Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The Government Hired Me

It all started a few months ago.

Jen, the daughter, told me that she was taking the test to qualify for the position of US Census worker.

She’s the one that I’m going to blame for this predicament I’m in now because back then, she casually suggested that I might as well take the test along with her. 

It’s supposed to be a part-time work, make your own hours kind of job so that would work for me.  It pays really well too, so that’s going to be a plus. 

She gave me the phone number to call for registration and basically forced me to call.  Yeah, she forced me to call.

I haven’t taken a test in years though, so I was worried.  My math skills were based on how well I could hit the correct keys on the calculator.  My brain hadn’t processed long division in quite some time, so I was a tad bit concerned with rustiness.

“It’ll be fun!” she said.

Ok, so I went and took the test, but Jen lied.  It wasn’t fun.   Especially when one of the test questions required me to multiply 9 x 7 along with a whole lot of other numbers.  All the other numbers didn’t give me a problem, but 9 times 7, at least in my brain, equals 54.

Once I finally figured out that  9 x 7 equals 63,not 54, the rest of the test was clear sailing for me but left me frazzled. 

I ended up getting 3 of the questions wrong.  I think Jen had a perfect score or wait, maybe she missed one, it doesn’t matter because naturally, she gloated because she did better than her mom on the test.

Sure, it was lots of fun taking that test.  Thanks Jen.

The really funny thing about this is that ….

100_3748

I got the call to become a US Census worker and she didn’t.

Lord help us all if they think that hiring someone that missed 3 on the test is better than hiring someone that missed ONE.

Anyway, yes, I’m now a Census worker.  I was sworn in as a government employee.  Last week, I trained to become a professional fingerprinter. 

Indeed, if anyone needs their fingerprints taken, for any reason, I’m the one to call.  Keep that in mind.

This week, I’m going through the training to be an enumerator.

Yesterday, I had to fingerprint 20 people and let me tell you, I never want to look at anyone’s fingers ever again.

So I’m probably going to be pretty quiet the rest of this week in blogland because the training will be for the rest of the week and then the job will start over the weekend.  There’s not a whole lot of leftover time to work on that Clay Pot Pansy pattern or to get started on the Strawberry candle mat.

I’m finding out that this is not a “part-time, make your own hours” kind of job that they advertise.  They want up to 40 hours a week, working every night and every weekend until the job is done.

Already it’s a lot more than I ever expected.  But the people that I work with are terrific and it doesn’t seem like it will be difficult work  … and now that I know for sure that 9 x 7 =63, the math that might be involved will come easy.

Thank you Jen for forcing me to take that test.  :)

I’m not sure if that was a sarcastic thank you or not.  I’ll let you all know next week.

Happy Birthday Jennifer Michelle. She’s 28 years old today which means that 28 years ago, right now, as I type, I was in pure, painful, agony for hours and hours and hours until those blessed forceps grabbed her head and pulled. 

Let’s all take some time right now to thank the inventor of forceps. :)

Happy Day everyone!

8 comments:

Lisa said...

Oh how cool! My oldest nephew's birthday is today! Happy Birthday to your sweet girl! Enjoy your job!! One of my co-workers, well 2 actually, took the test and were hired but the second couldn't work the extra hours! I cannot wait to hear all about it!
Hugs, Lisa

Heidi said...

Congrats on the job. Birthday wishes to our daughter, today is my sons 28th birthday.

I love your patterns , I purchased the snowman but haven'tstarted it yet. hope you have a great day.

Rocking Chair Stitches said...

Ok Now that's fate...lol Good Luck Cath!

Kathleen said...

Congrats on the new job!! Happy Birthday to your daughter! I told my son recently, he turned 12, that Mother's should be the ones getting the presents on their birthdays since we went thru a lot of pain to bring them into this world & they should be more appreciative!!

SUE said...

My husband thought the Census was a part-time EXTRA job - he has a full-time job. But when they hired him he had to do the training when and where they said with no concern for the current job. He didn't take it.

Good luck to you - I really enjoy reading your blog!!

SUE

Laura said...

Great story! Congrats on the new job, even if it isn't exactly what you envisioned!

Brenda said...

OK, so it's good bye felted wool hello black shades and talking wristwatch? LOL! Oh dear...who knew you had it in you? LOL! Have fun!!!!

Sandi Linn Andersen said...

On the 19th of this month and 40 years ago at that time....I, too, was thankful for forceps. I love your writing style! Have fun counting. LOL! Glad you can do this. I am lousy at math. Even when I think I've got it....I realize I messed up a number some where. How I ever succeed at making a quilt, I do not know. I guess that's why I like working with wool so much better! :-)