Big things

Big things are happening in the Salty household.  I got a new job and started today.  2009 has been a crazy roller coaster employment-wise and things were looking bleak after being laid off.  After spending 2 months at the part-time job I found back in August, which was at least in my field, I’m moving on once again.  Before I was laid off, I had applied for a job related to my field but different.  Using same skill sets but in a different way.  I was all excited about the possibility of the position and was almost through the interview process when the bottom fell out and the company decided to freeze the position indefinitely.  That was a dark day b/c I was notified at the end of the week that I was laid off so I was in a dark twisty place for a few days.  Poor Obi-Wan tried his hardest to cheer me up but I was pretty damn upset and not seeing a bright future doing anything related to my field anytime soon in this area.

With the part-time job I eventually found, I was pretty happy but financially frustrated.  The pay was pretty low and it has been hard being in a position of not being able to get ahead on debt, let alone being able to invest towards retirement, which we had been doing.  A few weeks ago, however, a bright spot appeared on the horizon.  Company X called quite unexpectedly one day and told me the position was unfrozen and asked if I was still interested.  I said “hells yes” (well not really but something more professional came out articulating said point).  So, after an in-person interview, I landed the job.  It was hard to break it to my part-time boss b/c I love her to pieces and have a lot of respect for her.  And I felt completely nuts leaving a job after only holding it for 2 months.  I usually at least stick it out for 3 or 4 years until the Navy dictates otherwise.  But she was very understanding about why I needed to take it, which aside from financial reasons, it was something I was pursuing long before part-time job came into being.

So, new job started today, lots to learn and new quality of life to embrace.  You see, the best part is it is a home-based position.  I will work from home but basically be traveling 4 days a week, mostly local, to the customers’ offices to train them on our research products.  They set me up with computer equipment and … hold onto your hats … a Crackberry.   Yes, I’m finally going to be joining the land of Crackberry users, for better or worse.  Need to be able to communicate with customers by ALL possible means wherever I am.  The cool part is the paws will like mommy being home a bit more and on the days I’m not traveling, I can be working in mah jammies!

In other news, Obi-Wan has about 4 weeks left at school in RI before finally coming home and living here again.  It’s been a long 7 months of him living in another state.  Not that it’s as bad as a deployment obviously.  Hell, we’ve been able to see each other just about once a month for the most part.  But I miss him living here and coming home to him every day.  It’s tired and I’m tired of being solo here.  Of course, then he joins his ship and we get back into that crazy lifestyle.

And lest anyone think things have been uber smooth here, why just this morning, another visit from Murphy started my day off just right.  Dropped the car off to get the annual Virginia inspection and very unexpectedly, they called to tell me something massive needed repairing that would cost me about $700.  Yeah, $700.  Like I have this money growing on trees somewhere with my part-time job and all.  New job income with much higher salary doesn’t kick in until next month.  So, thank God for mommies b/c mine came to the rescue and helped us out.  Would have been seriously screwed otherwise.

So that in a long nutshell is what’s doing around here!