Kelley and the Biz: Part 2

I'm sorry for the technical difficulties. Kelley and the Blog will now continue for your reading pleasure.

Sorry!!! It has been a while hasn't it :-/ I had every serious and honest intention in the world to update Part 2 this last week (wanted to keep people in suspense about it!), but I came down with a cruddy sinus infection and I put myself on couch rest for about 4 days. I write this laying on my couch with three empty Puff's tissue boxes stacked next to me, a hot wash cloth sitting on my coffee table which served as steam room for my face, an empty bowl of rainbow sherbet, and every possible sinus medication you can think of scattered across my coffee table. Welcome to Eukel Pharmacy.

Now ladies and gentlemen...let's continue on with Kelley and the Biz: Part 2 shall we? Let me think of where we left off. Oh yes, Keith and I were packing up our gypsy wagon in Downtown Fargo and moving it to South Fargo. Since Keith and I were applying for jobs well before we moved into our friend's apartment, we tried to keep positive thoughts buzzing about us finding a job during the two weeks we stayed there. But things weren't necessarily going our way. We weren't out of the job jungle. Drats. We had to move to Plan B of "Let's get a bleepin' job."

Being the grand planner Keith is and me having occurring nightmares of living in a large green van down by the river, we wanted to make sure we had our gypsy camps planned out in advance in case one of us didn't find a job. We did have friends who offered to put us up for a couple of days at a time, but it just wasn't practical. Just like any normal human beings, we physically HATED moving our stuff around. We wanted to stay at one place for an extended time...like a hotel...but just the kind of hotel you don't pay for. We were broke. When we thought we had no other options, I pulled out my "cute, innocent, helpless little sister" card on my brother and sister-in-law who so happened to live in South Fargo.

It wasn't hard for Tony and Heidi to say no to my proposal. I'm the baby of family and having that title has a certain effect on family members. Well.....not really. But I like to think it does! They wanted to help us out since they've been through the ugly job jungle before. Keith and I moved in with Tony, Heidi and their faithful, very adorable and lovable English Bull Dog Lucy around August 15th. We kept the positive buzz floating around the house and told ourselves "This is only for two weeks. We will get jobs. This is only for two weeks. We will get jobs." And once again, things weren't going our way. One week passed by and no word on jobs. Two weeks passed by and no word on jobs. Then three weeks....and before we knew it, Keith and I had made a semi-permanent residence for a good month at Casa de Eukel.

To get our mind off the fact we were both not gainfully employed with all the bells and whistles that come with a job, Keith made supper for all of us most nights and showed Heidi how to make spiced apple cider and I took Lucy for walks. Keith did come on these walks, but Lucy and he didn't see eye-to-eye most of the time. Lucy liked to lick his socks and Keith wasn't too fond of it. Keith does, however, hold a special place for Lucy in his heart :). With all the cooking and walking to calm our nerves down, we began to see some light shine through the job jungle pretty brightly in a four day time span.

It was around the second week in September and Keith was in interview mode for an assistant coaching spot for a division two men’s basketball team from Fort Smith, Arkansas. Each time the head coach called (which by the way was at 11:00 at night. Keith said most coaches do like to do business very late at night.....weird. I began to think the man never slept) Keith would scramble to the unfinished basement and talk with him for almost an hour at a time. After the fourth day, the head coach called Keith back with a job offer. HOOOOOORAY!!! Keith had about five days to move down to Arkansas since the players were already a good month into their workouts. We packed most of his things into his car, drove down to the cities for the weekend so he had a chance to say goodbye to his family, and he was off to Arkansas. I really can't add any more to Keith's job story, because that's seriously how fast everything went. Keith was out of the job jungle.

As for me, I was in the interview process for a marketing position for Bobcat at their Bismarck offices which handled all the parts sales for all the machines. I had two interviews with them over two weeks and about two and a half weeks of waiting to hear back. Bobcat definitely likes to keep people in suspense, kind of like me. In true fashion, I became cranky about the situation and started looking at the classified ads for suitable vans that met my criteria. But then it happened...I followed Keith out the jungle as well. The Friday Keith and I went down to the cities to see him off, I finally got the call back and they wanted me for the job. HOOOOOORAY!!! 

So that’s the full story of how I became involved with the Biz. I've lived out here for almost six months now, and I gotta say it's a pretty cool town. I am becoming more and more comfortable in my marketing role at Bobcat, and am learning lots of new things everyday about tracks, tires, filters, oil, tire chains, and sweeper bristles. Riveting stuff to you guys I'm sure :) Sorry if the post was lengthy, but it was lengthy time to become part of the working force. Hopefully you enjoyed the story! I'm going to take some of my nasal meds now.

Bye Bye!