I am officially brilliant.

or naive. one of the two.

i moved to austin august 15th with the high hopes of easily and quickly landing a job substitute teaching with the aisd. after acquiring my transcript from jewell (aisd didn't care about my master's transcript) and applying i began the waiting process.
unbeknownst to me, this process would continue until even today, october 1st. after several weeks of "processing" i finally received my "congratulations, you've been hired" letter and instructions about attending an orientation event scheduled for sept. 29th.
so i waited anxiously for wednesday the 29th. i cancelled my trip to missouri to attend it, and gave up several nights of sleep awaiting its arrival (nerdy, i know, to lose sleep over a boring orientation, but i was a month into waiting for this notice and one can't easily reason with one's fatigue or lack thereof).
orientation day arrived and it was all i imagined and more. the leader gave us all the logistics of the subbing process, acquainted us with "SubFinder" that allows us to schedule our own days off, accept jobs, etc. and finally treated us like the children we always wanted to be by forcing us to write raps and draw pictures about how to come prepared to a subbing job and how to manage unruly children in the classroom. i tried hard not to slit my wrists.
but the day had arrived and i was satisfied. starting tomorrow morning i would begin subbing and receiving an income, right? wrong. "Oh by the way," our instructor started, and i raised my head, daring her to further ruin my day, "it will take at least one week if not two to get your names into the computer and assign you a sub i.d. number." huh? another week or two? are you kidding me? i began devouring our pay day info sheet calculating when i would begin working and when that would allow me to receive my first paycheck. if i don't work until next week, i'll have missed this month's pay cycle, which means i'll be into the next one, which means they won't mail my check till november 30th which means i won't receive my first paycheck until DECEMBER!?!?
holy jesus, deliver me.
i moved to austin sans job, sans, income and sans sense. in missouri, you apply to sub, get accepted and get started. not so in austin, tx. you apply, wait, orientate, wait, sub, wait and then get paid.
consequently, i'm returned to the job search. i'm looking at librarian work or temping or something to get me through. no paycheck and thousands of dollars on my credit cards are not compatible elements in my life as you can well imagine.
and so i sit as the anxiety of bills rises and the self-esteem sinks. what an idiot i was to think this would be a smooth, quick process. oh well. you live you learn right? maybe someday i'll appreciate all this time off and freedom from the tangled web of corporate america. but not now; now i just want to pay my bills.