my own comfort), so I basically ended up rigging my chair with a cushion that my mom let me borrow. The combo of the chair at its highest height and the cushion worked extremely well. I was leaving the cushion in my desk every day since when I brought it back to the car, I inevitably left in the trunk (or on the passenger seat, depending on how dense I was being that particular day). So there was that, the tissues, some snacks and a bunch of medicine (cough drops, Zyrtec-D, etc.). I wasn't about to give up that stuff, so I ended up calling the temp agency and leaving a message telling them that I had to go back and get my stuff, but I'd call them tomorrow morning.
I didn't want to go back and see the people I'd been working with and have to explain that I'd gotten fired, so I snuck in at like 7:20 or so when no one in my section was there, and grabbed my stuff and left. I am one of those people (maybe everyone is like this and I just don't know it) who is incredibly embarrassed by a situation like this and would rather just disappear than have to tell people that "oh, no I'm not here to work today, just to grab my stuff", so there is no way I was going to wait to talk to the girl at the agency before I got my stuff. So, I got the stuff and drove around until they opened at 8AM and then I called. I talked to my contact there and we had the following conversation. This is as word for word as I can remember almost four months later:
ME: [tells her who I am and that I got the message]
HER: [asks me if I went back to the place I'd been working]
ME: Yeah, I had to get my stuff out of the desk.
HER: [gets mad at me, saying I shouldn't have done that; doesn't say why this was a problem]
ME: [reiterates that I need my things and didn't get the message until it was too late to get them yesterday]
HER: Well, based on the number of days you've missed [temp agency] is no longer able to place you. Thank you, goodbye.
*click*
That last part is verbatim. [Agency]-is-no-longer-able-to-place-you-thankyou-goodbye. No chance for me to ask her any questions, she just hung up on me. And I totally had questions, too. Like if the agency not being able to place me meant that branch or the entire nationwide company (it's apparently on a case by case basis), plus some other questions I'd had before our call. I was so upset about her hanging up on me that it took me a week to call back because I was afraid I'd start screaming at her. It was pretty fucking rude, if you ask me. Definitely not how I'd handle myself working for a well-respected national company.
So, I basically drove around and hung out at random places until the house was empty and I could go back home. I had to avoid going home when my parents were there because they have been so supportively about me having trouble finding jobs, and not working in my field (and not using my degree right at this exact second, I guess; more on this at some point), that I didn't want to deal with telling them I'd been let go. I just came home at the end of that day and said it was the last of the assignment. Yeah, I probably should have been more honest, but if you all had to live with my mother, you'd have lied too. The part that drives me crazy about them is that sometimes my dad gets mad, and my mom is instantly like "well it will all work out", but when my dad is not mad, she's so fucking critical of me, it's ridiculous. She's constantly telling me I'll never get a job, I'll never work in the film industry, etc. In fact, when I told her I was going to move out of their house (which I've been living in since they were nice enough not to charge me rent, but it is driving me crazy), she was all "if you leave, you'll never get out of Scranton." Yeah, way to be supportive, Mom.
You can see why I haven't felt like posting to LJ much, right? As if this whole situation wasn't enough, I've been applying for jobs constantly when I can find them, and no one wants to hire me. I have hardly ever gotten called for an interview, and the couple I had didn't work out at all. Either that, or the only jobs available are industrial things that I can't do because of my back. Or the jobs I can do are temp jobs through that agency. Argh! I was able to get work for the election, which was nice, since I got to answer phones for Luzerne County, rather than having to rove throughout Pike County (cut my trip in half), but not anything that could support me. So, I am planning on calling the other agency I've signed up with (that hasn't had anything for me as of yet) next week (along with their Wilkes-Barre branch) and taking anything that I can physically do, regardless of whether or not it conflicts with my Tai Chi class (this lost me a job earlier this year, since everything seems to be second shift). I'm also going to the Wilkes-Barre office of [Agency] and begging them to let me apply for jobs through them. I have not really had any bad migraines since early this year, and I have been keeping myself very healthy, so I won't be missing work due to sickness again, unless it's an unforeseen plague or something. Also, I am not going to be missing any days of work for doctors' appointments since I have no insurance.
Oh, and there's that whole fiasco. I was rejected for that crappy insurance I was going to be forced to get, since I'm no longer covered through my father's plan (this was the plan with only five doctors' appointments covered for the whole year). Basically, they rejected due to my medical history, which is ridiculous, since I only take two prescriptions (now that Zyrtec is OTC, yay!), both generic. I also haven't had problems with my back that would require anything except chiropractic (which I figured wasn't covered anyway). So, what horribly expensive things are they covering me for anyway? Nothing really related to my medical history, that's for sure. @#%*$^ insurance companies.
Anyway, that's about everything that I can think of that I've been doing. Thankfully I am going to be pretty busy doing fun stuff this month. I'm going to see MCR on Tuesday(!) and the Honda Civic Tour on Friday, and Duran Duran on the 22nd. So, that will be awesome. Here's hoping I can also get a job next week, so I can work on saving up money to get the heck out of this house. I recently realized that a lot of my problem comes from having to be around my parents all the time. When I was in CA for wincon, I had a wonderful time the entire two weeks and got to relax and be happy and it was awesome. But I always feel pressured and upset/depressed when I'm at home, and I know my parents are the problem. It's not my fault that I hurt my back, and so can't get a retail job. It's not my fault that there are hardly any jobs around here. They just don't seem to get that it's hard to find something when you don't have a lot of experience. I could do any of those jobs that I applied for, but since my resume doesn't say "3 years experience", no one wants to interview me. They seem to think I'm not trying at all, which is just not true. It's really frustrating, and having no support doesn't help at all. Thank god for the Internet, that's all I have to say. You guys have really helped keep me cheerful the past few months. So, thanks.
I should probably stop typing now, since this post is probably hugely long as it is. Next up, some fandom talk!