No, not yet.

Well, so much for the answer to the question "Hey Rich, you get a job yet?".  Apparently, while I was both ideally and over qualified for the job I was seeking a week and a half ago, either that employer evaporated into thin air or within seconds of my departure my resume, cover letter and related paperwork burst into flames and the resulting fire burned the place down.  Either way I am in the limbo of not knowing my status and it has me on a very unnerving place for me: an emotional rollercoaster.

I hate this.  I don't hate many things in life but I hate this.  I have been thought the wringer this unemployment period and there is NO LOGICAL EXPLANATION WHY.  It's ridiculous that a 45-year old man cannot find employment that is better than shift work, work where you have to be on call 24/7 or work that is better suited to teenagers or young adults who are in the stage of life where everything is a first or a "welcome to the real world" learning experience.

Having this much time off in unemployment also gets the conspiracy theorist going in me.  Chief among those theories is the dime that may (or may not) be dropped about me by my last place of employment.  They are, as you know, evil incarnate.  They may be all bright, shiny and new now but they are still a money-grubbing, for-profit agency that is not as much concerned about the people under their roof and whether or not they will turn out decent, but they are concerned about the pile of money that each pile of flesh represents.

They may have slapped a big glob of shine on it, but that place is still a big smelly turd in the corrections business and no, I don't care who knows it at this point.  That said, even with the big gut-punch they took in January may have brought reality into their little slice of fantasy land, their trustworthiness to stick to the law with regards to what they can and cannot say about their former employees is in serious question, given the number of jobs I have applied for in "the business" is next to nil, in soccer terms.

One of my fellow vanquished from that organization used the term "stigmata" to describe it, and while I disagree with the religious implications of the term (considering the fellow who uttered the term was an atheist), it's accurate for the most part.

It's really hard to NOT sound bitter in these entries, (as if you can't tell).  But in this case it's more the fact that I do not know...that I have not received the standard "thanks but no thanks" refusal indication from this employer.  Nevertheless, since said employer is in the business...that is on the going out side as opposed to the taking in and retaining...it has my conspiratorial thoughts a-flying.  Like the employer calling up my former supervisor, who would immediately forward it to the company's human resources department, (under orders, which would be his excuse), and they would do the actual "dime dropping I talked about earlier.

The result would be the big red X that I have been experiencing for the past 30 months.  Since in the annals of the Avalon Correctional Services company history, I am doubtlessly on the same level as Judas Iscariot, Lee Harvey Oswald, and the Wicked Witch of the West when it comes to my employment with them.  

Not necessarily in that order.

Never mind that they fight your unemployment to further punish you...as if firing me wasn't punishment enough for passing all my evaluations, and making the unforgivable mistake of losing a piece of paper.

Again, I'm not bitter. 

Hopefully there is good news forthcoming.  We'll see.