Quest for Job

So I ambled on down to the Career Center in Clarksville because I could not figure out how to apply for their job listings via the website.

And, I found out that you have to show up at the Center to apply!

I filled out the two pages, front and back, application and returned to the line to hand over my papers. Along with SS card and a picture ID. I was again sent back to the tables to read the "job openings" and list up to and only three jobs that I am interested in.

I quickly filled those in, since I had identified them earlier in the day on their web site, and returned to the line to once again, hand in my "application".

I was told to sit down and wait till until my name was called.

With a heavy heart, I sought out a chair that was not attached to one of the round tables that supported the books with the job openings and the desperate people. Myself, being one of them.

A guy sitting at the nearest table smiled at me and raised one of his eyebrows. Isn't that the secret signal for "I am a smart aleck"? I smiled back and as I sat I asked him how long he had been waiting.

"I came in at 1 and signed in, had lunch and came back."

Since I am unemployed I have stopped wearing a watch. Isn't it funny those things that are ritual and second nature are quickly thrown aside and forgotten. So I had no watch to look at to see what time it was and how long he had been waiting. I sighed.

We had a nice chat and I learned a lot of important and relevant things. One being that the local University, Ausin Peay, is offering a special degree for people wanting to gain employment with the MEGA corporation that is building THE MEGA factory on the north side of town. If I understood, you need some sort of Chemical Business degree. He stated that he already had a business degree which made it OK for me to state I had a college degree too! He thought that if you already had a four year degree, getting a two year Associate Degree in their Chemical Business curriculum wouldn't be too difficult.

And so it went until my name was called. In surprise I marched towards the counter...again....and the semi interrogation began.

In the middle of it she says, "I see from your drivers license that you are from Indiana. I am too."

(Not we all know that I am from Kentucky and that because of my husbands job(s) we were transferred to Ft Wayne in 2005 and then to Louisville in 2007, elected to buy a home across the river, and therefore are technically only Hoosier.)

"Where abouts?" I asked.

"Up around Ft. Wayne."

Now here I am, 500 miles from Ft Wayne, the only place in Indiana I truly have lived and meet up with a bureaucrat in the Career Center of Clarksville Tennessee who hails from the same area.

And Indiana is a big state with lots and lots of people.

"You have to be kidding" I gush, "We were living in New Haven!" (a township that is part of Ft Wayne)

"Get out! I had my hair done in New Haven! At Duce."

"No way!!Me too! Who? Not Micheal!"

"Yes! Michael!!!"

I'm telling you, the longer I live, the smaller the world becomes. (I hope it helps me get a job.)