When It Rains

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"No one sees your tears when it's raining..."—Ten Ten

July 23, 2006
Sunday

First of all, I'd like to thank the Supreme Being for the good things that It starts to lay on my path since Grandfather's last days.

Only a couple of weeks ago, I was feeling a bit impatient concerning finding a job. But—thanks to the hardships that I recently experienced—my patience has never been stretched like this.

Last week I've been longing already to have a job. Now, I'm faced with the tough possibility of having to juggle two jobs at the same time! I know that this will be a bit difficult, considering that I am at the moment still a bus commuter (I'm still on driving lessons and with no car yet of my own), but I want to believe that I have the capacity to deal with this. Let's see. I'm not a juggling jester for nothing.

...
I started to scout for jobs a month ago, but the two jobs I finally got (the other one, however, is still tentative; please cross your fingers with me) came to me in a seeming flash of luck.

Last Wednesday, one of the friends (who has a car) who accompany me in my job hunting was unavailable. I didn't let the day pass without accomplishing something. I didn't want to stay in the house and brood all day. So, I decided to jobhunt on my own. The only challenge is, the distance from the house where I stay to the nearest bus stop is about 30 minutes' walk. I went anyways, thinking that I would be doing this routine soon when I finally begin regular work.

A&W
Anyway, I dropped by at the A&W Restaurant on Keewatin near Burrows and asked for an application form. I filled out the form and submitted it along with a copy of my resume to the bespectacled Caucasian guy at the counter. I was about to left after saying thank you when the guy asked me if I could stick around so he could interview me right away. That was when I realized that he was a store manager.

After skimming the application form and my resume, the store manager asked me if I was willing to work any shift and how long I could be staying with them in case I get hired. You know, the usual line of questioning during typical job interviews. After several minutes, he said, "Okay, I'll hire you. Are you okay with a starting of C$7.75 per hour? Anyway, I can give you 8 hours a day and 5 days a week? You can choose between 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m."

I was really surprised, caught offguard. I was not expecting a quick result like that. But of course I was thrilled, because that job arrived in a flash; and eventhough I'm obviously overqualified for the position of a service crew, here in Canada this is the way to start. Just get any job so you can start earning and saving, but don't stop looking for better job opportunities.

CH Health & Home Care Services
As I said, I wouldn't stop looking for better job opportunities. So, the next day, Thursday, I went out again. I returned to this company needing healthcare aides, to submit the criminal-check documents they required. This healthcare services is located in downtown Winnipeg. Right there and then, they presented me the job contract. The stipulations were okay (as well as the pay, C$12 per hour, which was C$5 above minimum wage!) so I accepted the offer. I'd call them on Monday for the schedules of the preliminary training. This is, by the way, an agency; so I would be despatched to several institutions.

My dilemma right now is how to juggle my time in order for me to accommodate these two jobs in one day, considering that I'll just be riding buses; and to think that the two locations are very far apart from each other.

My initial plan is this, I will ask A&W if they could give me only a daily (six-hour) 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. shift; so I can accept a (four-hour) 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. part-time shift from the healthcare services. This way, I can have a 2-hour gap which would be my bus travel time from A&W to whatever nursing institution I'd be assigned at.

This is another realization that, in Canada especially where I am, having your own transportation is a necessity. Imagine, if you're driving your own vehicle, you can easily cover a one-hour bus trip (considering the stops and the winding, circular routes) in just about twenty minutes. In that case, you save a lot of time and a lot of energy spent in having to wait for and transfer buses. And this is only Summer! What more come Winter time! Taxicabs then? No way! A five-minute taxi trip will already cost you around $12. That's already a big cut on one's daily wages...the amount of a brand new pocketbook. Well, it's okay if you'll rely on this once in a while, but every day? No way!

...
Anyway, I'm only laying out a bigger picture of what to expect in the coming days, now that I'm already to start entering the world as an employed citizen once again.

...
As soon as I received these new big blessings, I texted my best-friend Rain to share with him the news. Always the fair and reasonable one as well as my most-trusted confidante, Rain replies with a reference from one of our favorite New Wave songs:

"Nice to hear good news from u. Gud luck on ur jobs, don't end up w/ MOZ's ''Heaven knows i'm miserable now.''

I'll always keep that in mind. I surely will.

I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour
But heaven knows I'm miserable now
I was looking for a job, and then I found a job
And heaven knows I'm miserable now
In my life
Why do I give valuable time
To people who don't care if I live or die?
—The Smiths (Morrissey/Marr), "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" (1984, Hatful of Hollow)