I know that it has been eight years since I last temp-ed, but I do not recall having to interview for work past the initial screening of the agency. Yesterday, I had a phone interview with the vice president of events at an organization for a six weeks temp job. They have someone in place right now, but that person is not rising to the occasion of having 3 multi-million dollar events between now and the end of May. Someone of my supposed caliber should be a gold mine to them, right?

Wrong. Today, I had to go in for an in-person interview that turned out to be three interviews with four different people. During the third interview, I was tag-teamed by two women who left me feeling like a criminal badgered by detectives for hours on end. If I had the merest speck of self-respect I would have left. Question after question, delivered in an accusatory and hostile tone, pried away at whether or not I would just show up to work, twiddle my thumbs when finishing a task instead of asking for another one, play solitaire, be able to answer the phone, be knowledgeable with attendees, ask for help before wasting everyone's precious time...etc. I get that they obviously have been frustrated in attracting and retaining the caliber of help they need, but I was tried and convicted without spending one moment on the job. It was the greatest show of will power in a long time on my part not to fling myself off the top of the high rise office building when it was over. After all of that, the final line of questioning was to determine why I would be even interested in such a mean position in the first place. After all, the job was actually clerical in nature, not even rising to the lofty position of administrative work.

So, exactly what is my Ph.D. worth now?

On the way home, I lost my cell phone. One moment it was in my pocket with the headset and the next the headset was all I had left. This is essentially my main phone. This is the phone that is on all my resumes. I asked for and received a substantial discount from Sprint, but the replacement is still more debt on my credit card.

A few hours later, I was standing in Target trying to decide if it would be okay to fill only two of the three prescriptions I got from the doctor. Yes, I am sick.

I had known that you could have post-nasal drip without really knowing it, but had not thought of that as a cause of my sore throat. I apparently have a sinus infection in my head as I once had many years ago. I have heavy duty antibiotics and what turned out to be a decongestant that has begun to shift was is in my head. She also wrote a prescription for cough medicine with codeine since I have not slept the past three nights.

I lie down and start coughing. I cough and spiral into an asthma attack. Yet the next day, no cough. Just the sore throat. She solved the mystery and hopefully the medicines will move swiftly in their attack. However, I am banking on the fact that within two days or so the antibiotics should kick in and ameliorate source of my coughing problem, saving $20 from the ever growing total on my credit card.

My dear friend W talked me through the evening, light conversation to fill the dark spaces weighing heavily on my mind.