The Inevitable Truth

It is quite incredible how time can get away from you. I am amazed at how the days will drag, but the weeks and months fly by. At this point in time, Anthony and I are giddy with excitement that the Idaho State Fair opens next weekend, and that means one thing. Food, food and more food. I am in fact so excited that I had a full blown fantasy about tearing into a behemoth roasted turkey leg one of the fair booths provides to the hungry fair-goers. Rest assured, once we enter the fair grounds and lay our hands on one of these mouth watering creations, another post and picture will come along.

Truth be told, I have been dreading this post, and have been finding any possible excuse to postpone the inevitable. This year has been a bit rough for Anthony and I, and no one wants to be a downer, but I've had many requests for an update, so here goes.

In December, the timing belt on my car went bad while it was sitting in the driveway and managed to cause all sorts of damage. In fact, the damage caused was so bad that we've been rebuilding the engine since Christmas time, and are still working on it. Anthony is amazing and knows how to work on VW's, so he's been the one doing all the work, while I've been paying for the parts and anxiously awaiting the return of my car. My parents have been incredibly generous and have let me drive one of their cars this entire time so that we didn't have to pay for a rental. Anthony's got the engine completely rebuilt, but the engine has been making a mirade of noises ever since, and it's working out those little kinks that's been taking so long. Hopefully we've figured out what's been causing the latest ticking, and once that's fixed I'll have my Jetta back. Keep your fingers crossed!

One of the other things that happened to me personally is that I've had to job-hop since November of last year, and it's been extremely difficult for me. I was working for a property management company at the beginning of the year and I adored everything about the job. My co-workers, my bosses, the hours, the work, the office...everything. At the end of January, the owners announced that they were selling the business and would be closing their doors at the end of the month. It gave my co-worker and I approximately two weeks to find new jobs. This was difficult for me because I was going to be out of town at the beginning of February, and who is going to hire someone who has to take time off immediately? It pained me to say good-bye to the job, and I still wonder what might have happened had they stayed in business.

I decided to wait to find a job until we'd come back from Florida, partly because I had a tentative job offer. It came as no surprise to me when the job offer fell through, and I began hunting for a job. It took me just over a month to find a job at a company called Qwest Communications. I was working at an in-bound call center as a Customer Service and Sales Associate, which is something I'd never done before. The job paid extremely well, came with benefits and we had weekends off, so I figured I could tough it out until August, when we would be moving. We were required to take 10 weeks of training, at the end of which we were evaluated and either cut loose or offered a job on the floor.

Training was incredibly boring at first. Much like being back in Junior High where the teacher lectures for hours on end and then you're given busy work and homework. Except I was getting paid, of course. It took a few weeks for the group to get comfortable with each other, but once we all opened up it was a blast! Our class got along ridiculously well and I looked forward to work each and every day, and was a bit sad to leave every night. As much as I loved my co-workers and the office however, I could not handle being on the phones all day.

At first, I had no problem. Talking to people has always come naturally to me, so striking up conversations with people who called in was a real treat for me. I would come home with crazy stories for Anthony every night, and I spent a vast majority of my day laughing. One lady I talked to was the first operator in the U.S.! She had incredible story on top of incredible story. (One of them involved Arsinio Hall) Another gentleman entertained me for two hours with Irish folk stories and recommendations on books to read. My trouble started two weeks after I started on the phones, I won't go into details, but suddenly I was having a serious internal struggle with working for the company. My breaking point came when a lady called with a major problem that hadn't been handled properly, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't help her. Being yelled at for an hour straight first thing in the morning isn't the best or easiest way to start your day. After that, it was all downhill, and I began desperately looking for another job.

Thankfully I did find another job and was able to quit Qwest. I'm now working as a data entry specialist for a records company. The work is dull beyond belief and requires no active brain function, but at least it's a job. Technically this is a temporary position, so I've been searching for a job for months with no luck. I'm praying something will pop up in the very near future.

On top of all my job problems, Anthony's been having troubles too. His company hasn't had any work until about three weeks ago, and there has been talk of closing the business. In the meantime, Anthony's been claiming unemployment, but because it's taken so long for the company to start working again, his unemployment for the year has run out. Now we're panicing about what will happen this winter when the company doesn't have work yet again, and Anthony doesn't have unemployment and I'm working a job that couldn't support someone living with their parents and not paying rent. The scooter shop Anthony was working at as a second job closed down a few months ago, so his alternative source of income has run dry. Our hearts go out to our friends who owned the shop, but our concerns are beginning to mount.

And finally, to the news I'm most ashamed to tell. Anthony and I were supposed to be moving to Massachusetts right about now so that I could attend the Hallmark Institute of Photography. All year I've been talking with the financial advisor and filling out mountains of paperwork in an attempt to get as much financial aid as I could for school. When it came time to get the loans I needed, I found out I would need a co-signer other than Anthony in order to get the loans. We talked to my parents for a long time about the school and the loans and asked if they could co-sign. After checking on a few things, my folks weren't able to co-sign on a loan of any amount because of the business. I was (and am) absolutely devestated. I've been looking forward to this adventure for 10 months or more, and suddenly we're staying exactly where we've been for the last two years. It's taken me a long time to get through the mourning process, but I haven't given up hope. My goal is to attend the 2011-2012 school year, and until then I'm trying to get a job or an internship with a local photographer. There is a girl who just graduated from Hallmark, who is an incredible person and has been helping me from afar with my photography and giving me priceless advice. Check her out at www.sararenee.com. She is truly amazing!

I apologize for being such a downer, but like I said, I've had requests for an update, so it had to be done. I promise that the next post will be an upbeat one with lots of pictures!