Job hunting continues for us both. One day, I woke up to a phone call from a woman from personnel at a local company, who said they received my resume, and asked if I was still in the market. She said Mr. Johnson would call me later that day for a telephone interview. I waited by the phone all day, but no call ever came. The next day, I contacted the company, but there was no Mr. Johnson. I didn’t know what to think. I must have made the whole thing up in a dream, because they never did call me again, or ever I guess, for that matter. After that, I decided to make some cash and kill time, and started waitressing at a Greek diner in Jersey. The restaurant owner was a short, fat, greasy man who kept hitting on me, saying he wanted to make a baby together. When I left, I told him that I had to quit because my husband didn’t want me working. I figured I’d go with something he could comprehend.
In October, I started working at a very small company in Philly. The owner is quirky at best. When I first got there, his employees were still mad because he had gotten behind in payroll when he used the money to buy and scalp Live Aid concert tickets over the summer. My job was supposed to be as a temporary replacement for the office manager on maternity leave, and then transition to being a programmer when she returned. The reality is the company is so small, that everybody is everything. I even clean the toilets because nobody else will do it; the bathroom was disgusting. Shipments received are all on COD because the company’s credit is shot. I have to dodge phone calls from bill collectors all day. He has a few clients but is mainly counting on getting a government contract we just put in a bid for, to build portable computers for use by the military in the field.
I’m looking for another job to get out of the mad house of cards about to fall, and Lou’s looking to get out of Price Waterhouse, because he’s frustrated that he does all the work and more senior people take all the credit; someone literally took Lou’s name off a report he had prepared. Now they want him to go on a long-term assignment in Washington, DC, on a project similar to one he recently completed at the Philadelphia Mint. He thinks it will suck and doesn’t want to go. His manager has been trying to coach him to be more cooperative, and called Lou a one-man band, and told him that he can’t just take his bat and ball and go home when he doesn’t like how the game is going. Lou contended that he could, and he would. His previous manager assessed that when Lou liked what he was doing, nobody could do a better job, but when he didn’t like it, there was nobody who could do it worse. That’s why it was time for him to move on before, and why it’s time again now. He didn’t argue with either manager’s feedback, because he knows they are right. We joke about the one-man band thing all the time. When he gets going about his work issues, I’ll pretend I’m playing a trumpet and banging symbols between my knees. It makes him laugh.