A Damn Fine Rut.

I am officially classified as a House Husband. Its a sugarcoated way of saying that I don't have a job. Yes, I'm unemployed. I am, however, employable. There are many skills and masteries that I have from previous jobs. Yes, I said jobs. No career yet, as I haven't found anything that really sparks my interest or passion.

My past is littered with interesting jobs. Mainly, I've been involved with sales. Out of college I blindly moved to Indiana with my then fiancee, who was attending grad school there. I took one of the first jobs I came across: A Home Wellness Consultant. Ok. Now make a list in your head of what a Home Wellness Consultant is and does. When I heard that, I assumed that it was checking for mold inside houses or looking for possible dangers inside sick peoples' homes. But knowing our world, you can easily guess that his is a completely bullshit title. The person who made my position name was the same person who called garbage men "sanitation engineers." The job was to sell vacuum cleaners. Door-to-door. A door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman.

I can't begin to tell you how much this job sucked. Regardless, it gave me a really thick skin. No one wants to hear about vacuum cleaners, so you're hit with a lot of "no's". I was still able to get into many houses, and made quite a few sales. It was great experience, but the pay was awful, thanks to my crooked boss who hit me for all kinds of absurd fees with each check. While I was barely making it, he was buying new things and taking vacations. I knew he was screwing me over, so I left to get another job. I just jumped from one job to another, and I was able to do that for 4 years.

Now that we've moved from Indiana, I'm still searching for jobs in Pennsylvania. The area I'm in is supposedly designated as a HUB by the US Department of Labor. (HUB = Highly Underutilized Business Area. They didn't want to say "HUBA" because that's not appropriate.) In a nutshell, it sucks to be looking for a job here because the businesses aren't really doing well. My job search is even more difficult because of my parents. God, I love my parents. They do their damnest to help out, but they're a little hasty in their efforts.

Being and only child is both a privilege and a curse. Now, I'm seeing parts of the curse. My parents have joined my job search, mainly by using the Internet and other contacts that they've established. The big problem is the searches they've sent me. The titles of the jobs are fantastic, and the descriptions are great. Unfortunately, they've neglected to check that the jobs are in close proximity to me. Yesterday I got jobs from Atlanta, GA. I said something to my parents, and the results were a little better today: Reading, PA. and Media, PA.... which are both over 5 hours away.

Now how's that for a commute.

I think its off to a temp agency. Any semblance of pride that I had is now kind of shot. I've been a house husband for about 4 months now, and I'm really, really sick of sitting at home. I have plenty of little projects to work on, but its just not the same as helping to support the household. I did run across a fantastic prospect today... and let me tell you that this is the most premier job in this entire area...

Crossing Guard for little kids. Seasonal. (With the school year, so I get summers off! YEAH!) Must have reliable transportation. (But, if I'm a crossing guard, what's stopping me from walking? No cars are going to go through me! I have an orange sash and a flag that says "STOP!") The best part: the pay! $6.75 per hour! Holy crap! I'd be able to afford things off of a dollar menu. (Sadly, the hours are from 7:30am - 8:30am and from 2:30pm to 3pm M-F. Big dollars be damned.)

I'm so screwed.