It has to be said, this blog is going to be a bit of a rant.  It feels like I’ve been teased, like the gods decided to play a mean little joke on me.

Since coming back from India in October, I’ve been searching for a job, but despite handing out hundreds of C.V.s, no luck.  To be fair, it’s a little bit more complicated than it seems.  I’m mostly looking for work as a waitress – given I’m very experienced and competent at that job, not to mention the perks of tips – but I’ve been laying down stipulations:

Part-time hours – ok, not such a big deal, plenty of places would be happy enough with that, it only rules out the odd one that’s looking for full-timers.

No night shifts – oooh, that’s getting a little bit trickier, we need flexible staff who can do both days and nights, especially coming up to Christmas when we have so many Christmas parties…

No weekends – and there’s the deal-breaker.  There’s the moment when the manager smiles sweetly as he rips my CV in two and tosses it in the bin.

It’s not hard to understand – the hospitality industry is busiest at weekends.  I know that, I’ve worked enough Saturdays and Sundays in the past!  But these days, my husband and I are trying to get a small jewellery business going and weekends are also our busiest time, especially coming up to Christmas when we’ll sometimes have double markets.

As for no nights, well there’s  my precious yoga practice (about which I’ve written numerous blogs) and it’s a morning practice.  For the past six months I’ve been going to bed early and rising early.  I do not wish to interfere with this special morning routine by sleeping in too late to get to my yoga some morning, just because I worked a late shift the night before.

Besides I worked til after midnight just a couple days ago in a pub and the wave of tiredness that came over me from about 11 pm on reminded me of why I’d made that rule of no night-shifts in the first place.  (Not to mention the exhaustion I felt all next day from getting up at 6.30 am to fit in my yoga before that day’s market).

And as if all that wasn’t enough, when I first arrived back from India in the summer, I found a waitressing job very quickly and easily that was

Part-time

Monday – Thursday

Day-shifts only

So surely I can do that again?  Well it seems so far, no, I can’t.  Hence the fact that I even gave in and said I’d give it a go doing a night-shift in a pub, seeing as how I can’t live on air and my funds are running seriously low.  Well that made me cry the whole way home afterwards, realizing I’d regressed from my firm principles, set in place to keep up my healthy, yoga-nurturing life-style… and all just to earn some money.

So I made a plea to the universe – one of those manifestation, divine orders, call it what you will, begged whoever is bloody in charge up there, to please please pleeeeeeeeease, help me find a day-time job that could meet my requirements.  Pretty please!

And what happened??  I went onto Jobs.ie last night and one of the first listings for job vacancies in Cork was….

Part-time

Monday-Friday

Day-shifts only

So excited  I nearly peed in my pants, I instantly applied on-line.  The add was from a week ago, but surely this was it?  Surely this was the answer??  To be safe, I also called over in person today to speak to a manager…

“Sorry – she said we’re not really looking for anyone now.”

Didn’t even get to speak to the manager myself.  Feeling as dejected as a little kid who’s been ignored by his parents, I plodded back out to my car.  And then like a crazy person, waved my fists angrily in the air at the gods I imagined to be sniggering to themselves at my expense.

I drove home, dread settling in the pit of my stomach, knowing I still had to work in that pub again tomorrow night, probably not getting home til around 2 am, and all that after a long market-day starting at 6am…

Now, let’s pause for a moment to reflect: I have my health, my loved ones are all happy and healthy, there’s food in my belly, a warm, clean bed to sleep in at night and no bombs, serious responsibilities or any life-threatening worries for me to deal with.  And for all those things I’m grateful – it really helps with putting my minor first-world problems into proper perspective.

But seriously – what a mean, dirty trick that was, getting my hopes up by answering so quickly and to the absolute letter, my very specific job request.  Big, mean bully gods!  I’m feeling unbelievably disappointed, let-down and angry!

To wrap this all up?  Be grateful for all the positive things in your life, remember them when times are challenging or stressful, it really helps.  And don’t get your hopes up if you make a plea to the universe for help.  It might just play a mean joke on you instead.  Rant over.  Peace out!

Ellie