This is my Life ...

well i noticed that with my recent posts, i needed a specific post to address some gaps (time) that would leave someone asking "WTF?"

i don't know how much of my work situation has been posted (by me), but i'll sum it up in a few sentences:

i used to be a stay-in-school employee at the contracting sqadron at randolph while i finished up my undergraduate degree. needless to say (esp. if you know) i work. and when i graduated they realized that if/when i leave, they would have to find someone to cover everything i usually do. so we agreed that they would move me into an 1199 developmental position and keep me. meanwhile, so that civillian personnel wouldn't freak out, i applied, got accepted and enrolled in a graduate school majoring in procurement and acquisition management. the original plan was for me to take a class and then wait the calendar year it took for my position to automatically convert to an 1102, the target series for my job.

well when the calendar year was up, i asked my team lead to ask our flight chief for a status on my conversion - it was going too smoothly and i knew something was up. so she did and she did. when she came back she told me that classification (that's a dept that reviews everyone's job series and will update it accordingly with the private sector) had re-did the developmental series because they noticed that a lot of people were in those positions only to wait for the calendar year to pass so that they could have the permanend target position - LIKE I WAS. Well they caught wind of this and decided to re-classifiy the job to the point that when you are accepted in that position you sign a statement of declarations where you set fourth your educational golas - in my case, i said i would get my master's (with no real intention of getting one). suffice it to say that i was royally screwed over b/c now i HAVE to get my degree in order to "graduate" to the full 1102 target series - fuck me.

well since then i have been applying for every 1102 position i could find that i could qualify for. amongst those was a position for an 1102-7:13 (that is a gs-07 target 13) with the office of naval research. i put my name in for it, included my supporting documentation (transcripts, latest sf50 and latest evaluation). i had pretty much forgotten about it until i got a call around the 21^st or 22^nd of aug. asking me if i was still interesed in the job - hell yeah. so we scheduled a phone interview for the 28^th of aug. at 9 am.

the 28th rolls around and i get the interview call. i do have to say that i wasn't all that nervous. i was concerned that they may ask me what my biggest dollar value contract is, what's the difference between P and C type contracts, when/when not to do a delivery order off an existing federall priced contract, you know your typical contracting type questions. so here's how the questions went (after the introductions - i interviewed with 3 people on the line):

1. the position is located in arlington, va, are you still interested in the position?
   A: yes.

arlington is located in the dc metro area and has on the most expensive costs of living, are you aware of this, and are you still interested?
A: i am aware, and yes.
(this is where it gets a little fuzzy, so i'll try to remember as best i can - i felt it was a rather short interview, but was told by my coworkers that it was about 30 mins long)

tell us more about your position - you are an 1199, what exactly is that?
A: i tell them that its a developmental position with an 1102 being the target series that will be conferred to me once i graduate my masters program.

will moving to arlington affect your graduate school?
A: no, webster is a brick & mortar and internet only school, and i can easily switch to the internet option to move.

how soon can you being?
A: personally, i would only need a few weeks to get my affairs in order and secure a residence and move. however, since we here at randolph operate on a traditional fiscal year (oct - sep), i am sure that my supervisor and the people i support will appreciate is the reporting date is well in the new fiscal year.

FOLLOW UP STATEMENT: well that's a situation that can be handled between management.

tell us more about your experience with abss.
A: briefly describe my abss role and how i not only assist my local customer, but also customers from outside my squadron and also describe the interfacing between abss and pd2 (our contract writing software).

we've noticed that there are some gaps in your work history that seem to correlate with your education, can you elaborate on those [on this question, i really couldn't hear the man who was asking me, am thinking they have voip phones and i was getting some signal degredation, but i think this was the gist of the question and aswered accordingly]
A: bascially told them that from about 1999/2000 have always been erolled in school and/or working a part/full-time job, mostly with the governemnt.

at this point they told me that they were pretty much done with their questions for me, and asked it i had any question about the position the office of naval resarch or the arlington area.

asked them:

1. is the position a TARGET 13, or are you hiring between a 7 and 13?
   A: yes, the position is a target 13, but they can hire anywhere in that range. if they fill the vacancy at the 7 level, the target is 13, however if the fill the vacancy with a 13, it will be a lateral transfer.
   
2. will pcs costs be covered
   A: maybe. they could not give a definite yes or no and so it was decided to leave that info out of the vacancy announcement.
   
3. how many people are being considered for the job. i am more than certain you are not a liberty to disclose the actual number of people who are being considered, but i am trying to gauge the possibilty of a job offer...
   A: we cannot say how many people we are/have interviewed, but our interviews should be completed in a day or two and we should have a decision within a week.
   

was passed our thanks and hung up and i was wired.

i cannot stand when people speak in definites! they made it seem like they were just doing a formality since they asked me about moving how soon i can begin and that they can negotiate a beginning date with management...

needless to say i needed a cigarette.

then, on the same day, after lunch i overhear my team lead going off on how great this individual is, now they can leap tall building on a single bound, how they can tread water, how if it wasn't for them, the sun wouldn't rise the next day.

after she hangs up, i ask her what's up as i have a sneaking suspission that it was about me.

sho'nuff was.

one of the interviewers called my team lead for a character and work reference for me.

now i'm in the middle of the waiting game and its driving me crazy

i just hope i havne't counted my chickens before they hatch, but i'm doing my best in realizing that there are certainly more qualified people out there so i'm kind of expecting a "no thank you" but really hoping for a "we'd like to make you a tenative job offer..."

-cdt-

Where has the time gone.

Before, I couldn't stay away form opera's community and the wonderful features it supplies us with (blog, photo hosting, etc.) - but the novelty wore off.

Where did it all begin? I think it was a bunch of little things that added up and made me stop using opera. One of the main things was that opera wouldn't remember info that is entered into forms, you had to save it to the wand - but that only worked for user-id's and passwords....

Then gmail started acting flaky under opera . Not fun.

So one day, I get fed up and quit opera and fired up firefox and haven't turned back since.

Until today.

Why?

Well, the long story short - I put in for a job for an GS-1102-7:13. That's right, a target 13. Its in Alexandria, VA. I am so hoping I get the job. And if I do get the job, I will need a venue for people who may want to keep up with, somewhere to got to read about my exploits.

And since I have a strict aversion to myspace I thought I'd give opera antoher try.

We'll see how it goes.

If I start posting more, that probably means I got the job....

Keep your fingers crossed!

-cdt-

Went with my mom to the mall

Well I should have known from the beginning when she asked me if I wanted to go along while she made a payment at foley's that i would be there for at least 3 hours, but what the hell, i like to hang out w/my mommy (biggest mamma's boy's you'll probably ever know).

So we're there and I decided to look at pants since the ones i normally wear at work are looking bad, esp since i can fit in one leg. so I said to myself - self, try on some pants so you can see what size you are now.

Keep in mind that early last year, my heafty ass was squeezing into size 46 and 48 pants. so I go and pick up a few pairs of some khaki's that are on sale. Got me a sampler - 44, 42, and 40.

Tried the 44 on. although they fit better than my old pairs, but they were still a bit baggy. Tried on the 42, perfect fit, didn't have to hold my breath or suck in the gut. said, screw it, i'll try the 40s on. They fit ok. a little snug, but not uncomfortably so what most people would call their "skinny jeans."

So i picked me up 3 pairs of the 42, guess i'll have to retire the old pairs...

-cdt-

I guess I should be happy that I am still on the losing side but this losing 1 pound at a time is really wearing on my nerves.

The first few weeks I was dropping tons in chunks. From one week to the next, WHAM - 13 to 20 pounds GONE.

And now, I'm lucky if I lose a pound in one week and there have been some weeks where there was weight gain (by a pound or two). But still, it really fries my chicken to step up on that scale, and to see that those numbers don't go much further then a pound or two.

For a minute of two I make myself belive that since I have increased by exercising, I am building some muscle, hence the stagnated weight loss - but still, I want to see those number going down, down, down, down. Not just sitting there, looking back at me with their menacing stare. I can feel them mocking me, saying, "HA HA you fat bastard."

Then I run the risk of falling into the trap that a lot of people fall into - weighing in too often. But damn-it, I wanna see those numbers go down!

-cdt-

I'm getting a bit worried now. But before I fly off the handle, I'm going to have to make a few phone calls.

I knew when I started going through the motions of getting WLS, I would probably be financially responsible for some charges, but I didn't think it would be this bad. And at the time it comes, I really can't afford it, and that really sucks, hard.

Here's a shot of the Explanation of Benefits from Blue Cross Blue Shield:



As you can plainly see, the submitted charges from Innova were over 59K.

When I first saw that, I figured I may be responsible for 5 to 10K, and I really didn't have that big of a problem with that - but never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be responsible for 57K!.

Tomorrow, I will be calling up BCBS for a more in-depth explanation than:



What makes this even worse is that I knew that I would be responsible for a part of the surgery. But since BCBS and most insurances for that matter, do not disclose their "plan rates." Well, since us consumers don't know their "plan rates" we don't know if we're getting a good deal or getting the shaft. Had I known that they would only pay a measly $2000, I may have looked for a center that was "Preferred" or "Participating."

-cdt-