False start

I had a rough, rough 24 hours.

First, I took Dodger and Kocur for a walk and Kocur’s leash broke. As I was swapping them out – I’m far less concerned with DDog running loose than Kocur – a Volvo pulled to the end of their driveway and a woman got out to check her paper.

Kocur went nuts. She ran up to the woman, snarling, and circled her while nipping. She nipped her pants, but thankfully didn’t do anything worse. I was completely freaked out and apologetic. The neighbor was shaken up and her husband jumped out of the car to see if she was OK.

She was, I think, but it was just a bad start to an even worse day. I’d known the walk was way too much for Kokey, because about six cars passed up, exciting her widely. Normally, only one or two cars pass us.

So the day didn’t improve. I was working at Florida Law Weekly, happily stuffing envelopes and Bob came in and said I needed to check my car. Baffled, I asked why. He said he’d run into it while backing out. No one ever parks in the spot next to him and he just forgot to look.

I have a huge dent over my wheel well and my rearview mirror is toast. Honestly, I’m just not going to worry about the dent – no paint was broken – but the mirror has to be replaced.

It’s annoying, but this is the hand I got dealt. The really depressing thing is I’m flat-out too busy to take my car around and get estimates. I’m just too involved in this job search.

Which was another depressing thing yesterday. I got four rejections, two of which were local and two were in federal jobs I was overqualified for.

One was incredibly frustrating because I’d interviewed before Christmas and told they’d be in contact. I sent polite emails or voice mails asking for an update every week or so but heard absolutely nothing.

Finally, this morning, I received a response. All it said was, “You should have received an email from human resources informing you this position has been filled.”

It made me feel sub-human. The person who’d interviewed me WAS in HR, and that person is the one I’d been sending emails to. It became rather clear to me awhile back that I was not going to get a second interview, but is it too much to hope for that someone follows through with what the say? I was really qualified for that position and don’t think it’s asking too much to get a somewhat personalized reply.

Or hey, even a generic “thanks for playing, please try again.” But it’s just so wrong to specifically say, “I will contact you next week” and then ignore me for 6-8 weeks.

Honestly, just because I am unemployed doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be treated with respect. It’s just tiring being swept under the rug.

So I really needed a vacation, which was fortuitous because today is the departure date for Palm Springs.

When Zippy planned this trip, I was kind of lukewarm on it because I’m just not a California girl. But for $100, it’s a nice break.

However, by today, I realized how much I need a break from the job search and just everything right now, so I was glad to get away.

Except we haven’t actually gotten away.

Right now, I am hanging out in the Holiday Inn on Apalachee Parkway and Magnolia, awaiting a Delta early morning flight. We got bumped.

I’ve never successfully been bumped, so it’s kind of cool. What’s a little bizarre is when we checked in online, the website told us there was a chance the flight was oversold and to, if we were interested in getting bumped, name our price.

So, knowing the tickets cost a total of $450, I said to put in $300 each, not thinking it’d actually come through. I’ve never seen people “bid” to be bumped.

It didn’t work. Or they just didn’t consider it, or something. But we were sitting at the airport, enduring a weather (or some kind of) delay and wondering if we were going to make our connection when the gate agent came on to say they needed three volunteers for $400 each plus a hotel and dinner.

Sold. We jumped up and got it.

It’s not all it’s cracked up to be, though. We had to cough up tip money for the shuttle driver and learned there’s no early-morning shuttle, so we have to pay for a taxi. And I’d Hotwired the hotel tonight so I am out the $65.

But in the long run I guess I’ll still be ahead.

Finally, something in my favor