Kidney...Transplant
Jul. 22nd, 2025 10:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jakebeLast night I finally used the bath bomb Husboo gifted me as a birthday present three years ago. It was the first time we used the tub in the new place, and it struck me that it's in the *exact* place Cleveland's bathtub is in Family Guy. It might have been a high thought, but I couldn't shake the image of me falling out of the house going "No no no no nooooooo!" It still makes me chuckle. :)
Honestly? Wow. I felt so much more relaxed stepping out of the tub, my skin felt rejuvenated, and I'm two more episodes down in my Paradise re-watch. I have another bath bomb from the same gift set, and I'm really looking forward to using it. The iPad and the Wonderboom are a potent combo in the alcove that holds the faucet, and if I get one of those bath-tub trays I could easily see myself going for a soak at least twice a month.
I spoke with my manager yesterday and she made me feel a lot better about the situation. When it happened, I stepped back to look at my life and felt like such a loser. Here I am in my mid-40s with no solid career path to speak of, no savings, a job that barely pays the bills, with old ratty clothes and poor grooming habits. I don't have a degree and it really feels too late for me on that, so the best I can do is some kind of supplemental education that might help my network make a case for me somewhere. I'm always going to be making the lowest wages in the household; at worst, I'll be relying on the charity of my community. It wasn't a great feeling.
But she helped shift my perspective a bit. This wasn't an indictment of my work ethic or effectiveness, and the passion with which she jumped into helping me land somewhere else was grounding on its own. She heard about a position in the Sunnyvale office opening soon and encouraged me to speak to the hiring manager ASAP, so I did. They're looking for a Metrology Calibration Tech to work out of the lab there; it'd take me out of the house five days a week, but that's not the worst thing as long as the pay was good. I think I hit it off with him fairly well, and he liked that I have the mindset for the work being an internal applicant. There are knowledge gaps, of course, but my manager forwarded training materials that I can study ahead of applying and interviewing. She also gave me her personal email address so we can go over my resume and wants to set up a weekly meeting to track our progress. It's surprising to get this kind of help so quickly from someone who had to fire me, though I suppose I've had enough good managers at this point I really shouldn't be.
Someone in the fandom who knows me from my 2 Sense days popped up with a list of open positions at a waste management company; a colleague from Udacity forwarded me a job at an AI tech company; an old fandom friend forwarded me a position as a Library Page for Santa Clara, having remembered how much I loved them. I'm always surprised that there are so many people willing to rally around me in times of trouble, but again -- I've had so many good friends at this point I really shouldn't be.
I'm not out of the woods, but I feel like I've gotten my bearings at least. I would like the Calibration Tech position (as long as the pay is right), so I think I'll give that a good try. Ditto for the Library Page position. I think I'll pass on the AI tech company though, for multiple reasons.
Tonight I'll be putting together my 2025 Job Application Tracker tonight and working on the Unlicensed Adventures game. The gang is working their way through a "dungeon" of sorts full of mind flayers and for some reason they keep getting their asses kicked. >.> I'd like to offer a way for the group to get some much-needed story, but that's very tricky with this group. They have little tolerance for untrustworthy behavior, but I'd really like to see if they could make an alliance of convenience with a bad guy to stop something bad from happening. We'll see how it goes.
Honestly? Wow. I felt so much more relaxed stepping out of the tub, my skin felt rejuvenated, and I'm two more episodes down in my Paradise re-watch. I have another bath bomb from the same gift set, and I'm really looking forward to using it. The iPad and the Wonderboom are a potent combo in the alcove that holds the faucet, and if I get one of those bath-tub trays I could easily see myself going for a soak at least twice a month.
I spoke with my manager yesterday and she made me feel a lot better about the situation. When it happened, I stepped back to look at my life and felt like such a loser. Here I am in my mid-40s with no solid career path to speak of, no savings, a job that barely pays the bills, with old ratty clothes and poor grooming habits. I don't have a degree and it really feels too late for me on that, so the best I can do is some kind of supplemental education that might help my network make a case for me somewhere. I'm always going to be making the lowest wages in the household; at worst, I'll be relying on the charity of my community. It wasn't a great feeling.
But she helped shift my perspective a bit. This wasn't an indictment of my work ethic or effectiveness, and the passion with which she jumped into helping me land somewhere else was grounding on its own. She heard about a position in the Sunnyvale office opening soon and encouraged me to speak to the hiring manager ASAP, so I did. They're looking for a Metrology Calibration Tech to work out of the lab there; it'd take me out of the house five days a week, but that's not the worst thing as long as the pay was good. I think I hit it off with him fairly well, and he liked that I have the mindset for the work being an internal applicant. There are knowledge gaps, of course, but my manager forwarded training materials that I can study ahead of applying and interviewing. She also gave me her personal email address so we can go over my resume and wants to set up a weekly meeting to track our progress. It's surprising to get this kind of help so quickly from someone who had to fire me, though I suppose I've had enough good managers at this point I really shouldn't be.
Someone in the fandom who knows me from my 2 Sense days popped up with a list of open positions at a waste management company; a colleague from Udacity forwarded me a job at an AI tech company; an old fandom friend forwarded me a position as a Library Page for Santa Clara, having remembered how much I loved them. I'm always surprised that there are so many people willing to rally around me in times of trouble, but again -- I've had so many good friends at this point I really shouldn't be.
I'm not out of the woods, but I feel like I've gotten my bearings at least. I would like the Calibration Tech position (as long as the pay is right), so I think I'll give that a good try. Ditto for the Library Page position. I think I'll pass on the AI tech company though, for multiple reasons.
Tonight I'll be putting together my 2025 Job Application Tracker tonight and working on the Unlicensed Adventures game. The gang is working their way through a "dungeon" of sorts full of mind flayers and for some reason they keep getting their asses kicked. >.> I'd like to offer a way for the group to get some much-needed story, but that's very tricky with this group. They have little tolerance for untrustworthy behavior, but I'd really like to see if they could make an alliance of convenience with a bad guy to stop something bad from happening. We'll see how it goes.
