Day 01 Month 2 Year 2016 in BookThree: Flight Log 2016

Happy February!
This isn’t my joke but worth a share:
The most revered man in an old village was turning 100. The village was going to throw an enormous party and the most talented and most celebrated performers were invited to come out to celebrate. The best piano player, the best dancer… everyone came out to celebrate the 100th birthday. The old man sat at the end of a giant table as every citizen demonstrated their talents for the old man. Finally, late in the night, the village’s best prostitute appeared and declared loudly, “I hope you’re ready for super sex!” The old man declared loudly, “I’d rather have the soup!”

Yeah… the joke doesn’t work when (1) written as opposed to verbal; or (2) it is stretched out to be more story-based.

Got word back from Black Hawk County… they went with another candidate. Considering I hadn’t heard from them, I knew this was what was going to happen… but it still sucks. That makes twice that I’ve driven all the way out there, interviewed, driven all the way back, waited, and been rejected. And I thought I did well on the interview this time, too. Balls. The good news, though, is since I applied for Buchanan.... I’m not even that down. Yes, putting a lot into the Buchanan opportunity.

I did however e-mail the Black Hawk County Attorney to ask where I went off the rails. The cool thing is he was very complimentary. He said that I interviewed well and was a great candidate for a more experienced office. However, since their office mostly contained people with less than 10 years of experience; he had to select an experienced candidate (even though it was an “entry level” job). So… that still leaves me kind of stuck. On the one hand… he even specifically said, “Don’t change a thing!” But on the other hand… I still don’t have a job. My brother keeps saying “Doing the same thing expecting different results is insanity. You need to change something.” All of that kind of swirls in my head. A professional said I’m doing well, don’t change a thing… but he still didn’t hire me. Oh bother.

When I woke up this morning, my left leg was absolutely killing me. Damn Fibromyalgia. So I went back to sleep, hoping that sleeping would help. Wife, concerned with money how she is, kept waking me up asking when I was going into work because we need the money. Finally, I decided to leave for work but that damn left leg was still being an ass.

The entire drive to work was a practice in insanity. Our area is expecting an absolute Snowpocalypse which is making everyone today freak out on the roads. “The world will end tomorrow in snow, so everybody get out of my way today so I can shop and emergency prepare!” Ufda!

However, when I got to work… the parking lot was empty. This parking lot is NEVER empty. The parking lot (for staff and visitors to the jail) can accommodate up to 300 vehicles. At full staff, the jail employs no less than 600 people. The parking lot is always overcrowded. Today? Empty! When I came in, one of the only people that cares about my department wanted to make sure the Law Librarians weren’t going to try to brave the Tuesday Storm to come in to work. I shrugged my shoulders and said, “I have court in the morning, so I’ll be here anyway.” Her jaw dropped and said, “They haven’t cancelled court yet?!” Which got me thinking. If they had… I wouldn’t know. So I e-mailed my boss and asked him how would I go about discovering if court was cancelled. As of 5 pm… I haven’t heard back from him. Which doesn’t surprise me (as he gives less than a shit about his staff) but still concerns me. Because, obviously, if I risk my neck driving to work tomorrow morning only to find the courtroom empty and nobody else there? I’m going to be more than a little mad. Because… that would be totally in keeping with the “nobody gives a fuck about this department” mentality… and when the Boss of the department is on that list… that is a huge issue.

I asked Work Crush about it and she was able to inform me that The Office is closed tomorrow, Programs is closed tomorrow, and nobody is coming in tomorrow. Tell me again WHY my boss can’t be bothered to tell me any of this? I mean… if the office itself is going to be closed… court or not, why should I be expected to come in when the entire building won’t be in?

In other work related news… I think the inmates know the jail is running on a more skeleton crew tonight. I’ve never heard more… just… yelling for yelling’s sake in the Mods. Seriously, walking around tonight and every ten minutes someone else just shouting their head off because they can. I realize there is a world of work already done on The Incarcerated and that there is a world of work yet to be done… but one of the undeniable “truths” I am constantly faced with in this line of work… most of the people housed here genuinely cannot function in polite, civil society. Oh, there are certainly those in here due to minor drug charges that could contribute to society just fine. But there are so many in here that just… let their emotions guide their interactions at every level. I’m speaking of violence. Either violent vocal outbursts or violent physical outbursts. And the problem is… in the outside world… those outbursts are occurring more regularly from a more diverse group of people, so they are becoming acceptable and expected! I miss the days where shouting your head off at someone got you removed from a building, not rewarded. Civility… polite society… they did exist once upon a time. And I miss them. When swearing was reserved for teenagers or sailors and was never used publicly by those who wished to be seen as intelligent adults. When a transaction at a store was more “I’d like to return this, please” and less “This was shitty, gimme my money back.” When manners and polite actions were prized and rudeness and crude behavior were seen as tragic attempts to get attention.
Maybe my parents raised me like we were living in decades of old. Because… growing up… that was all expected and trained. We were raised to believe that civility was important to life. I’m wondering (1) if that genuinely is not/was never the case, and my parents just raised us like that; (2) if that is all part of Iowa Nice and living out of Iowa has demonstrated how the rest of the nation doesn’t live like that; (3) if the rest of the nation DOES live like that, and my time in Nebraska Corrections has simply kept my interactions isolated to the worst people in the state; (4) if the rest of Nebraska lives like that but Omaha (leaders in Domestic Violence and STDs) is just such a shitty place?

And now to brave the storm and return home. I certainly have my fingers crossed that… no, not even gonna finish that. No matter what… not going into work tomorrow. I’ve just made up my mind. If the entire building is going to be closed… I’m not going to let them make me an exception!