I'm Still Without Job Offers

Joel brought back a Ridley Pearson novel about participants and protectors of the Witness Protection program. There are so many parallels between their lives and those of evacuees: not being able to put down roots, having reservations about getting close to people or institutions because you think you may have to move on... I can't wait to feel a sense of rootedness again.

Not having felt as confident a job applicant as I would like to be, I had really hoped to work as an Animal Trainer at PetWorld instead of as a psychologist, but PetWorld did not call me back. I visited the PetWorld operations manager yesterday in the context of a shopping trip and asked him flat-out if I had been ruled out for being overqualified. The manager told me that the primary reason I had not gotten a call-back was the tentativeness of my family's plans. He did not want to invest a month on training me, only to have me leave. Even sending me off to a Metairie or other PetWorld location would be unacceptable in his eyes. (The current full-time Animal Trainer says there have been a few part-time Animal Trainers who quit after as short a period as a few months.) He said he WOULD be comfortable with hiring me as a regular cashier, with the possibility (NOT certainty) of moving me over to animal training once our family's plans are firmed up. I haven't worked retail since 1973, but I guess I'll give it a shot. Someone in this house has to earn some money, and at least I'll get 15% off pet supplies, even if it means being on my feet all day.

Or so I thought till I spoke to him today. Since I first contacted PetWorld on September 12, they have hired three or four cashiers and related associates. Now he tells me he must wait to see how those employees work out, before he considers me! With my typical drama queen mentality, I immediately decided that I should start selling my blood plasma as I did in graduate school. It has, after all, been a year since I had my permanent eyeliner applied, so I now qualify as a blood donor. Or do I? Will they accept the blood of a former Metairie resident? Are we now off-limits, like Haitians and Africans?