Temporary Employment!!

I HAVE TEMPORARY EMPLOYMENT!!!!

Earlier this week, I signed up with Randstad, a temp agency that has kept me busy in the past and is also how I became permanently employed in the past. Monday, I interviewed with them, and she wanted me to fill out paperwork as if I were a new employee (including filling out a W-4). Tuesday, I went to orientation. Wednesday, at 5pm, they called me back to offer me a temporary gig making $5 more per hour than H&R Block. Full time. I think it took me about 10 seconds to process all that and accept. "When do I start?" I asked. Tomorrow at 8:30am.

*cue the mental cogs whirling*

Sure!

Good thing I'd gotten a bunch of weird errands done that day! I didn't have work at H&R for Thursday or Friday, so I was planning on organizing and arranging the yard sale, gathering more to sell, sorting and putting away newborn laundry, sweeping out the garage, hiding the new toys for a rainy day that I had bought at the consignment sale, maybe keeping Quint home one day to suck extra quality time out of being unemployed, etc. So, I had to ditch all that and re-prioritize. A process that took, oddly, about 12 hours, but I managed it in the end.

I did still wake up at 4:30 like I have for a couple of weeks now. And as a result, I was horribly sleepy that first morning on my new job. The people are plenty friendly, the environment is OK, the work is repetitive, but not difficult (I will be charging my MP3 player this weekend). It's an alright place to be for now. It is definitely a job I can do. The money brings a sense of relief to our finances. In 2 days, I've earned nearly $200. I hadn't realized that my eyebrows had been living in my hairline, but I have noticed in the last 24 hours that my eyebrows have lowered to regular levels and my shoulders sit a little lower than my ears.

Both Hubby and I are sad that I can't be with Quint as much. And with the commute during rush hour and a 40 hour work week (my old job was 37.25) Quint will be in daycare nearly 10 hours a day. Which is painful to me. But we can keep Priscilla and maybe something wonderful will change and I can stay home after Rastus is born. Maybe this other scenario. Or maybe this scenario... I'm still hopeful.

But in the mean time, we won't be going into debt for regular expenses during April, despite us owing income taxes this year. There is absolutely no word on how long this temp job will last, but even if it only lasts 5 weeks, April will be solvent. If I only work the first two weeks of May, May will be solvent.

There is still a ray of hope on the unemployment benefit subject. Too detailed to go into, but we've made an appeal.

Things are looking up.