Here a Job, there a job... update

 Well, it would appear that I am not worthy.  I didn't hear back from the Maryland job after the two weeks - hoping to have a 2nd interview.  No such luck.

I didn't hear back from the SCOO job - however we are at three weeks for that one - they indicated it would be up to 4 weeks.  I doubt that I'll get that job... but that's just history with those folks.

SWEG - I have not heard back from them either in a sense.  There are some folks in the local area that have been pulling for me to get that job.  SOOOO.  I am still hoping that the internal pulling will rattle that one loose for good... and get me that job.  

Here a job, there a job, everywhere a job

Today was the last interview in a short time. 

Job 1 - interviewed 13th -  Maryland - asked yesterday for my references to be sent to them. They have been sent. This means I’m closer to the to being a finalist for that job. Not sure that’s good as it’s not a great location for being closer to family BUT it’s stateside and it’s a GS13 so it would be a huge step forward towards retirement. It’s also in the DC pay range. DC is 30% locality. It’s 15% for the rest of the states. Sooo that’s nothing to sneeze at. So about $13,000 more a year adding to the retirement plan. Soooo tempting. It’s about a 30-45 minute commute to Annapolis - meaning we could get Butchs dream boat and live in it. 

Job 2 - interviewed 16th - SCOO (Warner Robins) - I won’t hear results for a few weeks. So it’s seriously an unknown. 

Job 3 - interviewed today - SWEG (Warner Robins) - I just finished the interview today and they are making their choice today -. SO we shall see how that one goes in roughly a week on my side. Takes a while for the decision to trickle down. 

6 Month checkup @ 4 years, job interviews and life

Well, it's that time of year again... 4 year checkup.

I'm still convinced that the checkups that are occurring are NOT what I need.  I'll get into the why in a bit, but I'm always shocked that I can be stoic that nothing is wrong for MONTHS and all it takes is these damn checkups to send me into depression and freaking out. Sigh.  Why?  Who on earth knows. 

I do know that when you didn’t note or know of anything that was going wrong in your body when you HAD cancer, you question every single tweak and twinge you have from that point forward…. And it sucks.

So – part of why I don’t think this is over is because I’m back to having hot flashes like I was before I found out I had cancer… I simply thought “well, I’m 50, this is it, this is menopause.”  Surprise, it was NOT!  I had blood work later on that indicated that, nope, I was not in menopause and those hot flashes was my body freaking out.  So… am I in menopause now?  Here’s hoping. 

Let’s back up to the beginning of this story, on the 4^th I noted something wasn’t quite right in the nethers and knew I had an appointment with the oncologist very soon after getting back home, so asked him when I was in his office about who I should see.  He recommended a gynecologist office and I went to see them a week to the day after seeing the oncologist.  The agreement was if they didn’t know what it was at the gynecologist I would be back to him for further investigations.  The good news is they know what it is, the bad news is what all doctors say here: I would just let it be.

Really they are a community of non-intervention.  Sometimes that is great, sometimes that just freaks the rest of us out – see the comment of not thinking that my visits now are effective.  Part of me thinks that I should trust them on the facts, part of me doesn’t really trust anyone anymore!

So the bottom line of my exams that happen with Oncology – they do an ultrasound of my abdomen.  They can NOT see my whole liver because 1) its fatty and 2) its LARGE – mostly because I’m large.  So they never really get a good picture of the back of it, nor the internal portions of it due to the issues listed above.  I’m more apt to really think there isn’t anything in there because my liver enzymes are in a good range, so really, I don’t know that there is anything there.  I DO have problems that they are no longer looking at my lungs at all.  There were nodules in the past I don’t know if those nodules were stable, or if they were the same nodules or if there are different nodules.  When I ask they say they are nothing to be concerned about…. Yeah, says YOU.  Sigh… I know, I know I should trust them to know their business.  BUT fast forward to rattles when I’m laying down at night and in the morning that are unexplained and I have gone to a normal doc who listened and didn’t hear anything and said “ah, it’s nothing”.  They do not want to expose me to x-rays anymore.  Well, then do an MRI dorks.  They don’t do those here often, so it’s not something they will order unless there are HUGE flashing red lights..  So… this with the combination of my newly returned hot flashes have me concerned.  I started with the simple blood draw.  Am I in menopause?

Oh, yeah, when the oncologist asked if I have night sweats, they will ONLY look at you hard if you are sweating through clothing and wetting sheets.  Well, hell I didn’t do that when I had cancer the last time in it’s full glory.  I was having hot flashes like I have now where I’m in and out of bedding all night and sweating and sleeping with windows open in 50 - 60 degree weather.  This is either the return or its menopause.  Good news is I’m forcing them to look at it.

Better news is when I get back to the states it’s time for my colonoscopy AND I will have a head to toe exam and have them do a full CT panel to make sure that all is well inside… but will I trust it even then?  Hard to know… but I’ll let you know.  I told the doc here it sucks when you had cancer without what you would have considered symptoms so now anything changes and you question if it’s cancer or not… sucks, and it’s not going away apparently.

Sigh.  In other news I have had two interviews in the last week or so.  One in Maryland the week of the 4^th (can’t remember the exact date – maybe the 7^th?) and one on the 16^th.   I should know about the Maryland one in two weeks and the one on the 16^th in about 4 weeks.  AND I have another on the 20^th as well… so things are looking up on the interview process.  I heard that only 12 interviewed for the one Friday.  Not sure who interviewed, but we shall see… it’s really not one I want, but I’ll still be sad if I’m not even looked at twice.  I really hope the interview on the 20^th is my “shoo-in” job as it’s where I worked right before I came here and one that I would be returning to regardless… not that specific job, but in that area… so here’s hoping!  I get my hopes up on these jobs and then don’t get them and it makes me sad and feeling incompetent… so we’ll see where this leads in the long run.

Finance update

Well. Come to find out the whole debt vs. cola issue seems to make the whole thing a wash. We MAY come out a thousand ahead. But it’s hard to know. I’m still waiting on a new debt letter from DFAS (pay system). The good news is that the back COLA was pretty quick. They have already started taking money out on my pay to cover the debt. It’s all a hot mess still. I would like to just pay it all off at once and be done. 

So small silver lining on this whole mess. 

Stuttgart to Venice

Trip to Venice the great debate on transportation to the destination:

There are LOTs of options to get to Venice.  Driving is 7 hours according to google maps and would take one of two vignettes to purchase - neither are expensive, but then there is gas.  We can get gas in Germany for "american" prices ($2.85/gallon) but once we leave Germany we don't have gas cards in any other country.  Gas is expensive.  PLUS the exhaustion factor.  7 hours on paper is NEVER 7 hours... We have found that out with construction and other things add 2 hours to the travel.  I found an app that calculates the cost (htps://www.trippy.com)  - going through Switzerland it's 125 euro (including gas) through Austria it's between 89 and 97 Euro to get there. PLUS parking for a car once you get there ($40 minimum) and we won't use the while in Venice... PLUS wear and tear on the car that just hit 100,000 miles...  

The exhaustion factor from driving turns me off.  We drove the "6 hours" to Berlin - then we didn't really drive the car while we were in town, but had to pay parking, etc - we took public transport in town (or walked) as it was easier.  Those 6 hours turned out to be more like 8 or 9 with stops for gas and trying to find food and other things, Germany (most of Europe) is not really designed for road travel like it is in the states.  Most food items are off the autobahns and those on the autobahn are truck stops.   I told Butch "next time we train"...   

So, the train was investigated - I can book a train ONLY at the train station.  The cost for 1st class  (required now) was roughly 500 for both of us BUT I had to go to the train station and fight to get someone who speaks english or could figure out what my bad German is saying to get a ticket.  Again, the comfort factor was there but it was an ALL DAY endeavor. The fastest we found was 10 hours of travel - NOW granted it would be very scenic on the travel and I would have figured out how to go back a different way but the cost was what got me, 

Air travel came in at $500 for both (US not euro - another factor when you look at 500 Euro, that's more like $600 with conversion rates).

So it came down to what we have more of... since train and plane were about the same cost in the end, it wasn't worth it for us to spend ALL DAY on trains and transfers 2 plus transfers for train.  We'll still have ONE transfer in Madrid, Spain with the flight however it's faster in the long run.  We leave at noon - have lunch in Madrid (1.5 hour layover), get to venice at 6:30pm - catch a water bus to the hotel, settle in, have a late dinner on the canal and start the vacation relaxed 

 
NOW prior to covid when all of the low cost flights were available we could have pulled this off for $100 round trip and DIRECT for the flight... dang COVID - all direct flights are pretty well shut down (they are starting back up in ... drum roll... JULY).  There are a few direct flights through Frankfurt BUT they were slightly more expensive, and thanks to covid there are no flights from Stuttgart to Frankfurt, it's a train... I know, I know, I should be more open to train travel... I guess it's more what I'm familiar with and it will save more in the long run in time according to my info - AND it was a mid day departure with an early evening arrival - all the trains were 8pm or later... I'm getting old and want to settle in long before that :)  

SO HOTEL debates came in... this is the hotle that Suz and I stayed at in the 90s (these pictures are from Booking.com).  I don't have the photos' from the 90's in my computer or I would share those as well.  THEN LIz and I stayed there again when we went through in 2013.  yep, same room I do believe!!

But booking for a non-budget stay/flight/transport husband vs. what I have done all my life was hard... I looked at lots of hotels, I put them in favorites, I debated locations, I debated amenities.  It was horrible.  I haven't spent a lot on hotel rooms in the recent past.  I select the hotel for a view over all - give me a decent hotel with a view in a good price.  The issue with Venice is rooms with a view are pricey and it's JULY - there is the potential for it to be miserably hot, so A/C would be a great thing to have... so there was that.  I kept coming back to this hotel over and over... then discovered someone in our office had stayed there and loved it.  OK, that sold it.  I'll go THERE.  Keep in mind that although we have been to Venice a LOT, it was when we lived close enough to go on our own and see the sights without having to figure out a hotel.  This is literally the ONLY hotel I have stayed at in Venice, so my system is in for a shock, isn't it??  LOL!!  

Onward to photos so you can see what we experienced over time

Honestly I don't think the decor changed AT ALL in the years between when this picture was taken than from when Liz and I went.  The plants are larger and a bit more overgrown, but it's the SAME look and feel for this hotel.  

The following pictures are from Liz's trip to Venice in 2012  Liz and I repeated that visit on our trip.  She asked if we were going to stay there when Butch and I went - OMG, I laughed soooo hard.  I can NOT fathom Butch staying in that hotel. This hotel will remain the budget hotel of adventure times with girls and hopefully the girls will repeat that hotel sometime in their not so distant future.

The exterior remains unchanged.  I should have taken pictures of the actual ROOM decor as it was dang close to what it was in the original photos!!

THIS will be the hotel this trip.  Yes, I did get the canal view room.  Yes, we will be living large on this trip.

https://www.booking.com/hotel/it/principe.de.html

So the anticipation is building... it's only a few days away - time to now figure out how to get our medical cards all worked out.  I have three days to get that sorted.

Finances continue…

Well, when it rains it pours and this is your public service announcement that it PAYS to be transparent.

 

My co-worker and I were chatting today about pay and issues and frustrations (mostly he’s trying to convince me to NOT return to the states in January)… and I was like “hum… nope, I make more in the states”… which lead to other discussions about COLA and all that… to which I said I don’t think I’m authorized COLA as I have never gotten it.  He was shocked and started to doing research (because, why not, right?)  Turns out after asking G-1 (personnel) on site… am I supposed to be getting this?  NOW FLASH back to the idiot who on-boarded me and you will NOT be shocked at the screwed up stuff that has been done, or more accurately NOT been done for me over the last 2.5 years… 

 

So… bottom line?  I SHOULD be getting COLA… I have NOT.  COLA should be anywhere from $300+ a month.  What the HECK people???  SO, for 2.5 years I have NOT been receiving this money…. At all.  The person who should have done this for me naturally when I transitioned from my temporary housing to full time housing was, you guessed it, the SAME person who failed to put my housing allocations at the amount they should have been and instead put me in for full rates.  Yeah, that person.  SO.  The good news is it looks like this amount is owed to me for 2.5 years.  The bad news is that if you don’t know what to ask, you can get royally screwed. 

 

I’ll be ever so grateful to the folks who ARE helping me but I wouldn’t spit on the others if they were on fire at this point… seriously – who does this to people’s finances without a care in the world?  Who could remove that person from that job and NOT go back through the jobs he had “completed” prior to his departure to make sure they were all good???  CRAZY I tell you.  Good news on this end as well is that this will offset the supposed debt that I have with DFAS as well…..

 

Now to find out what sort of screwed up algorithm they are using that had me paying back a debt (that I supposedly agreed to as it states voluntary) in JANUARY.  It was only $85 but come ON DFAS…. What are you DOING???  I am seriously questioning personnel in this chain of command for pay.  They are jacked up!!

 

Stress. Germany. Legality.

Well, I have always said this blog would be the good/bad/ugly of my life… and there is no reason to exclude this “fun” that I have had for the last 5 weeks.

When we came back from vacation I was greeted with debt letters from DFAS (Defense Finance Accounting Service).  OK… I knew I was going to have some debt from doing the reconciliation from my housing.  It was inevitable as I had estimated my yearly cost would be:  $32,720 per year and the reality (according to MY math) was: $29,321.  So I expected a debt of roughly $7,000.  Yep, got it, no issues.  I open the letters to find that DFAS states I owe them $21,000.  NOPE there is not a mistaken zero in there.  I FREAKED out.  I contacted my personelist who put me in touch with who I was to work with… but first, let’s talk about HOW this huge “awh, shit” can happen.

 

When I came here I knew I would have to do this estimate stuff… I submitted my paperwork to our personnel office and went on my merry way.  Estimates are based on months, pay is based on 2 weeks, and my brain quite literally shuts down with presented with math after chemo.  It’s a weird phenomenon that is going on, but it is what it is.  I cannot do math in public (OR private).  I ASSUME folks area actually doing the job they are hired to do.  Apparently NOT.  Fail number 1

 

Fail number 2 was when I hit one year, I reached out to my G1 – personnel shop and said “I’m ready for reconciliation”… I was told someone would reach out to me.  They did NOT.  I waited and reached out again… nope, told someone would reach out to me.  NOPE… So I started to research on my own… found the site, found the forms and submitted.  Come to find out it was NOT the right spot, but by dang it, they pushed me to the right person (why didn’t SHE contact me???)  and so the process started.  The first part of idiocy begins… remember I have submitted bills for the year…. Then I’m told that I don’t have the right bills.  I have to have a full year of bills.  Germany bills some things annually and if you get her in January this really throws stuff off.  I’m told to wait.  Keep in mind that they have ALL of my paperwork, bills, etc..  They never say “you are WAY off, let’s adjust this now to cover you until you get your full bills,”  NOPE, they just let it compound and compound… until a get my full bills at the end of the calendar year and beyond (months).  After the fact I’m met with “well, you could adjust this at any time.  HOW is someone to know this if they are not told?  I did all of my due diligence to resolve this time and time again and was met with very unhelpful people.  It’s always “well, you should have known”… exactly how is someone supposed to KNOW these things if they have NEVER lived overseas with civil service in the past?  

 

So the estimate, apparently was never USED.  They were giving me max benefits.  Yeah, that is a receipt for disaster as you can see.  So.  We dicker back and forth on the amounts that H (personnelist) is using for my rent.  My total rent is 27,100 per year.  So, wait it gets better… that is NOT all reimbursable  We used the base contracting office to ensure we were doing all the right things when renting a house here in Germany and they were to go over the contract with us and explain all the nuances of the paperwork.  Well, they glossed RIGHT over the non-reimbursable items on the rent and now just state “well, you signed it.”  Well no SHIT because you didn’t say “do you realize this means that $300 per YEAR will NOT be reimbursable?”  to which I would have gone looking for a new house or re-negotiated the contract.  I mean come on… really?  So – fail #3 on the road to misery.

 

I had to get with the landlord, who also had no clue what the requirement would be for providing the bills to us annually would mean… so they weren’t briefed on this either.  Yeah, effective, don’t you think?  So, I finally get copies of the property tax (the ONLY reimbursable item of three from the contract) and get that added into the mix…. But I digress.  So, the debt letters come to me in three different letters saying they will dock my pay at a rate of $250 EACH per pay period.  Excuse me????  I call DFAS (1.5 hours on HOLD) and tell them there is a problem with the math on these letters, there is a problem overall with these letters and I need to get this worked out.  They tell me I need a ticket.  OK, can you enter a ticket for me?  No, they have to have a service rep do that… there is no service rep listed for my area.  They have no CLUE who can enter a ticket for me.  Perhaps my time keeper?  I ask through email MULTIPLE times for SOMEONE/ANYONE to enter a ticket for me. Care to guess if I have a ticket???  I DO NOT.

 

So, I continue with the back and forth with H regarding this mess.  I keep trying to explain to her (after finally PULLING the information from her and a call to housing to explain the damn contract) WHAT is different in what I think is my rent (it says TOTAL rent for crim-a-nutly) and what THEY say my rent is.  Lord save me from unhelpful people!!  Then we move onto the OTHER smooth move DFAS pulled.  They added $6500 into my paycheck in a lump sum right smack in the middle of all this – the middle of April while we’re working out what my debt total is.  This, in turn, adds more muck to the discussion as now H is including that in her calculations and telling me, “no, the calculations are right, you owe that amount”.  

 

UGH!!  Problem is this: 

Debt letters: I cannot sign and return the debt letters as is as they are not showing the same calculations you (Hs) show in your reconciliation.  

DFAS total debt (letters) for PPE 2/16/2019 – PPE 4/10/2021: $21,975.32

YOUR total debt for 2/16/2019 – PPE 4/10/2021: $15,199.76

2019: DFAS shows $8556.74

Your calculations show $5,932.12

2020: DFAS shows: $10,077.48

Your calculations show $6,949.74

2021: DFAS shows $3,341.

Your calculations in the sheets sent shows $2,317.00

 

One would think this would clarify it all, right?  There is a spreadsheet that she sent me that shows these totals for the timelines indicated.  Note the PPE (Pay period ending) is 4/10/21

What does she key in on?

NOT the pay periods…  She continually loops in the lump sum payment on 4/24/21 that I do NOT have a debt letter for.  AND tells me in no uncertain terms her calculations are not HER calculations but DFAS’s calculations.

 

 

So, fun times.  This is about the time I found out that I could do a formal request for a hearing.  WTF?  This is at day 35 from the debt letter dates. FAIL number FOUR.  Why?  I had 30 days to respond with a formal petition for a hearing… and 45 days when overseas.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME???  Not one of these people told me I could formally petition DFAS to iron this out they simply kept repeating “you owe that total”… again – reference the table above… the debt letters do NOT include 4/24 – so, NO I don’t… and I added up the columns for each of the “years” and that’s some freaking creative math because the math I had was $15,xxx NOT $21.xxx.  Using the columns provided by supposedly DFAS.  So – you can see why I have an issue signing a debt letter that starts off with “I acknowledge and accept the debt as state”   I do NOT!!!

 

So when did personnel start working for DFAS and NOT personnel?  Aren’t they supposed to be here to help personnel???

Epiphany

This is my midlife crisis. I have been looking for something to do... a Masters? Will it pay, will it not pay? Am I willing to commit to something like that? What do I want to be when I grow up??
Doesn't that have ALL the hallmarks of a midlife crisis? Yep!
So there you have it folks, I'm going through my midlife crisis. Maybe I should just buy a convertible and be done with it? LOL. Oh, wait, I bought a vacation house instead. Yep, truly and fully in the middle of my midlife crisis here!!

Why is it?

 

Why is it when I see the above job opening on line I always thing of the guy in the assembly line with a hammer banging on bomb heads??

LOL!

Job referrals...

I have qualified for a JOB!!  Where?  Schinnen Netherlands

What's it doing?  IT Specialist (Customer support)

 

GS-12 level, applicants must possess one year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade/level (GS-07).  Specialized experience is defined as experience in diagnosing and resolving problems in response to customer reported incidents; dealing with a wide variety of applications, operating systems, protocols, and equipment used in customer organizations; and applying methods and practices for troubleshooting, recovering, adjusting, modifying, and improving IT systems. 

 

You will be evaluated on the basis of your level of competency (knowledge, skills, abilities) in the following areas:

- Knowledge of a wide range of IT standards, principles, concepts, methods and policies.

- Knowledge of practices of office automation to provide advice in problem resolution related to ITinfrastructure, networks and/or telecommunications.

- Knowledge of VTC transmission methods and technology.

 

OK so I don't know anything about VTC, but sure I could figure it out...

Job Search Update

Agency name	Job Title	Status
Air Force Materiel Command	Purchase Request System Analyst	eligible
Air Force Materiel Command	TRAINING ADMINISTRATOR	eligible
Headquarters, Air Force Reserve	PROGRAM ANALYST	eligible
	1712/Supervisory Training Specialist (Emerging Leader Program)	eligible
Air Force Materiel Command	Operations Research Analyst, DR-1515-2/3/4
Military Sealift Command	IT SPECIALIST (SYSANALYSIS/CUSTSPT)
Forest Service	Program Specialist
U.S. Air Force - Agency Wide	MANAGEMENT ANALYST
Air Force Materiel Command	MANAGEMENT SUPPORT SPECIALIST
	Supervisory Inventory Management Specialist (Emerging Leader Program)
	Supervisory Logistics Management Specialist (Emerging Leader Program)
	0346/Supervisory Logistics Management Specialist  (Emerging Leader Program)

So… there you have it… I’m not sure I want to do the Emerging Leader Program… but it’s in the mix regardless

Job Hunt Statistics

Job Title	Status
Operations Research Analyst, DR-1515-2/3/4
IT SPECIALIST (SYSANALYSIS/CUSTSPT) (Guam)
TRAINING ADMINISTRATOR
Program Specialist
IT Specialist (APPSW-SYANALYSIS)	withdrawn
General Supply Specialist	ineligible
PROGRAM ANALYST
Purchase Request System Analyst	eligible
Program Analyst
MANAGEMENT ANALYST
Supervisory Management Analyst	withdrawn
EQUIPMENT SPECIALIST (ELECTRONIC)	minimum not met
MANAGEMENT SUPPORT SPECIALIST
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIST (CUSTOMER SUPPORT)	eligible - not referred
Information Technology Specialist (Data Management)	not selected

For those not familiar with the whole job hunt in civil service and are wondering “what does that mean”:

·         Withdrawn – typically means that the person they were looking for on that job “pull” of applicants was NOT on the list.  So they drop back, dump the list and try again in a few more months – means even if you were qualified, they didn’t want you…. They wanted Joe Blows brother or contractor xx who was now available to go into civil service.

·         Eligible – not referred – this means, you had all the qualifications to DO the job, however were beat out by someone with more preference than you – e.g. someone with veterans preference, spouse preference, a Masters… something in the point system that they have just didn’t “rank” you high enough to be considered for the job.

·         Ineligible/minimum not met – just means I was stretching just a bit for the job and telling them I am no slouch, I have an education and I could do this job…. They didn’t buy it.  I’m OK with these two as I knew they were stretching and the supply one wanted specifics I didn’t have… so it was a toss up…

So there you have it.  Fifteen jobs since the beginning of the year being applied for.  Six out of the running.

The good news?  I’m still in the running for eight as total unknowns… and one I am definitely qualified for… now let’s just see who wants to take a chance on an “unknown”….  

Off to a new adventure if I’m lucky