3/24/09 Long Weekend

I had a busy long weekend...I remember when 'long weekend' meant I was taking a day or two off of work and relaxing or going somewhere fun...preferably somewhere with a cabana boy to bring me a drink...ahhh, no-longer. DH was out traveling again the end of last week. I picked up DD from college late on Thursday night for her job interview here on Monday, and we loaded some of her things to come home, so we got home really late. Friday we (DD and I- DH plane didn’t get back until really late) attended DS1’s first track meet and then I took the kids + DD’s BF out to dinner for a treat…I ordered the filet/salad and brought ½ of it home…don’t applaud yet…it came with a rich blue cheese crust topping on the meat and I ordered a margarita…sigh…that was just the beginning of my 'feast', but more about that tomorrow. We ran the kids around to all their stuff/lessons (guitar, work, CCD, etc.) over the weekend and spent a lot of time with DD working on filling out her interview information sheets (what year did I start work at...) and interview skills. DS1 started to get sick on Sunday, high fever/throat…into the doc on Monday and he does have Strep Throat (I’ve been washing my hands a million times…I’m hopefully about a week out from my pre-op class so I don’t want to get sick now!).

DD had her interview Monday morning and we got her back to school late last night. The good news is she just got a voice mail from the interviewer while she was in class saying she had some ‘good news’ for her…here’s hoping! It’s far from her dream job (sales for the admissions dept. of a group of colleges, so she’d be answering phone inquires/sales quotas...she could get a potato to talk), it’s not a lot of money, but it has good benefits, free tuition if you want to take classes (online ones too, so she could gain some extra skills for her resume), it’s mainly recent college grads working the same job, so it’s a great atmosphere for her, and it’s a job…in this economy that’s certainly something! She interviewed with five other people (their business is growing with the economy and people trying to get degrees for the tight job market so they’re hiring several people over the next month or two). Two of the five were ‘grey haired men’ (she said...I'm sure they were younger than me), the rest were recent graduates like her. She couldn’t get over why men their age would even want a starter job like this and how she felt sensitive talking about how she/others were just starting out when these men had probably (guessing) just lost other jobs (She said if the company is smart they’ll hire them, as I’m sure a huge segment of those looking to go back to school part-time even are their age…very true). I know it made her appreciate the interview and the possibility of having any job even more.

She was in a senior level class last week at college and the professor asked them to raise their hand if they had found a job yet…not one hand went up…almost all her friends are staying for graduate school as they can’t find work.

I just got the call back…she got the job! Hooray!!! She’s so excited!!! She'll continue looking for a better job, but is totally thrilled that she’ll have this one to go to in June (if I find nothing better...keep the optimism). I’m thrilled it’s in this city, so we can help her get herself started as she’ll be living at home for a little while and she can save up that way (she was talking about the possibility of continuing part-time work as a waitress somewhere here too). She’s been looking all over the country (wants to work in a major city, dream job would be marketing in advertising), so I was a little worried it would be hard to start out in a new city, new job, try to find roommates somewhere new, find apartments and all that. I’m pretty sure she’ll still be moving away in the future to a bigger city/better job, and I want her to follow her dreams, but I’m thankful that I’ll have her around a little while longer..a nice ending to my 'long weekend'!

Now…add ‘help her find a car she can afford’ quick while she’s away finishing school/big projects to my ‘April list of things to do’…oh…AND that Lap Band thing!