It’s A Sign, Right?

It was all planned out. The part-time job is great but frustrating for a number of reasons, not the least of which being it was a three-month “temporary” job… two years ago. Thinking the quickest way to become more marketable was to add “bookkeeping” to the list of things I can do, the stage was set to start classes tonight for a six-course certificate at our local community college, which I could complete by the end of December.

Then I got a message yesterday that the first course has been cancelled. The second course, the prerequisite to three other courses? It was moved from Thursdays to Mondays, starting a week later. The course is only six weeks long, and the new schedule conflicts with the Oldest’s Honors Night and our family vacation (the only week we have together each year). I opted to not take the course. Instead of the certificate, I’m going to take online courses in the same areas and hope that someone would count that as “knowing the software”.

Cutting that avenue off for now means I’m keeping my fingers crossed on two other things. First, I’m going to try to finish my bachelor’s degree. With only five courses to go and all of them finally being offered online, it may be within reach.  I just have to get someone on the phone at my old school.

The second piece of news is… I applied for a new job. A part-time job. With a great company in our town. You would have to understand how much I HATE the whole job hunt thing to know how monumental this is. I get very nervous and take it very personally, particularly when I’m told I’m overqualified. Which has happened before. The last time I looked for a job. I wanted to scream at the person telling me this, “Yes, most people with 20+ years experience would be overqualified for most administrative assistant positions, but I already thought about that – thanks for pointing it out. And by the way, is this where I violate all interview rules and tell you the reason I want to work for you part-time is so that I can manage the rest of my life without losing it? Is this where I tell you I have three kids of varying ages, and with Hubby working second shift, I can’t work full-time, run the house, deal with the kids and their activities, and maintain my sanity? Unless, of course, you’re going to pay me six figures because I can answer the phone and correctly take a number down and type in coherent sentences, because then I can afford to hire a housekeeper or a nanny.” But I didn’t, because I was stunned into silence. Which again, is big. Huge. I’m not a quiet person.

Let’s hope God/the Fates/WhoEver is steering this ship is trying to tell me, in some small way, that the summer courses aren’t meant to be because they won’t be needed, that I’ll get a call this week for an interview, that by the time I go on vacation in July, I’ll have a new position. Keep your fingers crossed for me.