What's the zip code for Memory Lane?

Two things inspired [well, that's being a little generous] me to do this next post. I mentioned earlier that I still dream about my job at the Federal Agency Known for Workplace Violence even though I've been gone from there over seven years now. I also just finished a novel called MAILMAN by J. Robert Lennon [author is actually named John Lennon, which is why of course he uses the first initial. He was born in 1970, I wonder if he had hippie parents, although of course it could be a family name. As usual, I digress.]

MAILMAN is about a fifty-seven year old letter carrier named Albert Lippincott who works in a small college town in New York. The novel is basically a catalog of his various failures and traumas. J. Robert Lennon obviously has spent time either as a postal worker [doubtful, he's written several other novels] or has done his research [there's a lengthy list of acknowledgements at the end] because Albert is like a lot of people I used to work with, and a lot like me during that time of my life, a solitary creature of routine [although he is not nearly as solitary as I was] whose life tends to revolve around a job that he loves and hates at the same time. When that job is jeopardized, his world of course falls apart.

The story is told through a lot of flashbacks, often the events in the novel's present lead to Albert remembering events of his past [usually bad,] such as his failure in college, his mental illness, his aborted attempt to work for the Peace Corps, his romantic flings, his failed marriage, and so on. Albert is a prime example of the overeducated postal worker: someone who went to college [in his case, briefly] but for whatever reason failed to leverage that into a career, and found their way into the post office. That basically describes me and at least a few of my co-workers [although not too many, I imagine you'd see more in a location where there was a higher level of educational attainment on average.]

Anyway, although I never carried mail [which generally is considered the most difficult job in the Post Office, although I would say window clerk is a close second--any position where you're caught between the public and management is not an easy one] I identified quite a bit with Albert, and imagine had I been able to stick around I most likely would have ended up quite a bit like him, although probably less interesting. I had a pretty solid routine which I liked to follow, and I tended to have my life revolve around my job. And unfortunately, I still have fond memories of a lot of my postal career, although not the last year and a half or so of it. BTW, I worked in a mail sorting facility, working with a gigantic machine that sorted magazines and large envelopes, a.k.a. "flats." Back in 1996 I started out doing data entry at something called a "remote encoding center," we keyed address information so that mail could be properly sorted, but technology improved to where that was automated, so I ended up working the flat sorter gig more or less for the rest of my career [from spring 2000 to fall of 2003.]

I don't think I would have been able to stick around even if I'd wanted to. Over the past 15-20 years they have been moving toward increased automation and less of a need for employees. Couple that with the economic meltdown and that spelled trouble for people like me who were fairly late to the party [my "seniority date" was in 1997, and I would have had to make it until 2029 to reach retirement.] It was pretty commonly known even a decade ago that if you didn't already have 20 years under your belt or close to it that you were going to have to find something else at some point in the future; the writing was on the wall even then as far as the long term viability of the USPS.] They probably wouldn't have laid people off, or at least not anyone with the seniority I had back then, but they would have closed facilities and moved people around to where they would have to quit. This has been happening a lot since I left, they've abolished jobs and forced employees to work at a location over a hundred miles away, they've eliminated entire shifts, etc. My last job I had with them was really the only job there that I was good at, when I had to move to other work areas I was stressed beyond belief. So, as bad as stuff is now, and as nostalgic as I am for my former career, I know that long term, leaving was the right thing to do. I certainly have made my share of mistakes since then [getting a master's degree in accounting instead of just an associates is probably toward the top of the list] but I think I am better off than I would have been had I tried to stay.

No decision....

Heard back just now, they said they are still going through the interview process which is taking longer than they expected, and will let me know when they come to a decision.

So, not horrible news, but not great either, because I'm guessing the people who they meet with last will seem fresher in their minds than someone who interviewed over two weeks ago. Of course, I don't know how many they are hiring either.

Or this could just be a way to weasel out of telling me that I didn't make the cut. No way to know, really.

Oh well, it's better than getting crappy news about it which would make me even more depressed.

A double post day....

I'm really trying to up the quantity, if not the quality. Actually, I've been re-reading Bill Tuomola's old zine THE WYMAN WEEKLY. I can't remember how I first discovered him or his other zine EXILED ON MAIN STREET, I think it was some random late night internet search I did back during one of my nights off at my old graveyard shift post office job [which I dreamt about the other night. Haven't worked there for over seven years now and I still dream about the place.] Anyway, reading his old stuff has made me want to write more. I really identified with his situation, being underemployed in an office and just trying to get by. Of course, I imagine he was much younger than I was when I was doing that---I was thirty-six years old!

I am going to try to figure out what's going on with my latest job interview today. And I'm also going to go to Taco Bell and do my Biggest-Loser fatty thing where I eat fast food in my car. I did ride the exercise bike yesterday, and it was okay. Might try to do it today. Maybe.

My next post will hopefully give an answer about what I may be doing the rest of this year---either working or trying to get ready to move.

Good news!

Haven't heard about the job, but I did just score 486 points playing Scrabble. I'll be sure to mention that next time I'm asked in an interview about what I've been doing all this time. "Improving my Scrabble skills."

I play against the computer mainly, although my wife and I will have vicious Scrabble matches sometimes on weekends. Computer play is easier, I've never done nearly as well with a regular board. It's funny, most people think it's about coming up with all sorts of words, but the game is really more about numbers in a lot of ways...knowing how to make the best use of premium tiles, trying to create "hooks" for other words, in hopes of coming up with a "bingo," a play that uses all seven tiles and earns a bonus of 50 points on top of whatever else you get. But if you luck into the right combinations, you don't need bingos, one of my highest all time plays only involved five tiles, the word QUADS, with the Q being a triple letter tile and the S triggering a Double Word Tile both for QUADS and another longer word that had a lot of other high value tiles. I think it ended up earning somewhere in the 80 point range, which is more than many bingos earn.

Oh well, back to reading.

Nope, not yet.

Haven't heard anything, no rejection letter in the mail, nothing.

I have been down this road so many times. Wish I could get some idea.

Been wanting to read some Philip K. Dick, and it probably won't be helping my mental state any, but I don't care. I finished [again] DIVINE INVASIONS by Lawrence Sutin and now I want to revisit some of PKD's work.

Have a ton of chores to do. I am bad at most of them, but someone has to do them, even half-assedly. Our lives are so backward.

More of the same...

...waiting to hear about the last interview. Starting to lose my optimism.

This may be the last hurrah as far as finding a job here. If so, we may start working toward moving this year, although we're not sure yet where to.

Finished MATTERHORN. One of the few books where the glossary is as interesting as the book. Did you know the Tet Offensive was basically a North Vietnamese version of "The Night of the Long Knives," a purge of certain elements? The North Vietnamese Army basically set the Viet Cong up to be slaughtered by the Americans, to get them out of the way.

More later. I'm still hoping that I might hear something today, I will contact them if I haven't heard anything by Thursday.

The Obligatory Year in Review....

2010 could have been worse considering that I was unemployed the entire year. Things have worked out to where I will be able to get the full amount of unemployment benefits. My wife got a job which is good in some ways [income] bad in others [getting more and more entrenched in a place where we don't want to live and where I can't seem to find a job.]

On the job searching front, I estimate that I applied to at least 120-130 jobs. I had eleven interviews. Out of those, I have probably had a legitimate shot at two of the jobs for which I'd interviewed [the casino job, and this last accounting firm job that I am still holding out some hope for.]

My weight loss hasn't been that successful. The only positive is that I have not gained all of it back yet, and if I start now my weight loss program can continue with me still being about 25-30 pounds less than when I started in fall of 2009.

I didn't visit my family in 2010 at all, although my parents visited me over the summer. This is the longest period I've ever gone without coming home, I haven't been there in around sixteen months.

I am hoping 2011 is kinder to us, and that I can either find a job soon, or that we can be moved to a place where I can be back in the workforce by the end of the year.