Her MLC: The Battle I Didn't Choose

[Brubeck]

I got a job and I am back at work. I got hired by a huge national corporation for a position very similar to my last one. The pay is only 3% less and I'll be managing double the number of employees. This company put me through 4 interviews in one week. They had me in for the 4th interview only 24 hours after the 3rd interview...the COO happened to be in town and he wanted to meet me.

This feels weird. I worked for a "family" business for 21 years, and now I am at the total opposite end of the spectrum. Friends said working for a corporation is much less personable and there's less camaraderie involved but the benefits will be better. They are right so far.

Everyone asks me if I like it and how I feel about it. After 5 1/2 months of unemployment, I don't care. It's discouraging to submit your resume over 200 times out into the "black hole" and only receive 9 interviews. I'm glad I have a job.

I'm still getting my feet wet. 2 weeks and they're still working out problems with my e-mail account and the locker I applied for. The I.T. department is in Dallas and the H.R. department is in Seattle - I guess this is just how things run in the corporate world. I still can't believe I got my foot in here, though. I'm happy I did, because I didn't B.S. any of the people who interviewed me. I was myself, and I was genuine in explaining how I manage things and how I interact with employees and managers.

Everyone here is really nice. There is a bit of a clique vibe here, but nothing unpleasant. The environment is casual and accommodating.

I got the backyard pool assembled for the boys. They are pigs in slop. Of course, W acknowledged none of this. She's too busy planning her 40th birthday party. I am expecting her to tell me she's leaving the country for a 3-day weekend, but so far it looks like all she can get her friends to agree on is a pub crawl...real friends & MLC friends alike have been invited.

The only recent conversation of note was W was in the middle of one of her "this house is always dirty" spews. She came into the dining room where I was with all 3 boys and accused me of specifically waiting for her to mop the entire house before buying the boys watermelon. All my boys love watermelon and they make a mess of eating it. I was guilty of strategically buying watermelon to mess up the hardwood floors just after she mopped them. With both middle fingers aimed at me in front on the boys, she said "if that isn't a big F**k you to me then I don't know what is." I maintained eye contact and stayed silent. She ran out of steam and stormed off as usual. I guess the evil I embody to her runs so deep in me that I can make buying fresh fruit seem sinister.

All the recent legal garbage over the D has revealed that her lawyer is one unethical woman. I've also come to realize a lot of difficult things about her family via her MLC detachment from them. I'm going to post on all that later for myself.

Still feels like my life is in limbo. Focusing on the kids and the new job, but I am still struggling so hard to keep my mouth shut with monster spewing at random.