I’m back in
Michigan. Moved back in with the
parents. Last I posted, I had just
started and ended my new job back in Santa Clara, California – all on the same
day – and was just about to begin the cross-country drive. Not really sure if I was clear enough about
the ‘Route 66’ adventure not happening, however that trip did not happen. There was – for a couple days – still a
possibility of me driving back down to Santa Monica, meeting up with Craig as
he flew in from Michigan and actually completing that adventure; however, it
didn’t happen. What ended up happening
was me driving straight from Santa Clara (well, Fremont actually…) to Allen
Park, Michigan all by myself – a quick, four-day drive down I-80. Other than picking up a speeding ticket (102
in a 75 zone) in Nebraska, the trip was quite uneventful. I arrived at my parent’s house on a Sunday,
early in the afternoon … been living here since.
I think I
actually am losing my sanity now.
Nothing seems to make sense to me lately. It clearly now appears that I should have
stuck with that crappy job I successfully landed in Santa Clara. It most definitely would have been a
nightmare – as far as jobs go – however it sure would have let me avoid many of
the current situations that I find myself dealing with. First and foremost, I
would have been employed. I now have the
pleasure of attempting to solve my lack of employment issue whilst living in
Michigan. This adds quite a bit of
complication to a problem that I’ve been working on solving for well over a
year already.
The thing is
that backend, digital, ASIC, “place and route” – where my expertise is – is not
something that is even done here in the Detroit Metropolitan area. Everything – EVERYTHING – related to
electrical engineering around here is directly tied to the auto industry. It’s also 100% analog in nature. There are jobs related to ASICs, however all
of them appear to be incorporating ASICs designed elsewhere into PCB circuitry
sold to auto manufacturers. I know,
“blah blah blah technical crap most people reading this could care less about”
– sorry ‘bout that … It’s just so
frustrating to me. I was hoping to
perhaps find something in engineering that I could do around here, but I
can’t. My 20 years of learning more and
more about less and less has made me far too specialized. I don’t do analog circuitry – I don’t
remember what I “learned” in college some 25 years ago.
My next plan
at solving my lack of job issue was to just throw away my experience and change
fields completely. Didn’t really have an
idea about what I wanted to do nor how I would get into it – still don’t. I applied for a job with Guitar Center as
something called an “Operations Associate” as the job posting made it appear
that no experience was needed and that training would be provided. Sent my resume along with a cover letter that
I typed up explaining that I was trying to change careers as I figured they
would wonder why someone with my resume was applying. Never heard anything back from that…
Considered
(and am still possibly considering) trying to get some sort of IT job but don’t
really know what training I would need. Seems
like it’s all very specialized towards what is needed for the specific job one
has. Since, I have no specific job, this
makes me hesitant to spend any money and time taking a class that may never be
useful for me. I don’t know … maybe I’m
overthinking things…
I’m
currently back to looking for a job in my field – as specialized as it is. Translation – I am looking for a job
somewhere other than here. I’ve got a
couple leads for contract positions in California and Texas although I have
been applying to opportunities anywhere in the country – even applied to
several positions in Canada though I have heard nothing back on those. I’m basically back to what I was doing prior
to landing the job in Santa Clara. Now,
however, I am doing it from Michigan rather than California. Getting pretty much the same results though –
had a few phone interviews resulting in me waiting to hear more and many
applications sent resulting with no reply at all. Sometimes I get rejection emails, but usually
I get nothing. It’s now well over 200
opportunities that I have applied for since deciding to give up on poker.
This
decision to move back in with my parents has also introduced several issues
that caught me a bit off guard – all related to my car. Granted, some of these issues only exist because
of my pride. I do realize that, although
I do like my car, it is just a car; however, it is a 2002 Firehawk. It’s a limited edition (only 1501 were built)
model with slightly more than 60k miles.
It’s rarely (very rarely) been driven in rain and never been driven in
snow. Although it was involved in a
couple accidents in California, I made sure all repairs were completed by
professionals. I’ve done the best I
could to take care of this car. Now I’m
back in Michigan.
Michigan, as
many of you may already be aware, is pretty much the worst place for
vehicles. The roads are a freaking mess
– more potholes than pavement – and when winter comes around things really
become a nightmare. They spray the roads
with salt. Salt doesn’t do good things
to cars. The whole idea of driving my
over-powered, rear-wheel-drive car on the icy, salt-covered roads of southeast
Michigan throughout the winter makes me cringe.
So … I’ve decided to put my Firehawk in storage. Now I have no car (well, I “have” one … in
storage). I’ll be needing to purchase a
vehicle if I stay here. So there’s that
now…
I was able
to obtain a Michigan driver’s license without much hassle; however, was unable
to register my car. I did change my car
insurance from California to Michigan; unfortunately, I could not complete a
Michigan registration due to not having a title for my car. I might “have” a title but, if I do, it would
be located in my file cabinet. My file
cabinet just so happens to currently be residing in a storage unit somewhere in
Nevada along with the rest of my possessions.
You see, apart from my car and few select things I decided to take with
me to Santa Monica, everything I own was packed in a truck by the movers I
hired in Henderson and taken to storage.
I’m supposed to get an apartment and give that address to the movers at
some point to get my stuff delivered.
That’s a bridge I suppose I’ll be jumping off sometime in the future …
assuming I ever get myself an apartment and who the hell knows if that’s ever
going to happen…? But, as usual, I
digress … back to what I was talking about…
Now I’m
working on obtaining a duplicate title for my vehicle – no easy task here… My initial guess was to try the California
DMV. I filled out a California “Title
Application” and sent it, along with a brief letter of explanation as well as a
money order for $21 – the duplicate title fee, to the California DMV in
Sacramento. I “should” have taken the
moment required to look at my current, still valid, California registration
prior to doing this. It clearly states
that no title was issued for this registration.
Okay, so a
bit of an explanation on what I have since discovered is in order here. Apparently, in some states a vehicle can be
registered without a title. Not sure
exactly which states are included in the complete list, however both California
and Nevada allow this. I now know this
as I did exactly that in both California (twice, actually) and Nevada. Michigan, however, does not allow this. In Michigan the owner of a vehicle must
possess a valid title to said vehicle in order to obtain registration and
plates. So that got me to wondering exactly
how the hell I was going to get a copy of my title…
After
looking into things a bit, I was able to discover that I had paid off my loan
for this car back in 2008. I was still “technically”
living in Colorado then; although I was “actually” living in California. For you see, I owned a house in Colorado where
my car was stored. It was apparently in
2008 that I decided to bring my car with me to California. The reason I believe this is because I was
able to discover from the California DMV that the first year my car was
registered in California was 2009.
Interestingly enough, it was registered without a title… This leads me to believe that I need to be
going through the Colorado DMV in an attempt to get a duplicate title. It does appear that it was registered as a
Colorado vehicle when the loan was paid off.
I called the
Colorado DMV to see if they’d be able to help me with this and basically
discovered that, in Colorado, bureaucracy rules. They told me that I needed to fill out and
send in a “Record Search Request” (form DR2489a) to see if a title for my
vehicle is in their system and then, if it is, I should fill out and send in a
“Duplicate Title Request” (form DR2539a) to request a duplicate title be sent
to me. I then asked if they might be
able to save me some time and let me know if the title was in their records
over the phone and was told that they couldn’t do that because there was no way
to prove I was who I was claiming to be.
What I ended up doing was sending in the “Search Request” followed by
the “Title Request” a few days later.
The way I figure it is, if the “Title Request” comes back to me
requesting some kind of missing information, I should have the information by
then from the “Search Request” I filed.
If I’m lucky, the information I put in the “Duplicate Title Request”
will be sufficient and I’ll get my title…
Oh yeah, and
to add to this, I’m also a bit in the dark on whether or not the title – should
it be found in the Colorado DMV records – will be in my name. There is still somewhat of a possibility that
the lien from the loan was never removed in Colorado. That was supposed to have been done when I
registered my car after paying off the loan … but I don’t think I registered
the car in Colorado again after the loan was paid off. I suppose the lien may still be on my car’s
title. I was able to get a lien release
document from the credit union … just in case.
I’m still waiting for this mess to sort itself out…
The latest
twist in this pathetic story that is my life is that Ray, one of my oldest
friends, is basically offering me a job whilst I continue to look for
work. Yeah, it’s as strange as it sounds
and that’s what’s bothering me the most about it. He’s offering me a chance to work at his
company in pretty much a secretarial role as a way for me to earn some money
and possibly move out of my parent’s place.
I really do appreciate the offer however I don’t think I could do
that. If I took the job, I would need to
get a vehicle. I suppose that’s not too
big a deal, I’m pretty sure I could pick up something half-way decent for a few
grand. What happens, however, if I then land
one of the jobs I am trying to get? I
suppose I could sell the vehicle I purchased, but how much of a pain would that
be? Remember now that the jobs I am
trying to land all require me to be moving most likely quite far from Michigan.
As for
moving out of my parent’s house, I would love to. Once again though, what happens if I land a
job? I don’t know … I suppose I could
always break the lease of any apartment I got although I would need to once
again have my possessions (assuming I ended up getting them delivered from
Nevada) moved again to wherever the job I landed was. Getting an apartment of my own would probably
be the smart thing to do though as the office for Ray’s company is actually located
down in Toledo, Ohio. I don’t think
driving daily between Allen Park and Toledo makes too much sense – heck, the
gas cost alone would make the whole endeavor somewhat pointless…
Besides, I
can’t screw over my buddy like that. I
fully realize he’s going out of his way to offer me assistance, but what kind
of worker would I be if my main goal was finding work elsewhere? I need to be able to open my schedule for any
interviewing that may be required on my job search and I have absolutely no
idea how frequently time off would be needed for that. Heck, there’s been four days in the last
couple weeks that I would have needed to be away from work for interviews. I’m hoping that my interviewing may soon
become even more frequent and who knows if I may be needing to travel somewhere
for an interview…? It just seems to me
that this whole looking for a job these days is a job of its own. If I agree to work with Ray’s company, I
would feel obligated to do that job as well as I could. Right now, I just feel that this job hunt I
am currently on would get in the way…
I suppose
another option here would be to take the job with Ray as a change in
career. It wouldn’t pay even close to
what I expect to be able to get should I land a job in my current (“former,” I
suppose, when the whole poker bullshit is taken into account) career however
that’s assuming I am ever able to actually land a job. I don’t know … seems like the last few phone
interviews I had went decently but you never know these days – will they end up
like all the other interviews I’ve had this last year? I sure hope not…
Oh well …
I’m planning on meeting up with Ray tomorrow down in Toledo. Maybe talking with him will give me some
direction…
bis später,
Coriolis
Decided to
kill some time a few days ago by playing some guitar. I have very vague memories of a time when I
used to enjoy playing guitar; never was any good, although I have clocked in
over 1,000 hours playing “Rocksmith” on my computer. I suppose that must translate to me enjoying
the process somewhat. Now I’m sitting
here with my upper left arm and shoulder in constant pain. That, you see, is just the way life works for
me these days. Nothing ever has any
positive results – nothing. Everything I
do just adds more to the pile of shit that my life has become.
