Quick overview: After being laid off for Memorial Day in 2012, I became homeless at the end of July 2015 — and I stay in different churches each night thanks to an organization called www.Dupagepads.org. It’s not perfect — there are a lot (LOT!) of things they could do to improve PADS, starting with keeping the promises they make to the users (in other words: we are told things work one way, but [Surprise!!] they really don’t.) Still, they arrange to house and feed somewhere between 100 and 150 homeless people almost every night. When your life sucks, it’s nice to have a roof over your head, a blanket over you, and a warm meal in your stomach.
I’ve had part-time jobs (teaching dog classes and watching children after school,) and one full-time job answering phones at a veterinarian’s office. I was fired from that job last February when I directed a caller to go to an Emergency vet because no veterinarians were in the office yet.
September 12 a friend (and past dog class student) contacted me to see if I was still looking for a job. I emailed her my resume, offering to revise it as needed — but she’d already run it by the hiring manager. I had the needed skills, and was asked to apply… But warned that their HR department was somewhere close to useless.
I submitted the application that day and checked with my friend every 7 to 10 days. More than a month later, I received my first email from Lily in the HR department. We arranged a phone call the following Tuesday. That call went exceedingly well. The last question was how much I hoped to be paid. I told her the amount I’d made when laid off but was clear: If the offer was lower, I was MORE than INTERESTED. Lily indicated that she’d hope to get back to me in a couple of days.
Now I had Lily’s contact — after emailing a thank you for the interview, I waited a week and then emailed (and called, but left a voice mail) again. About a week after that, Lily arranged another call. She told me that the job pays about 2/3 of the amount I’d hoped… Which is 100% more than I’m making now, and nearly 1/3 more than I was making at the vet (which included a lot over overtime). Plus, depending on which church I slept at, the drive to and from the vet varied from 20 to 40 miles, one way. The same drives to the new location vary from 3 to 12 miles, one way.
Lily was happy that I was still interested (gimme the job! Gimme the job!!) — and said again that since she was meeting with the hiring manager in ½ an hour, she’d try to get back to me by the following day. *Sigh* That following day was last Wednesday.
Nuthin’.
So, I messaged my friend, and said, I’d really hoped to have a paycheck by Christmas… but now I’m starting to hope to be interviewed before 2020. She (being a dog person) is off to a dog nose work event this weekend (GOOD LUCK, MADISON, AND DEB!!!) and said she’d check when she returns next Tuesday. I also emailed Lily at 4:12 and then turned off my phone to retain the full charge.
When we last spoke, you were planning to speak to the hiring manager within half an hour and hoped to get back to me that day or the next.
I am so excited about this opportunity, and hope we can arrange an interview (in person, perhaps?) soon! I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
sheddhead
Six minutes (!!!!) later, Lily replied, but I didn’t see that reply until after 8 pm.
I hope all is well! I did receive some feedback from the team and they would love to bring you onsite for an interview. Do you have any availability on Monday to meet with the team?
Best,
Lily
Like I said — it was nearly 8:45 before I turned my phone back on (to read and listen to YouTube or West Wing episodes, to block out people talking to themselves overnight, like the VERY drunk lady who was next to me and kept kicking my pad, as she’d walk by to leave the room.)
Lily!!!!!
(Enough exclamation points?)
Name the time on Monday and where I should go.
Thank you,
Barb
I haven’t heard from Lily yet. And OF COURSE, I have an appointment on Monday to work with the financial counselor… I was hoping to be able to keep both appointments, but will gladly cancel the counselor, since I need a job to help my budget make any sense. (I have warned the counselor that I’m waiting for Lily’s follow up...)
That’s where things stand right now regarding the job.
Now onto the Ride Moocher… This is a person I’ve been giving rides every day since before August. She apparently has worked for a week or two at every f*cking place on earth and went back to school to earn a masters in counseling and social work, and to build an ungodly amount of student debt (she’d earned her BA at a local private college using grants, and walked out of there with $400 leftover from the grants, in her pocket...) <-— I should not know that, but Mooch is nothing, if not a “sharer” (and if she runs out of personal stories, “gossip.”)
Now, the past couple of weeks, it has gotten damned cold, and we’ve had snow on the ground for most of the past week. Monday SUCKED, it was so so so cold… and I finally said, “Look. We have this appointment to go to a class at HomeDuPage in the middle of the day on Tuesday, and after dealing with the cold all day, and same scheduled for tomorrow, I don’t want to leave the library at 1, go to the class, then return to the library. I want to arrange the class for another date.”
The Mooch became the Whiner. Part of what had sold her on the classes is that a local food pantry will give away vehicles to people who take four of the classes and go to a counseling session. (According to the lady teaching the classes, it’s 4 classes and 3 counseling sessions.) That PLUS get someone (like a minister) to refer them for a car and have at least $600 in cash to pay to transfer the vehicle and insurance.
We had attended 3 classes and 1 counseling session — so 1 more class, and either she’s done with that requirement, or just has 2 counseling sessions to go. Now, I keep pointing out to her that her last minister said she’d refer her for the car AFTER Mooch earned $600. Mooch earns money taking surveys (which are so important to her that — even if I have told her, “I’m leaving at 5:00 pm”, Mooch will sit at her computer to complete the last survey she started, not making it out to my car until between 5:15 and 5:20 — knowing I’m going to say, “Look, we’ve had this talk before. Next time you’d better be damned certain that the survey you are completing will pay for your Uber to the night’s location...” And she kind of mumbles sorry (but not really) and then talks about the survey — in which I have NO interest, and usually end up pointing my finger at my head and pretend to shoot myself.
At least once.
She is driving me f*cking crazy. I know that. I know people here have mentioned that. I know my sister has said, “It’s really nice you are driving her, but you are not obligated...”
But the Bully goes out of her way to attack Mooch. She makes up crap and just spews it all over. For example, Mooch is using her demons to keep me from getting a job. She prays so that I won’t get a job, and (therefore) can keep driving her. (Since I thought I’d have that job LONG ago, I figured that was as good a reason as any to announce as the reason for ending the rides.)
Here’s the thing. Mooch is a horrible person. She has this social worker training and spends nearly all of the time in the car whining about PADS. I keep saying, “Look, if you hate it that much, LEAVE and find something better.” She constantly talks about people she helps out, offering advice or suggestions on where to get a gift card or whatever — I have told her OVER and OVER that I do not want to hear about people in PADS or just out of PADS — I do not want to be any part of that gossip chain. I do not want to be the person being talked about, and I do not want to be talking about anyone UNLESS I have filed a grievance about them.
So I drive her around from site to forest preserve to library to site, day after day. And she keeps telling the stories about people (and very, very often, the same stories she’s told me repeatedly.) And I keep begging her — BEGGING HER — to stop. And maybe she does, but often she doesn’t. And I keep thinking, “Who the HELL are you to whine about someone in PADS (without your training) for “breaking Hippa” when you do it every freaking day???”
Oh, and her hearing is shit. She smiles and nods, but she does that all the damned time. So when I talk, there’s about an 80% chance that she’ll miss most of what I say, and then she just f*cking makes up the rest. And yes, I get irritated when she says she missed something — but mostly because I’m thinking, “well, how come you didn’t say that the 100 other times I spoke like that...”
On Sunday, I was told by a PADS coordinator that she was my “on-site caseworker,” so I got to grab a pad when the families came in, and then the coordinator was to have dinner with me and discuss how PADS works for me — or not. So, I was sitting at a table after grabbing my pad, and the coordinator sat at another table, and we discussed nothing. Plus, this was the coordinator who came into the lady’s section at a site in August and accused all of the white women of killing Joy — yelling at the top of her decibel range.
So on Wednesday, I asked another coordinator if I could possibly request a different caseworker (such as the lady I was talking to, or a guy I see at 2 sites a week...) — and she told me that the coordinators had been divided into groups of 3, so she would look up and see who else I was assigned to… But she didn’t give me that information.
I explained that to Mooch yesterday morning. Then when we left the library last night, she said she’d talked to her friend Sue. Sue had been in PADS and then got disability and a part-time job with the county. And she’d asked Sue if she knew anything about “counselors being divided into groups of three.”
I said, “What? That has NOTHING to do with what I was talking about, this morning.” She went on to tell me that PADS is down 3 full-time counselors currently — at the day site. NOTHING to do with the coordinators acting as caseworkers. I asked, “HOW can you do this? Do you apply for social work type jobs?” (In part, yes — she’s applying for just about anything, like me.) Again, I asked, “HOW do you think you can do that job? You listen to part of what I say, and make up the rest, and always get the made-up part wrong. On top of that, I have asked you, again and again, to leave me OUT Of the gossip loop -— you even said you were limiting discussions with Sue because she loves gossip — and you took my stuff — real and imagined — RIGHT to Sue? I will NEVER share ANYTHING with you again.”
Yeah, I know — that’s not even possible when the Mooch is latched on like a tick, 24/7. But I was PISSED. And I still am.
This morning she said she’d gotten her and me permission to park up by the entrance of the Thursday night church if there is snow and ice on the long sidewalk to the entrance. And I said, “Thanks, but I’m not planning on going back there — “ and started to explain about how uncomfortable I was with 20 women smashed into 2 small rooms, with Lisa the Thursday Night Drunk on the pad next to me, too inebriated to remember how to turn off her phone — that kept ringing —
And the Mooch started to argue with me — just like she had about the class on Tuesday. And yes, I caved and went to the class on Tuesday. And I might have to go to the same church next week since the alternate church is closed on Thanksgiving (that tends to be a night when lots of people stay in motels). The thing is, if I just stop driving her, The Bully is going to take it for a win. At least if I can stick it out until I get a job (OH PLEASE LET ME GET THAT JOB), it’s under the terms I announced from the start, and when the Bully attempts to claim it, I can say, “It had nothing to do with you or your psychic friends or demonic disruption or karma, you crazy bedbug.”
If I can just keep from going totally crazy before that job comes along.
I just wrote again to Lily to see if I can get the interview time.
Hopefully, you’ll hear from me early next week about my new job.
