Black Wings of Destiny

My first priority was to call back Sturm Ruger about setting up that interview. But first I checked my messages, and they had called me a second time about coming in to see someone. When does that happen? Seriously. They called me two days in a row about this, so of course my fingers were dialing that number with my very next action. I set up an interview for tomorrow (Friday) at 1:00, so it seems they're looking at me for a first shift position, which is fine. They mentioned there were three different openings (three, count 'em, three) for which I was being considered. They seemed very eager to talk to me. How encouraging is that? Pretty damn so.

I'm leaving work at 11:00, which gives me plenty of time to get to Newport for 1:00. After that I promised Jennifer I'd call her and let her know how it went. She's all but hired there, on second shift, and is only waiting for the background check to come through. She says it's very thorough, which is a little intimidating, but if there's one thing I know I can do it's nail an interview. I'll probably be nervous in the morning, but I've been feeling pretty bulletproof the last couple days.

At my current job I've been on auto-pilot all week. The abovementioned job isn't a sure thing, even as positive as it sounds, but I'm definitely leaving for somewhere, as I can barely make myself go through the motions right now. I'm still performing at a very high level, but my heart isn't in it. At all. I'm so burnt out on screening that it isn't funny. I need to go.

But first, I get to put the fear of god into my team leader. I'm not one of those people who thinks they're the most important person in the world and that the company can't go on without them, but nevertheless, without me that department is screwed. SCREWED. Jen and I are both on the way out, so just on the 'any warm body' front they'll be down two people, and I'm a very experienced and accomplished screener, and I assure you that what I do can't be learned in two weeks. And there's a very high chance that once I'm gone that the clock is ticking on Starr, because she's unhappy there anyway, and if anyone can see what's waiting on the other side of my leaving it's her, and she doesn't want to get stuck with the crapola that I deal with all the time.

I made a list of all the things my replacement would have to know, and it's an insane list. Just insane. And the foil is one thing, but the overlays I do are a whole 'nother thing, man. Here's the kicker on those: since I started doing those four years ago, *nobody* else has even worked on them. Nobody else really has any idea how I do those, and there is a whole lot of shit that I do on instinct that isn't covered in the SOP books. Not only that, but you really have to work really hard at a brisk pace to keep up with all the crap on my press, and who are they going to get that's willing to do that? We haven't hired a lot of people with much in that area for the past four years, so I doubt they're going to suddenly pull the next workhorse out of their ass any too soon.

I almost feel guilty about leaving them in a lurch. Of course, they've had YEARS to get someone else trained over there, so it isn't really my fault. But c'mon, you know me, I'm going to feel guilty anyway. That is, until Sue came by this afternoon and gave me a hard time about something, and then ..... pffffffft. The clouds parted and I could see clearly now because the rain had gone.

I have a few axes to grind before I go. Tomorrow, with Jen's help, I'm going to start twisting the knife a little bit.

Payback's a bitch, motherfucker.