Obtaining groceries without a car can be somewhat cumbersome. Thankfully there are now (within the last few years) online services that will deliver groceries to you, just like on those ’50s television shows. But then when you lose your job those convenient online services tell you that they don’t take the EBT Card as a form of payment. That means I’ve been walking (or biking, or evening Zipcarring) to the local Safeway to get my groceries for the past 18 months. Ah, I do miss that EBT Card though…

So now that I am working 55 hours/week in order to make up for all that moola I didn’t make in ’09, and I’ll mention The Crash which has put the bike out of commish, it’s a little difficult to get to the grocery store. I decided to pull up my Peapod account and take a look at what they’re offering now that I’ve been shelf-shopping for the past 18 months. I found that I had an unplaced order already tallied up that I hadn’t set for its delivery schedule when I got the pink slip back in December ’08. Oddly enough, it seems pretty much in par for what I’d be ordering today. I’d have to add a couple of items to get that additional $1 off on the delivery fee though (on orders over $100)—like frozen entrees that I could take to work instead of spending $8 a day on lunch! I’ve still got a pretty well-stocked pantry, due to the EBT system providing much more purchasing power than I would use in a month, $200. So I’ve got boxed goods and canned goods for a while. Bomb shelter!

Item	Size	Qty	Item Price*		Total Price*
Produce Stand
Apples Granny Smith	1 EA	2	.99		1.98
Banana Green	1 EA	3	.39		1.17
Banana Yellow	1 EA	3	.39		1.17
Carrots Baby Peeled Organic	16 OZ BAG	1	1.99		1.99
Lettuce Red Leaf	1 EA	1	1.99		1.99
Lettuce Romaine	1 EA	1	1.99		1.99
Onions Yellow Organic	3 LB BAG	1	3.79		3.79
Meat & Seafood
Ground Beef 85% Lean Big Buy	APX 2.5 LB	1	11.22		11.22
Deli
Cabot Cheese Cheddar Sharp 50% Reduced Fat	8 OZ BAR	1	3.39		3.39
Deli Ham Virginia Style Cooked (Thin Sliced)	APX 1/2 LB	1	2.99		2.99
Beverages
Deer Park Spring Water – 24 pk	16.9 OZ BTL	1	6.49		6.49
Bread & Bakeshop
Nature’s Promise Naturals Bread 100% Whole Grain	24 OZ PKG	1	1.99		1.99
Nature’s Promise Naturals Bread Multigrain	24 OZ PKG	1	1.99		1.99
Cereal & Breakfast Foods
Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts Frosted Strawberry – 12 ct	22 OZ BOX	1	3.00		3.00
Snacks, Cookies & Candy
Doritos Tortilla Chips Nacho Cheese Family Size	17 OZ BAG	1	4.89		4.89
Giant Saltines Fat Free	15 OZ BOX	1	1.50		1.50
Snyder’s of Hanover Pretzels Sourdough Hard Fat Free	16 OZ BAG	1	2.50		2.50
Grains, Pasta & Side Dishes
Barilla Pasta Rigatoni	16 OZ BOX	1	1.79		1.79
Barilla Pasta Spaghetti Thin	16 OZ BOX	2	1.79		3.58
Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper Cheesy Enchilada	7.5 OZ BOX	1	2.19		2.19
Baking Goods
Guaranteed Value Sugar Cane Granulated	4 LB BAG	1	2.29		2.29
Condiments, Oils & Dressings
Giant Olive Oil Spanish Olives Extra Virgin	17 OZ BTL	1	6.29		6.29
Ken’s Steak House Dressing Fat Free Sun-Dried Tomato Vinaigrette	8 OZ BTL	1	1.00		1.00
Ken’s Steak House Dressing Healthy Options Parmesan & Peppercorn	8 OZ BTL	1	1.00		1.00
Sauces, Spices & Seasonings
McCormick Oregano Leaves	1.37 OZ BTL	1	3.49		3.49
Laundry, Paper & Cleaning
Brawny Paper Towels Big Roll 2-Ply Prints	6 CT PKG	1	8.99		8.99
Health & Beauty
Softsoap Liquid Hand Soap Antibacterial with Light Moisture Pump	7.5 OZ BTL	1	1.50		1.50

Yesterday’s in-store interview (#3) was a success! I am now a full-time employee of this company. Have you noticed how I’ve never mentioned the company by name? I thought it best to avoid googling caches (although I’m sure there’s about a billion for the A-word) and tying me to them, especially during the hiring process. I haven’t said anything derogatory but you never know who’s monitoring. But it probably doesn’t matter now that I’m hired unless I started bashing them. Which is unlikely.

Apple. There, I said it.

Unfortunately the position I’m hired for isn’t exactly the DreamJob I’ve been hoping and laboring for. It’s not the location I wanted (Georgetown) or the position I wanted (Creative). It is a Specialist position at the busy Pentagon City store, which I think was my fourth store choice because its busy and hectic nature of being set in a mall. But I’m not going to complain about it, it’s still with Apple and I’m happy with it. The P-City store is the highest-grossing on the East Coast, so it will be nice to cut my teeth there. And the store manager said that moving into a Creative position when one opens up is encouraged and transferring to another store is okay too. So I’m going to give this Specialist position a run for its money and move up from there. It won’t be the nice one-bus commute in the city (and above ground, too) that I had hoped for either. But again, I’m not going to really complain about that either. After all, it was DreamJob.

The pay is not that good though and that’s the one thing that is a little unsettling: it’s about half of what I was making at Grafik. While I was going to try and hang on to my part-time job at Evolve it now seems mandatory. I hope I can get the schedules of both jobs to fit each other.

Now, how would you like your discount?

Today in DreamJob news:

At 2:48 pm I get a call from the Pentagon City store. Odd, I’m thinking, since all the attention has been focused towards the opening of the new Georgetown store. I’m surmising that they’re pulling resources to get the new store open and this is their way of informing me.

After listening to the voicemail a few dozen times, and having a stiff rum & lemonade, I call back. It turns out the Georgetown store is full (their words—meaning fully staffed already) but they’re interested in me coming on at the Pentagon City store.

Now, the Pentagon City store is in a mall and it’s kinda tiny and always crowded and, at least one time when I was there, unbearably hot. But maybe it’s that high-volume hectic environment where it’s best to go in there and kick some ass.

Tomorrow’s appointment with the store manager (whom I spoke with on the phone) is at 3:00. I guess I’ll know by 4:00 then!

Well the “end of next week or the beginning of next week” officially ended today. This was the timeframe that my interviewers said I would have to hear back about the Georgetown job.

I sent an email to my contact at corporatino and received this response:

“The Georgetown store leader is making offers this week. As she is doing this herself for the entire store, it’s taking a little longer to get through to all final candidates. Please expect to hear from her by Friday of this week. Thanks for your patience!”

So I’ve got another couple of days of hoping then I guess. Good thing, because I was starting to lose the faith.

At the end of my DreamJob callback interview last week, this certain employer told me I would hear back from them “late next week or early the following week”. Hiring status was to be determined after the dreaded credit check, and then they would let all the potentials knows one way or another.

Today it is officially “late next week”, even more so than yesterday was. And I haven’t heard any word. This is not necessarily a bad thing but I’m a little anxious. Wouldn’t you be? Everytime the phone rings or the email goes bong I’m thinking “here we go, this is it”! But they’re not.

So now I guess it appears I will have to wait thru the weekend to find out any news. Drat!

On Tuesday I received a phone call from the 408 area code, the mothership. In other words Cupertino. (Deep breath… deep breath…)

Cupertino left a message to schedule my callback interview for the DreamJob. So after breathing into a paper bag for fifteen minutes and listening to the message 30 times, I returned the call. They were wanting to setup a “final interview” and listed some times where they had slots open. It seems some from the headquarters were flying across the country to interview li’l ole me. And probably about 50 other people but that’s beside the point.

I agreed to a 3:00 Thursday appt and upon ending the call realized I had the next 48 hours to freak out. But then I calmed down, thinking this is in the bag. There’s not really anything to research anyway, it’s all been in my head for the last 20 years with this company.

The interview went well, if I can say that from what I understand about this unique interview process. I interviewed with another person in an open discussion forum for about 45 minutes and I think I got some good responses from the Columbia store manager.

The next step is the dreaded requisite background check which I’m hoping they’re not going to dwell too much on consumer credit because if they do then I’m fucked yet again. Try being out of work for 16 months and see how timely you’re paying your bills. But I’m going to send a reply to Kiwon, whom I spoke with (and met) from corporate, to explain and maybe buffer the bad news a bit.

Regardless, they said I would hear a response of accept/decline by the end of next week/early the following week. Keep those fingers crossed!

It may not be the DreamJob but I have phone interview with the COO of a direct mail company tomorrow. The beauty about this job would be that the office is only twelve blocks away, a 20-minute walk according to google maps. Or, a quick trip on the D6.

The DreamJob people had better hurry up and set up that before-the-end-of-April callback interview before I get snatched up by another company!

All this week when the email went bong! I immediately and nervously checked it (not to mention all the constant “check email now” refreshes) to see if I had received THE email from the DreamJob. With a promise of “we’ll get back to everybody this week”, time was running out on a Friday afternoon. Maybe then I thought they said “we’ll get back to everybody in the new few weeks” and it would be another couple of weeks of agony. But today it came:

“I have forwarded your information on to the hiring manager of Georgetown. We did indeed decide to invite you back for an interview but since your preference was for Georgetown, they will be talking to you from here on. They have your info and will be arranging interviews through the end of April.

Good luck!

<signature>”

Woohoo w00t booyah and all that good stuff! I’m hoping I didn’t shoot myself in the foot by requesting the Gtown store instead of one of the existing ones, but that one’s right on the D6 line which goes right in front of my apt and I could travel to work above ground and it would be nice to reprahzent DC instead of traveling to the H8ST8 or Murland.

Now I have to wait for the interview setup but at least I can relax a little knowing that I’ve secured the callback. April is the best month evra!

Last night’s DreamJob recruiting seminar was an enthusiastic meet-n-greet, basically. They explained a little more about the positions available, showed some brag reels, did some Q&A and basically explained why their stores are so successful. It was very warm and fuzzy.

The part I do feel optimistic about is that there seemed to be very few people who could fit into the Creative position that I’m particularly looking for. This should play into my favor even without my skill set and charm <snark>. The next step is for individual callbacks this week, so I’m eagerly waiting for that email.

On a side note, in addition to the freelance job I’m already working on with G they’ve also pointed me towards a small twice-a-year gig with an existing client of theirs, working on a newsletter. I’ll be working directly with the client instead of funneling thru them so it’s a nurturing relationship of a client of my own which is pretty nice. As I said, it’s not a huge job but it’ll be a few days work at least twice a year so I’m grateful for that. I told you April was going to be a great month!

Today is the day of my DreamJob interview. Yes, on a Sunday after the retail store closes in Clarendon. I’m told to dress “business casual” but all I have are jeans and dress pants. So I’m off downtown to find some khakis. Nothing says business casual like khakis, right?

I’m thinking “what would Jim Halpert wear?” I mean, he’s pretty business casual in a “always put together” kind of way. But minus the tie, I don’t think I’ll be sportin’ the tie today.

So I’m downtown with a $100 bill budget. Luckily, there’s a huge sale going on at Macy’s today, and a lot of it is dresswear. The khaki’s are on sale ($32.99) and Michael Kor shirts are on sale 1/2 price: $24.99 each. I’m trying to decide between dress shirts named Frosted Lilac and English Blue but since they’re on sale I decide to get them both and make the decision of which to wear at home.

Ok, the English Blue is winning out. Would Jim Halpert even wear lilac? Black accents of shoes, belt and 611 Records shoulder bag. Contents of my bag: three black pens (two Uni•Ball Vision fine point, on Sharpie ultra fine point), water bottle, resume in manilla folder, sunglasses case, hand lotion, a paper towel, tin of wintergreen Altoids and a blank book given to me as a gift-with-purchase from Apple several years ago. Now gimme that job!