Summing Up a Week

 I was not planning on visiting here today, but figured I would talk a bit about a few things.  This week has been challenging - the grueling waiting for something to happen, because a current situation is getting somewhat critical.  The thing I am waiting for is a call for a position, and I am not sure what has been going on.  When I was on LinkedIn a few days ago, many are experiencing similar problems - they are highly qualified but are being "ghosted" by employers or sent that usual letter one hates to get that says "While your credentials are impressive, we have decided to move forward with another candidate."  Getting a stupid patronizing message like that tends to show a couple of things.  On the positive, at least the employer (or the stupid bot who autogenerates this crap) responded.  However, the negatives far outweigh the positives.  One negative is that nine chances out of ten, a real person has never laid eyes on your resume or CV, because HR personnel are lazy now depending on AI bots to do the work for them.  Another negative is that it makes an applicant feel frustrated - there is always more credentials needed (despite the fact the person probably worked their butt off over the years), more qualified candidates, and it makes you feel as if you will never land the position you deserve.  This has led to a number of people settling for less, and that is totally unacceptable.  Of course, there are supposed resume services and so-called "career coaches" (talk about worthless professions, that is one of them) out there circling like buzzards to suck money out of people who already are living on tight budgets as their savings dwindle just to survive while waiting for that offer to come to them.  My advice to potential job seekers is this - you can get most of that help for free through either your state unemployment office or through a lot of employment agencies that will never ask you for money because their client companies pay for the talent they contract.  If an employment agency ever asks you to pay something up-front, it is probably a scam so leave and then report them so they don't try to screw someone else over.  So. dealing with greedy "resume coaches," lazy company HR departments who never even look at your resume in the first place, and the fact that you get a lot of conflicting advice about resumes - such as the old chestnut that you have to alter your resume for every job you apply for (who has the time for that??) - does little to boost the confidence of a highly qualified professional who, by every measure, should have recruiters knocking down their doors instead of the other way around.  I am starting to think maybe I should apply to be an HR manager - they let the AI bots do all the work, and then just pull arbitrary rules out of their backside for companies to implement (including some frankly unethical ones such as indemnity clauses).  That, or maybe running as a Democrat for public office - neither job seems to require much in the way of intelligence, or at least that is the impression I am getting.  Any rate, I know that was a bit of a frustrating opening to today's thoughts, but just needed to share it. 

I have been focusing on a lot of personal organization over the past three months, much of it being badly needed.  In the cramped living space I rent here in this rowhouse in downtown Baltimore, I was almost boxed in by storage bins, and I had to come up with a solution.  So, the downstairs living room - which none of the three of us who live here even uses - has become a de facto storage area for our stuff - we each have a section of the room.  Being this place is very temporary, I am not getting too settled into the room I am in - I have a work area, sleeping, and closet space, and that functions for me right now.  We have of course a shared bathroom and kitchen, although neither is anything to brag about - the kitchen flooring needs some major renovation, and the bathroom toilet tends to clog on demand at least every couple of weeks like clockwork.  I want to go back in time a little to document the history of how I got here, as I think it is a good story to relate at this point.  

With a lot of craziness that happened in Hagerstown at the old place around this time two years ago, we had to make an abrupt move that neither Barbara nor myself were prepared for.  That resulted in a two-week stay at the Motel 6 in Charles Town, WV, which I kind of missed after I left (although I didn't miss the chaos of trying to raise funds to stay there, my goodness!) before I got the email from the then-principal (now vice-principal) of the Jesuit high school in Baltimore where I was offered an 11th-grade Theology teacher position, and of course I took it.  Given I had just earned my Ph.D. only a couple of weeks before leaving Hagerstown, it was the golden opportunity, and was definitely a career change.  So, in order to take the job, I also had to find a house, and quickly.  On a rental homes site, I found this guy who owned several properties in Baltimore, and I got in touch with him once I was offered the job, and given my situation, our parish church in Charles Town was more than generous in providing the funds I needed to secure the place - I still owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude even today for the amazing way they really helped us then.  The place I finally took was a 106-year-old rowhouse off of Greenmount Avenue in eastern Baltimore, and I was able to rent a tiny bedroom that was considerably smaller than what I was used to for around $620 a month.  It was not my ideal place, and if I could have moved to someplace better, I definitely would have, but at that point in time I had to get settled in quickly.  So, it was me, three cats, and my pet rabbit then who settled into the place, and I only had a few items with me, given the rest of what I had was in a storage facility in Martinsburg at the time.  The salary the school paid me was perfect for what I needed, and I recovered quickly from the trauma of the move.  But, I had challenges, and want to recount some of those.

I mentioned having a menagerie of pets when I moved out of Hagerstown, and that included a rabbit, three birds, and three cats.  I really did not want to drag the rabbit and the birds along, so I attempted to rehome them while I was still in Charles Town in the hotel.  I was able to rehome the birds just before moving here, and during Thanksgiving week a few weeks later I was able to rehome Zoe, my bunny.  I did not want to really give her up, but in all honesty she was very noisy - she was making all sorts of racket at night due to getting used to a new place, and for a while I had to put her downstairs so I could get a decent night's sleep.   After some time, a nice guy from Johns Hopkins took Zoe and I am so happy he did, although I did miss her.  Then it was just the three cats - Barbara's cat Mickey, who she could not keep where she was living in Rockville then, and my two cats Tippy and Lily.  Tragically, during the course of our move Lily suffered a head injury that led to a nasty infection, so I lost her that Christmas after moving in and had to bury her in the back yard.  Mickey would pass from old age the following November (2025), and I would have to put him to rest across the street.  So, of my original pets, all I have left is Tippy, and at 15 it remains to be seen how long he will last - he is starting to have trouble with his eyesight now, but seems to be OK otherwise for the time being.  I was essentially on my own then from the end of October 2024 until the beginning of March 2025.  I had begun during that time to, thanks to decent paychecks, recover some of what I had lost from Hagerstown, and in no time I was able to transform my own room into a decent living space.  But it was lonely - there were two other guys I shared the house with, one being an older stonemason named Joel and the other a young Mexican-American college student named James.  As of now, James still lives here and has the room at the end of the hall, but in late January Joel had secured a new place with his fiance Alex and he would move.  The way things came together with that though could not have been timed more perfect, and I want to talk about that. 

As I mentioned, in October 2024 Barbara and I had to, by necessity, go different directions.  Being Barbara worked in Rockville at the time, she secured a place with five male roommates close to where she worked, managed by a psychotic owner named Nadine.  This Nadine person was very micromanaging, and Barbara was not really that happy there despite the house itself being nice - she could not have Mickey with her, and therefore it was up to me to take care of him here for her.  However, with Joel moving, an opening happened quickly in this place, and I was able to get our landlord to fast-track it so Barbara could move into the place by March 1st of that year.  So, that happened, and it transformed the place some as Barbara was company for me again, and it was nice having her back.  With her back, she was able to have her cat Mickey, and we eventually were able to wrap up the rental on the storage unit in Charles Town and get our stuff over here this year.  Barbara and I also helped each other out too, and it makes grocery budgets and other things more manageable for both of us.  Living in this rickety old rowhouse in Baltimore is not ideal by any means, but it is only temporary until God green-lights us to move on.  And, that is what has been maddening.  Many reading this know the feeling too, and it is not pleasant.  You wait, and you wait, and you wait, and most days it is the proverbial crickets - it can get a bit discouraging.  In time, some doors will open, we know that, but it is just a bit stressful as we have to watch our budgets and things in the interim.  So, this is where we are.

With the departure of Mickey and Lily, we gained two new cats now.  One is Rocky, whom I got back in May 2025 at the Humane Society in Hagerstown.  While I really wanted another tortie because I was missing Lily, Rocky brought his own unique personality to our home, and I am happy we got him.  He has also grown into a huge cat too, but I also realized he needed some company - Tippy could not help him much because he is too old.  But, in December that was taken care of too when the most adorable little female black cat showed up - this is Sadie, and she has also been a joy to have too.  Both of them fill a void left by the passing of both Mickey and Lily, and they are new cats we have gotten in a new house.  At one point, I may talk about my pets over the years, especially the cats, as I have consistently had a cat as a pet in some form or another for almost 30 years now.  Given these two are young yet (both less than 2 years) I am anticipating many years of joy from them. 

So, any rate, we come back to the present - my contract at the Jesuit school ended on June 30, and I am currently waiting for something to come to me as I have done the work of putting out resumes and everything else.  Being I already have the Ph.D., this should be going easier but it isn't - now it's a Maryland teacher certification which, although not totally required by private schools, definitely enhances chances.  I have an appointment this coming week with a nonprofit that helps secure teacher certification for candidates, and they have some free coaching and direction that could maybe offer some good insights into what needs to be done.  I also have Armenian lessons coming up starting in October, and then I was persuaded to go for a D.Min. in Catechetics at my alma mater, Franciscan University of Steubenville, in Fall 2027.  There are things to look forward to, in other words, but right now it is just maintaining a consistent income that is integral.  For those of you who are praying people reading this, please keep me in mind when you say your daily prayers.  

That is most of what I really wanted to reflect on this week, and if all goes well, I may have some more inspirational stuff to share next time.  So, thanks for visiting, and will see you again soon.