Short Term Unemployment

Just 14 days post Wal-Mart, Josh has a new job. Not only does he have one but he started today. You will remember last week when I said that Josh got a call from the Kalahari for an interview. Well he got the job offer Friday and accepted it on Monday, what a whirlwind! Josh spent his last day of freedom in Danny Daycare, shooting clay pigeons and scaring the crap out of the dogs. Just the way I am sure that he wanted to go down.

I am sitting here hoping to hear something from him about how his day is going. I am not sure that I will hear from him but I hope that I do so that I don't burst before the end of the day. I am planning on surprising him with his favorite dinner of Swedish meatballs for supper. I am sure that he will appreciate that surprise.

I will let you know if I hear anything!!

Home Sweet Home

I got home Friday afternoon without any troubles at the airport. I was all prepared to be let down when I got to the airport. I was planning on having to stand for a long time everywhere I went. I was equipped with the number for American Airlines so that I could call and complain if I was bumped or cancelled. The lines were incredibly long at the terminal. My advice to anyone is E-Ticket. I don't think that they give paper tickets anymore unless requested. E-Ticket is totally the way to go. I was pretty nervous because the curbside check in lines were VERY long. I heard some people complaining of a 30-45 minute wait. I walked into the terminal, asked where the self service kiosk line was. The line was a tenth of the line for the counter agents. Within 15 minutes I had my bags checked and my boarding passes in hand, heading for the long security line. I missed the bomb sniffing dogs on Friday. When I was hanging around on Thursday they were constantly running up and down the terminal. I didn't see any Friday morning.

I was standing in line behind a family from the middle east. The son, who was in his late 30s or 40s was the one who was traveling. As we were inching towards the security check point a TSA agent came and pulled this man aside. This man could hardly understand what the agent was saying. Each question was repeated at least once. The man was traveling through London Heathrow with a final destination in Pakistan. At first I felt very sorry for this man, this was an instance of racial profiling at it's best. However, after leaving the checkpoint and listening to more news I felt comforted as there were arrests of Pakistanis in connected to the thwarted security plot. I am well aware that not every middle eastern person is a terrorist and that all terrorists aren't middle eastern and you hear stories of the increased percentage of middle eastern travelers who are always pulled aside for secondary screening but, I did feel safer.

I stopped to buy some souvenirs, a book to read and a bottle of water. I made it to the gate and had plenty of time to sit and read or surf the internet. I was however a little nervous because my boarding pass for the flight from Chicago to Madison said that I had to see a gate agent to get my seat assignment. I didn't know if that meant that I didn't have a seat and had to go on standby or if they were just waiting to hand out seat assignments due to not knowing how many people were going to be on the plane. When I got to the gate I was happy to see that it was that they hadn't assigned seats yet. It was such a quick flight to Madison, I believe it was something like 25 minutes from Chicago. I was so excited to get home! Don't get me wrong, I had a great time in Boston, which I will post about soon, but my extra 20 hours in Boston really wore me out!

Stuck

Here I am stuck in Boston. My co-worker and I went to the airport this afternoon to head home. I had to check my bags and my co-worker didn't. So he headed off to security and I went to the counter to check my bags. We agreed to meet at the gate. I got to the counter and noticed that my itinerary had been changed. My flight out of Chicago had been cancelled and I was booked on a flight for tomorrow. I didn't know what to do. I paged my co-worker to meet me at the American Eagle desk. I waited, I paged him from the info desk and I paged him from the American counter. No luck! In between pagings I called our travel agency. I was told that I could either get a one way ticket through Milwaukee for $650, I decided to get a hotel room for the night. I left my boss a message telling her I lost her husband and that I got a hotel for the night.

I got to the hotel, checked in and e-mailed my boss telling her let me know if she heard anything to call me. She called me within a half hour to tell me that he called American and got a flight on Northwest and will be home at 8:30 tonight. That lucky bastard! I didn't know that you should call and complain and they will re-route you. So I am enjoying Boston for another night. I am staying in and checking e-mail. I am heading down to eat dinner now. Let's hope the hotel restaurant is good!!!

Josh update

I am just dropping you a quick line to let you know that Josh's interviews with Verizon and Gander Mountain went very well. Verizon ask about calling Josh's references which according to the books means that they are considering on offering him a position. Gander Mountain went pretty much straight from his first interview into his second interview. Both companies promising to give him an answer within a week. Two other companies called him this week for interview; the Kalahari in the Dells and Jo-Ann fabrics. He interviews with them Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

I am currently in Boston for a conference. I am going sightseeing tomorrow morning. I will write all about it when I get home. I should have pictures to document it too!!!

Mitch-ah-palooza 3.0

This weekend we got together with out college friends for the annual celebration known as Mitch-ah-palooza. Mitch told us that we could bring Jackson along with us. We decided to take Jackson along. What a mistake!! Jackson got out of the car and ran around a little bit. When Opie, Mitch's parent's St Bernard, saw Jackson he immediately took off chasing him. We were informed that Opie thought that Jackson was a cat. So we had to call my mom and have her meet us somewhere so that they could pick him up. I felt really bad that I had upset their evening plans. I hate being an imposition on them. My parents do so much for us as it is. I feel bad asking for more. We had a fabulous time. We played ladder golf, the guys played kickball and croquet. I spent some time in the swimming pool. I got out of the swimming pool on my own this year. I was really excited because I was humiliated by being stuck on the pool last year. I had to be pushed up from the pool from behind.

Josh drank all day and ended up being the evening entertainment. Josh was performing running belly flops into the pool. He bought a straw cowboy hat especially for this celebration. He jumped into the pool with it on and completely soaked it. He kept everyone entertained and in the process probably bruised some ribs in the process. We are very lucky to have such wonderful friends who want to get together and spend such a chunk of time together. I cannot wait to next year's camping trip!!