I'd Have Typed My Resume Until My Fingers Bled

I apologize for my absence, but I've got a good excuse - all of my time on the Internet was spent in a crash attempt at getting a job.

The reason: My parents told me in the second week of June that if I didn't have a job and thus the ability to pay for my own gas money to get to and from school this fall (note: I drive a twenty-year-old minivan with no working overdrive, and it's 78 miles per day round-trip), they wouldn't pay for my tuition since they can't afford to cover both and I can't exactly get to school without my car.

The catch: My first tuition payment is due on July 14th.

This left me with five weeks to find a job...and I'd already been looking since my brief love affair with a Halloween store ended at the beginning of November. I'll admit I'd been lazier about it than I should have been, but still...this was going to be rough, especially considering...

My job history: My first job was obtained accidentally. No, really. I showed up to make some cash as a one-day dishwasher in a hotel because a friend's mom worked there and the illegal Russian dishwashers had been deported. Next thing I knew, I was filling out an application in HR and eloquently talking my way into a job as a banquet server.

I adored that job, but all good things must end, and the hotel closed. So then I worked at a Dairy Queen for a little over 3 months, during which I gained 15 pounds and then was gradually given fewer hours and mysteriously dropped from the schedule.

Skip forward six months of spending my parents' money on dates with my ex, and I spent a month in a Halloween store, singing the Powerpuff Girls theme song and wearing my Chucks to work. But October can only last so long.

But back to the challenge: I don't have accurate numbers for the whole thing, but in the last week of applying, I put in 31 job applications.

I got two phone calls about interviews. Two. As in, two places out of more than thirty-one bothered to contact me in any capacity at all.

"That's okay," I told my mother, "I only need one job."

I got a haircut, got nervous, got dressed in the most classy "casual business" attire I've ever worn, and...I got the first job I interviewed for.

So that's big news for me (and this blog), because I don't need to go sell a kidney on the black market or anything crazy like that to pay my fall tuition.