I Start on Monday.

My apologies to all of my hundreds of thousands of readers who have been waiting for a chazblog post since Wednesday, but the past couple days has been pretty insane. And by insane I mean busy.

Let's start out by saying that I have not been called in to work ALL WEEK. It is frustrating to say the least. Unlike some people, I actually have to work for a living. I need to work. Not so I can buy the latest issue of Tiger Beat or a new weekend fedora but to pay bills. Being unemployed and relying on Unemployment Insurance and a we'll-call-you-when-we-feel-like-it job just is not cutting it. What happened to the people I interviewed with three weeks ago?? They said they would be back in contact with me the following week. THE FOLLOWING WEEK WAS TWO WEEKS AGO. I am worthless. I am not as great as I think. I need to stop thinking so glass-is-half-full all the time and start lowering my standards. I applied at Tops Friendly Markets and Wegmans and-- ugh!-- Starbucks. Even though I have a Master's Degree.

But then I came home Wednesday evening and there was a message on the machine:

"Hi Charles, this is so-and-so from NCCC. We have a job that starts next week that we'd like to offer you. If you're interested, please call me back at--"

Wait, did I hear that right? A what? A jobby-job? For me? Starting next week?
YES
YES
YES
!!!!!!

I called her right back even though it was after six-thirty in the evening. I left her a message that, yes, I was very much interested and if needed I would produce her a male heir and that she could call me back any time to go over the details.
The crazy thing is that she called me back five minutes later. We agreed to meet at the school on Friday.

So Thursday I decided to get my car inspected. The Blue Lady (my car) has always given me problems. She is temperamental and moody and I was just so nervous about getting her inspected. I knew she probably needed new breaks. And last night when I used my wipers (while parked) the driver's side wiper had flown off. And there was a rubbing sound when I turn right sometimes if I had my foot on the gas... in other words there were all kinds of problems. I took her in, gave the keys to the counter service boy, and sat and read a book, trying not to think about my car. Every time I am in a mechanic's waiting room all I can think of is the infamous quote from one of my college roommates:

If it's my ass or my car, just knock me out, fix it, and don't tell me what you did.

The kid came back a half hour later and informed me I just needed new wipers. What?? That's it??
SWEET.

I hurried out of there as soon as possible just in case they realized they forgot to check something.

I rested up Thursday night so I was ready for my Friday morning meeting with MY NEW BOSS.

I was so paranoid on my way to the meeting. Was that a rattling I heard? Did the mechanic forget to tighten something down after my inspection? Were my breaks slipping a bit? Maybe I really did need new breaks. What if they just GAVE OUT on my way to my meeting. I knew for a fact I didn't pass any tractor trailer run-offs between my apartment and the school. What was my best option (and safest. For me) if my breaks just stopped working? I decided to stay an even safer distance from the car in front of me. But WHY IS THIS GUY DRIVING SO SLOW? THE SPEED LIMIT IS SIXTY-FIVE FOR CHRISSAKES GET INTO THE RIGHT LANE IF YOU'RE GOING TO GO SO SLOW.

Needless to say, I got to my appointment in one piece. I was actually early (no surprise if you know me).
The class I will be teaching runs through March, at which point there should be at least one other class for me to start teaching. I will be teaching adult learners, which is the same type of students that I had at my last job. The job that I loved. The job that was ripped out of my hands at the beginning of last summer.
Enough about that job. I HAVE A NEW JOB!


I start on Monday.