Busy

Things have been busy lately.

I got a verbal job offer from Local Gigantic School District on March 20th. I’ve been waiting for Human Resources to contact me about signing a contract. Since it’s been about two weeks I gave them a call.

“I have to let my current job know if I’m going to renew my contract by April 15th,” I said to the secretary for the Student Services department, the department where I’d be working. “I know you’re busy, and I know they’re backed up in HR, but is there any way I could see a contract before the 15th?”

“Oh, no,” she said. “No no no. It takes much longer than that.”

“How long?” I asked.

“Well, in another week or so HR will send you a letter saying they completed a background check,” she said. “Then after that you’ll get another letter asking you to go get a physical. After the physical you should be asked to come in for a contract signing in about four weeks.”

“Four WEEKS?” I asked.

“It’s actually more like six,” she said calmly. “But the first letter will have a sentence that says, ‘You have been offered a job with Milwaukee Public Schools.’ Will that suffice for whatever you need?”

“Well, what I need is some assurance that I’ll have a job next year,” I said.

“Oh, you’ll have a job,” she replied. “Don’t worry about that. We need our people. We wouldn’t offer you a job and then not follow through. We wouldn’t do you like that.”

I sighed. A friend of mine had been done like that, offered a job and then never given a contract. But she was a teacher and I’m an SLP. Hopefully the need for people in my field will ensure that I’ll have a position next fall.

It is scary, though, to relocate back to Milwaukee without an ironclad document saying that I’ll be employed. Hell, it’s scary to re-sign our lease here without an ironclad document saying that I’ll be employed. My co-workers and my dad, who works for a school, assure me that I have nothing to worry about and that I will have a job. But it’s still scary.

Since Mike and I will be moving this summer we’ve started looking into housing. We applied for a home loan from our credit union. We look like a horrible risk on paper. Even though the loan payment would be less than our current rent, I cringed when I filled out the blanks saying how long I’d been at my job (eight months), how long I had lived at my current address (ditto), and Mike’s income (nothing). There is no blank saying, “The co-applicant does not work because he is a stay-at-home father.” Instead he just looks unemployed. There is another type of loan we might qualify for if we don’t get this one, but I have a hunch that at the end of the day we won’t qualify for anything. How depressing.

The house we’re interested in is a cute 1920s bungalow on Milwaukee’s south side. If everything works out, it would be perfect. But I doubt it’ll work out.

In the meantime, though, Little P does all he can to distract us. He’s walking a lot now, even though he still gets around mostly by crawling. Half the time I think he says “Mama” and “Daddy” intentionally. There are times where it just seems to be on purpose. And there are other times where he’ll be climbing on the furniture saying, “Mamamabababadada,” and I know it doesn’t mean anything. He’s so smart though, the way he notices everything and figures things out. I know that real language will happen soon. He’s happy, and that’s what matters most.