Well, some of you know and most of you don't know I was in the ranks of the unemployed for 3 months. To make a long story short, I was "let go" from the company I worked at for the last 3 years, just one of those times I won't forget.
Of course, at first I was a little stunned, but kept the faith that it happened for a reason. I also went through some other turbulence right after that, which may or may not find it's way into a blog someday...a little more personal. I was offered a 3 month package, which I accepted.
Month one I was just loving the time, I really hadn't had a vacation in a long time, so I figured I could kick back and just revel in my unemployedness, which I did. I cleaned my apartment from top to bottom, arranged the crap in my garage so at least it was a good looking pile of crap, worked on the Yamaha a few times just to make sure she still had the juice, rode my Harley just as much as possible, went to some local hangouts and met up with some of the local flora and fauna. Yeah, I wasn't worried, knew something would eventually happen.
Month 2 was a little different. I started working on my resume, started signing up for alerts from Monster and Indeed, even gave CareerBuilder a shot at it, although the listings were not really what I was looking for. I started getting email alerts daily, so I felt assured I would be able to get another gig before the end of the 3 months. I sent some resumes out, but the jobs were not the ideal situations, figured I'd at least get some of the interview jitters out of the way for the "real" one I'd find.
Month 3 started, and I'd not had any real bites on my resume, so I reworked it, changed it up a bit, looked at every angle on it to see how I could perfect it so an HR person would start frothing at the mouth once they saw it. As the month progressed I had still heard not a thing back. I decided to visit an agency and let a headhunter do what headhunters do best. I completed all the testing, Excel, Word, anything they had...I just KNEW they would be so impressed.
As the month started, here I was with not even one prospect.
Then my friend from Tampa emailed me out of the blue, asking if I was going to make it to Daytona Bike Week. We started the back and forth, somehow she managed to talk me into just leaving everything as it was and make the trip. Now, the way I was raised, my mom and dad would have frowned upon what I was going to do, but I was in the type of mood where I needed to get away. I would have a place to sleep, so the only real expenses would be the fuel, which I calculated. Oh, also a stop at a Tallahassee Motel 6...riding the Harley for 15 hours straight, not realy a good idea. I would have loved to do it, but something about the potential of running into critters in the dark changed my mind. I've seen some nasty roadkill over the course of my rides. Riding through Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama....there's a lot of armadillos, cayotes, racoons and deer. You hit one of even the smallest of God's creatures while doing 85 mph, you are going to have some trouble on your hands. in the daytime it's a challenge, at night, the chances of surviving something like that get slimmed down real quick.
I decided to take the route I would not normally take, threw caution to the wind and made the ride to Daytona. I told myself before heading out early that Wednesday morning that I would go and have a good time, not worry about the job situation, that somehow things would come together, just like they have in the past. It's one of those times when my plan went out the window. I took off my watch, threw it next to my PC that was now powered down, and hit the road.
The time I spent there was worth it. I met a lot of great new friends, was able to hang with some old friends, and didn't worry about the job thing...for a large majority of my trip.
When Sunday rolled around, I ended up following my friend Dee back to Seminole, near Tampa. She told me she needed someone to make that trip back with her since she was nervous about hauling her camper that far alone. Of course, I couldn't allow that to happen, so I rode behind the whole trip. I met her roommate Joey (yeah, he likes to be called that...he's from Jersey, has one cool as paint job on one of his sport bikes...coolest guy you would ever meet.)
What was amazing to me, I hadn't really thought about the job thing, was having too good a time just doing...well...nothing.
While in Seminole, I was able to meet up with old friends Dan and Kathy, who own half the town of Dunedin(not really...but sooner or later they will.) Also got together with another friend, Sean, who works for NPR and was talking about rigging up a camper with all kinds of radio gear and hitting the campaign trail to feed audio bites back, wuite the endeavor.
I took a lot of pictures along the way, think I might have insulted one of the founders of Hooters(someone asked me what I thought about their wings...I mentioned they were not really Buffalo style because they were breaded...well..my opinion still stands....someone asks me...I tell them.)
As a one day visit to Seminole turned into a week visit, I received a call from my headhunter on Wednesday. A company wanted to see me on Thursday. I almost shot myself.
All the time I was home, not a call, not a whisper, not even a tumbling tumbleweed. I leave town for...well...a week and a half...that's when they decide to call. I called back and told them I wouldn't be able to make that appointment. They asked if I could make it on Friday. No can do. I let them know the earliest would be Monday. Now, of course, after I said that, the weather turned nasty, the route I was going to take was all rain, wind and general nastiness. I had to postponed the ride back until Saturday.
Well, to make another long story short, I interviewed on Monday, was asked to sit in on a meeting with UPS on Tuesday, was offered the job and started Wednesday.
I am now in charge of customer service for Chef Wolfgang Puck, our call center handles all inquiries regarding warranty and service for everything Wolfgang.
OK, enough namedropping for tonight...the next time I blog I will change the names to protect the innocent. That's going to be a very short one.
