I'm falling out of love with you...

Metro. We've been in a close and loving relationship for the past seven years. You've been there for fun jaunts around the DC-Metro area. And for the past three years, you've been there for my daily commutes to and from work in addition to the fun times.

Yet, I find myself falling out of love with you. With the last couple of train crashes, the worst being this past July (luckily after I'd decided to stop riding the red line), and with the recent disruptions for track maintenance, I have gotten more and more frustrated with your lack of response. When you close stops, CLOSE ENTIRE STOPS on a HOLIDAY weekend no less, making it incredibly difficult for a lowly qualifier for BMW status (I get around by Bus, Metro, Walking), it makes it difficult to stay faithful. The most recent issue I had was that last night you decided to single track the trains through the biggest transfer stations in all of metro.

Single tracking?! What? Yes. And with very little prior announcements. So it's on the desplay where you can see when the next train is due. So it was on the metro trip planner. But none of those things were apparent until after I was on the platform, after I'd shclepped up and over to the other side only to have to come back because why are there no people on this side? Ugh.

The escalators are ALWAYS down. Always. Going up, going down. Different stops. Different times of the day. It's always a surprise.

I am venting to you that all these little things add up. I've put up with the unreasonable fair hikes with no obvious improvement. I've put up with the old cars even though there are supposedly all new cars somewhere. I've put up with the unbearable heat on the platforms in the hopes that the train car is air conditioned, when IT"S NOT. Trains are not on time. Doors don't open. Entire cars are black, passengers aren't allowed on. Trains randomly unload passengers. No passenger trains frequently pass through stations when it made more sense to pick up people on the way to the end of the line.

Your effort needs to improve, drastically. Changes need to be made. I just wonder if you are able to change.

Stressin' a bit...

I have been filling my days at work with preparing and applying for various positions with the government.

Do any of you, my blreaders (blog readers), realize how time consuming and difficult it is to apply for a government job? I'm applying for specific class, guaranteeing a specified salary with a very clear range for promotion. I, with help, have predetermined I will not apply to classes lower than a specific one based on my experience and education. So, I've created a profile, uploaded my resume and followed the necessary steps to fulfilling the applications through specified online channels. I've gotten a copy of my transcript and my birth certificate to verify education and citizenship. Usually, with the complete application, that should be enough, right? Wrong. There are these things called KSAs (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities). I hate them. I hate them with a passion. They are different for each job in context and in number. But I've put forth my best effort and submitted a number of them recently, 3 jobs to be exact and 14 questions. 14. Ugh.

Now, these aren't easy questions to be answered in a simple, one paragraph effort. I'm talking full page, multiple paragraph answers. These questions, sometimes filled in online, have character limits of upwards of 8,000. That's right, 8,000. That's crazy. Really crazy.

Anyways, apparently these 3 applications have begun to be reviewed. I have received one outright "sorry, you don't meet the qualifications" and one "you meet the qualifications, but were not in the first group of people to be submitted to the hiring manager." Kind of daunting. But there are supposed to be over a thousand and something jobs opening up in the government, so I have hope. I am submitting 2 more applications later on this week. I'm not looking forward to the KSAs. They give you the questions/statements ahead of time, but I have had two surprise questions thrown at me in the middle of the application process.

So, it's a little stressful. I feel like I'm back in college, writing a paper that counts for my final grade and that's all I have going for me. Except I have to write about myself and what I know as succint as possible in response to an exact issue. Three down, two left. Then we'll see if I continue with this or start in on the private sector.