Falling Flat: Another Boomerang Setback

For my birthday my mom took me to a concert. Her new thing is to not drive and when she asked me to drive I just didn't want to but she cannot handle being lost and lost is a pretty common theme when getting to the specific concert venue. So lost we got and that is where the trouble began.

We're sitting in a long line of traffic and my dash starts lighting up. Started with my check engine light, its on more than off these days anyhow so that didn't worry me, my battery light came one with my brake light, always bad news but even worse when things are beeping and switching on and off, it was only topped with an Anti-Lock Brake System light came on. We did make it to the parking lot. But my car never left.

So now that I have some money in savings I'm going to have to blow it all on repairs and a massive towing bill. Any success I have in regards to getting out seems to be rendered null in the blink of an eye.

My fingers are crossed for good news but if you have a newish car you want to give to me I'll take it!

The Lazy Boomerang

Yesterday, I was at work and one of the regular clients came in and was chatting, they do this sometimes, and he brought up some current news topics. So he sidles on to the Occupy Wall Street protests and that is where the encounter goes south.

I should have learned by now that I am of a different world view than most of the people that I work with, live near, and am forced to interact with in a fake-smiley work way, and at this point I should have learned that the fake smiling gets me farther with people than opening my mouth and expressing an opinion. All that said, I am human and apparently like the abuse that comes with being a young adult that can't afford to live on their own.

So he blabs about the protesters being lazy, no-goods, and says, and this is a real quote, not something like a quote that I'm putting in quotation marks, "This is America, there are plenty of jobs, they can have any job they want." Ok, Herman Cain, whatever you say.

I stupidly said, "we (referring to my fellow teller and myself) only work three days a week," as in the company that we work for, that I actually like, doesn't have the money to employ full-timers, so I'm happy to have my sad hours instead of nothing, while I try to figure out what to do with the BA I earned in three and a half years. Though, I only said the stupid part, so when he called me lazy and said I should get a second job, I probably deserved it, right?

I don't think so.

But we're all entitled to our opinions and Fox News in a legitimate news source so I guess I should be happy he isn't completely ignorant.

For the record, I am many things but I am not lazy. I quit my second job because I was actually spending more money to get to it than I was making. I hated it, I hated myself while being there, I hated how I was treated by customers, I hated how I was treated by fellow employees and I hated how it looked on my resume. So I quit, I am picking up gigs that I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise, I am picking up hours that I wouldn't have been able to pick up otherwise. I am still looking for a job that is both satisfying, interesting and pays enough (because I can't hold out for decently or even reasonably). And I've been called pretty twice in a week by people who had never seen me outside of my former work place. As in, "You're so pretty, that place must of been aweful! Look at you're smile!"

So I don't regret backing down to one part-time job. But walk a mile in my shoes.

Also the man is a small business owner. I don't have much money. He has the same amount as me in all of his accounts combined. He makes daily deposits that are twice the size of my savings account, so somehow I win.

That was mean. But I'm not lazy.

The Moral Dilemma: The Boomerang Considers Politics and Jobs

Don't be frightened this is not a political rant, it is the investigation of how I can bend my belief system to make money.

There is a job opening, I am qualified for it, it is fairly local, it is with an association that I am ideologically opposed to. So do I apply and more or less double my salary and get better benefits, or do I stick with my soul suckingly (really this is an adverb that doesn't exist and isn't needed, because what adverb is needed? but I'm letting it lie)boring job where I kind of like my co-workers and get to read books and news for good portions of the days?

My friends are not ideologically opposed to this association, well most of them, I have one who would probably disown me and stay in her happy London flat if I did work for them, the rest would high five me for embracing their one insanely out-of-our-mutual-political-ideology  passions.

This friend who would disown me, she has a point. Why compromise? I will not change their minds, they are too many, instead I should rise up and fight against them (with a peaceful discourse and some powerful elections, woot! for signs in your yard!) But what if I apply for this job, make this money, infiltrate the system, use subliminal messaging and win them to my side of this ideological debate.

What do you think?

Other Blog

If you haven't read my other blog, which is even less purpose driven than this one, please do so at.

Maybe It's Time For a Boomerang Reread

Martin Page wrote a brilliant book, The Discreet Pleasures of Rejection, that I need to reread, and I'm not a rereader. Rejection seems to be running rampant these days, can't get a job, can't get a date (to the point that I'm beginning to question my gay-dar) can't get the job I quit to stop calling (that is the opposite of rejection, though it is the rejection of my free thought) and I need a reminder to how awesome rejection is.

Boomerangs and Dirty Business: The Challenge of Networking

I hate networking. I hate it because it's a filthy game of soullessness and greed. Now that said I'm working on the whole idea of networking, because, if I throw up a pretend statistic that is close to right, 90% of the people I know who have gotten jobs in their fields after graduating had done so because they know someone or their parents know someone.

I know people, they're just not the right people apparently, so I am on LinkedIn, I'm emailing the heck out of people asking for advice, I'm studying the bossman's technique (he listed networking as an "interest" for a class he is taking, he is a pro at it if one can be), and I'm reading and researching.  I can do these things. Maybe.

So far the bossman's technique has gotten me a client who may or may not have asked me to visit his son out of state with him, so I'm not great at it yet but I'll keep working. My mom's boss is willing to put in a good word for me in the places where she can, which helps. I'm on HR's mind when new jobs come up, I have them thinking of me, inventing ways to make it work. And I'm meeting people. The one person who emailed me back with advice said business cards were a biggie, so now that's on the table as an idea.

I've discovered a new in today. One that is sort of "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" but isn't that how this game is supposed to be played? If I knew people who could help me, wouldn't I already be out of this situation?

Here's to networking, then taking a shower.

Gossip: You Throw It Out and It Comes Right Back to You

I think I've made it clear how I feel about working retail, especailly my current retail job. My Independence Day blow up (which I turn a pretty shade of purple when talking about, I wonder what a psychologist would say about  mixed sense pride and shame?) is still haunting me. And I know, the situation is one of those that will take a bit to get to disappear, but the people that keep coming to me telling me its still being talked about aren't even people I work with. The people talking about the whole thing aren't the supposed unsophisticated-youngins' working their first job, traumatized by the horrors of working for a company who knows that you are utterly replaceable.

No the gossipers are the middle aged ladies with real jobs and children my age. Children, who, if put in my position on that day, would have angry mothers breathing hell fire. But since I am somehow less human then their flunky children I deserve much worse than I got, which was nothing. My boss sighed and asked me not to quit, apologized for something she had nothing to do with and accepted my apology for not handling it better. Since then with few exceptions work has been rather peaceful, the talking behind people's backs still runs rampant but I suppose that's just the nature of the beast.

Now, because the incident was with a lower manager and the gossiper is her equal I'm stuck. I either suffer through the my already painful job with the added bit of whispering and backstabbing or I quit. So, I'm going to quit.

And if I'm being honest, I'm not good at quitting. I've quit twice in my life, once after the managers decided that I was lying about being sick because I didn't sound sick (I'm polite enough not to take the phone to the bathroom with me) and the second time was my July 4th incident of this year (and that didn't stick).

I need you to hold me accountable. Keep me from going back to the lack of respect and the lack of pay. Today, the curmudgeons win. But I'm looking bigger picture here.