I wouldn’t become a permanent employee for another four years but finally, after three previous attempts to get something (two for the intern program, one with temp work), I landed a temp gig in Apple’s sales support department via Adia which is currently known as Adecco. This would be the beginning of my slow ascent joining America’s middle class economically since being a member by education and mindset doesn’t pay the bills.
What a difference 40 hours/week made again along with an extra 50 cents/hour. I think being underemployed at the dorm was the bigger problem since I made enough to make ends meet until the screw over I got at the end of 1994. The contract was what the doctor ordered too. Getting out from under the thumb of University Towers’ inept GM had been a goal I set with Lee the previous Summer, especially when the idiot was flaunting his stupidity to the attorney suing the dorm; “being computer illiterate by choice” only impresses other old farts who share the same ignorant sentiment. The situation turned out better than I would have ever imagined too. My relationship with Lee had returned to its pre-Austin amiable levels and when I told him about my departure, I was asked to stick around on at least a part-time basis. Seems that a couple other recently hired helpers were bailing, leaving Lee short handed at a critical stage, when the majority of the residents move out after they complete their final exams. Besides, I knew the ropes so the GM had less reason to dismiss me. Working at Towers from then on was much more enjoyable because I wasn’t dependent upon the money any longer. My newer, reduced role entailed weekends in the leasing office: giving tours (I bet I can still give a relatively accurate one today), answering the phones, processing paperwork and data entry.
Meanwhile, the excitement over working at Apple was great. It wasn’t a technical position, more of an administrative thing. Knowing how to operate a Mac helped greatly. I only discovered weeks later about the cushiness of my gig in SSO-Strategic. Most people who worked in the SSO-Education divisions were busier and crazier. I only had to juggle a dozen specific accounts, those others had entire states or parts of the denser ones.
Things in Austin had turned around for me financially. The mental side had a head start which I found hard to believe. Once I got over the disappointment regarding the Loyola job (glad I never took it), I embraced Austin’s advantages despite my lack of money. To me, the key moment was on a weekday afternoon I didn’t have to be at Towers, the weather was great (Spring-like in February!) and I was sitting on in front of my apartment drinking a Shiner Bock. I thought, “I may be eeking by, probably a step or two ahead of economic delinquency but I never could have a day like this in Central Illinois or Milwaukee for another three months.” Then I called a friend or two up north to ask how the snow was to be a taunting jackass.
Having the means to attend my brother’s wedding was no longer a crisis too! Flight to Chicago number two in 1995 was a go.
From those days on, I’ve never been truly underemployed. There have been times when money was in short supply and I’ve often worked an additional part-time job (one day I will stop, I promise!), namely the ugly stretch in North Carolina, to pull through. The only little thing I miss was the additional time. While unemployed in early 1993, I was in a panic. For 1995 I was a tad wiser. I used the off days to take French III at ACC, read books (the big 1000-page opus on Harry Truman by David McCullough was one), write a slug of letters on my PowerBook 140, pre-compose decent e-mails through AOL, play endless campaigns of Spaceward Ho!, help the guys at Technophilia with their Mac in exchange for CDs and really, really listen to my music collection; namely Twisted by Del Amitri and Adam Ant’s comeback Wonderful. To celebrate, I scored a ticket to see those acts the following day; Adam Ant at Austin Music Hall on April 28, 1995 and about a week later, I was in the front row for Del Amitri.
Austin was now shaping up to become the Utopia I spent hours daydreaming about in Central Illinois. The weather rocked, I had enough income to survive and then some, there were shows to see (movies and concerts) and now I could pursue my (doomed) relationship with this student named Kim. I had been hanging out with her after Patricia returned to France.