I’ve been doing a little more knitting recently. I finished the first sock, cast on the second one and have finished the toe shaping. Well I did say a little more, not a heck of a lot though. Still a little twisted inside, but hopefully things will settle down shortly.
As for the interviews? Thanks to everyone for their happy thoughts. Thursday’s interview seemed to be a great waste of time. The posting that I had responded to on Monster was misleading. While it stated that familiarity with a particular language/technology was a bonus, it turned out that it was the required language/technology that was the core of their company. I had the skills in the posted requirements, but not a great deal of familiarity, certainly not enough to rate as the expert in it that they required. Not a huge loss, it would have meant a lousy commute and I was sort of hoping that it wouldn’t pan out. I don’t relish the idea of driving each day into the GWB (George Washington Bridge) traffic. It can be pretty ugly and so can I sitting in traffic. While it would still be an hour commute, it would be a far less civilized hour and I’d lose my knitting time to boot. What could be taken as a positive sign is I got a call from the folks I interviewed with on Monday, they were curious as to my last salary was and what I was looking for. Sucker me was honest with them, and following a history of this, undersold myself. While it might mean getting less than I should, it could mean I have a better chance at the position since I’m probably cheaper than others. On the whole, it also means that they are considering me and haven’t just filed my resume in the circular file following the interview. I still have one more week at the short term job and they seem to be looking for other things for me to do afterwards.
I fulfilled all my obligations to the prior employer and should be getting my severance pay shortly. They needed me to turn in my VPN security key (which I did the next day) and bring back my laptop (which had a hard drive failure the week before). Talk about sensitivity, when I asked for a receipt for the laptop, while I got it, the person was insulted that I didn’t trust them. Right. I was protecting myself. I don’t trust the company and I wouldn’t put it past them to claim I’d never turned it in. It has happened to others I knew, not there, but other companies, and I wanted to nip that whole thing in the bud. It had nothing to do with my trust level of the recipient, it was the company. Get over it.
I gave 30+ days written notice to my landlord on Monday that I would be vacating as of April 30th. Thursday, I was coming home to change out of my interview suit and ran into Mrs. Landlord, who was just getting home as well. She mentioned she received my notice and understood. However, because I’d only given her 30 days notice (um I guess basic math isn’t one of her skills) they’d be coming in to start doing repairs. Also to fascilitate showing the place (she’s a realtor), they’d be putting a lockbox up and would try to limit when people could come and see to maybe the latest being 7:30. Awfully generous of her, but she seems to be a little light on NJ Landlord Tenant Law, she also forgot that while I might be a programmer by profession now, I am also a lawyer. I did a little digging yesterday and found out that in no way could she put a lockbox. She has ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHT to access my unit in any way without prior notice, except for emergencies and/or to make periodic inspections. She’s also been in violation of the Security Deposit Law in that she hasn’t been turning over to me the required written notice as to where my deposit is, nor giving me the yearly interest on it. She and I need to have a little talk. I’m going to offer up leaving by the middle of the month, instead of the end, in exchange for pro-rated rent and the return of my entire deposit. I’m betting she goes for it. She sees dollar signs for the rent increase she can get for this place. The neighbors, who have the same style house, rent out the same apartment for at least $500/month more than I am paying. Talk about motivation 
Today I’m off to rent a storage unit to house a few things until construction is over at the folks house. My loom and the Lendrum Saxony will probably be heading there in short order. I just won’t have space for them until the sewing/craft room is finished. I’ve really got to get packing as I have some 3 weeks to get everything done. While I’d rather be working, I think that at the end of next week when my gig is theoretically up, I’ll take some time off and just get it done. I’ll also file for unemployment then too.
Someday this will all go back to being a knitting blog. I hope sooner rather than later~
Craft on.
Edited to add:
Mrs. Landlord is a f’in b*tch. I just spoke with her and she is so deluded that she believes that her telling me that she’d be putting a lockbox was really "she might be putting a lockbox". Not to mention that she believes I gave her consent to come in any fucking time she chose. Oh and because she’s a REALTOR and she knows what she’s doing, I should relax as she would be with whomever came in to look at the place. Right. Makes me feel so much better. And then she reminded me that she has the key, doesn’t need the lockbox. Not for long sweetie. I’m changing the lock. Today. She’ll have no choice but to abide by my terms. I must be here when they are showing it. Oh and fuck her, I’ll keep possession until the 30th.
