Silence

I'm not in a stellar mood today. Just FYI.

It's quiet here. The kids are all in school, full-time. Just me and the dog and cats until 2:30.

I am now unemployed. The last week - particularly the last day - was yucky. Particularly pathetic was when, on that last day, when I'm trying to leave, the dev staff that had been avoiding me and not talking to me for a solid month (fear for their own jobs, I think) decided they wanted to give me a cake and suddenly be friendly. Yeah, right.

Did have this amusing exchange during the lame cake attempt:

New developer whom I had not yet met: "I'm sorry we won't be working together. Where are you going to."

Me: "Nowhere yet."

ND: "So you just decided to take some time off? How nice!"

Me: "Not at all."

He left seconds thereafter and did not have cake.

I didn't either, actually. I was not in the mood for eating grocery store preservative-filled cake. I thanked them, took my card, and left. The card, after a cursory glance at the BS "good luck" comments, went straight to the recycling.

Yesterday I received a L*nked*n invitation from a name I didn't know. I looked at the invite more closely. It's from the new "Talent Acquisition Manager" at the now former company. It said, "I'm looking forward to meeting you and working with you."

Talent Acquisition Manager FAIL!

Idiot.

I did have an interview early last week. The job fit is, dare I say it, ideal. I thought the conversations went well. The part-time factor is a factor, however.

I jumped through hoops while on vacation to set the interview up for my first day back from vacation (kid coverage and all) because the recruiter said they wanted to make a decision quickly. By last Friday I had heard nothing. I emailed the recruiter. She said they were hoping to make a decision this week or next. Great.

So I am pretty sure I didn't get the job. I think I would have heard if I had. I'm a little bummed.

(But also, I do wonder about their decision making skills. During the interview they expressed disappointment in the quality of the contractor that was there last fall. A terrific woman I know interviewed for that contracting position and did not get it. Clearly they should have hired my friend. Clearly they should hire me.)

I had plenty of time to think this week - and plenty more such weeks ahead, I fear - about how so many smart women are underutilized and under appreciated because companies won't think outside the box - even as they tout that they want employees to think outside the box. I know many women who could offer so much, but corporate America is so afraid! Of them, of their brains, of the way they work, of the their (entirely appropriate) priorities. It's sad, really. And I wonder how many opportunities have been lost by this fear.

I also finished reading a book this week. The book is getting some good reviews (including the New York Times), and it's well-written - but I didn't much like it. Bummed me out because I've liked other books by this author. Perhaps it's because part of the subject matter: the dot-com boom and bust of the late 90s/early 2000s is something I actually lived through.

There were characters I knew well, and had no interest in spending more time with. (M*T grad students/grad school dropouts who start Internet companies and play Ultimate Frisbee in their spare time. Euw.) There was a late book addition of distant estranged family in London that I thought should have been a book on its own. No real resolution to that sub-plot. And 9/11 as a plot device. Hasn't that been done enough? (Don't know how to resolve your character? Kill him! In a terrorist attack!) And one minor character came dangerously close to uttering my literary (and life) pet-peeve, "At least you have your health." (I once literally threw a book across a room when the character, in an exciting plot twist, uttered this, then the book jumped to a scene 6 months later with no explanation about how the protagonist got out of that plot twist. Ugh.)

I'm working on cleaning up and cleaning out the house. A summer of stress (not to mention a family of five people, two cats, one dog and a fish) has left much in disarray. It will be good to clear it all out. Hopefully clear out my mind in the process.

So that's where it's all at. Did I mention it's quiet here?