I’ve just been busy. Been gone from home for basically the last 10 days. Went to Boston in there somewhere, sat on the Green Monster. As soon as my mom uploads the pics I will post them. I have actually worked two trips in the last two weeks, which is fun I suppose, but I’d much rather be at home focusing on the job search. Still no *official* notice but the numbers the company has provided will include me. I have one decent lead that would be an upward move and I’m praying (figure of speech) that it works out. I *really* could use a boost like that. It’s frustrating. I’ve worked pretty hard for this career and the benefits haven’t come yet. Of course, it’s impatient to think I’d get results in 18 months, but setback after setback is really an annoyance. I would love to get somewhere where I’m in no rush to go anywhere for years. Make enough money to buy a house, live here in Phoenix and be based here! The lead I have would probably allow me to do this, and it’s made me cautiously optimistic. However I’m trying to avoid putting the cart before the horse.

Sometime this week I’m going to go up to Scottsdale and go hangar to hangar handing out resumes and schmoozing. We’ll see if that works. Everyone says it does, I have my doubts.

That’s all for now. Updates later

Looks like I’m gone on October first… Still no official notice but the CEO basically said that there’s going to be massive reductions, of which I’m included.

Fucking awesomeeee

I’m getting smashed tonight!

So there’s a big meeting in Ontario tomorrow where the CEO is coming to talk to the employee group out there. The speculation is that tomorrow is when the CEO announces that ExpressJet Airlines is no more. To those unfamiliar, ExpressJet Airlines is the name of my airline as a whole, but we do a few different branches of business, primarily as Continental Express, until September 1st as Delta Connection, and until ??? as our own airline, ExpressJet. I work on the ExpressJet side of things, based in Ontario, California. They unexpectedly closed down our Delta operation as of September 1, which is based in LAX. If they close Ontario, the closest base to me, in Phoenix, is Houston. That’s a hassle of a commute.

However, that’s the best case scenario. More than likely if they close down Ontario, I’ll be on the street, as I’ve explained before.

So anyway, what tomorrow boils down to is basically like going to a doctor to get a diagnosis which you know is not going to be good news.

For those of you who have been lucky enough to not have to go through this kinda bullshit, I’ll give you a little info: it sucks. It’s long and drawn out, it’s not quick and painless. The signs are on the wall and you think everything will be immediate but it’s not, it just drags on and on. Especially given my position, I have basically stopped flying for the last 5 months… You think that if you just get over one hump that it’ll fix itself, and you’ll be safe. Then more crap news comes. I haven’t heard any good news from my company since I’ve been hired. It gives you this sick feeling in your stomach thinking that whatever work you’ve put into everything will be for naught. For those not in aviation, it’s not like other industries where if I switch to another job I’ll get paid the same amount as I make now… Nope, it’s all seniority based where I’ll start back at the bottom of the ladder. That means back to under $22,000 a year. For my third year in the industry. It’s absolutely brutal to live on, especially with a shit-ton of student loans to pay off. It’s demoralizing. So if I’m a bit on edge if you talk to me, that’s why. I’m in the middle of figuring out my entire life once again. It sucks, and it makes me grumpy.

So it’s time for a miracle. I’ve always been a lucky guy, if I could use it on cue, this would be the time when I would summon some good luck.

So Delta and my airline have decided to mutually terminate our contract. This was announced 5 minutes before close of business before the 4th of July. It likely means 230 or so pilots on the street. As of right now I’m somewhere around 270 from the bottom… Oh, and we didn’t find out from our company, we had to find out from the media. Pretty shitty way to find out that possibly 10% of your pilot group is gone. Happy fourth of July from ExpressJet!

This coupled together with the likely closure of the Ontario base (where I work) might just mean that I’m toast in September or October. Hopefully not, but it seems all but a certainty at this point. At the very least I’ll be commuting to Houston, which sucks, but it’ll be a welcome alternative to trying to find a job.

In fact, the job market is especially tough for pilots, I really have no idea what I’d do. My options are a lateral move, which would force me to move somewhere else in the country, or a step backwards to stay in Phoenix. I love living in Phoenix and Lauren isn’t really in for another move, I suspect, so that seems to make my decision for me… but who knows if I’ll even be able to find a job here. This is easily the shittiest situation I’ve had to deal with in my life, I think. It puts a lot of things into perspective, for sure… Ultimately the bills have to be paid, and they don’t stop if you don’t have a job, so what the hell do you do?

So that being said, I’m making a nice little backup plan. Now I know not a lot of you out there (not that anyone really reads this any more) aren’t aviation people, but if you know of any sort of job at all that would hire me (with a B.S. degree and a few years experience in sales), let me know by either leaving a message here, IMing me on AIM or giving me a call. Of course if you have any knowledge of any aviation jobs, please do what you can to get in touch with me…

Until then, cheers, happy fourth of july, don’t do anything stupid!!!

If you’re reading this, update your LJ. I’m bringing this shit back. As I said to Leticia last night… When you read your old entries you feel nostalgic, right? So in 3 years if you want to look back, you won’t have anything to feel nostalgic about!

Anyway, I really really wish I made just a little more money… I make just enough right now to stay afloat. I can pay my rent, my bills and my student loan, but I cannot save a penny. It’s rather frustrating. And my electric bill is like $150 a month which fucking sucks. I try to get Lauren to conserve a little electricity and she’s not super receptive. Same when I try to save a little money by not going out to dinner at a fancy as hell restaurant every week, which is costing me above $200 a month, but again she’s not super receptive which is frustrating. I’m not doing this stuff because I’m cheap (although it seems so), I’m doing it because I just flat out can’t afford it. Oh well, she offered to get a fan for her side of the bed so we can raise the a/c temp at night so at least she’s making an effort, which makes me feel a lot better. Now if we can trim the fancy dinner budget a bit so I can save some money just in case!!!

I AM USHERING IN A NEW GOLDEN AGE OF LIVEJOURNAL ONEONEONEONEONE

…and not that a whole lot is going on in my life!

I haven’t had to work in a long time, which is sort of nice but you get really sick of being at home after like 60 days of it. Huy has forever deserted me in Tucson, which makes me sad. I need to find someone in Phoenix who doesn’t have a M-F 9-5 job so they’ll have random days off and I can have some social contact when I’m not working…

I’m getting really boring in general as a person because I just don’t do shit all day… My MLB franchise on PS3 is doing remarkable, not that I should be particularly proud of that. Money is still extremely tight even though I’m on second year pay (and I have a roommate and I still can’t save any damn cash) Sad because I’d like to save $4000 more for a house downpayment, and I want to go to Europe in October (when I have vacation)… which I figure is at the cheapest, $500 (since airfare is free) but yeah, I digress.

So anyway, remember back when the internet was big news? AOL Keywords, chat rooms, etc etc. Now it seems the honeymoon is long over. It’s sunk from primarily entertainment to simply a tool to get things done. I mean the only time people play those internet games any more is when they’re at work or otherwise overly bored… At least I think so. Who knows. But it’s convenient not having to mail in my bills, having them all auto-deducted from the bank account… which I monitor online… What an age we live in. Hell, I even have a bank account at a bank that I’ve never been to. America is #1 happy country, as asians would say. Hell, even facebook was all the rage back when it was THE facebook. I was never superbly impressed by myspace.

New paragraph time… So in keeping my thoughts as scattered as possible, I’m looking to find some sort of money making dealie that I can do from my computer or something like that… Except that like 500% of those things are scams or sound incredibly like scams. I just want some stupid side job that doesn’t make a lot necessarily, but it’s not a big deal if I get called in to work and can’t get to whatever it is I need to do right away… Basically I need something with a ton of flexibility and very little responsibility, but those jobs are few and far between. Maybe if you live in Phoenix and you know of some job around here I could do, you could comment?