mourning has broken

Okay, I'm over company no. 1.

It was a relatively short grieving period, aided immensely by the support of:

a) Mr. Squarepeg, who has been very sympathetic and not at all self-involved (which has been a tiny problem in the past) upon hearing the disappointing news. He does recognize that I've done my utmost up to this point AND that I'm willing to go back to teaching English (which bores me stiff) if nothing else happens this week.

b) My faithful readers who expressed outrage on my behalf, both on- and offline. I value quality over quantity, and always have; thank you for being there!

c) My new Anonymous reader who may have had no idea of the uplifting power of her(?) gift of kindness in commenting so generously on this particular day. That has been a surprising lesson, too, in the value of anonymous giving. Thank you for de-lurking today! (p.s. Mr. S. is really not as mean as I tend to portray him; it's just the immaturity gene combined with the terror of inherited poverty consciousness.)

and last, but not least:
d) my philosophy of life, which tells me that there is reason and purpose, in the bigger picture, behind all things. And I have a sneaking suspicion I know what that is in this case. Bottom line is that I need to write, and the older I get, the less Life is going to put up with my excuses for not doing it. Biggest possible excuse, for me, is The Full-Time Job. Even company no. 2, from what I've heard, would afford me all kinds of time to write on the side, but no. 1 definitely would have been REAL full-time, plus commute. While both of those jobs would just be for money (and a bit of a social life), teaching would give me something even more valuable: TIME. And if no. 2 doesn't work out either, I'm already sort of resigned to teaching again, since I can make enough money part-time at that and maintain a relatively unharried lifestyle.

Yesterday afternoon, I got through to the HR office of company no. 2 and asked what the status was. The one HR woman said she'd passed the file back to the other HR woman, who was responsible for contact with the manager, and she left a message to call me back, but nothing yet. I think I need to find out today what's what, so that I can get on with my life.

Yeah, I'm kind of fed up. But in a philosophical sort of way.

UPDATE --> 11:45 a.m. Company no. 2 just called.

Same old bullshit: "Just wanted to update you, no decisions have been made, we're still interviewing, it might take a few more days, probably know by next week..."

WTF!! After taking 5 hours of my time, including a 2-hr security interview??!!!!!
Hellooooooo -- seen this movie already, thank you very much!

"Okay, I also need to update you, that another company is waiting for an answer and if I don't hear from you by tomorrow, I'll assume you're not interested and I'll have to go in another direction."

"Well, naturally, if you've received another offer, you obviously need to take it."

Yes, OBVIOUSLY. Twit. OBVIOUSLY, you're just stringing me along like the last 5 companies while you look for someone else. OBVIOUSLY, I need to move on.

Assuming that if they really are at all interested, they'll call me by today and not wait until tomorrow, I'm waiting until this evening to make the call to the owner of the English school.

That phone call really pissed me off.