Some days, you never can tell...

My thoughts and observations from today. An evening rant.

I'm not sure why I got up at my regular time today, because I had an interview close to home first thing, so I could have slept in. Now that it's early evening, I could have done with that extra sleep.

The day started out well enough and I was looking forward to the interview. The advertisement looked really good. A true case of false advertisement. The location was in the suburbs, so I knew it wasn't going to be a corporate job, but I figured at least it'd be in a nice little office building, or at least an office suite. Honestly, I'm going to have to take a photo tomorrow to show what it really was. A run down, old house on a corner, with completely overgrown gardens. The whole place was generally unkempt and as I walked up the path, I remember feeling like I was going to meet some nasty storybook demise inside, kinda like Hansel and Gretel.....except I didn't think I was going to be eaten. Maybe just chopped up, or something. (reminds me of another story I must tell at some stage)

You know when you walk in a place and you meet someone and you instantly get that feeling that you wish you weren't there and that you're just not going to like them? I got that feeling. First with the woman who opened the door, next with the owner of the company - looking at him just made me uncomfortable, and Mr Nopersonality he brought into the interview with him.

No real formalities. Just jumped right in with the questions. Now, I was there for a job that involved software training. The first question was if I knew what a registry was, how to get into it, how to change it etc etc. Yeah, I know what it is. No, I don't like mucking with that stuff, coz I don't want to break my computer. Ok, what's an environmental condition? Um....you mean in the client's office? Oh, ok, we're talking serious technical stuff here again, riiiiiight... Silly me, I mentioned printer drivers. Did I know how to upgrade them? Yeah. Ok, there's a computer. Show us how. Um...no. Ok, we'll role play. I don't do role play (especially when I'm getting all the answers wrong already, coz I didn't realise I was applying for a freaking technical job, not a software job!). I'll answer your questions.

By that stage, I was ready to leave. Seriously, there were no niceties, no warmth, no incentive for me to like these people at all, let alone want to spend every day in the freak house with them. In fact, the boss/owner actually said the F word at least 4 times that I counted. It was all I could do to sit still, and I really should have just left at that point. But it got better. They wanted me to step them through how to do a freakin' mail merge on their computer, as if they'd never done one before. I wished I was Gretel and wondered where the closest cauldron was, so I could jump in.

At the end, they asked me if I had any questions. I had a couple, but they asked as if they really could care less and I bailed out of there. Not soon enough. I didn't even ask them about money. No money could make me spend 5 more minutes there, let alone 40 hours a week.

So, I left. Seriously pissed off.

I got home and realised I didn't have long before I had to leave again to go to a counselling session. My carport is down my driveway and behind my unit, so you can't see if anyone is home in my unit, or the other two behind me. I had a cup of tea and heard a car outside. Not so unusual in my street, so thought nothing of it. I walked out the door to go to counselling and looky there - it's a car parked right across my drive, blocking me in completely. Remember I was already pissed off? So, I got in my car and drove it up as close to that car as I could and leaned on the horn, got out and got ready to abuse the idiot.

From out of the house next door, comes a little old man, laughing about how he thought nobody was home. I should have said, "Little old man, can you not park in the driveway of the people with whom you're visiting? Can you not park anywhere along my lovely tree-lined street, that does not involve inconveniencing me? Do you realise parking where you did is illegal and if your car gets damaged, tough shit?" Instead, what did I say? Sorry. Then smacked myself for saying sorry when he should have been saying sorry to me. Why the hell did I instantly apologise? Little old men shouldn't be allowed to be dumbarses just coz they're little old men. I drove off muttering to myself, checked my rearvision and saw him parking right back in my driveway. I figured I wouldn't be saying sorry if he was there when I got back from counselling.

Counselling was helpful, but draining, so we'll leave it there. Next appt, two weeks. I'm not sure if it's still free, but they didn't ask me to pay, so I'm just gonna go along with that.

I drove home again, only to realise I had meant to go to the post office and pick up a parcel containing part of T's b'day present....that should have arrived 10 days ago. So I went there, picked that up, drove home again, and walked to the train station to get the train to the city for my second interview for the day.

What's worse than visibly pissed (that'd be drunk) men at night? Visibly pissed men on train platforms at lunch time, who can't walk and talk straight. About the only thing worse than that is women doing the same. Oh, and the teenage girl in school uniform I saw with a smoke hanging out of her mouth. Claaaassyy! Anyway... My train trip was uneventful, till I got off and Mr TooPissedtoWalk was being escorted off the train by 4 security people. I knew there was a reason I chose to sit in a different carriage.

I was looking forward to the second interview because the job description sounded interesting, although I wasn't in a good mood. I managed quite well to appear bright and chirpy. That surprised me. The last time I dealt with this particular woman from this agency, she was fairly condescending and dissinterested in me (and caused me to purchase and consume cheesecake on the way home). This time, she seemed more positive, so I'm more confident at going to the next step than I expected to be. If the client wants to see me, I'll have an appointment on Friday arvo.

I figured while I was in the city, I'd take my new referral to my specialist and get him to refer me to another doc more local to me, at the request of the counsellor. So I walked from the agency to the hospital. It was a longer walk than I realised. It was a lot longer than I realised. My poor feet - in comfy shoes - were yelling at me to stop, but I didn't. I got to my doctor's office and it was closed. So I walked back into the city again, with crowds gathering to find out what the noise was about. Oh, it's just my feet screaming in agony. Tram ride. More walking. Train ride. More walking. Got home, released my feet from their shoe prison and I'm considering wearing slippers to work tomorrow.

And that be my day. Tis time now to find some headache drugs and ingest some, before this almost-headache becomes an actual one (first one in ages!) and hope that there's something really mindless on tv that will keep me distracted for the rest of the night.