Berck is gone. He left early yesterday morning for Chicago to visit with his mom and his sister for Sydney’s birthday. I wanted to go, but my boss didn’t want me to go, we can’t really afford for me to take time off of work, and this way Berck can stay longer and teach Sydney how to cook.

Syd sent Berck an instant message recently saying to the effect, “I need to fry something for this recipe I’m following, and I know you told me that frying can be dangerous. My question is what oil is the least dangerous for frying?”

So I’m using my time alone to search for jobs. I’ve spent most of today doing that, and I’m about cross-eyed after looking through hundreds of classifieds. Otherwise, I did some shopping and got some Dr. Scholls inserts for my tennis shoes. I seem to be wearing through the foot of my right one. These gel thingies are really comfortable.

Although I’m not on my feet quite as much now. This week I got shifted from the puller crew to the in-checker crew. So instead of pulling stuff off of the shelves of the warehouse, I put stuff up. (Berck asked, “So if you’re not a puller, does that make you a pusher?”)

I’ve got a different schedule now: 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Mon-Fri. But we usually end up working at least half an hour overtime each day…except Fridays, whey they tend to let us off early.

Stocking is a lot easier than pulling, at least, I think so. The pullers are timed and have to spend the whole day dragging a heavy cart up and down aisles grabbing stuff as fast as they can. In-checkers open packages delivered from UPS, FedEx, or by freight, make sure everything is there, and put them up on the shelves. So while I’m opening packages I can often sit down on the floor next to the box I’m unpacking.

My boss Barry, the warehouse manager, told us that he likes to put new hires on the pulling crew first, because it’s more structured and he can see how they’re doing, then shift them over to the in-checking crew. So I guess I passed the test.

More likely, I’m the only one who survived. Every single person hired after me has quit, except for the four most brand new people. The latest was my buddy, Brandi, who was hired just two weeks after I was. She confided to me Monday that she got offered a job in the little town where her church is (she’s a youth minister by night) doing office work for the city for the same thing we’re paid for grueling warehouse work. She was really excited, and I was excited for her as well but sad to see her go.

And irritated that I can’t seem to get employment that can support us.

So I’ve been playing the fill-out-the-application game all day. The last one I’ve found is an adjunct professor position at a local community college. It’s part time, but I’m qualified for it, so I’m a little excited. After I finish that, I think I’m calling it a day. This sure is a lot of hard work for little pay.