Thursday, May 20, 2010

Tumultuous Times

Life feels like it's traveling at the speed of light right now.  I'm working two part time jobs and awaiting word on something a lot more permanent.  Job one with the highway project is rapidly drawing to a close.  My return to the highway project these last five months has been highly gratifying.  I've been successful in putting out little fires and helped put together the finishing touches on a great scrap book compiled by my old partner in crime Dave Parks.

The scrap book is so good I wouldn't mind having a copy myself.  It's full of dozens of articles, several written by yours truly, all of the videos I shot, wrote and wonderfully voiced and edited by Mr. Parks, and all of the massive public information effort we put into the job for the public and the media.  Dave even got me up to speed with editing on the lap top before he left.  Even though I had done non-linear editing before this was a different beast but once I got into it I had fun.

Even my blog about my return to the highway gig caught the eye of a Canadian journalist with the Toronto Globe and Mail.  She interviewed me yesterday about what it's like returning to a job you've been laid off from.  The article is supposed to be in next Tuesday's paper.

My other job is a two pronged gig with the U.S. Census.  I work as an assistant crew leader and an enumerator.  Enumerators are the folks who go pounding on doors trying to get forgetful and sometimes reluctant folkss to fill out their census.  I actually like knocking on the doors because by and large the people I meet are super nice.  I've had less than a handful of nasty encounters.  I took an oath, an oath I take very seriously about not revealing details of the work that I'm doing so I can't go into more detail.

The assistant crew leader part is pretty much shuffling paper.  You try and catch other people's mistakes before it gets kicked up the ladder.  Needless to say I've learned a lot and I'm still learning.  The census job may not last more than another month and by then the job on the highway project will most certainly be over so I'll be back to the ranks of the unemployed.

I'm hoping against hope that I do well enough with the census gig that they keep me around because there will be plenty of clean up work that should last well into the summer.  I'm just trying to save as much money as I can for the possibility of lean times ahead.  I'm even covering a high school football game next week.  Yes, Florida has spring ball just like Texas!

The unnerving part for me is the current state of my job searching efforts.  Hopefully in another week or so I'll know my fate and will be able to share more.  I usually take this sort of stuff in stride but for the last 24 hours I've been on pins and needles.  I don't know if some sort of panic has set in or what but this too will pass.  All I can do is the leg work and I know my efforts will eventually pay off.

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