Get a Job

  Naturally, the money issue caused tension between Chrissy and me and our living situation. I had given her the larger bedroom with her own bathroom (she needed it with her huge bed). I didn’t want either of us to use ‘Snout’ because I didn’t want any further damage done to the engine. That meant we had to share the Jeep. We also had to share time on the Internet because at the time, we only had a dial-up connection.

  I currently only had a bed frame, so I was using a sleeping bag. I didn’t want to buy anything that I didn’t absolutely need because I was living off of my savings, so I didn’t buy a mattress. I didn’t want to fix the Oldsmobile. I didn’t want to buy anything because Chrissy was a moocher.

  To add insult to injury, she left a receipt on the table for a pair of stockings she bought the day I flew back to New York with the $5 I had given her. The last of my money that I had. By itself, it wasn’t so bad. But her boyfriend, “Doogie”, flew in for Thanksgiving and mentioned that he was hoping she would be wearing the ‘thigh-highs’ that she wore for him when he flew in the last time (which was shortly after I left) because she knew he liked them. Really? I gave her the last dollar I had so she could eat and she spent it on those because he found it ‘sexy’? Of course, when he got there, he stocked her shelves with food with money he had gotten from his mom.

  The poor guy was suffering from altitude sickness after he arrived. I never felt any difference being a mile high. But he was light headed and got a nose bleed and spent most of the time laying on the couch. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop them from having sex in the next room. I tried to tune it out, but we had no TV because we had no cable and if I turned up the radio any louder, there would be complaints from neighbors in the apartment complex. Anyway, it was awkward and uncomfortable, so I went for a walk.

  There I was, chased from my own home, too broke to go anywhere, and about to spend my first holiday away from friends and family.  If there was ever a time to feel sorry for myself this was it.

  We were having Thanksgiving dinner over at Chrissy’s Aunt’s house the next town over from us. She was older and had been living on her own, but recently met and was dating a man who lived in Leadville who lived a few hours drive west up in the mountains. She would go up there for weekends but announced she was selling her house and moving in with him. That would put Chrissy in the same situation as me with my Aunt and Uncle who lived up in the mountains. My family wasn’t as far away, but far enough not to be convenient.

  After the holiday, Doogie flew home, Chrissy went back to classes, and I focused on finding a job. I remembered a lady I worked with named Lynn once told me that I would do well working at a bank. She worked at Penney’s as a second job at night. During the day, she worked as a bank teller. Remembering this,  I applied for a job as a bank teller that was advertised in the newspaper. Actually, it was the only job I applied for. A day or so later, I got a call from someone named Alan who called me in for an interview. It turned out the bank was really close to my apartment. I had my interview with Alan, the operations manager. Alan was a little younger than me, glasses, very thin and seemed a little on the geeky side, which was fine with me and made me feel more comfortable in the interview.. Unfortunately, I did not get a call back. I had thought the interview had gone well and I really wanted this job. I waited about a week or two and decided I needed to look elsewhere. Maybe applying for one job at a time was not the smartest way to find a job, but in the past jobs usually fell into my lap.

   At this point I remembered that Deana always got her jobs at ‘temp agencies’. I decided to go to one of those. When I got there they asked me a few basic questions and they found out what my background/proficiencies were they were excited. I looked around and realized the majority, if not all of the people here were not the most desirable of employees. They were unskilled, uneducated, and pretty much unqualified to hold steady jobs. I never felt elitist or anything like that before, but I felt I was better than this and I was sure I’d be better at getting myself a job than going through this. So I just left.  

  Having nothing but free time, Eric had wanted to know if I wanted to come down to Austin, Texas for A-2-K, which stood for Austin 2000 to celebrate the new Millennium on New Year’s Eve. While most people were dreading the horrors that would come at midnight, Texas planned on embracing it and hosting a huge party! I was glad I had something to look forward to because I would be alone for Christmas. Doogie’s mom bought Chrissy a plane ticket to go back to New York for the holiday. I had no money to go back to New York and I wasn’t going to ask my parents for money.

  Why I still held out hope for that bank job is beyond me, but I did. It was now almost a month since my interview and even after the fiasco at the temp agency, I still hadn’t applied anywhere else.  Then my version of a Christmas miracle happened.  On the 22nd of December, I got another call from Alan asking if I was still looking for a job. Hell yeah, I was! He asked if I would come in the next day for another interview. I told him I would. It was the same day I was supposed to drive Chrissy to the airport.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt”>  I drove Chrissy to the airport early so I can get back in time for my interview. This time I interviewed with Alan and the branch manager, Gary. He was a heavyset jovial man in his 50’s. Again, the interview went really well and they hired me on the spot. They asked me to start the Monday after Christmas. I raced back to the airport because I wanted to tell someone the good news and the only person I knew was Chrissy. We celebrated by getting drinks at the airport bar. I was employed again.