I am officially again a member of the rank-and-file. I have, for the time being, escaped the crack into which I had fallen three months prior. Starting next Wednesday, I will be working with a friend of mine at HMS Online in their fulfillment department, writing scripts and generating data files. After just over four months, I'll be back to work.

I don't think I ever really appreciated how much I enjoyed working until I wasn't. It seems strange to me even now to say it, but it's true. Lacking a job was an incredibly stressful situation. If I had been independently wealthy, maybe I would've enjoyed it, but I wasn't and I'm still not and I won't be for quite some time, though I am putting into motion a plan to fix that. It should only take me fifteen years. At least it's not get-rich-quick.

The job actually sounds like the sort of thing I could really get into doing. It's not high-scale project development, but in a sense I'll be in direct and total control of every project that comes across my desk, and I'll be responsible for the resultant work that goes out to clients. It feels a little like being back at Intervoice, when I would get projects and be the sole developer on them from beginning to end. They weren't this large-scale, but it's the same basic idea.

Mostly, I'm just glad to have a regular income again. Sucking on the  government tit is not only embarrassing, it's demoralizing. I know at any point I could've gone and gotten a day-job at McSlavey's or ReichBurger or GreedMart or whatever, but I think if I had I would've taken a massive hit to my self-esteem, an even larger one than I had when I lost my job. It really did hit me pretty hard, a fact I struggled not to let affect me greatly, but it was hard.

In fact, the only thing about this job that I have to say I don't  like from the outset is the fact that I'm taking what amounts to over a twenty percent paycut from my last job. However, considering it's a twenty percent increase over my unemployment benefits which end in two months, I'm not going to complain too loudly. Plus, they've already said that in six months I'm up for a performance-based salary review, and that if they keep me at that time I should be seeing a substantial pay increase. It still won't be what I was getting before, but it's a lot better than nothing.

Plus, the work itself promises to be fun. Having seen the stress through which my coworker-to-be has had with the position, "fun" doesn't seem like the most appropriate word. However, now we'll both be working with someone we know, which is always a plus. The workload will be divided between us, which will be good for him. This sounds at least on the surface like the kind of work I'm bound to enjoy, which is a definite plus. To top it all, I've met some of the other coworkers at the company, and they all seem like good people and apparently I made a good impression on them. 

I can't wait to start.

---

Sadly, no good deed ever goes unpunished, and to make up for my happiness in getting a job, the newish car that Tanya secured for me has decided to return to its state of unhappiness at existence in general. Shortly after I got it, it died at one point and refused to start. I had it towed to the mechanic's and he fixed it. After that, it started but every so often it would stall and refuse to start for ten minutes afterwards. I drove it to the mechanic's that time, and they again fixed it. About a week after that, it started stalling on me again, but every time it stalled I was able to start it immediately without issue, so even though I considered this a great annoyance, I told myself I would get it fixed at such time as I had a job with which to pay for the repairs.

Today it stalled on me again as I was taking Jessie to work, and it again wouldn't start after it died. Further, when it did start after dying, it died again when I dropped it from park into drive. It did this four times getting it to Jessie's workplace. Then it stalled again getting it home.

This seems almost too cosmically coincidental for works. Nightshade, if you did anything recently to get rid of your 2x4, I think I know where it went. Damn thing won't leave me alone.

It's never died on a freeway, so I think I can trust the engine. However, at this point I don't think I can trust anything else on the car. I'm going to take it to my mechanic one last time and ask them to find everything on the
car that needs to be fixed and get an estimate for the repairs. I have another vehicle that I can borrow from a friend in the meantime, and hopefully either I'll find out that the repairs are within a reasonable margin, or I'll find
out they're not and can get another car as a replacement.

Maybe I can trade the Acclaim back to Tanya for the Lincoln she was going to give me in the first place. *grin*