It's the best of times if you read this blog, because it looks like we aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
It's the worst of times for us because it looks like we aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
The boyfriend reluctantly accepted a new job... in Bakersfield.
I have to give him a lot of credit, because in his one month of unemployment he managed to line up more job interviews than I did in an entire year. Most of the jobs were back in LA and some weeks he was making that 300 mile round trip every other day. Just to cover his bases he also interviewed for a few positions in Bako, if for no other reason than we couldn't afford to move.
His previous employer, out of spite and not much else, had decided to fight him over unemployment benefits. That's just the Bako way. This is after all a Republican Free Enterprise paradise, where businessmen rule and employees are just a means to an end, a necessary evil. And once you're a former employee, than you're nothing more than a socialist welfare queen. I got a taste of that when I was cut loose from my part time real estate position. My boss came in and announced with great sadness that my services were no longer needed, and then thoughtfully added "But because we like you so much, I just wanted to let you know we aren't going to fight you over unemployment," as if he was showing me great mercy and not simply following the law.
It's been an emotional seesaw for weeks. One week we'd think he'd landed great a job in LA and anxiously started looking at westside apartment listings, only to have it fall apart. The next week he'd get a call back in Bako and we resigned ourselves to staying stuck here. When that fell apart we'd breath a sigh of relief. And so it went, back and forth, for weeks. Two weeks ago we thought he had a lock on a job in Santa Monica. We'd learned by then not to hope, for fear of jinxing it. But then there was radio silence, no phone calls or e-mail returned. We still didn't count it out, although we knew in our hearts it was probably gone. All the same, he attempted a little job ju jitsu this morning, trying to use the Bako job offer as leverage to at least get an answer out of Santa Monica. To no avail. So, with a heavy heart, he went in this morning and signed the papers.
Our pardon has been denied. Better luck next year.
