Jobs

My ex-roomate has this tumor in her foot that's been horrible to her for some months now. As she is a veteran of the good old US Army, she has health insurance through them (she has other insurance but it isn't as comprehensive AND if she uses it at all, the VA will cut all her benefits... gotta love their loyalty to their soldiers). It's taken them approx. 4-5 months to finally get her set up with a Dr.'s appointment about this TUMOR. And being as efficient as they are, rather than have her see an oncologist in town (or in 90-minute away Sacramento or Redding), they give her an appointment in Martinez (4 hours by car). Given the pain driving causes her, this distance is impossible for her, so her husband has to take off work to drive her. This leaves her needing someone to watch her two young children, pick them up from school, etc. Enter me.

I've nothing better going on Thursday (yesterday), so when she asks the favor on Tuesday, I happily agree to help out, especially given how ridiculous the US government is being about treating one of its veterans.

Fast forward to Wednesday. I've been waiting all summer for news of whether I'd have a teaching job again this year. I was approached about it in May, and have heard nothing since--to the point I've resigned myself to just continuing the TA job in the agriculture department (where the pay is actually better and the job is more stable). So Wednesday, just before the closing of business hours, I get ab E-MAIL from the head of my section of the English Dept. to officially offer me the job, and let me know I would need to be at a special meeting the following morning (Thursday) from nine to noon.

How preposterous is that? I've worked for the guy for two years before losing my job to budget cuts last year. He knows I can't just drop everything with zero notice, and has my home number. Why I had to get an e-mail when it was too late to even reply that day is beyond me.

So, as should be obvious, I had to reply that I wouldn't be at the meeting, as I would be busy caring for the young children of my ex-roomate on her ridiculously distant trip to the doctor. And so, I didn't go to the meeting. And so, I don't expect I'll actually have the job.

But wait, there's more. So now it's Thursday. The doctors know she's coming from Chico and they know how far Chico is. So they wait until a half hour before her appointment to call her cellphone and tell her they need to cancel her appointment because they only scheduled her for fifteen minutes and would actually need a half hour. Excuse me, but how fucked is that? They didn't check their logs early enough to save her from wsting eight hours on the road? They couldn't have squeezed her in (what's fifteen minutes more at a doctor visit)? So now she has to go through the whole ordeal all over again.


In other news, I hate spaghetti. Today on 30 Minute Meals Rachael Ray had a spaghetti with meatballs recipe that actually made me eager to try it out. That'll be sometime next week. Tonight is MY family-famous enchiladas.