My Austin trip (in a nutshell)

I had some issues getting my rental car the day I left. I've never had a problem with Enterprise...ever, until that day. Anyways, I finally got my rental, a 2010 Hyundai Accent. Now I drive a trailblazer, so being in this "mailbox" did kinda freak me out. But the real problem was this: 1) it was raining, and 2) NO CRUISE CONTROL. I tried to get another car but there were no more available in the size I had. The best thing about the car: It only cost me just under $27 to fill the tank! And a full tank lasted the 6 hour drive to Copperas Cove where we were staying (with my MIL). The drive itself was not bad. Stopped maybe 3 times..once to get McD's for dinner, the 2nd was at the half way mark, and the last was a quick potty break for my juju. We got to my MILs (we'll call her VonTrapp--I'll explain why in another post LOL) around 9:30pm or so. And when I tell you these monsters were wired, they were WIYERD! They wanted a snack and to play. I finally got them down to sleep about 11pm. Whew!
Moving on...
My interview on Friday was at 9:30am. So I had to leave at 7am to make the hour long commute into Austin. And it was a great drive as well. I missed the "bad" morning traffic. There was still patches of "congestion" as my VZ navigation says but everything was moving. No stop go, stop go.
My interview was great. When I first got there, they had me take a typing test. I didn't know I could type 50 words in a minute. Thats awesome for me because I have to look at my keyboard to type. I honestly make my self dizzy having to look at the screen and then down at the keyboard. Its a good thing I can somewhat read in blocks. I nailed the face to face interview. Dude was like, "wow, you really know your stuff." And I was like, "ya, I really like the industry." But then...(enter dramatic music-duh duh duuuh)...he goes, "so the position pays $8.00 an hour...." Um what the?!! He continues on saying that I could earn more by keeping my talk time down and potentially earn up to $14 an hour. With which he follows up with, "all the agents we have that had previous experience, such as your self, reached $14 an hour after about 2 years." Um seriously?! First of all $8 an hour is ONLY 75 cents above minimum wage. Did I mention I was married and had kids? And that I already make the max of $14 now?! WOW!!! Poor guy. I know he saw the color drain from my face. But what did he expect honestly? I just got through telling him that first of all, I have 4 children and secondly, I drove, from Shreveport where I currently live and work which is 6 hours away, to come to this interview. After the big pay LET DOWN, he told me he was going to call me sometime next week (this week) to let me know when I could start, then thanked me for coming all the way out there, and I was outta there. I literally sat in my car for like 20 minutes just shaking my head...replaying every detail. I know $14 is a lot to some companies. But its not like I'm trying to get a raise or anything. I started on my drive back to Cove and after about 10 minutes driving my phone rang. It was another company that showed interest in me the week before. They were looking for someone to start right away, like last week Monday, and I unfortunately could not start that soon. And he was only able to offer me $10. But here he was calling me. And $10 was WAAAAYYYYYY better than $8 in my head. Well come to find out, this dude spoke with one of the owners of the company and said that they could afford to wait for me to start whenever I actually moved to Austin. AAAANNNNDDDDDD....with the current experience I have they could offer me $14.
***insert happy dance...wassup wassup, wassup wassup wassup****
So I arranged to meet him that afternoon at 3:30pm to do a formal face to face interview. Something I would've had to do via webcam if I couldn't make it out there.
To kill some time since it was like 11:30am, I drove around to start familiarizing myself with the area. I love it there! So NOT ghetto like the area I live in now. My city is really not that bad...but there are BAD parts in Shreveport. I eventually made my way to Round Rock outlet mall. Got myself a new Coach purse too.
I got lost getting to my interview. I ended up on 5th street instead of 6th street. They really sound the same over the phone. The interview, which I swear was like a technology test, went great. I left an hour later laughing and telling them how excited I was to become a part of the team.
Yes folks! I have a job and I am moving to Austin!!!! WOOOOHOOOO! I start 8am Monday the 22nd. One more week here in the boot and then its hellllooooo Texas.
I spent the drive back to VonTrapp's smiling, and laughing with my husband on the phone,not realizing that I was in some CRAZY traffic...making my hour long drive back to Cove about an extra 30 min longer. Stayed in that night because I had planned on driving back to Louisiana the next day.
And there you have it...my very exciting Austin weekend. This weekend is soooo gonna suck. LOL