Appeal Hearing

I just completed my appeal hearing with the Texas Workforce Commission. The staffing agency didn’t even bother to call in to participate. The Hearing Officer advised me that she would hear my testimony and ask some questions. The final decision of the appeal hearing would be based on that.

The hearing only lasted 15 minutes. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. Once the decision is made, they will mail me the written decision.

I sure I hope I get it. I need some way to pay for my rent this month. I won’t get my first paycheck from my new job until August 12th. UUUGGGHHH!

Pavement

Work was great today. I was finally able to work with the two of the client's employees that I'll be supporting. Both of them are great. I've already heard them cuss, so I feel comfortable around them. I still don't have my computer at work set up yet, which means I don't have email. Fortunately I'm able to access my personal email, so that's how I've been able to send and receive documents with one of the managers.

After work, I had to go by the gas station. While the gas was pumping, I decided to throw some trash out of my car. To get to the trash can, I had to step over the pump line. Either I didn't realize how big my feet are or that the pump line wasn't lying as low as I thought it was. I ended up tripping and falling onto the pavement. I was able to put my hands down quick enough so I didn't end up landing on my face. My right hand hurt like hell right after it happened, and it's still sore tonight. I think my legs got the most of the abuse; both of them are bruised from the knee down.

As I jumped up, I started saying "I'm sorry". I have no idea why I was saying that. I looked around and was surprise that no one saw me fall. I finally saw a lady sitting in a truck staring at me with this astonished look on her face. Since the truck's window was rolled down, I felt the need to tell her I was sorry. I told her that I tried to clear the pump line, but was obviously unsuccessful. She never said anything to me; she probably just thought I was a freak. As soon as I was done at the gas pump, and got in my car and came straight home. I wanted to get ice on my legs as soon as possible to stop the bruising from getting too bad.

A graceful person I am not…but I'm still happy!

Freshness

As I was driving home from work yesterday, I passed an HEB grocery truck. On the back, it had the HEB logo and the slogan “Follow me to freshness”. I think the slogan would be comical if it was on the back of a truck transporting Summer’s Eve. Just a thought...

Day One

My first day at my new job was great. The orientation was boring, but that's normal. I finally made it out to my office in Deer Park around 1:00 p.m. My boss, the project manager, is out on vacation this week, so there's not much for me to do. I spent a majority of the afternoon helping the office manager with various tasks. She is just too cool and I think I'm going to enjoy working with her. She told me that the employees of our project's client company are only in that office a couple of days a week. None of them were there today.

Since my company had just moved into that office building a few weeks ago, so there's a lot of general office "housekeeping" to be done. They are still setting up various office machines and arranging conference rooms. I like being able to help organize a new office; it's a great adventure. There are still several groups that are going to eventually move there from the Houston office. I was looking over the office layouts when I saw a name that was identical to a person that was in the group I supported at Schlumberger. I did some investigative work, and found out that it is the same person. I can't wait for him to move to the Deer Park office and find out that I'm also working there.

Tomorrow, I'm taking items to personalize my desk. In other words, all my hockey paraphernalia will be making the trek to Deer Park. Since a lot of people are out of the office this week, I'm going to take advantage of the down time. The project manager already knows I'm a hockey fanatic, so my decor shouldn't surprise him at all when he returns from vacation.

The office manager is going to be out of the office on Thursday. I told her about my appeal hearing with the Texas Workforce Commission and she said it shouldn't be a problem for me to go ahead with it. Since the appeal hearing is being done via telephone, I'll be able to stay at the office to participate in it. I know I have a job now, but I still think I got screwed. Therefore, I will argue my case so I can get collect my unemployment compensation for when I wasn't working. Not having any income for almost two months has been hell. But I'm happy now.

Working It Out

I start my new job tomorrow. I know I'll be working in the Deer Park office, but I have to go to the main Houston office first for orientation. I was told it would take most of Monday morning, and then I would head to Deer Park. My weekly schedule is 4 10-hour shifts, 7:00 a.m. – 5:45 p.m. This means I probably won't get home before 6:30 p.m. each day, but I'll have every Friday off! I think it's worth it.

I was worried about not having any cash on me during my first week of work, but that changed with a phone call I received on Friday night. It was a call from one of the organizers of the Webster Bicycle Duathlon. They had a race scheduled for today and wanted to see if I would be able to work it as their First Aid medic. The organizers were starting to panic because they weren't able to get hold of me earlier in the week. They said they tried calling my previous work number, and discovered I no longer was there. They finally called Directory Assistance to get my home phone number. I'm so happy they called. Since I got paid to work the Duathlon, my worries were gone.

I just hope I can fall asleep at a decent time tonight so I'm not dragging tomorrow.

Heigh Ho! Heigh Ho!

It's off to work I go!

Parsons called me today to offer me the job. I start on Monday!

I called Ampco and told them about the job and cancelled my second interview with them for next week.

I fretted about it briefly, but I think Parsons is the right choice for me.

Esperson & Frank

I survived my interview today. The lady I interviewed with said she would call me on Monday to set up a second interview with the managers that I would be supporting. The office is located in the Esperson Building in downtown Houston. My friend Sharon also works in that building, so I went to her office after the interview. She kindly treated me to lunch at Frank's Pizza. My feet are so sore from walking around downtown in heels. Next time I have to go downtown, I'm definitely going to make sure I have a pair of comfortable walking shoes in my car.

Out Of The Blue

I just got a phone call from Parsons E&C. That was the company that I interviewed with over a month ago! They called to see if I was still interested in the job and I told them that I was. Since the job is supporting a team that contains both Parsons employees and their client's employees, they want me to do an interview with their client. I guess they'll call me back and let me know when that will happen.

That Was Fast

My telephone interview was surprisingly fast. I think I stayed on the phone for less than 10 minutes! The good news is that I have an in-person interview with the company on Thursday morning. Woo hoo!

Phone Interview

Yea! I have a phone interview for a job tomorrow morning. Hopefully I'll impress them enough to get an in-person interview. Here's the position I applied for:

New Car Smell

Well, my family has gone above and beyond the call of duty for me. This past weekend, my mom and stepdad bought a new car. The car will be in their names and under their insurance, but I'll be the one driving it. I didn't ask them to do that for me; they came up with the idea on their own. I am so thankful that they did.

Of course, I'll have to make the payments. The first one isn't due until the end of August. Hopefully, I'll have a job by then. Or, at least, will be able to collect my unemployment.

Here's a picture of the kind of car I now drive. It's a 2005 Chevy Cobalt. My favorite part about it is the name of the color…

Hearing Date Set

I finally got my appeals packet from the Texas Workforce Commission. My appeal hearing is scheduled for Thursday, July 28th, at 2:45 p.m. I hope I win the appeal. I really need some sort of income until I can find a job!

One Layer Done

I finally got the top layer of my second quilt done. I think it came out pretty good. Here's part of it:

I don't have enough fabric to do the backing, so it will have to wait to get finished.

Update

I'm pleasantly surprise by how well I'm doing emotionally. I'm not fighting depression near as much as I had been in the past. I don't know the reason behind it, but I'm not going to question it.

I still haven't heard back from the Texas Workforce Commission on my appeal yet. I know that they are suppose to mail me a packet in the mail with the information, including the date and time of the hearing. I'll let you know as soon as I find out something.

Probably the worst thing I'm dealing with right now is being bored out of my mind. There's only so much I can do around the apartment, but I'm dealing with it

Home Sweet Home

I get to stay in my apartment for another month. It wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for my wonderful (and generous) dad and sister coming up with the rent money. It was a good thing since I no longer have a car that I could have gone to live in :-)

Otherwise, I'm just going day-to-day hoping I can find a job. Once I get an interview, then I'll deal with the transportation issue. My mom took me to the grocery store on Saturday so I could stock up. We were in the frozen food aisle when I told her that I could tell she had lost weight. I made the mistake of telling her that I could really tell from looking at her from the back. Next thing I know, she's checking out her rear in the reflection of the frozen food doors. She can be very entertaining at times.

As for my quilting, I hit a major snag. I found out that I have been putting my quilt patches together all wrong. This would explain why the first one came out so bad. I was over halfway done with my second quilt when I figured it out. I tossed it out and started from scratch. I'm just worried that I'm not going to have enough fabric, but I'll deal with that when it happens.

No…it's never going to stop

I just got a call from UT-HSC and I didn't get the job. They went with a applicant who had worked there previously. The lady did tell me that I rated high among the applicants, so I guess that's a good thing.

Will It Ever Stop?!

I hope I don't get any job interviews anytime soon since they just came and repossessed my car.

Life just keeps getting fucking better every minute.

Realty Television - NOT!

I'm not a big fan of reality television shows. One of those shows that I wasn't thrilled about when I first saw its promo was "Beauty and the Geek". I will admit that I did get hooked on it. I consider it one of my guilty pleasures and was really looking forward to the season final tonight.

Being the impatient person that I am, I decided to surf the internet to find any spoilers for tonight's episode. I did find a spoiler, but not the kind I was looking for. I came across a web site that revealed that Richard, one of the two finalists, is actually an aspiring actor. This really pissed me off. So much for "realty television". As I watched him on the show, I was stunned that someone could be that stupid and obnoxious. Then all I had to do is think of the hundreds of people that I've come across in public and realize that it is possible for a person to be that stupid and obnoxious.

The season final won't be the same to me knowing what I do about Richard. I just hope Chuck will kick his freakin' ass!

Screwed

On Friday, the maintenance guy came to my apartment and ripped up half the carpet in my bedroom and my bathroom's vanity area. He pulled all the padding out that got wet. After that, he put this huge blower in there to dry out the carpet. I had to leave it on until I went to be that night. All this activity caused Ariel to be a complete basketcase. He came back today to install the new padding and put the carpet back. I was amazed how good it felt to walk on it. I'm just glad it's fixed.

I filed an appeal with the Texas Workforce Commission. I have no idea how long that process will take, but I doubt that I will see any money before Monday morning, which is the last day I have to pay my rent for the month. I'm so screwed.

I'm Done

I checked my mailbox today. I received a letter from the Texas Workforce Commission informing me that my unemployment claim had been denied.

I'm tired of fighting, and I don't have any fight left in me.

Drenched

It seems like every day this week, I have woken up to some sort of problem. This morning, I woke up to find that the carpet in most of my bedroom and the vanity area of my bathroom completely drenched. I call the apartment management office, and found out that a water main had busted. My neighbor had already called it in, and her computer got fried when it happened. Once I heard that, it made my wet carpet problem seem minor. The apartment has very little water pressure, so I'm not able to take a shower or do laundry until that gets fixed. A person has already come over to dry the carpet and a plumber is suppose to be out here shortly.

What a great way to start a holiday weekend.