Taking A Stand

I really wanted to write this last night but I knew I needed to sleep on it first and wake up with a fresh mind and a better mood. So here goes…

I was in an angry mood yesterday. I was a little over tired, work was a little crazy at the end of the day, and I’m a litte impatient as we crawl to the end of this deployment. All of those little things, and a lady who doesn’t know how to drive, put me on edge. I even thought to myself, I shouldn’t be driving right now because I am that angry.

Fort Benning is transitioning to an automated gate system but the communication to the ID cardholders has been terrible. After being told by the FRSA that the system isn’t going into affect anytime soon (not his fault, that’s what he was probably told) a wife posted to our facebook page a link to a post by the “Military Housing Issues and Concerns” facebook page. For those of you who don’t know, housing is not run my the military and this is not an official military page.

That being said – they posted an announcement about the new system that is being implemented well, next month. In order to use the new system we are required to go register our ID cards, in person, on Fort Benning. Sponsors, aka the active duty soldiers, are not allowed to do this for their family members. The hours to do this? Monday to Friday 9-12 and 1-430.

I am overly opinionated and made a comment about the hours being too limited for those of us who work a normal work day (i.e, not a 3rd shift). My comment was not rude and I obviously understand that this announcement was posted on a page that has nothing to do with the new ID system. I was actually hoping to find a little agreement in the absurdity of trying to get thousands and thousands of people registered in a few weeks during only a 7 1/2 hour window in the middle of the afternoon on weekdays.

A back and forth started between myself and who I quickly found out is a former soldier who runs the page. I said a few things I should not have (the worst being “thanks for your smart ass response”) but I later went back and deleted those things I said out of absolute anger.

What I wanted to share out of this long-winded story is this:

We, as in the spouses, should not have to fight to have our own careers. It is 2013 and I thought we were beyond this. While I do regret responding so quickly and not thinking before I reacted, I am not sorry I stood up for what I believe is right. Women wouldn’t have the right to vote if we didn’t stand up and speak. This issue is quite petty compared to the profound women’s rights movement but it’s still something. 

Not a single person on that page came out and agreed with me. There are 715 people that like that page. To say I was a little shocked would be an understatement. I started to wonder if I was out of line, perhaps it was crazy of me to think that I should have to ask my boss at my civilian boss if I could have off for yet another thing for the Army. Not until I posted that same picture to my facebook page did I have someone agree that the man who runs that page was out of line.

Are you a working military spouse? Do you think we make sacrifices in our own careers because of what our spouse does for a living?

Teeter Totters

Things have been a bit quiet around here lately but head on over to check out the awesome new NextGen Milspouse site and read my guest post about teeter totters! Wait, what? You’ll just have to go read it!

Friday Fun

Maybe my title should actually say Friday “Unfun”. It’s 9 am and I am sitting at my desk with absolutely nothing to do. If you follow me on twitter you would know that this is not a new thing.

I’m currently working in the financial industry via a temp position. Did I ever think I would be a temp worker? Not in a million years. But I am a strong believer that you have to make the best of a situation and after over half a year of no job prospects I bit the bullet. It did not start out well in that my first assignment ended up having the world’s douchey-ist boss but I did get put in a position right away. As in a full time job less than 5 days after submitting my information to the temp agency. Fast forward through the crap I delt with there and once again I was super fortunate in that I was almost immediately placed into another full time, very well paying, position.

Do not think I am ungrateful for being employed in this economy, I know how many would be more than happy to be working here. But, and this is a big but, I don’t want to work in finance. I will not be leaving this position until they end my contract but I think I need to start job searching again. I feel stuck. I graduated college over three years ago yet I feel like I have nothing to show for it. I shouldn’t still need to be looking for entry level jobs. Every year that goes by a whole lot of new grads enter the work force. I should already have three years of experience on them. Another factor to consider in all of this? We are hopefully moving out of Georgia in a little over a year. That’s still too far out to look for a position in the city we hope to end up in.

Maybe this is my quarter life crisis?