Frustration

It's been almost seven months (27 weeks, to be precise) since I got a kick in the arse and started job hunting. Seven MONTHS. And I've been making calls, answering ads, searching job sites, and calling in favors from friends. There are times when I've applied to over 20 jobs in one day. Cover letters, resumés, phone calls....I have a good work ethic, an excellent education, and outstanding references. And what has all this netted me? Only a handful of interviews and ONE 2.5-week temporary job as a bookstore cashier.

My representative at the temp agency told me that I appear "too smart" on my resumé - employers don't want to hire someone they think is smarter or has more experience than they do. So I'm "overqualified" for the entry level positions that I have the experience for (stage management is basically clerical/admin work when you break it down) but I'm "underqualified" for any positions in the industry I'm studying in because I don't have any experience in them. Seriously, I'll scrub toilets right now if it will get me a paycheck and get me out of the house. I had things worked out so that I would be able to get through on my student loans until May, when I was supposed to ship out to Basic. When they pushed Basic back to July, back in March, I panicked a little, but SURELY I'd have SOMETHING by May that would make up for the extra three months. Then Basic was going to be in May again, which would be a relief. Now they don't know when, but "as soon as possible." Yeah, it's May 1. I have enough money to pay rent this month (sorta)...and that's it.

Only in my crazy world can you get an iPhone* and file for unemployment on the same day =P

*(iPhone story behind the cut) No money was spent on this. I know, if I'm complaining about money, the last thing I'd do is buy a fancy phone when the one I just got recently is perfectly servicable. Through a series of scratches/warranty issues, one of my good friends from college ended up with two for the price of one and sent me one of them as an early birthday present. I went to the local AT&T store to make sure that my current plan was compatible - not only was it already more than meeting the iPhone's requirements, but the guy found a $10 text package that wasn't needed (I guess that was included in one of my other packages and had never gotten removed) AND added a military discount (which I didn't even know they had) when he saw my ID. So...it's actually turned out to be cheaper to have the iPhone! And let me be the first to tell you - I am NOT a Mac/Apple fan and staunchly refuse to buy an iPod or Mac computer. But....the iPhone is pretty darn slick. With a few exceptions, it's SUPER easy to figure out and there is a LOT of stuff you can do with even an "old" phone like mine. (I have an "original" 2G instead of the latest 3G - the only difference is that it's slightly smaller - a definite plus in my book - slightly slower - the speed, or "lack" thereof, hasn't bothered me in the slightest, though - and mine doesn't have GPS locator, although it still sports an excellent map feature.) There have only been three things, well, four, that I can say I dislike about the phone. 1 - you can't send pics in text messages, you have to email them to people. An easy workaround, since your email is also RIGHT THERE, but still something that surprised me. 2 - there's no copy/paste function and you can't, for example, forward texts to other people. Out of my friends that I've talked to, though, I'm apparently the only one this bothers, but there *is* supposed to be an update to that this summer. We'll see if it works with my phone or not. 3 - my Bluetooth headset works just great with it as a phone, but not as a music player. Apparently the phone itself is not compliant with the technology that would make it possible to stream the music to the Bluetooth. So I now have a $150 headset that I can only use half the features on. Yay. (Apple does provide wired headphones, of course, but they aren't wireless, which is one of the reasons I really love my Bluetooth!) 4 - is not the phone's fault, but I am NOT a fan of iTunes, which you have to use to sync things back and forth from the computer to the phone. Unlike the phone, I found iTunes not particularly user-friendly AND it doesn't support .avi files, so any video that I want to transfer to the phone has to get converted first. Not a difficult process, but fairly lengthy and rather irritating. Other than those four things, though, I've been really enjoying it. The phone quality has been excellent, and it gets a really strong signal. The turning screen thing is pretty cool, too. There are tons and tons of fun and/or useful apps (a surprising number are free, too!) that let me check Facebook, check the Cubs score, do crossword puzzles, translate Spanish, check the forecast, find restaurants, watch YouTube videos, find music, play Bejeweled 2 (and it's like playing it on a computer, not the usual cellphone version), and tons of other stuff. Not to mention the standard phone/text/email/internet features (and the internet actually LOOKS and WORKS like the internet!) and it has a surprisingly decent camera. Now if it could only get me a job...I wonder if there's an app for that? =P