Still no phone call. Mostly we’ve written them off, but we want to believe there’s still hope. I’m on vacation now through Thanksgiving, so we’re determined to enjoy ourselves, even though she has a doctor’s visit on Monday with her oncologist that I’ll have to pay for – don’t wanna even think about how much that’ll cost.

I realized the other day, because of the way things have gone down lately, this will be our third Christmas with her unemployed. Still, as depressing as that is, at least it’s not like last Christmas, when she was still having Chemo for the Breast Cancer.  Whenever I get really down, I try to recall where we were one year ago. That year, we spent the day before Thanksgiving in the ER, then Christmas Eve sitting in the Chemo room.

So I guess on the grand scale of grand scales, things could be worse, eh?

Damn that jackass and the trail of slime behind him.

One of the things I resent the most is being back on that emotional roller coaster you’re forced to ride while waiting for “the phone call.”

My sister applied for a job last week that closed on Friday, the 12th. When she applied, she had to go through the agency the Unemployment office uses, because they were pre-screening applicants for this job, which isn’t unusual.  So she went there on Tuesday, dressed as if she were being interviewed, because that’s good form, and asked if she could apply for the particular posting.

Well after showing her resume to the recruiter, he was more than happy to have her fill out the actual job application, which she did. He told her he was quite impressed with her qualifications, then he gave her the name of the woman my sister could expect a call from, for an interview. He was certain she’d get a call, because she was perfectly qualified for the job.

Was he shining us on with bullshit?  I dunno.  He had no reason to. They usually come out and tell you if you don’t qualify for something, and he wouldn’t have had need to give her the name of the company hiring, or the woman in charge. If he wanted to shovel some shit, there’s easier ways.

We assumed she wouldn’t get a call until after Friday, seeing as how the job hadn’t closed until then – but we really believed she’d at least warrant an interview.  It was a job right up her ally of expertise, a perfect fit.  And it had the added benefit of being within a few miles of where I work, so winter weather carpooling would be a breeze. Great job, good benefits, excellent pay.

We spent the weekend with our fingers crossed, feeling really hopeful.

But that’s just the opening of the roller coaster ride. Where you’ve strapped in and they finally start the ride, and you’re pulling out of the loading bay full of anticipation and apprehension.

I honestly expected her to get a call yesterday, for an interview. I kept telling myself “she’ll call me any second now, saying she’s got an interview.”  “Any minute now, she’ll send me a text.”

As the day wore on, I started working it out in my head. “Okay, so the woman is busy today going through all the applications she was sent, maybe she won’t call till Tuesday.”  But as the day wore on, I got more and more depressed. The ride wasn’t going well, all the twists and turns.

Of course I got home last night to that issue I exploded about already – her boss claiming she’d been “Fired” instead of Laid Off.  As it turns out, a friend of ours is an HR legal professional who says his reasoning is illegal, so she’s helping us write up a rebuttal.  So last night she and I didn’t discuss our fears that she’s not getting interviewed for this great job – we had other things to be furious about.

Now today, as I’m waiting for our friend to examine the rebuttal letter I’ve worked up and get back to me, all I can think about is WHY didn’t she get a call for an interview ?  Was she passed up because of the thousand other qualified candidates? Did they even pick yet? Are they interviewing already and all hope is lost – or is there still a chance she’ll get a call later this week?

My sister and I aren’t voicing our fears yet, or discussing our depression, so it won’t quash that last vestige of Tinkerbell-light, waning inside. I want to believe there’s still a chance, that she could get a call “any second now” and have an interview scheduled.  I keep telling myself it could still happen. But this is the part of the roller coaster ride when I’m reaching for a barf bag.

If she doesn’t get a call by Friday, we’ll both be utterly dejected and have a pretty shitty weekend. There hasn’t been another job posted anywhere that she even remotely qualifies for. Even those few “seasonal jobs” were met with thousands of applicants, the vast majority of which were horribly overqualified, just like her.

Last night on the news, 500 people showed up for one advertised opening.

The roller coaster is twisting and turning, and going upside down.

I don’t like rides that go upside down.

May the Fleas of a Thousand Camels make Nests in his Armpits!

I’m furious.

I got home last night to find my sister was having to fill out a form from the Unemployment office to explain why her rendition of events differs from her (now former) employer.

Seems HE said she had been Fired!

For the record – my sister was called into her supervisor’s office a Friday just a few weeks ago, and told – out of the blue – that she was being replaced.  They’d hired another person after having joined with a new partner, and while she had wanted to hire an additional person to do the added work, the boss had decided to simply save money by replacing my sister with someone else.

She looked at her supervisor and asked “Was it something I did wrong?”

“No,” she was told “In fact, I like you a lot and love your work. You do a great job, and I’m really upset about this, but it’s out of my control.”  She followed with “we don’t have severance here, so can you please stay for another two weeks?”

That’s what my sister put down on her application for unemployment. That she had been “laid off/replaced.”  because that’s what she was told.  She wasn’t “Fired”, they assured her.

So today in the mail (well it was Saturday’s mail that she’d walked out to get Monday) there’s a letter from Unemployment saying her account and her boss’s account differ, and she’s required to explain why before any benefits can be paid out.

She was in the middle of filling out the form, answering “No” to all the questions of: Were you ever reprimanded?  “No” to: Were you ever written up?  “No” to: Was it ever explained to you what you were doing wrong? When I walked in carrying Monday’s mail, with a letter from Unemployment.

After she explained to me what she had and what she was doing, I had her open the letter I was carrying – seems that was a copy of what her exboss had filled out – and I got even angrier.

He checked the boxes: Fired and Other – then explained, and I quote “Cynthia was unable to perform higher level tasks outside her normal duties and had to be replaced.”  then in another line wrote “We needed someone to perform higher levels outside her duties and could not afford to hire another person, so Cynthia had to be replaced with someone who could do her job as well as these higher level functions.”

Each time, he has checked the box: Fired.

Well FUCK me till Sunday – but there’s a whopping huge difference between Fired and Laid Off !  I’m furious because this asshole has made my sister so upset. She’s devastated to be given the label “Fired” and it’s understandable.  She asked her supervisor, Point Blank, if it was due to her work or her personally – and she was assured, to her face, that it was not.

Hell, they even gave her a Goodbye card, and two $25.00 gift cards.  They signed things like “Best of luck.” and “We’ll miss you very much”

How many people do that after firing someone?

It might be semantics, sure, but it’s important semantics. It’s a personal affront, regardless of distinction.  This asshole had to say she was Fired in order to NOT take a hit on his Employment Insurance Premiums as a boss – well Eff that!

She’s filled out the questions for Unemployment, explaining her side and what she was told. I’m going to fax it from work so it gets there quicker than snail mail, and when I do, I’m going to add a little note further explaining her side of the story.   We don’t want the Unemployment Department thinking she was trying to pull one over by telling a lie – regardless of what her boss said, she was told she was being Laid Off.

Big difference.

Really big difference.

He’s made my sister emotionally upset, she’s depressed and feeling like a loser right now, and that’s bullshit.

May his dingus shrivel to a useless husk.

If you’ve been around here a while, or know me in any way, you’ll recall that I live with my sister. We’ve been roomies for a long while now, and it’s not as unusual a situation as you might think. There are plenty of adult siblings who room together, among those who get along, of course. There are even adults who share households with a single parent (and I’m not talking about those who’ve moved back in with Mommy and Daddy – but there are certainly a growing number of those as well).

With all due respect to the alternate life styled among us, my sister and I consider ourselves Domestic Partners. We both own our house, we share all the bills, we’re best friends so we socialize together – even our Mother refers to us as “an old married couple.”  Our names are on both of our checking/savings accounts, and we have a separate shared account for a hobby business we both run on the side.

The only thing we lack, aside from the obvious, is health care.  I have it, she – thanks to her a-hole former employer who saw fit to lay her off two weeks ago – does not.  And I can’t add her to mine as a “spouse or domestic partner” because we’re not gay.

Again, no offense, but that sucks.  In every respect other than sex, we’re domestic partners. Both of our names are on our banking accounts, our mortgage, the titles to our cars. We share the bills, we share the duties, we share everything. Where she falls short, I pick up, and where I’m lacking, she handles it.  I could only add her if she were legally disabled, and she’s not.

Why am I saying all this? I mean, what do you care, right?  It’s a strange arraignment, to be sure. Not your standard fare. But over the years I’ve come to find we’re not so strange after all.  More and more of you are living in a unique setting aside from the typical marriage of man and woman – even aside from a sexual partnership. Women living with their widowed mothers, men sharing a house with their cousins, sisters and brothers, friends mutually helping each other.  Even full-on families sharing a house out of financial need and charity. The list is growing.

The reason you’re getting an earful today is because my sister is out of work again, and we’re back on the roller coaster of madness.

It makes me queasy.

People don’t seem to get it, why it should bother ME if my sister has lost her job. After all I have a job, a very good job, with medical benefits and the works.  But if you stop and think about it domestically – what if your wife lost her job, and her medical benefits, and you couldn’t add her to yours?  What if your husband was laid off, and you couldn’t add him to your medical plan?  Now add some medical issues to that laid off spouse, that you’re going to have to pay out of pocket for.

In every outward respect, we are domestic partners lacking the benefit domestic partners are given.  If my sister were my lover, I could legally add her to my medical plan.

We live modestly – we might even survive – unless her health care becomes a serious issue. She’s been cancer free for a few months now, but she’s on daily prescriptions and has routine doctor visits. There’s lymphodema starting up, which is a side effect of having had lymph nodes removed, and she’ll need to see a specialist in a week or so – which we’ll have to pay for out of pocket.

She’s applied for unemployment again, but they’re trying to deny her. We have forms to fill out, and hoops to jump through.  She’s also applied to DSHS for health care, but we haven’t heard back about that yet.  Fingers crossed there.

And if you’re thinking Obama-care will come and save the day – think again.  It’s not “free health care for all.”  It’s really just a mandate that requires everyone to purchase health insurance.  So when that takes effect, if she’s unemployed still, she’ll be forced to pay a fine every month she’s unable to pay for her own health care plan.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I’m not alone, neither are you, and sometimes we need to vent. Maybe not every day, maybe several times a day, I don’t know how it’ll work.  Any post I make regarding these issues will have comments opened, so feel free to vent, share, commiserate or feel free to ignore my Diary of Madness.  If I help no one but myself, it’ll have been time well spent!