Long, Hot Week
Jul. 13th, 2013 07:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebNow that another set of friends is moving away (job with Google! woo hoo!), I should get back in the habit of writing more.
Socializing
I got to hang out with a friend during a weekday afternoon, lunching, catching up, hanging out, watching a movie, and being productive.
And I got to socialize some more at the short-notice same-day Google job offer celebratory dinner. (There will be a longer-notice event later, too!) Yes, I had already eaten dinner. And dessert. But there is always room for Tex Mex.
And of course lots of socializing with R. We're now all caught up on "Murdoch Mysteries." And we saw the new movie "Pacific Rim." I'm not going to say I had high hopes for that movie, but one of the reviews was something like, "Just watch it." It's nice to see a movie where most of the characters are smart (all of them, perhaps), and most are likeable. I enjoy hanging out with them. And of course the special effects are awesome. Plot-hole city, though.
Errands
Shopping
And I got a huge list of errands done, which is always satisfying and relieving. I visited the intimidating Good Will outlet (Blue Hanger) for the first time. It was not as horrifying as I feared and it didn't seem super fun, but I did get four things:
* Scrabble game - $2.41 (and I have already added magnets to the back of all the letters to make another housewarming present)
* shirt - $0.60 (for fabric to fix up a pillowcase only the shirt looks so well-made and so close to my size that I might have to try it on and decide if I'd rather use it as a shirt)
* small spiral notebook - $0.60 (perfect condition)
* plaid cloth napkin - $0.15 (turns out we have too many napkins to fit into our napkin holder now, so it's time to stop buying these, no matter how cool)
Why yes, I did weigh these things after I got home to find out how much they cost because at that store they charge $1.39 per pound.
Getting rid of stuff
On the way there, I dropped off our old batteries and fluorescent bulbs at the Hazardous Waste facility. And before that I checked the Habitat Restore for a couple of things but left empty-handed.
On another day, I went to UT and dropped off the library books I had finished plus gave UPS a huge bag of packing materials to re-use or re-cycle. Then I went to a session on retiring from UT to figure out the answer to two questions.
On retiring
Question 1: What if I don't know what date I'm retiring until there's less than six months remaining? Answer: just start your paperwork ASAP--starting six months ahead is just the ideal.
Question 2: If I want to retire from UT, will it wreck things if I work certain other places first? Answer: Only if I qualify for insurance benefits there. UT must be the "last state (Texas) employer in which you qualify for insurance benefits." Since I'd have to work for the state for ten years before I'd qualify, I'm safe.
Although maybe I would qualify if I worked for another place that uses TRS for the pension (such as ACC or AISD), so maybe those aren't safe.
Plus then I came home and read the retirement handbook and it says that one of the requirements is that "the individual's last state employment before retirement was with UT." And it referenced the Texas insurance code, which I looked up and that says one of the requirements is that "the individual's last state employment before retirement was with that system" (i.e., the UT System). So those pretty clearly imply that any job that I can use to add years of service to my pension that is not UT will mean I can't retire from UT (and get their good health insurance benefit).
Also, I was pretty unclear on when another year of service clocks over. It used to be after 4/12 months (i.e., January 15th). Then it was 90 workdays, including holidays and vacation but not weekend days (also mid January, but perhaps slightly different each year). But then at the presentation, they said you get credit for the whole month even if you only work the first day (so January 1?) but that you only need one semester (so, December 1?). I would have to call TRS to find out the real answer.
Job Hunting
I found a job that sounded like it might be okay and might be working for one of my old colleagues, so I wrote to her. But she said no, I'd be working with someone else (who I also recognized). So I was a little less excited to be applying for this job which has a million job duties. I'm almost done applying for that job but still haven't finished it.
I tried reducing my resume to only one page, but because of the million job duties, which I want to make it clear that I could do, that didn't happen.
At the celebratory dinner, I was introduced to a guy works for IT at UT. I ended up sitting next to his wife, and she made it clear that a) he knows people all over campus, and b) it's still a mess everywhere. I said, "You mean the more-with-less thing?" Bingo.
So this week's data imply that the only jobs that will help me retire earlier and well are UT jobs, and all of those still suck even though the recession is supposedly over.
Also, it took me 1.5 hours to get home from the retirement session in the hot sun. I watched the bus I wanted go by (while I was still a block away), and I let two buses on another normally acceptable route go by because I had already overused my healing foot and didn't want to do the mile hike at the end (plus it was mid-afternoon and I was feeling wimpy). The commute to campus was also extremely frustrating. I came home utterly undesiring of another job there, even for only 1.5 years.
In other news, I went to the Workforce Solutions orientation session, which I heard was required for people on unemployment. It turns out that the orientation session is one-on-one and she really stuck her nose into my online job-hunting presence trying to make it so that their site would send me more matches. But she also told me about a job club for "professionals" like me, the Launch Pad Job Club. They have networking (bleh) but also guest speakers (hmm).
So, Launch Pad meets every Friday and you are supposed to show up early to your first meeting so you can get signed up. And they ask you to stand in front of everybody with a microphone and give your elevator speech (of what you do and what you're looking for). That went okay. The main thing I like, though, is that once a month you can bring five copies of your resume and get in a group with four other people and give each other advice on each other's resumes. I know you're supposed to have a million people look at your resume, but I hate resumes, so I don't want to make my friends look at mine. But strangers who are also getting help from me (though perhaps mostly about parallelism, spelling, and grammar) sounds good. They have a similar thing for practicing interviews which might be good.
And they recommend to get on LinkedIn plus one spider search engine like indeed.com or simplyhired.com plus one big job board, ideally in your field, such as highereducationjobs.com. I'll have to check those out.
Income
I did get approved for unemployment and I got my first check. Although they asked for and I gave them data for two weeks, I only got paid for one week, so that was a little disappointing. Still, from now on, so long as I make make myself apply to jobs, I can get paid to do so.
Also, Obamacare requires that health insurance companies may spend no more than 20% of premiums on administrative costs and my insurance company spent 22.3% on such costs so they sent me rebate of $38.69. Windfall!
Socializing
I got to hang out with a friend during a weekday afternoon, lunching, catching up, hanging out, watching a movie, and being productive.
And I got to socialize some more at the short-notice same-day Google job offer celebratory dinner. (There will be a longer-notice event later, too!) Yes, I had already eaten dinner. And dessert. But there is always room for Tex Mex.
And of course lots of socializing with R. We're now all caught up on "Murdoch Mysteries." And we saw the new movie "Pacific Rim." I'm not going to say I had high hopes for that movie, but one of the reviews was something like, "Just watch it." It's nice to see a movie where most of the characters are smart (all of them, perhaps), and most are likeable. I enjoy hanging out with them. And of course the special effects are awesome. Plot-hole city, though.
Errands
Shopping
And I got a huge list of errands done, which is always satisfying and relieving. I visited the intimidating Good Will outlet (Blue Hanger) for the first time. It was not as horrifying as I feared and it didn't seem super fun, but I did get four things:
* Scrabble game - $2.41 (and I have already added magnets to the back of all the letters to make another housewarming present)
* shirt - $0.60 (for fabric to fix up a pillowcase only the shirt looks so well-made and so close to my size that I might have to try it on and decide if I'd rather use it as a shirt)
* small spiral notebook - $0.60 (perfect condition)
* plaid cloth napkin - $0.15 (turns out we have too many napkins to fit into our napkin holder now, so it's time to stop buying these, no matter how cool)
Why yes, I did weigh these things after I got home to find out how much they cost because at that store they charge $1.39 per pound.
Getting rid of stuff
On the way there, I dropped off our old batteries and fluorescent bulbs at the Hazardous Waste facility. And before that I checked the Habitat Restore for a couple of things but left empty-handed.
On another day, I went to UT and dropped off the library books I had finished plus gave UPS a huge bag of packing materials to re-use or re-cycle. Then I went to a session on retiring from UT to figure out the answer to two questions.
On retiring
Question 1: What if I don't know what date I'm retiring until there's less than six months remaining? Answer: just start your paperwork ASAP--starting six months ahead is just the ideal.
Question 2: If I want to retire from UT, will it wreck things if I work certain other places first? Answer: Only if I qualify for insurance benefits there. UT must be the "last state (Texas) employer in which you qualify for insurance benefits." Since I'd have to work for the state for ten years before I'd qualify, I'm safe.
Although maybe I would qualify if I worked for another place that uses TRS for the pension (such as ACC or AISD), so maybe those aren't safe.
Plus then I came home and read the retirement handbook and it says that one of the requirements is that "the individual's last state employment before retirement was with UT." And it referenced the Texas insurance code, which I looked up and that says one of the requirements is that "the individual's last state employment before retirement was with that system" (i.e., the UT System). So those pretty clearly imply that any job that I can use to add years of service to my pension that is not UT will mean I can't retire from UT (and get their good health insurance benefit).
Also, I was pretty unclear on when another year of service clocks over. It used to be after 4/12 months (i.e., January 15th). Then it was 90 workdays, including holidays and vacation but not weekend days (also mid January, but perhaps slightly different each year). But then at the presentation, they said you get credit for the whole month even if you only work the first day (so January 1?) but that you only need one semester (so, December 1?). I would have to call TRS to find out the real answer.
Job Hunting
I found a job that sounded like it might be okay and might be working for one of my old colleagues, so I wrote to her. But she said no, I'd be working with someone else (who I also recognized). So I was a little less excited to be applying for this job which has a million job duties. I'm almost done applying for that job but still haven't finished it.
I tried reducing my resume to only one page, but because of the million job duties, which I want to make it clear that I could do, that didn't happen.
At the celebratory dinner, I was introduced to a guy works for IT at UT. I ended up sitting next to his wife, and she made it clear that a) he knows people all over campus, and b) it's still a mess everywhere. I said, "You mean the more-with-less thing?" Bingo.
So this week's data imply that the only jobs that will help me retire earlier and well are UT jobs, and all of those still suck even though the recession is supposedly over.
Also, it took me 1.5 hours to get home from the retirement session in the hot sun. I watched the bus I wanted go by (while I was still a block away), and I let two buses on another normally acceptable route go by because I had already overused my healing foot and didn't want to do the mile hike at the end (plus it was mid-afternoon and I was feeling wimpy). The commute to campus was also extremely frustrating. I came home utterly undesiring of another job there, even for only 1.5 years.
In other news, I went to the Workforce Solutions orientation session, which I heard was required for people on unemployment. It turns out that the orientation session is one-on-one and she really stuck her nose into my online job-hunting presence trying to make it so that their site would send me more matches. But she also told me about a job club for "professionals" like me, the Launch Pad Job Club. They have networking (bleh) but also guest speakers (hmm).
So, Launch Pad meets every Friday and you are supposed to show up early to your first meeting so you can get signed up. And they ask you to stand in front of everybody with a microphone and give your elevator speech (of what you do and what you're looking for). That went okay. The main thing I like, though, is that once a month you can bring five copies of your resume and get in a group with four other people and give each other advice on each other's resumes. I know you're supposed to have a million people look at your resume, but I hate resumes, so I don't want to make my friends look at mine. But strangers who are also getting help from me (though perhaps mostly about parallelism, spelling, and grammar) sounds good. They have a similar thing for practicing interviews which might be good.
And they recommend to get on LinkedIn plus one spider search engine like indeed.com or simplyhired.com plus one big job board, ideally in your field, such as highereducationjobs.com. I'll have to check those out.
Income
I did get approved for unemployment and I got my first check. Although they asked for and I gave them data for two weeks, I only got paid for one week, so that was a little disappointing. Still, from now on, so long as I make make myself apply to jobs, I can get paid to do so.
Also, Obamacare requires that health insurance companies may spend no more than 20% of premiums on administrative costs and my insurance company spent 22.3% on such costs so they sent me rebate of $38.69. Windfall!