waiting to exhale

Just trying to hold it together here. It's the weekend again, and I still don't know anything about the job situation.

It's been an exhausting week, with a sick kid who was home from school 1-1/2 days and who I worried had sinusitis, but happily the forces of mucous are finally receding in the face of my deadly homeopathic, naturopathic, and just plain medical arsenal. The pinkish hue has returned to my baby's delicious cheeks.

And on Wednesday I had to go back to Tel Aviv, this time by highly efficient train for the first time! 14 minutes from Herzliya to middle of big city --wow!

Unfortunately, once I got there, efficiency dropped appreciably. It was a half-hour walk to the office (10 min. just crossing at the lights as a pedestrian to the other side of the major intersection!). I could have taken a bus, but I had lots of time to kill and it was a beautiful warm day. (Which it still is -- we had a stormy 10 days or so, and now it's all-middle-eastern climate, all the time).

When I got there, I waited 15 min. for the first interview, with a younger manager. It took 45 intense minutes, but went well, I thought. Intense because of his big blue eyes and well-sculpted bod! Whew! And then I had to undergo a "security interview" with a stocky, bald security officer straight out of Central Casting. Reminded me of Michael Chiklis as "the Commish" -- but a little older. He was affable enough but I had to relive my whole life over the next hour and 40 minutes, and that was just a little painful. Painfully boring! When I said I could only give him two names for references, he wanted me to take a polygraph test on top of it all! That's where I drew the line. Uh-uh. No way. My rights! My privacy! The personal violation!

And all those little white lies I told him? Not gonna pass a polygraph.

He gave me his card (just like tv detectives at the end of a witness interview) and told me to call him if I can think of any more reference names. I decided they can kiss my a** -- if they don't know they want me after all they've put me through already, then I'd rather teach English, frankly. I'm so sick of this power trip potential employers are on.

I was wrung out by the time I left there, and still haven't heard from them, nor has my top reference informed me, still, that anyone has contacted him. So it's the weekend again, and I must try to hold it together until Sunday. I'm convinced that if I don't hear from either of those companies by then, I'm screwed.

Meanwhile, Mr. S. is more optimistic than I am, and has sweetly invited me out for a nice Friday brunch. Which helps.