Complicaaaaations...
nbsp; Well, it's a new year. It's going to be a busy one.
My job situation is currently in flux. I was hired by Khols as a Visual Manager, meaning I take care of displays and cross-department sales, etc. It's a Monday through Friday job, one the district manager rearranged the store schedule to get me when I turned down the part-time job they'd originally offered me. I interviewed at the start of December for a full-time management position and was asked that day for a second interview the next day, in which they told me they wanted to hire me for the Home and Kids' Department Manager position, but because I had put on my schedule "no Sundays" we had a problem. She told me all managers were required to work Sundays. Disappointed, and knowing I couldn't say, "sure, take my Sundays" in good conscience, I left the second interview believing I wasn't going to get a job. Within a couple of days after that, I had the interview with Purdue Research Foundation / MED Institute I'd had set up for about a month; it was a phone interview with three people, very awkward because the connection on their side kept making static, and I felt the whole while they were belittling me because I've worked retail instead of in my field--never mind I haven't been able to get anything in my field. (Which reminds me, I applied at TCPL again because they got a new HR lady, and she told me the same thing as the previous one! No hire because you have a Masters!) That afternoon of the PRF interview, Khols' district manager called to offer me a part-time job in point-of-sale. I told him I'd applied for full-time because the job is in Danville so I'd have quite the drive and I needed full-time to make ends meet. I asked him for some time to think about it, and he gave me about 24 hours. I ran it by everyone I could get a hold of, and decided that with the drive and pay I just couldn't do it (the pay was higher than my Bennett's full time job, but at part-time wound up about the same amount of money; unfeasable for living on my own or the expenses of the longer drive). I called him Thursday (the day after), and turned him regrettably down--the people seemed to nice and friendly and it felt like it would be a great working environment. The NEXT day he called me again. This time he told me he'd rearranged the store schedule and offered me the full-time position, at higher pay, and once-in-a-blue-moon weekends. I took it. PRF e-mailed, wanting to set up a second interview for January 30th, that same day. Problem is, the Khols job starts the 11th, and the 30th is smack-dab in the middle of the work week.
So I'm trying to move the interview to Saturday. Orientation for Khols is the 11th, then the 14th and 15th I'll be in Milwaukee for corporate training. I hate to ask off a day or partial day from a brand-new job to interview for another one, especially in the first couple of weeks! And especially because the job I'm interviewing for didn't feel like a good fit, though chances are it would be more money. The PRF face-to-face interview is supposed to be 2 hours. I've never had an interview that long and it makes me anxious. So does the Khols corporate training...
Either job, this year means hopefully paying off my car and getting a new computer as top priorities. Another one is moving out.
The hardest part of all this will be telling Bennett's I can't come back. Dave has been so good to me. I feel so guilty about taking a new job. Mom suggested, since I will have my weekends off, telling him I can work a little then (that way I can still be around them and flowers and get my discount).
Last year saw 126 books read, which was just shy of my 144 goal. Given I don't know how my life will be this year, my goal isn't all that big, just to read what I can. I'm going to try to knock off the size of my graphic novel wishlist while getting caught up on my still-to-read-that-I-own novels. Reason? Graphic novels are taken out of publication faster than novels (and generally cost more by leaps and bounds when they do so). As things currently stand, I still have 179 books to read in my current collection (of 1540). About 15 of those are brand-new, mostly graphic novels I'll crank through in little time. But that still raises the question--how, when I started at about that number to read last year, do I still have that many to go? I didn't buy that many books last year, and most I did were gns and therefore quick reads! *sigh* So I've decided to finish off a few of series if I can (such as Vampirates, BattleTech, Ranger's Apprentice, Transformers), and then tackle the bigger, still-ongoing series (Star Wars, Legend of Drizzt, etc) reading-wise. Of course, there are a few novels I know I'll get and read as soon as they come out, but not that many.
Beyond the reading and gns, my new year's goals are relatively simple: pay off most (if not all) of the Mustang, buy a new computer (yes, an Alienware again; others are more trouble than they're worth!), exercise 15 minutes a day, and read my Bible every day.
I hope this year will be better than the last one.