Good News!

I just got some very exciting news from my younger son who called me and told me he had got the job that he had applied for at the University of Southern Mississippi !

I remember that he had casually said that he had applied but he didn’t feel as if he had much chance. At that time I had made my usual mother nag * about how candidates with completed degrees would undoubtedly at the top of the list. {He seems to have been working at his on and off forever! } He will be a systems operator {which he is what he is doing right now} with the University of Southern Mississippi {USM} on the Gulf coast campus. The pay is considerably higher than he will be getting now,  but part of this is because living in a tourist area costs a lot more than living in the hinterlands of Mississippi. My ex and I lived on the Gulf coast  when he was in the Air Force and we got a cost-of-living raise because of that. He was excited about the fact that this was the first time he had ever been salaried and working for the university meant that he would get much better vacations. Also the medical benefits are excellent. He is actually a pretty healthy person but it is alway nice to have good medical benefits. And he was excited about the fact that he got to take two courses a year totally tuition-free!

He is going to be pretty short of money for a month or so. He feels obligated to give his house-mate 30 days notice but since he starts on June 13 and this new job is over a 100 miles away from where he lives now, he will also have to pay for a place to stay on the Gulf Coast. I think he is planning to check with USM to see if there is any cheap lodgings on campus he can stay in for a couple of weeks. He also remarked that this job pays monthly {he is used to being paid every two weeks} so that will make money difficult for a time. He already has basic furniture–a bed, a washer and dryer and a refrigerator. His house-mate, a young man named Chris,  is going to miss the washer and dryer and the refrigerator. However, if he gets an apartment with a refrigerator, as many of them do have, he will sell the fridge to Chris.

I wasn’t quite as excited as he was but almost! This will really help him with his long-range plans and the university is a good place to work for.

* Hey, that is what mothers DO!  Right?