Aurora Borealis

So pretty early in this job search, Mr. Tldz was contacted by a Google recruiter. Turns out he was seeking to fill a position outside of the Atlanta area, but he sent Mr. Tldz over to another recruiter who is filling Atlanta positions.  In the meantime, I contacted a friend from the IHM Moms group whose husband, B. works for Google.  (We had dinner at their house a little over a year ago, and Mr. Tldz and B. swapped a lot of unix jokes while C. and I just shook our heads.  So it was clear that B. has a similar technical background to Mr. Tldz’s, though it was also clear he’s now in some sort of managerial role, though we weren’t sure exactly what he does.)  I asked C. to forward Mr. Tldz’s resume to B. in case he was aware of any openings at Google or elsewhere, since he seemed to move in the right technical circles for that.  She said she was happy to do so.

Yesterday Mr. Tldz had a technical phone screening with the Google recruiter.  Near the end of it, the recruiter asked if Mr. Tldz knows anyone who works for Google.  Mr. Tldz gave B.’s name.  The recruiter stopped short and said, “Oh.  He’s the head of the Atlanta office.”  Oh.  Who knew?  The recruiter asked what the connection is and Mr. Tldz explained that they used to go to the same church, and he was quick to add that while he knows this fellow, they don’t  know each other well.

The recruiter also asked if Mr. Tldz has any other leads going.  When he said he does, he noted that the recruiter seemed to “get” that they might have to step up their process if they’re interested in Mr. Tldz.

Mr. Tldz got an e-mail from a recruiter last night.  He talked to him today about the job (located near the Lindbergh MARTA station, so that should be pretty accesible) and the recruiter wanted to meet him.  So thanks to Uncle R. and our neighbor across the street for driving Mr. Tldz up to the recruiter’s office in Alpharetta and watching Agent Murphy for a couple of hours, respectively.  (And the Agent came home with a bag full of fun hand-me-down toys!)  At one point in the interview, the recruiter said, “Not to be insensitive, but how do you do these things?”  So Mr. Tldz said, “Do you want to see a demo?” and pulled out the laptop and got busy.  The recruiter was won over.

The recruiter indicated that this company has been looking for several weeks and is getting anxious to have someone start — as in, if they had their way, someone would start next week.  So we’ll see how this plays out.

We sat on the front porch for a while this afternoon and watched the heavy rain come down.  Then Agent Murphy got to play with some toys from the special shelf, on top of his bookcase.  Tonight he played with Rufus, the stuffed red wolf (He was a table decoration at the wedding of Mr. Tldz’s groomsman.), and Hildegard, the stuffed German Shorthaired Pointer that we got because that’s The Dog’s breed and Hildegard looks a lot like The Dog.  Rufus and Hildegard seem to be pretty cozy with each other.

Agent Murphy kept pointing between Hildegard and The Dog and saying, “Yeah” or “Uh huh.”  Point to Hildegard’s head, point to The Dog’s head.  Point to Hildegard’s back, point to The Dog’s back.  Point to Hildegard’s ear, point to The Dog’s ear…  I wonder how long the likeness will keep him fascinated? It was cute.

And we read and re-read lots of books today.  Lately the Curious George board books have been very popular, but today we were quite into Once Upon a Potty until Mommy said I needed a break from pee-pee and poo-poo.  Row, Row, Row Your Boat was big today, too.  The Agent has been more willing to make and immitate sounds lately.  He says “Row row,” though it usually sounds more like “Woe woe.”  And he’s adding to his animal sounds — his standard “Aarrr” for a dinosaur, and now he has an impressive lion’s roar, and he barks like a dog and AT his dog, and he’s trying to quack like a duck, which sounds like “Kak kak.”

Mr. Tldz feels like his interview today went pretty well.  They say they’ll have interviewed all the candidates by Tuesday or Wednesday next week, so he should hear something after that.  Meanwhile, he has applied/is applying for 4 other positions.  Five positions in the first week of a job search — not bad.  So we’ll hope something good comes of one of these or another that’s right around the corner.

Got my appointment with the perinatologist set for next week.  That makes 3 doctor appointments in June for which I’ll need rides.

Our freezer arrived Monday night, so we’re starting to use that.  And I’ve lined up a babysitter for the 2 days in June that A. is out of town.

Saw the OB today, and everything looks on track.  Baby’s size is good, heart rate was good, and everything is fine with me.  Since I needed a ride anyway, I had the apprentice doula who will be working with us take me so she could meet the doctor.  That’s an interesting story.

In mid- or late-April I decided I ought to go ahead and line up a doula.  I went back to the group we used with Agent Murphy and discovered the doula we had used is no longer with them.  The only doula in that group available for my delivery is an apprentice doula.  Given how relatively quickly and easily my last labor went, I thought the apprentice would be fine.  (Heck, the most valuable thing the doula probably did for us was move our suitcases around.) And I tracked down the doula we used last time, who is now with another group.  I set up interviews with both of them for mid-May.  And then we had the unexpected events and I called them to cancel since I’ll be having a C-section this time around.  A couple of days later, the apprentice doula called me back and said that if we were willing to have her, she would like to attend our birth at no charge to us because she needs to attend a C-section for her certification.  It would actually be very helpful for us to have someone present dedicated to assisting Mr. Tldz, so we were definitely willing.   Typically the hospital would not allow a doula in the OR for a C-section, but given Mr. Tldz’s blindness and how helpful it would be to us, the doctor said he was willing to allow it.  Given how all that has come together, on top of how many people have rallied around to help us, I can’t help feeling that indeed Somebody is watching out for us…

This I try to remember when I have one of my, “Will our baby be okay?  Will I?  And oh my God we’re unemployed!!!” moments.

Mr. Tldz had a phone interview today, with a round of in-person interviews tentatively scheduled for Wednesday.  We’re waiting on confirmation of the time for that.  Our new nanny, who just started today, is willing to load Agent Murphy into the car and drop Mr. Tldz off and go back later to pick him up (it’s supposed to be 2-3 hours of interviews), so we may be shifting her hours some on Wednesday.  Fortunately, when J. did our grocery shopping on Saturday she was able to drop Mr. Tldz’s “interview clothes” at the dry cleaner.  Our next door neighbor will pick them up tonight.

Today and tomorrow Mr. Tldz and I need to get his new laptop set up so he’s good to go for the interview.

He also was referred to a job by a former colleague at a previous job.  He found out more about the job today — a contract position that would be in an accessible location.  That’s become a big concern for us, because jobs that appear to be transit accessible  now (like the interview on Wednesday) may not be come July depending on what MARTA service cuts happen.  There are so many bus routes on the chopping block under the proposed cuts, and I haven’t been able to find any updated information about what’s really happening; which makes it hard to know which jobs to bother to pursue.  So yesterday I e-mailed our state representative explaining our situation and asking if he had any information about the cuts.  He responded first thing this morning that he’ll be back in touch.  I’m hoping he knows the right people to talk to to get good information.

Agent Murphy spent the morning with a friend from the pro-life committee at our former parish.  Originally, they were going to go to Stone Mountain so R. could do her normal walking routine and then stop by the playground.  But given the rain, they changed their plans.  We’re not sure exactly where all he went.  There was talk of the library and maybe a stop at Chick-fil-A.  We have received a report that he attended daily Mass at our old parish, where he was warmly greeted by some of our friends.  And he came home with two balloons.  He does love balloons!

This afternoon Mr. Tldz and Agent Murphy went with one of the brother Knights to run a few errands.  The other day Mr. Tldz went with a former co-worker and purchased a laptop.  We decided that’s an investment we needed to make given the impending return of his work laptop and since our desktop is upstairs and Mr. Tldz’s office is downstairs.  So a laptop will allow him to have some concentrated job search periods in his office free from distractions by the Agent.  And during past job searches Will’s found it useful to take a laptop with him on interviews.  That way, if someone is skeptical about if/how he can do something, he can just pull out the laptop and demonstrate rather than having to try to explain.  

Well, the docking station he purchased with the laptop turned out to be not compatible with his laptop, so the docking station had to be returned.  And since he was able to find a laptop he likes for much less than we anticipated, we decided to go ahead and purchase a chest freezer.  The more we thought about it, the more we realized it would add value in terms of our grocery budget and food preparation.  So that purchase was made today and the freezer will be delivered on Monday.

Lida came to do our first cleaning today.  The house smells so clean!

We’ll see her again in two weeks, and hopefully we’ll be able to keep it under control until then.

So last Saturday RW graciously agreed to do our grocery shopping and run several other errands for us.  One of the things I was looking for was a husband pillow to help me prop up in bed.  He couldn’t find one in the stores, so he called S. and had her find and order one online.  They even kindly footed the bill.  The pillow arrived Tuesday as scheduled.  Now that I’ve been able to use it for a couple of days, I have to say that not only do I feel like I’m in college again , it is also very helpful for my long sit-recline sessions in bed when I’m trying to read or work on the computer.  (The loaner laptop, btw, has been a Godsend.  Thanks, M.!)  So since I know you two are among our few faithful readers here — thanks much, guys!