somebody just offer me a job, already

7/28/99

It’s just way too hot. Again. I went swimming this morning at nine—it’s the only time when the pool’s empty of shrieking children. I hate walking outside in the mornings. There’s a funny smell hanging in the air, as though something that cooked in the heat of the day before is now rotting. By noon the smell has burned off again, but in the morning the air is tired and cranky.

The water in the pool is quite warm. The pool is unusual, painted black instead of blue, so the water is dark, and it’s artistically shaped, with swirled contours and little fountains. Not conducive to lap-swimming, so I bobbed back and forth in the widest part for a while.

John came home from lunch and warned me about the heat index. A member of his band lost a pet last night—the animal was outdoors for about 20 minutes. I had to keep Julie in for the afternoon. Not a difficult task, really—she’s fallen in love with the underside of our bed and she stays there from about 11 am to 6 or 7 pm. Our heat index is expected to be around 115 degrees for the next couple of days.

Didn’t stop me from going out for my daily meandering. I drove up to Watson Rd. and looked for a job, half-heartedly. I checked out a couple of music stores. One of them didn’t even bother to advertise a band instrument section, they admit to being a guitar store. (Most “instruments/lessons/repairs” stores are just guitar and drum stores, even when they say “band instruments.” That just means they have a rack of valve oil and sax accessories.) The other store was a guitar store with the requisite rack of brass polishing cloths. I considered applying there because they had a dog running around in the store, but he had rheumy eyes and the store owner wasn’t so friendly.

I went into a used bookstore., thinking I’d apply for a job if it looked promising. It didn’t. There were two older women sitting in a little living room area, reading. They were totally shocked when I came in, and totally shocked when I bought something. While I was paying, the younger of the two women asked me what I was doing in that part of town. We had a confusing exchange in which I thought she was offering me a job and she thought...well, hell, I don’t know what she thought. She was weird. But she took my name and number and I think she’s giving it to someone who’s hiring. Whatever.

I drove past the bakery that advertised positions. Problems with the bakery: 1. it’s retail. 2. probably minimum wage. 3. do I really need to be working in a place with cookies and cakes all day? don’t think so. What I’m doing is saving the bakery as an option. I will attempt to get a job there only after they’ve stopped hiring, mark my words.

I also contacted the Macon Symphony—turns out I “just missed” a position on the staff of the orchestra. Well, fuck me. Tomorrow I’ll be all cool and say that it wasn’t meant to be, but for today I’m bitter.

So, no more luck on a job, except that I’m sending my curriculum vita out to a few places. I did buy three books and a box of thank you notes, so I’m in the hole already.