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Irish and I are officially living in my sister's basement. Actually, it's not bad at all - there are a bed and a couple of chairs, not to mention our cats, and when the weather's hot or humid, it's nicer sleeping down there than in my niece's room upstairs.
So far I haven't found a job - I keep getting leads and interviews and then not getting picked. Very annoying. I have unemployment till September but don't want to cut things that close, so I'm starting to put money aside from each check and if I'm not working next month (which is getting closer all the time) there's an employment agency I'll check out. I haven't gone there yet because it charges a fee to the employee, not the employer. However, it's a one-time flat fee, not terribly expensive, and they'll work with you for a full year for that fee. I've seen their ads in the paper since we moved here and they advertise higher pay than other agencies do for similar jobs.
That's part 1 of plan B; part 2 is to call the other agencies I've signed with and lower the rate of pay I'll accept. That's kind of a stop-gap measure but beats continued unemployment. (I'm not being as picky as I make myself sound - I'm not kidding when I say that a lot of employers around here want to pay the same amount for a job that they were paying 10 years ago, even though costs have gone up - especially gas. I've actually seen ads for admin assistant jobs paying $8.00 an hour! Not enough, even in small-town Midwest.)
Other than the job thing (and that's nowhere near crisis yet) everything else it still great. I get to see my oldest niece every day - she'll be 21 next month and I haven't seen her since she was 14. We really missed out on a lot, moving away for so long. She just finished her sophomore year in college and is smart, funny, nice, pretty. Not, you understand, that I'm the least bit prejudiced. *g* When I first saw her, I got a lump in my throat - she grew up so fast - though of course I wouldn't let her see me be teary eyed, because that would just make her roll her eyes!
My nephew graduates from high school on Friday and his open house is Saturday. He'll be 18 in early July. He's very intelligent, very focused - before he started high school, he set out a plan for getting into college and getting scholarships. He ended up earning several academic awards from high school and about $3500.00 worth of scholarships. He was accepted at every college he applied to, except for Notre Dame, and even they wait-listed him rather than outright rejecting him. (But they did eventually turn him down - not a huge deal because they turn down a lot of students that plenty of other colleges would be happy to accept.)
My younger niece is 15, tall and pretty, a social butterfly but so far just an average student. That's an oddity in our family but my sister isn't making a big deal of it, doesn't compare J with her brother, and accepts that some people are more gifted academically than others. (Which doesn't sound like a big deal unless you've ever been the object of a "why can't you be more like your sister?" rant.) Unfortunately I don't know J as well as I'd like - she and my nephew were born in Texas and lived there for a long time before moving to Indiana a few years ago. I've only seen them a couple of times before moving here. My nephew enjoys adult company so I've gotten to know him a little better. My niece is a more typical teenager - adults are stupid! - and spends as little time with the "old people" as she can.
My mom is here for a couple of months, staying with my grandparents, so that's been nice. I also see my best friend frequently.
I do wish I could do things with the VegasFen - I'll miss them on Memorial Day - and I'm sorry I can't make it to ConStrict this year - I'll definitely miss that. Still, I'm happier here than I was in Las Vegas (and Irish even more so), so don't complain. I have no fannish friends here, though! I'm thinking of setting up a Yahoo group and an LJ for local fen and seeing if anyone shows up.
BTW, just to keep the players straight, I have two sisters and I'm the oldest. My youngest sister, with whom we're living, is my oldest niece's mother. My middle sister, who I see almost every day, is my nephew and younger niece's mom.
So far I haven't found a job - I keep getting leads and interviews and then not getting picked. Very annoying. I have unemployment till September but don't want to cut things that close, so I'm starting to put money aside from each check and if I'm not working next month (which is getting closer all the time) there's an employment agency I'll check out. I haven't gone there yet because it charges a fee to the employee, not the employer. However, it's a one-time flat fee, not terribly expensive, and they'll work with you for a full year for that fee. I've seen their ads in the paper since we moved here and they advertise higher pay than other agencies do for similar jobs.
That's part 1 of plan B; part 2 is to call the other agencies I've signed with and lower the rate of pay I'll accept. That's kind of a stop-gap measure but beats continued unemployment. (I'm not being as picky as I make myself sound - I'm not kidding when I say that a lot of employers around here want to pay the same amount for a job that they were paying 10 years ago, even though costs have gone up - especially gas. I've actually seen ads for admin assistant jobs paying $8.00 an hour! Not enough, even in small-town Midwest.)
Other than the job thing (and that's nowhere near crisis yet) everything else it still great. I get to see my oldest niece every day - she'll be 21 next month and I haven't seen her since she was 14. We really missed out on a lot, moving away for so long. She just finished her sophomore year in college and is smart, funny, nice, pretty. Not, you understand, that I'm the least bit prejudiced. *g* When I first saw her, I got a lump in my throat - she grew up so fast - though of course I wouldn't let her see me be teary eyed, because that would just make her roll her eyes!
My nephew graduates from high school on Friday and his open house is Saturday. He'll be 18 in early July. He's very intelligent, very focused - before he started high school, he set out a plan for getting into college and getting scholarships. He ended up earning several academic awards from high school and about $3500.00 worth of scholarships. He was accepted at every college he applied to, except for Notre Dame, and even they wait-listed him rather than outright rejecting him. (But they did eventually turn him down - not a huge deal because they turn down a lot of students that plenty of other colleges would be happy to accept.)
My younger niece is 15, tall and pretty, a social butterfly but so far just an average student. That's an oddity in our family but my sister isn't making a big deal of it, doesn't compare J with her brother, and accepts that some people are more gifted academically than others. (Which doesn't sound like a big deal unless you've ever been the object of a "why can't you be more like your sister?" rant.) Unfortunately I don't know J as well as I'd like - she and my nephew were born in Texas and lived there for a long time before moving to Indiana a few years ago. I've only seen them a couple of times before moving here. My nephew enjoys adult company so I've gotten to know him a little better. My niece is a more typical teenager - adults are stupid! - and spends as little time with the "old people" as she can.
My mom is here for a couple of months, staying with my grandparents, so that's been nice. I also see my best friend frequently.
I do wish I could do things with the VegasFen - I'll miss them on Memorial Day - and I'm sorry I can't make it to ConStrict this year - I'll definitely miss that. Still, I'm happier here than I was in Las Vegas (and Irish even more so), so don't complain. I have no fannish friends here, though! I'm thinking of setting up a Yahoo group and an LJ for local fen and seeing if anyone shows up.
BTW, just to keep the players straight, I have two sisters and I'm the oldest. My youngest sister, with whom we're living, is my oldest niece's mother. My middle sister, who I see almost every day, is my nephew and younger niece's mom.
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