where i’ve been…

hey everyone!

 

So sorry for the super long hiatus.  It’s been kind of a whirlwind but I finally…shockingly…got a job!!  It happened so fast…a former boss/mentor recommended me to a friend of hers looking to fill a job and we met, we totally clicked and she instantly offered me a job doing marketing for her small company. So far, I love it!!  I hope it lasts…but if it doesn’t, at least I know that being laid off in NYC is not that bad…in fact, it’s kind of awesome.

 

Thanks everyone for all of your comments and words of support on this blog. From now on, you can find me sporadically posting on my regular blog, memyselfandhi, and on my new blog (which has arisen from my recent discovery of Rubie Green and subsequent obsession with low-budget living and redecorating), Poor & 24.

Ciao for now!

oh unemployment, you minx you

At this point, I kind of totally embrace being unemployed.  Here’s what I’ve been up to:

• vegas 
• forgetting to pay COBRA one month, then getting it taken away, then begging for it back, being denied and today, receiving a bill in the mail and realizing that they gave it back for no apparent reason
• watching and rewatching every episode of real housewives of nj
• obsessively following the demise of jon and kate’s marraige
• hanging out with the kitten I adopted when I got laid off
• teaching myself how to cook
• explaining to people at a wedding how I don’t have a job and don’t care

It’s almost funny…

That I got laid off again.  From the job I didn’t even like and only took because I needed the money.  Here’s how it all began…

Date: Two Fridays ago.  Feeling: Annoyed.  I was supposed to get my paycheck in the mail, but I didn’t.  I ask about it, but no one responds and then later in the day, Boss Man sends me an email asking if we could catch up the next morning -(SATURDAY morning, mind you. I’m 24 years old – it’s just not right to take away my Saturday morning like that).  So yeah then he calls me SATURDAY morning and says that the company had to lay off half of its employees including me.  Seems like he was supposed to lay me off earlier but forgot, because he then says that he would be paying me directly for my last entire MONTH of work.  (I was still waiting for this paycheck, mind you).  I say “ok” (I think I have become quite graceful at getting laid off).  Boss Man promises to put my check in the mail on Monday and that would be that. As a nice gesture, I send my two bosses an insincere email thanking them for the opportunity and wishing them luck in the future. Neither responds. 

Date: Last Friday.  Feeling: Livid.  No, irate.  No, ARE YOU F’ing KIDDING ME?  Boss Man didn’t even bother to send me my check for my entire last month of work.  He couldn’t lift his fingers to write a check, put it in an envelope and mail it.  Please note that when I began working for this company, Boss Man made it a point to tell me that he was making ridiculous amounts of money.  Later in the day: a company I interviewed with calls to let me know they gave the job to someone else.

Date: Yesterday.  Feeling: clinging to a sliver of hope.  I email Boss Man to ask when he mailed my check.  He immediately writes back that he will put it in the mail later in the day. 

Date:  Today.  Feeling: Like drinking. Have reapplied for unemployment, feel a strange solidarity with the boy in the below photo.

 

It’s been a while…NBD

So, yeah…I haven’t blogged in a while.  Where have I been, you ask?  Well, trying as best I can to fill in the job void and scraping together as much money as possible.  I’ve just come to terms with the fact that my life is not normal, and that it’s going to remain crazy for a while before it can even begin to resemble normal again.  I estimate this process may take up to a year, if not more. Especially considering the fact that I was laid off 5 months ago.  

 

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

•  I took a job. Congratulations, you say! Well, stop. The job is weird though.  I’m technically working from home until the “new office” opens in New York, and there is no date set for said opening.  Some days, I get frantic emails asking me to send faxes or schedule meetings and other days…nothing.  I was promised a salary and benefits, and despite constant nagging on my end, I didn’t get paid for the entire first MONTH of my job and I don’t think they’re going to give me benefits.  Finally, last week I put my foot down and they overnighted me a check in the mail.  Still – it’s weird.  Plus I’m not into the job, but it’s a job and it’s giving me money, so I guess I should be grateful.

 

• Took a part-time job, since I have some extra time on my hands when job#1 is not demanding things of me. I really like job #2 since it’s doing marketing for a small start up company and I get to have a lot of fun with it and make some extra money.  But…it’s going to end soon since the start-up has well, started up. 

 

• Despite great interviews and seemingly doing everything right, I didn’t get the “dream job” I had interviewed for.  I don’t know why or anything, and they didn’t have the decency to tell me either.  I know the economy is bad so companies can be choosey about who they hire, but come on! Have a little decency, HR people.  That’s all I have to say about that.

 

So, yeah my life is still far from normal.  I promise I’ll keep up with the blog better though. Strength in numbers, people!

PS

PS, If you’re reading this and you want to give me a job, let me know. I need one.

 

 

Rad!

Thanks NY Times for the shout-out today! When you’re unemployed, it’s the little things that make you the happiest. Holla!

The Maury Experience

 

Last Friday (apologies for the delay in posting this), I had the great pleasure of attending the Maury Povich Show.  Always on the prowl for fun, free activities in the city, I couldn’t resist the temptation of two free Maury tickets for last Friday.  Well, more like one Maury postcard that said “2″ on it.  

 

My Maury Experience began at 6:45 am on Friday morning.  The postcard said to be there at 8am, and I suspected there would be a line, so I forced my boyfriend to get up and we schlepped all the way across town (stopping for bagels and coffee) to 15 Penn Plaza aka the Pennsylvania Hotel.  We got there at 7:40 and there was a line…a long line.  A line of 151 people to be exact.  Despite the early hour, the people on the line were in good spirits, many of them smoking, drinking coffee and yelling for Maury.  I looked at my Maury postcard and realized that it said “this ticket does not guarantee admission” on it in small print.  I began to feel worried that we wouldn’t be admitted to the Maury show at all.  A lot of time passed. I mean, like two hours.  I was starting to get pissed. The other people on line were beginning to grow impatient. Some sluttly girls tried to cut the line and so did a person in a wheelchair who didn’t even have a ticket.

 

 

the sign outside the Maury Show

 

 

 

A Maury mignon came outside to have people sign a clipboard.  Then he walked up the line to check tickets and started giving out purple wristbands with numbers on them.  Mine was “152″ and my boyfriend’s was “151″.  We grew worried that only 150 people would be able to fit into the auditorium.  At one point, I was even grumpy.  The Maury mignon said there would be two shows, and that 170 people could fit in each. BOOYAH.  At about 10:20, we were let inside into a waiting area with ropes.  At 10:30, we were led up the stairs and through a waiting room. We traveled through the waiting room and were told we could enter the auditorium.  At this point, the auditorium was almost full.  For a brief second, I was worried I wouldn’t get to sit next to my boyfriend.  A production assistant pointed to two seats in the front row and told us to sit there.  AHHHH.

 

I can’t give too much away since the episode hasn’t aired yet, but there was a lot of baby mama drama, yelling, thumbs-downing, jeering and even a man wearing a lime-green suit. And the best part: after the show, everyone got free pizza.  My conclusion: Maury is the MAN.  He has a special way with all of the people who come on his show.  He even followed one of them into the women’s bathroom after she realized that her sister’s boyfriend was not the father of her child. Now if that’s not a good person, I don’t know what is.

 

 

The view from our seats. MONEY!

 

 

Close-up

Stuck in limbo

 

My life = a limbo party.  Seriously.  I’m still waiting for final confirmation of an offer from company 1 (the one who gave me the bad offer and then said they thought they could get me more money).  So I went on another interview today.  It went well, or so I think. I did the whole post-interview thank you thing. So now here’s what I get to do some more…WAIT.

Tomorrow = the Maury show

Throughout the dreary bleakness of my day today, there has been one constant, shining beacon of light: knowing that I will be sitting in the audience of the Maury Show tomorrow.  I’m not really a hardcore Maury fan per say, but I do enjoy watching the show in the morning from time to time.  So last week, when I was watching one morning with my boyfriend, something came up on the screen that said “for free tickets to the Maury Show, call this number.”  Knowing full well that my boyfriend and I are the least-employed couple in NYC, I picked up my phone and got the tickets.  

 

I have a few ideas about what the topic may be (paternity test, cheating spouse, misbehaving teens bootcamp) but ultimately I hope to be surprised, entertained and also to learn something valuable.  Expect a full synopsis upon my return home.

 

Frustration nation

So, today I took the express train to Frustration City.  Now I am officially the mayor.  It’s been over three months and the job search process feels like nothing but one dead end after another.   My one interview that I thought went great – haven’t heard a thing back.  And I’ve followed up multiple times. 

 

Aside from that, I’ve had another string of interviews that I thought were promising, the last of which was yesterday.  Today, I got word that they want me. YAY! But then…they made me an offer…and it’s terrible.  I’m 99% positive that garbage collectors and sanitation workers make better salaries than the offer they made me. The salary is lower than the salary of my first job out of college and wayyy lower than my last salary.  $15,000 lower to be exact.  I know it’s an economic depression and all, but I really don’t want to sell myself short and bring myself all the way back to where I started from. I put in so much time and hard work to get to my last job, I really don’t want to have to start all over.  So I went back and asked for more money.  I’m still waiting for an answer so we will see.

 

In honor of my day, here is a photo collage: