You know that job I was telling you about just yesterday? Yeah, that just ended up getting filled by someone else… It was a management job, and the benefits were really great. I was looking forward to working there (with there being the local library)… Unfortunately, I will never know if it was my lack of management experience, lack of a degree, or something else that was not enough to give the job to me. I don’t want to sound bitter or cruel, but his is one of the bigger disappointments I have had to encounter lately.

It just means that I will have to have more resolve at looking for employment somewhere else. I’ll probably start looking at local factories that might need technology help…

Anyway, good luck to any job seekers out there… things are tough right now, I have discovered from experience.

Today was a fabulous day, I had an interview for a position in the IT field. After a friend applied to a different job at the same location, I sent in my application for a management position. Just a short while after I submitted my application, the director of human resources called to schedule an interview. That took place late last week.

The interview was by committee, which was a first for me. I happened to know one of my interviewers from a previous experience with this business. After about a 45 minute interview, the committee thanked me and I was informed that I would hear a decision by the end of the week.

I am really anxious… This job would be a great opportunity for me. I don’t by any means want to assume the role of that committee, but I seemed to have the technological skills that they seemed to indicate were necessary. Now, they just have to decide to take a chance on someone who was not had extensive experience managing a team. Not to say I wouldn’t enjoy it and wouldn’t succeed; I just have not had the opportunity to try, and the challenge is an enticing one.

I don’t want to say too much more before the decision is made, and I certainly don’t want to give my prospective employer the chance to reconsider based on anything they would read here, if they found their way here.

I don’t think I have had any experience as broad as the whole of today.

This afternoon, I experienced mild panic by having slept in and needing to get to work. I only had about 45 minutes to shower, dress, and drive the 6.5 miles to work through town. I made it, but was about 2 minutes late. After I got clocked in and started, the day was easy and fast-paced. At about 3:45, a man came in and wanted me to return 2 toothbrush heads for an electric toothbrush that were $18 each without a receipt. He immediately began questioning my actions and how they were out of the ordinary. It turns out that he has attempted to do this at a large number of other stores and was again refused. His M.O. is to grab a high-ticket item from the cosmetics area and try to return it without a receipt. We have procedures in place to protect ourselves from this, but he was trying so hard… Anyway, the rest of the night at work was not even noteworthy, except for the chance to talk to my girlfriend from South Carolina.

After I clocked out and was headed home, I drove down Park Avenue, the most central east-west road in town. My intent was to stop at Subway if they were open or to stop at Wendy’s if they were not. Stopped at an intersection (which happened to be mere yards from a fire station), I heard sirens. Out of the fire station came two rescue vehicles which stopped about 50 feet on the other side of the intersection. As I approached a gas station on that side of the road to turn around, I see a rather ugly crash site. A mid-90′s Pontiac had been hit by a Blazer or other SUV. The driver of (I think) the Pontiac was lying on the ground and being examined by paramedics. I am guessing that the injuries were not life-threatening since they were not rushing treatment. After I turned around and headed
the other direction to catch a cross street, I noticed about five cars entering a parking lot for some closed businesses and turning around, headed toward the accident. Of course, these young drivers spend their late evening driving up and down the street with their cars.

The sheer idiocy of the idea boggles my mind. First of all, they basically do laps up and down the road all night, wasting gas and time to simply show off. Second, the callousness of turning back around to see the accident again is just astonishing. I had to go around a large block to get to Subway because of the accident and found out they were open. While waiting at the drive-through, I saw at least eight cars on the other side of this accident doing the same thing. I originally thought I might write an op-ed piece for the local newspaper. I came home and ate my food and connected to the Internet. Because of the thought of the newspaper, I came across the most shocking piece of news of the day for me.

At the Mansfield News Journal website, the front page had a new article, posted only hours before, about a local soldier killed in action in Iraq. As it turns out, that soldier was a classmate of my brother. They had played on the golf team together in high school. It changes your perspective when death hits home… Of course, I am quite sick of death. After seeing my mother pass away as well as my aunt, it’s about time for all that to stop. You’ll have to pardon my brief lapse into the vernacular. Anyway, I wish that there were a way to maintaim peace without putting young lives like Mr. Vandayberg’s at risk.

So through the day, I went from rushed and panicked to elated to bored to shock to anger and frustration to mild sorrow and thoughtfulness. As much as I hate the downs, I am enjoying the fact that I am starting to have emotions again. It’s been quite a while since I went through all of that in a week, much less in a day.