Irony, or sick joke?

Life just won't make things easy for me right now.

Which is funny, considering I am once again free to spend every hour as I wish. This time, though, I can't get paid for it - buh-bye unemployment checks. So I guess life is "easy" in the respect that I get to do whatever I want. But I want to work, and it's just not happening!

Example: I was excited to pass the test and interview for the zoo job. I originally applied in Jan, and their target hire date was March 1st. My interview was after that discarded original hire date, and I was told they would hire 4-6 people (out of 8 positions) some time in early April. I called and found out that, as of right now, they aren't hiring any positions at all!! I guess that's the way it goes when trying to work for a cash-strapped, struggling-to-revitalize city.

Irony, or sick joke? The jury's still out on that one.

Last week, I got another federal government envelope - now famous in this household - that I expected just another rejection form letter. The feds have it down to an art; they simple have a few different choices that they can check as they see fitting:

"you have been certified" (this is the "cert" that every fed-hopeful wants to get on, it means you were qualified and are one of the top candidates)

"you were qualified but not certified" (you were good, but not good enough so they didn't pass your name on to be considered)

"you were not qualified"

and it goes down from there, or says you didn't include certain things in your application

I get "qualified but not referred to officials" quite a bit. Which is what I was expecting from that offically stamped evelope last week. This time, though, it said I was certified, referred to the hiring official... but not chosen! And they only referred the top 3 people for the job... so somehow I blew a 33% chance of getting the job. At that point, they usually hire the highest ranked of the 3. But still, it was a glimmer of hope! It would have been a cool job too, in Utah at Canyonlands (near MOAB!).

But wait, there's more. Today I got another one of those fed envelopes, this one from Yellowstone. How wicked would it be to live out there for a season!? Opened the letter... Hmmm this is regarding a bio tech vegetation position... GS-5/6/7... It was a term position, which is the step between seasonal and full time. You get some benefits but it's just for a few years. What did they check?

..... Certifiedand referred to hiring official. !!!! Yeahhhh!!!! Oh wait, what's this say... "All positions are currently filled by returning employees, but in the event of an opening this cert will be used". Which means that, if there had been an opening, I would have had a really good chance of getting it. So all I gotta do is hope that someone gets fired, quits, or gets gouged by a bison so that I can get that job! Irony, or sick joke?

Sick joke.

Steve found out he was not accepted to U of M, so he is closer than ever to moving. Accepted to Rutgers but hoping to hear from Illinois - Chicago very soon. He may too be joining the migrating population of Northville kids to Chicagoland. Kirk is heading to NY, Heather is also looking to move to Chicago... Looks like I have to move too, because my friends are the only things that make these suburbs bearable!

A little cold and breezy for my tastes, but I went for a run on this sunny day. Sunny days here still don't compare to Colorado. It's usually pale blue here at best, but in Colorado the sky was vibrant blue even on a bad day. Now off to make copies of my apps to be a horticultural intern or summer cityslave with city of Ann Arbor. Being a meter reading with Novi is looking better and better, but so is hitting the road and getting lost in the Yukon.