*sigh* I suppose SOME of it seems accurate.  Doesn't look so good for the job hunt though...lol.  "Crazy ideas"?  Who, me?  lol  "Anyone who will listen?"  Yup.  And even those who wish I would just shut up.   Hmmm, now to find an employer who will hire me to "express my unique self".  Not terribly likely.  Or at least not in any job I'd actually WANT.  : P

Your Life Path Number is 3

Your purpose in life is to express your unique self. You are a creative and artistic person with an interesting view on life. Witty and outgoing, you enjoy sharing your crazy ideas with anyone who will listen. A total social butterfly, you're the life of any party. In love, you inspire and enchant your partner. You are often an object of fantasy and desire. While you are very talented, you sometimes lack the ambition to put your talents in play. And while your wit carries you a long way, you occasionally use it to mask your true feelings. Your natural abilities can bring you all the success in the world ... if you let them

The job search goes on, with much help from some rennie and non-rennie friends (you guys are great!).  The resume evolves on a daily basis.  I have resume on the brain.

Today, a job turned up online that I had applied for, interviewed for (twice), and ALMOST got.  The reason I didn't get it was because they decided to post it internally, and ended up with an internal candidate.  Well, I guess that must not have worked out.  I sent in my resume, and they called my agency a couple of hours later, asking about my availability and interest.  My answer, "YES"!  Don't care about the hours, duration of assignment, or much else.  It is fresh experience on my resume, and one heck of a lot better than what I am doing now!  I am hoping I get it and can start ASAP!

**Udate:  I have an interview for the job tomorrow, the THIRD.  But they are interviewing other candidates as well.  *sigh*  Pretty please... **

In other news, I don't much care what else Governor Rell does, she's OK in my book.  As of August 1, there is health insurance (including prescription coverage) available for adults in Connecticut, at a reasonable rate.  I'm sure it won't be the greatest coverage in the world, but it's better than nothing!  Anyone who wants it can get it, and the cost is on a sliding scale based on income.  That is a big relief for me, since my COBRA coverage expires on July 31, and individual medical coverage is out of the question for me.  The only other option in CT is to go into an individual coverage "risk pool".  The cost for that is astronomical (it's based on age and sex), and it doesn't offer prescription coverage.  For anyone else who is interested, the new insurance plan is called Charter Oak Healthcare, and you can look it up online.

So, things seem to be (dare I say it?) improving?  *smile*

Yup.  I did.  It was the Crimson Pirates CD release party at Ireland's, and it was a lot of fun.  I didn't drive back that night, since I was staying at the Tux.  The place was absolutely PACKED!  Good to see lots of old friends, new friends from the LI Pirate Fest, and meet some new people, too.  And awesome to pack up the car WITHOUT camping gear, garb, and all that other crap.  Yeah, it was worth it!

More job woes.  This is getting very, very discouraging.  Not that it hasn't been already.  I have been sending out resumes regularly, for all types of jobs for which my skills and experience could somehow be a match.  I have resorted to temp agencies.  *sigh*  They promise jobs that match my skills.  They sort of kind of lie a bit.

I take all of their tests.  I mean ALL.  Typing.  I now can confirm that my typing skills have in fact NOT degraded over the years, and I CAN in fact still type an accurate 65 wpm.  My excell and word skills are way more than adequate.  Detail skills, comprehension and problem solving skills, way up there.  But do these agencies actually HAVE any jobs for me.  Long answer, maybe.  Short answer, not really at this time, and maybe not at all.  Sure, they all want me to come in, take tests, fill out paperwork.  One says they have a company who is interested, and has a benefits job, and is willing to consider a half-decent salary.  But they won't be ready to interview until JULY.  July?  *sigh*  So there sort of maybe might be a job sometime in July.  Could I work as an administrative assistant?  Maybe.  I haven't done that type of work since I first graduated from college back in 1992.  I worked my way through college doing that, and legal secretarial work.  I had to BEG to get an admin job when I graduated college.  Overqualified, no one wanted to hire me, because they figured I'd bail when something better came around.  But the same as it is now, I needed a steady income.  I figured my college degree was my ticket out of the secretarial pool.  It wasn't.

Thanks to a great boss, who saw my potential, I got an opportunity to move over to Human Resources.  Thank you Bill Butler wherever you are.  It wasn't easy, trial by fire, pretty much, but I made it.  Worked my way up.  But up the ladder wasn't so great.  HR is pretty cuthroat.  I'm an ethical person.  I lost much sleep over things I was asked to do.  Subtly push out older, higher paid employees so that they can be replaced by younger (lower paid) ones.  Sneak changes into benefit plans that employees won't really notice (until something major happens).  Look for loopholes that allow for people to be terminated without violating laws put in to protect employees from that very thing.  I wasn't happy.

So, I decided to change careers.  My whole family pretty much works in education.  My favorite part of HR was always helping out employees with issues and problems.  That stuff made my day.  So I figured school counseling would be a good fit.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasted a great need for school counselors starting in 2008, when Baby Boomers were set to retire.  I spent four years getting the degree, 60 graduate credits.  That's 20 classes, at close to $1,000 each.  I did a 10-month 30-hour per week unpaid internship.  It wasn't easy.  I got a job.  All I wanted from my new job was to do it well, help some adolescents in need, and go about my merry way.  No dreams of grandeur.  I didn't want to be a supervisor, or in charge of anyone.  Just do my job, do it well, and that's it.  But I got dealt a bad hand, took the wrong first job, and it all just came crashing down.  As I've mentioned before, 85 applicants for one job lately.  Increasingly, schools are asking that counselors also hold a teaching certificate.  I don't have one, and getting one at this point is pretty much impossible.  So, all the time and expense of the Masters Degree have gotten me nowhere.  It truly does break my heart.

So, here I am, with a 60-graduate credit Masters Degree, in a field that is totally saturated, and getting more competitive by the moment.  My skills in the old career are stale.  I'm overqualified for administrative jobs, not that there are many of those lately anyhow.  I worked doing that for many years, and got plenty of education so that I wouldn't have to do that anymore.  I got a masters degree so that I wouldn't have to work in Human Resources anymore.  But what I have here, is a dead end.  Counseling is a no-go.  My HR skills are stale, as are my Administrative skills, although my test results prove I'm still pretty darn capable.

Bottom line, it really breaks my spirit to be basically begging someone to hire me for the same type of job I thought I could get myself out of by virtue of educating myself.  I was top of my class as an undergraduate.  Top of my class as a graduate student.  I'm capable, I have plenty of skills and experience, I'm reliable.  But I'm not hireable.  The fact that I am no spring chicken doesn't help matters, either.  I just don't fit.  I will keep trying, of course, but it is so disheartening, and it seems like such a waste.  I have a wide variety of skills and experience.  I am efficient, reliable, and honest.  I can handle just about anything that gets thrown at me, and still make a deadline.  I learn new jobs, programs and whatever easily, I'm very adaptable.  If given a chance, I would make someone an excellent employee.  If given a chance.  Just one chance.

I know that there are plenty of others out there just like me.  Educated, smart, capable.  The job market is tough, and getting tougher.  We will be the ones with no health insurance.  The ones with houses in foreclosure.  The ones who can't afford oil this winter.  You probably won't hear much about us.  We're too proud.  We're bewildered.  This isn't how everyone said this would work.  Education is supposed to be the key to a better life, a better job.  It doesn't necessarily work that way.

So, if you see me out and about, and I seem a bit cranky, or a bit off, maybe cut me a bit of slack.  Yeah, I got here due to choices I made.  They seemed to be sound, logical choices at the time.  But, life doesn't always work by logic, and you have to deal with what you get the best you can.  But it ain't easy.  And right now, for me, it's a very frightening place to be.

For those of you who have jobs, as much as you may say they are annoying and frustrating, I'd trade places with you right now.  Count yourself lucky.

It was GREAT!  I know, I know, I almost always have something nice to say about EVERY faire I visit, and I almost always come on here and blog about how fun it was.  But this time, I'm really not exaggerating.  For those of you who missed it, I'm sorry.   To Ye Pirate Brotherhood, congratulations, you did it.  There were some problems with the edged weapons and the black powder (park rangers don't know these types of regs that well, apparently), but things got straightened out, and all was well.  The gate numbers were over 3,000 each day, the vendors were happy, the musical entertainment was excellent, the patrons seemed happy, too.  Great success for a first year faire!

The drive up to LI was pretty easy, we had a few stops to make, had to pick up a tent from Butch in So. CT, do some shopping, etc.  We arrived at the State campground at about 3, and attempted to set up the borrowed tent.  That took a while, as we had no instructions, but we managed.  And lo and behold, who arrived at the camping site across from us?  Pat and Angela from Silvermane.  I am sure that Pat was glad to be camping next to me (sarcasm).  The plan was to help set up the hostel, Sara P thought they would be arriving on the 3:30 ferry, but that was a miscommunication, so when we showed up at the faire site, they were pretty much done setting up.  We went to dinner via GPS, which took us all on some kind of winding journey to the restaurant.  Finished with some drinks back at the campsite, and then off to sleep.

Saturday's weather was humid and hot, but nice.  Spent most of the morning minding the hostel, and talking with everyone who visited.  Took a short walk around, until I got to the Silvermane tent.  They were swamped, with a set-up that needed three people, and they only had two.  *sigh*  I SAID I wasn't going to work.  I did, but only for a short time.  They sold out of almost everything kid-related, it looked like a horde of short barbarians had pillaged the booth.  I wish I could have worked more, but I felt like the heat was getting to me a bit, and I am now in deathly fear of heatstroke after last weekend.  I figure once per season is more than enough.  At the very least, I was in the booth and Angela could go and see the Brigands play Scott/Sarum's tribute.  I really would have liked to hear it myself, but there will be other times.  We all went for dinner at Hooters, including The Brigands and the Bawdy Buccaneers, and there was singing of bawdy songs.  We didn't get thrown out.  The rain and thunder started when we were leaving the restaurant.  Sara and I were afraid for our tent, since the rain fly that came with was not very sturdy looking.  The rain was coming down in buckets.

When we got back to the campsite, our fears were realized.  It was raining in half of the tent (my half).  Sara's half was a bit better.  I shoved all my stuff into the car, while she relocated hers.  I grabbed a Mojito out of the cooler and pointed to a tarped area where I saw lights and heard pirate songs.  I'm going over there.  I walked on in and said, "Is this the relocation area for pirates whose tents have flooded?"  The answer was yes, and so we began drinking and singing with the pirates of the Drunken Ferret.  What else to do when your tent has flooded, and it's raining buckets, thundering and lightening?  The drinking continued while reports continued to come in of flooded tents and floating air matresses.  The tarp fell down quite a few times due to inebriated persons tripping over the support ropes.  I broke out the hookah pipe and some El Amir peach and we had a smoke.  A certain crew member burnt some garb trying to dry it out over a barbeque.  I'm quite sure we were all very much too loud for the neighbors.  The rain finally stopped by about 1:30 a.m., and I managed to set up my small backpacking tent in the light of my car headlights (with a bit of help from a very nice pirate, I might add).  I am very glad I brought it, and my camping pad, it never hurts to have a back-up plan.  So, after a playing a few pirate games ; ) it was off to bed by about 2:30.

The morning was rough.  A giant tent to pack, full of water.  Sara P was great.  She let me sleep and took care of most of the wet gear.  We didn't make gate, which I know dissappointed her, but I knew I would have a very long drive after breakdown, and needed some sleep.  We got the car packed up by 11:00, and were at faire shortly after.  Breakdown of the hostel started almost immediately, as we started to get a bit of a storm coming in.  I saw 10 minutes of the Brigands show, bought their newest CD, and was able to get in the "all pirates" picture.  That's about it.  So much for being a patron, but I was glad I was able to help out at the hostel.  The amount of work it takes to put that thing together is amazing.  I still feel like I didn't do enough.  The hostel fed, watered and took care of the cast and crew for the entire weekend, which is no easy thing to do.  They make it LOOK easy, but it sure as hell is NOT.  I was able to help by finding "manpower" to move heavy things.  I'm good like that.  The Captain of the Drunken Ferret came looking for me to find out where her missing crew members were.  I said I didn't do anything with them THIS AFTERNOON...lol.   Yep, trouble, I am.   We finally got everything packed in by about 7:15, and were off for home.  The traffic on the LIE was pretty bad.  We made it home by about midnight, I was exhausted. 

Will I be back next year?  Most definately!  Wouldn't miss it!