Daycare went totally fine. She was there for about 5 hours, had a 30 minute nap (which is her typical nap length) ate some lunch, had 4oz of EBM, and only got a little pissy just before I got there. AND, when I did get there she was with a teacher, and only really CRIED when I took 60 seconds to hear about her day before scooping her up. Once scooped, she was fine. I am glad we have some transition time, though.

Of course, man, having 5 hours during a weekday without a baby to wrangle=PRODUCTIVITY! I went from the daycare to Staples, made copies of all the crap I had to make copies of. Then to the vet, for a sharps exchange, and to campus by way of a Dunkin Donuts drive through.  I went to Student Records to get copies of my transcripts, and they have this kiosk thing attached, but outside of, the main records office where you deal with stuff like transcripts. I asked the girl there for 4 copies, and she started printing, and a voice from the big office hollered out for her to stop. The paper had been put in wrong, so we waited a second, and the voice said "okay!" and she kept printing. The voice then came out with my copies — and since she’d dealt with the paper weirdness, she saw my name, and realized she had a little something for me on her desk that was to be mailed this week….. and that would be degree. !!! I did a stupid little dance, and checked it for typos and THAT put me in a good mood. From there, I went to City Hall to get applications for subbing and tutoring, and then I went home to fill those out. Tutoring requires a copy of my teaching certificate, which needs to be renewed, and updated with my graduate degree, but because my two years of teaching was technically 1.5 I’m still provisional blah blah blah, send us your transcripts and $100 and we’ll get that out to you. (Also? It’d be really, really cool if the DOE staff didnt use phrases like "You wasn’t" in every other sentence. Ahem.) Went back to City Hall with the sub application, explained the cert issue as it pertained to the tutoring app, and she said to fill out the tutoring one anyway, and bring in the cert whenever. Since I have all the necessary pieces for certification in the application, it’s clear that I am certfifiable.  After that, I picked up Ingrid at daycare and came home, and that was that, ta-daaaa.

But, there’s a story about getting my transcripts.  I’ve written about her before, but my whole academic career I’ve been followed by this chick named… we’ll call her Jan. As an undergrad, Jan and I had all the same classes in our last year of the education degree, and in every class, I’d say something, offer something to the class, and she would immediately follow it with something tangentially related, but said in this haughty "I am smarter than you" way. It was really, really weird. Other classmates noticed it, and were always like "what’s Jan’s deal with you, anyway?" I have no idea. She delayed her student teaching, but had Marilyn the semester after I student taught, and I did one of my tech-presentations-for-Marilyn’s-students that I’ve done for a few years now. I showed my senior project, a portaportal page for new teachers in Maine, and all the students were excited about it. (Dude, I showed them where to find out current negotiated salary scales for schools in Maine. That’s cool.) She kept interjecting througout the presentation, and Marilyn — way laid back — finally tried to shut her up by saying something. ANyway, I’m showing the portaportal features, and Jan is all "I HAVE ONE TOO!" and gives us her guest name, and …. it’s emtpy except for a TFA link. No shit. Afterwards, Marilyn was all "What is the deal with Jan?" It was noticeable. FOr years. This Jan shit.

Last year, I was put on all these committees, and guess who got a spot on those committees, now a grad student in Higher Ed (or Ed Leadership. Or something. She’s probably changed again.)JAN. After 5 years of it, it’s funny.

Now, the university also has this on campus display, this "Faces of UMaine" thing, where all over campus are these giant 16×20 headshots of a graduate, with a quote about how going to UM made them give the best head, ever, or whatever, and they are ALL. OVER.

I walk into the building where Student Records is today, to get my transcripts that reflect my degree, and then my actual degree, and whose face is on one of those displays.

Mother. Fucking. Jan.

Of course, her tagline said "Graduate Student," and ha! I’m a damn graduate, JAN. I told Dave (one time we went to the movies and this girl in front of us spent the whole time talking and being annoying, and when the lights came up? JAN) who laughed, and I emailed Marilyn, who will certainly get a kick out of it.

Oh, but! The other thing is that I’d emailed Marilyn to give her a heads up that I’m handing out her name to anyone who will take it as a reference, and I mentioned the places I’d applied (temping, school dept jobs, private college) and she emailed be right away to ask about the private college job, and I wrote back with the description (as I’d posted here a few days ago) and then she emailed ME back to say "I just sent a letter to the education
head at Private College.   Hope she reads her mail.  I worked for her last year.
Any little thing helps!!!"  (She is a consultant for them… let’s hope they liked her ideas.)

So, yay! Something Will Happen. I will get a job, eventually. And it will be good.

ETA: Jan! You can guess which one she is.

I’ve never actually seen "Instructional Technologist" as a title, for real. But that’s what’s in my degree, and what I put on my portfolio, almost tongue-in-cheek… annnnd, today, in the paper:

Data Specialist / Instructional Technologist

Full-time position in the Registrar’s Office responsible for transcript
analysis and recording student transfer credits into CAMS system.
Perform data entry of mid-term and final grades, execute reports to
faculty and staff. Process graduate petition requests, diploma orders,
establish and maintain course offering schedules and process academic
status-related documentation in a timely manner. Set up new user
accounts in CAMS and provide training workshops for faculty and staff.
Develop customized reports utilizing SQL, as needed. Establish and
update Student/Faculty web based portal and troubleshoot moderate
technical issues. Develop e-portfolio, laptop instruction for student
cohort groups. Minimum Bachelor’s degree required. HTML, SQL,
proficiency in MS Office, CAMS system software desired but will train.
2 years business and/or computer applications experience, preferably in
a higher education institute.

Whoa! From what I know, CAMS is student info management (UM has DSIS), which, I can figure that out with a day or two…. and I don’t have SQL, but "as needed" gives me confidence that that’s not a huge deal, and it’s not the director position, so there’s someone else that knows what’s up with that. And seriously, e-portfolio? How many applicants will actually *have* an e-portfolio, online, with the URL on the resume? No, seriously? How many? Most of the IT grads don’t keep their portfolios when they are done (and they are generally kind of lame to begin with, I really bucked tradition by self hosting under my own name, but THIS is exactly why I did that.)  No idea of salary, not sure on the experience part, but, whatever. I’m an Instructional Technologist and the local private college needs an Instructional Technologist.  And I bet it would at least cover daycare costs…..

I had my interview at the temp agency today, which went swimmingly. I filled out the boilerplate stuff, and then was led to a room to do a skills test. The first one was typing, which, I’m a pretty good typist, but the keyboard to the PC was like this one, where instead of a double-wide backspace key, it was single wide, with the forward slash key next to it, instead of on the bottom row, which meant that any error became a double or triple error, as it would be like "Teh//he" and on and on…. so, when the interviewer came in when I was one, I mentioned in a very professional, not know-it-all way, that their keyboard blew. (For me, it was also one of those with the sticky-uppy clackety clackety keys, basically the opposite of any mac keyboard, or any modern PC keyboard for that matter…) She looked a little puzzled, until I pointed at her own keyboard and said, "see, yours has the double-size backspace key…" and she went "ohhhh! I never even noticed that! you’re the first person to mention it! Maybe we should change that…." and then looked at my test score and said "But even with that, your tests are excellent, so that’s good." Heh. Maybe I should add that to my list of Mad Skillz: can type on non-regulation 20th century keyboard.

The interview part was fine, I explained the daycare-economy driven need for employment, which she totally understood, and I also mentioned my previous temping experience, that I knew what it was all about, and it might be good while I look for a permanent job, etc etc.  I don’t think she’d ever gotten a resume that included a link to an online portfolio before, either. Anyway, there were a couple of tech supportish positions available, one that I’d responded to from an online ad, and another at the local phone company, which is about .5 mile fromour house, closer even than daycare, smack dab between the two. The job description for that read like something I was about 90% qualified for, so I initially was like "hmmm" because the 10% I wasn’t qualified for was telephone technology, but in my recent angst, someone mentioned that I manage to figure stuff out, anyway, so I said "yeah, you know what? send them my resume. If I’m not the right person for that job, I’m not, but maybe they have something else they’d want me for."  Also? $15/hour. (REGIONALLY, people, that’s damn good. 😉 ) It’s actually the company we have our phone and internet through, and when I had to deal with tech support recently, they were really great (and I was prepared to throw down) and listened to me when i said "no, I’vetried all that, something is not right on YOUR end," and when the guy realized no one had ever activated my modem, he was instantly apologetic, and had us up in no time.  When I had gone to the office to pick up the new modem, the receptionist and I talked for a good fifteen minutes about kids (she has twin girls, now 12), and I actually came home and looked up their website to see if they had any job listings, which they don’t — because they go through this agency. It seemed like a not so bad place to work, and seriously, I could WALK THERE. Entertaining a fantasy of walking Ingrid to daycare and myself to work, even. We’ll see.

But, here’s my question, maybe folks can weigh in: Master’s Degree. Do you expect someone to be an actual MASTER of everything in that field, OR, does it indicate a level of intelligence/dedication/work ethic that shows one can master new ideas? Does the degree indicate a noun or a verb, you know?  In looking at jobs, i think, "Oh, I have 90% of the skills" but I know I could learn just about anything, but do hiring managers, etc, think the same thing? Just a curiosity, really.

So, I’m looking for a job, and I have daycare lined up, and I have the master’s degree finished. But damn, it stresses me out. This stuff is hard.

Today, for instance, it is crappy and freezing rainy/snowy, and so Ingrid and I are going to stay in the house. I’ll finish the laundry, I have tea on, she’s up for her first nap and Dave will be home at noon for his lunch hour. We got out of bed at 8:15, and the only reason I know that is that I check the clock to figure out the cat’s insulin shot. I’m dreading the idea of getting us all out of the HOUSE by 8, when we don’t get out of BED before 8.

I got the Y brochure this weekend, and went through it looking to see if they’d added new baby programs so that I could update my website if necessary. They hadn’t, but, it still made me miss my fantasy SAHM world, where we have a family membership to the Y, and a few days a week I take Ingrid to infant swimming, or take her to the child care room so I can do the lunchtime yoga class, or pilates, or… something. And then we go outside and get in our street legal, low mileage Outback to get to the library for some books, before meeting friends at the Bagel Shop for lunch.

The reality? Is that I’m dodging cops on the way to free storytime, because my inspection is way out of date, and it will cost a ton of money to inspect my car this year — a combo of new inspection rules, and people not letting the Stuck-On ABS light to slide. (which sucks, it was a recall my parents tried to fix for YEARS, but the local dealership — who we will never buy from, incidentally — never actually fixed it, they’d call them to come in — form 100 miles away, of course — not fix the damn light, but say the brakes needed to be entirely replaced or whatever. They have a big award in the waiting room for selling the most ‘parts and service’ in the region or country or something, which… that’s not the award you want to see, am I right? I digress…) so, I dodge cops, our savings is dwindling, and affording a luxury like the Y isn’t going to happen. And working won’t let it happen, either, because when I’m going to be reducing my RDA of Ingrid to like, 2 waking hours (UGH) I don’t want to spend that time at THE Y.

I feel so lucky to have had 8 months of All Ingrid, All the Time, and I need to be bringing in an income — in addition to the car repairs, we need a new oil tank this year, which is a major expense. And hi, savings. We need to build that back up. And my student loans are coming out of grace soon. And. And. And.

I need to work. I need to have a job. I am thankful that I have a daycare slot in the only accredited place in town, that it’s near to our house and Dave’s work, that I have a degree that means I will be able to (hopefully) work in a field I love, not just nights at Wendy’s or something, and actually MAKE money over and above the daycare expense.  (You know, knock wood and all that…)

But still. It’s HARD to wrap my head around, and then add in that any job I get will be brand new, so there’s all that new job anxiety, plus First Job as a Mom (I don’t count LLB here, because that was quite mindless, and didn’t involve a daycare payment near the price of our MORTGAGE), and, damn, it’s nerve wracking. Nerve. Wracking. 

I still haven’t heard anything from the resumes I’ve sent out (tho one has certainly not arrived yet, the school dept one…) but I have to tell dave, out loud, when I send one, just to get used to the idea. It also makes me a little accountable — not that I have to report to my husband, but it’s good for ME to say "hey, I saw a job" and follow with "and sent them a resume today." I’m really wondering what the Staples copy center folks think, since I’m always applying for tech jobs, but going to THEM for printing. I mean, I don’t have a printer anyway, and fuck! It’s likw $.20 a copy, laser B&W, on pretty, heavy, paper! Why WOULD I fuck around at home?

I’ve applied for two more jobs, one which I’m overqualified for:

"Full time Technical Support Specialist:
Software company looking for a customer
service-oriented individual who also has basic technical skills to
assist with troubleshooting. Duties to include customer service via
phone, data entry, emailing, and other basic office duties as needed.
Temp to hire position for the right individual."

and one which I’m underqualified for:

"Data Management & Computer Support Specialist:
Work with the Educational Technology Coordinator and assist the Primary
Data management Specialist to develop, document, deploy and support
database applications. Provide general desktop support for computer
hardware, software and network connections in classrooms, labs,
workrooms and offices. The job will require travel to school locations.
Available immediately.
Responsibilities: Work with the technology coordinator and the primary database developer, programming database applications.  Write system and user documentation for database applications and provide general desktop support for users.  Work with the technology coordinator to conduct on-site visits for
troubleshooting and problem resolution in response to trouble calls
from users.
Qualifications:
Knowledge and experience with Windows and Macintosh computer hardware, software, peripherals and Ethernet networking.  Knowledge and experience in database application development in a
Microsoft Windows environment using Microsoft Access, Visual Basic and
SQL. Knowledge of, or a willingness to learn, application
development programming in the FirstClass Rapid Application Development
environment."

The first is $12/hr, which, here, isn’t bad at all, and would totally pay for daycare and still be profitable. The second, I have no idea — it’s for the city school department, and parts of it, I have nailed — like "Write system & user documentation" etc, but I last used MS Access in oh… 1999(!), and haven’t used VB or SQL. I have used FilemakerPro, and have a good knowledge of what you want a database to do (for instance, when I went the school website to download an app, you had to enter your name, and I thought it was odd that it wasn’t Firstname Lastname fields…) and how to organize information, and all of that….

But, I wonder, does one expect a master’s degree to mean you know everything? Or does have the graduate degree help establish that, hey, I can learn shit, dude. Because,  I CAN learn, really quickly. And it’s easy for me to learn software, but not often easy for others to learn teaching skills, etc, which is what is so key to writing good documentaion and helping folks out, you know? And, I have no idea how academic the schedule is for that one — I’m going to wager that summer vacation isn’t like teaching, but maybe, probably, I’d get other vacations, and maybe even get out at 3 (which would roooock) and that’s a total bonus. I’m going to apply, because maybe they already have someone in mind in-house, it’s not a department head position, and I can assist anyone if you give me a few minutes to learn the material, and if they don’t hire me, but do interview me, they’ve met me. And I’ve met them.

I really need a job, especially with daycare coming right up and our savings account dwindling (god, we had OIL delivered this week. *shudder*) and even temping, fuck, I can do that if I have to. It’d be nice to find a professional job, and that temp-hire position might be a good holding place job, for now… sigh.

I have to say, though, that when I get a Real Goddamn Job? If it’s more than say, 30k, I am so totally hiring a cleaning service to come in 2x a month or something, because I do not want to spend weekends scrubbing toilets if that’s the extent of my family time.  Dave rolled his eyes when I said that, but, for real. That’s my plan.

Well, that went amazingly well. I think I tend to be a little too critical of myself. For instance, I got worried when Gail said "Oh, so you didn’t do indicators?" when she saw my portfolio, but after my presentation she raved about how I didn’t NEED to do indicators, that the way I composed everything, it hit the indicators anyway. And my practicum, which I was so, so worried about, she loved, as did the other prof. Gail held Ingrid the whole time, until Miss Sara showed up — Ingrid’s awesome sitter — and Sara wanted a round, and then Jim (the other prof in the program/my boss last year/Sara’s dad) held her for awhile, and Ingrid was fascinated by his beard. The admins all cooed at her, too.

Anyway, yes, I’m way too freaking hard on myself, they loved it, thought it was great, etc etc, congratulations, you’re done. DONE!!!!

Then, my advisor watched me wrap up Ingrid and we talked for 20 minutes about our shared dislike for baby buckets, and other babywearing type stuff, since OF COURSE I have the veteran babywearer advisor.

Done! DONE! Master’s of Education in Instructional Technology, yo. ALL MINE.

I keep wavering between "They’re going to hate everything!’ to "It’s going to be just. fine. Re-fuckingLAX already" when I think about my portfolio defense tomorrow. I mean, if I didn’t have a kid? I think it would be way better. If I’d had an audience to teach, to do something more active than the resource project, I think it would be way better. But, I do have a kid, I don’t have an audience, and it’s DONE. It’s at least a B, i think, and so what — if my perfect 4.0 ends on a B, whatever. I’m done. DONE. Holy fuck.

Ingrid and I are going up tomorrow, I meet with my advisors at 10, and, I don’t know, show them my portfolio, I guess. WHile I have the portfolio concept down, I think I do much better talking tech, really so I can rationalize anything they question, almost for certain. Plus, there are certain things that are just default settings in my brain, that I may have overlooked or left off, but they at least know me enough to know that.  I sent the link of other portfolios and projects to a couple people, and they said that in comparison, I was okay. Good god, I hope so. Because if I leave tomorrow and they say "Graduation: Denied!" I will fucking need to call dave to come pick me up, because I won’t be able to see to drive home.

So, um, yeah. Tomorrow. 10 am EST. Send some good vibes in my direction, wouldja? Once this is over, officially done, I’ll be able to breathe again. thank god.

Okay, I think I’m done. Ish. I still have to write my paper, but the other stuff? DONNNNEE. I’m pretty sure. I’m kind of going nuts, but I’m really pretty sure I’ll be okay.I’m sure I’ll think of stuff I forgot, but I have the sitter on Monday, and was planning on working on the paper on Sunday, but that won’t be too hard as I have all the stuff done for that now, and it’s just a matter of putting it together.

And there’s so much else to do now! Like thank a certain kickass Brooklyn family for the tomato-red hat that Ingrid has been wearing every day, including to get her first Christmas tree, or to get stamps on our damn new year’s cards and get those mailed. Or to even, maybe, get a freaking December photo album up; our families have been politely quiet on this one, but I’ve heard from more than one that they are chomping at the bit for some more photos.  Oh, and to find a damn job, too.

See, i can reallly use a job now. How farking TYPICAL that i have a Master’s! Degree! and even more amazing than that, I have Childcare! Lined up! for End of January! and yet — no job. Today is Ing’s last day at the uni daycare, they all say she’s a great kid, and that she’s really done well, and I don’t doubt it a bit. She really likes going, there are BABIES THERE and COOL TOYS and she is just such a social bug that my fears of childcare have really melted away. I do wish I could stay home forever with her, but half of that is just wanting to be independently wealthy, period, enough to stay home even if I didn’t have kids, but those days are drawing to an end. And really, I can’t even believe how fortunated I’ve been to stay home THIS long, and if I do get a job, the new childcare opens in late January, so I will have had 8 months at home. I do love it, but our savings is circling the drain, my education is done (DONE!!!) (for now, I probably can’t stay away from formal learning for long) and I’m poised to start a Real Career …. if only one would have me.  I mean, my car’s inspection is 6 months out of date, and they just changed the laws, and we have an appt on the 30th to get it serviced, and I’m absolutely terrified that to get it inspectable will cost more then the actual car cost us to BUY. Our furnace died the other night while I was at work, and that cost just over 200 bucks to repair because of COURSE the furnace dies after business hours. I’ve consolidated my loans, but those are going to need to start being repaid soon, too — because my student status officially ended in august, my grace period ends in February. All important reasons to need a job, on top of "my glasses are beat to hell, and I could use new ones" and "ooh, pretty D70!" Ahem.

So, now I think I’m going to network a bit — fire off an email to former professors, letting them know I’m available for hire, will work for car repairs, and, holy hell, have a master’s degree and CHILDCARE taken care of. CROSS YO DAMN FINGERS. (ANd if anyone has any good leads for me — highly unlikely, considering the geography of my readership — let me know.)

(If anyone wants to check my work out, the url is folio.MyFullName.com — if you do, and see something missing or broken, please email me!!)

With jeanne’s help, I polished my resume and drafted a cover letter, and — this is kind of funny, really — because I don’t have a printer, I took it to Staples to get printed. I don’t know, I’d probably find it humorous to print off someone’s resume for a tech job if *I* worked at Staples! Damn, though, I’m never buying a printer, since it was 16 cents per copy, laser printed on 24 lb crisp white resume paper. Seriously, I made 3 copies of each — of the letter for my records, and in case I frigged up my signature and signed it "OH FUCK!" or whatever, and copies of my resume just to have on hand. It was 1.01. AND, the chick used a penny from the tray, so it cost me A BUCK. I signed it, stamped it, and it was out in today’s mail…. either way, whatever happens is supposed to happen, I firmly believe, so now I wait and see. Truly, though, this is the first job I’ve applied for that makes me feel like my graduate degree was a worthwhile endeavor.

And, hee, I liked the "sounds great, but the pay sucks!" comments, because, um, here? That’s really good. Seriously. I made 23k as a teacher, and I wasn’t in the lowest paying district, not by a long shot. The town I lived in before here, they pay new teachers 17k. SERIOUSLY.  And, uh, the starting for this job would basically double our household income. Actually, if I got Ingrid to the spendy daycare, that expense would make starting salary for this job about what the same as my first year teaching was, and we lived pretty well at that time — I put money into my retirement account, I did groceries and was fairly aggressive with saving, while Dave did household bills, and we still pretty much shopped for what we wanted, when we wanted it. (I mean, of course, for us that means replacement sea monkeys and jeans from Target, but it works for us…) Dude, we took a VACATION with that kind of income! (No vacation for a while, but it makes our roof/windows goal infinitely more attainable.)  And honestly, when I went back to school for my M Ed, my goal was to get a job starting at about 30, so this is inline with that. And, it’s DOWNTOWN. I was just telling Andy, on Wednesday, i think, how much I miss being downtown every day. (You know, back when I was in Americorps, doing help desk type stuff at THE LIBRARY.)

Oh, oh, oh, the geekiest part? You knew there was a geekiest part. If When I get interviewd, I plan to follow up with a thank you note, using the cards that I made from this picture.  God, seriously, how geeky is that?

Anyway. Whatever will be, will be. How many times have I said that? If anything, I’m feeling recharged, and reassured that grad school was not a colossal waste of time and money, and that’s a good thing.

We did daycare orientation today, which was fine. They seem really genuine up there, which is nice, and of course I couldn’t turn off my snark-o-meter, so when the director pointed out the lockbox for payments, I just freakin’ HAD to say "oh, rolled quarters won’t fit in there, will they?" Luckily, she laughed.  And to the "if you’re later than 5:30 rules," I responded "If I’m later than 5:30, I’m under an anvil somewhere and you need to call my husband and tell him he’s a single father." They agreed not to charge him extra if I’m crushed to death, so that’s good.

ANYWAY. So, there’s a job. I KNOW, I KNOW, I’m always saying "so, there’s a job" but SERIOUSLY. THERE’S A JOB.  It’s not at the university, it’s at the library, downtown. You know, where this whole crazy ride to M. Ed in IT-ville started, lo, those many years ago, as an Americorps volunteer. And anyone who read during the Americorps years knows how much I hated *that,* RIGHT?? (Err, I pretty much was heartbroken when the government didn’t fund my project again, and count my Americorps experience as one of the most valuable I’ve ever had in my life, and as the experience that set the rudder for the rest of my education and career. And I *LOVE* the library.)

This job is almost freaking perfect. Almost. See, I don’t have an MLS…. but I do have an M. Ed. (Um, almost.) AND, this job was basically created when Americorps got kicked out of the office under the stairs, because they found that technology instruction was really valuable. This, also, was my Americorps supervisor’s job, and she didn’t even have an M-anything, she had a BS in education, and left as she married a guy down on the coast and sold her house and works there. That was a while ago, so I don’t know who’s been doing it since she left, but that is totally her job.

When it was her job, her evening was Wednesday, which if it’s still that way, or could be made that way — that I could still do storytime with Ingrid. (!!!) If I got this job, we could probably afford the local daycare when it opened up,  because driving to the campus daycare, twice a day, back and forth, would cost the same in gas, I’m thinking. (Plus add about an hour+ of just DRIVING to the day… urgh.)

I emailed Molly, who used to have this job, to see if it would be wrong to apply, despite my lack of MLS.  I mean, READ THAT DESCRIPTION. What do you think?