Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

Priorities of state.

What a shame. On the surface, it sounds like a very interesting job.
 

Careful. Money is not the only consideration when looking for a job. First you have to be able to live with yourself day in and day out. There's something better than CostCo out there for you. Do not settle.
 

So you're qualified, you would love your work, and you are haggling over the fact that a public sector position as a historical researcher pays less than a private sector, senior management job. If you would rather work at CostCo., that's fine, but methinks I detect a whiff of pride in the air. If you would make the same money at CostCo. as at the museum, I think taking the museum job makes sense - you might not be making the money you are now, but you would have the satisfaction of doing something you know you are good at, and contributed to a better understanding of history, not an inconsequential matter.

Hell, if you don't want the job, I might take it!
 

Amen to what GKS has said!

Plus the museum is dead in the middle of down town near many other potential opportunities.

My wife has gotten two of her teaching jobs by meeting people in a super market.

Not to mention that it would allow you to get your "hands on" some of the most interesting artifacts in the west. And it would allow you time for school, and to write.

Go take a look at that Pencil on my blog. That's real. Don't do that!
 

I think you should at least interview for it. Who knows, there might be some benefits you don't know about. Maybe you'd have time to do some stuff on your own without it belonging to the state. :)
 

Y'all are right! Pride is real. Fear, too. Damn this bein' human!
 

I think I might be picking a fight here, but if I get your last comment correct - you are going to wallow in your pride, and refuse to even apply for a job for which you are eminently qualified, defiantly taking a job of roughly equal pay but less satisfaction because being human, and therefore prideful, is something against which you cannot struggle?

Forgive me for being so forward, especially with a man I've never met. But that's just nuts.
 

I didn't say I wadn't gonna apply for it.
 

Well, I might have implied that.
 

I think I beeyotched about in the first place, though, because regardless, the timing is not yet right. Without getting into proprietary information, I got some monmey coming in and I'm going to haved to wait for it to get here to do some things top our house. There's more than remuneration involved.

GEEZ. Can't a gfuy just bitch??

Besides, bud, we've MET. We just haven't laid eyes on each other. My wife and I went like that for about three months.
 

Oh shaddyup you. You implied. Oh yes, you implied. Go for the job. Get the job. Be happy. Become the honcho in a little time. Be happy. And nice column today. Yeah.
And some of the faces on my blog today are in response to this. Yeah.
 

Timing, timing, dang government jobs take up to 6 months or more to get done. Hell start now you'll be a shoe in by next Xmas.
 

Both Trixie and the doc are right. It may not be happening on your time, but that doesn't mean it isn't happening, to quote St. Paul, in the fullness of time.
 

I have been sufficiently pummeled now.
 

Been there and been there. Public flogging in't much fun, even if its deserved.
 

Hell Teditor, ER loves it. It is testimony that we all "love" him.
 

Teditor, you know you love it too.
 

Pummeling is a bit harsh. Remonstrated, that's a better description.
 

Any of y'all who want to wire me abou $20,000 to pay off the monthly bills I'd need to have paid off to be able to work for that much less money, just bring it on. 'K?

Said debt includes quite a bit of foolishness, of course, dating to the late '90s, but also a car I bought for Bird to replace the one she crunched, and one-fourth of Mama's funeral expenses.

More bloody personal baggage provided on request. (Not really).

Pride? Maybe it's the other side of honor, but I'm not desparate enough to either reneg on my obligations OR add to them, wrecklessly, thereby further wrecking my credit rating.

I b'lieve I have learnt me a lesson. Y'all will know more about my job search, and related angsts, the day I take a job, ya dangnabbed know-it-alls (DCup and Jolene excepted)!

Pbtbtbtth!
 

As someone with a similar education who was thrilled to land a full-time professional job at the said institution in the early '90s for significantly less than that "extra" $20K you're wishing for, can I suggest that the discussion move from the personal pity party for someone who obviously has the luxury of options, to sympathy for those who do work there and the difficulties THEY must face in paying their own bills (whether associated with bloody stories or not)?

No, I'm not still there. I jumped off the cliff and moved on after a couple of years, partially in search of greater compensation, and was lucky enough to find that and other forms of satisfaction as well. But it is still a great institution with a lot of great people.
 

Oh dear lord.
 

Anonymous, kiss off. I said nothing about the institution, which I'm sure is awesome. I bitched about the damn state government not having any more sense of the importance of history than to lowball those who toil in it. I'll say the same thing about the Oklahoma state government.

And I'll say to you, too: You don't know a damn thing about me, my situation or my options, other than the few words in this post.

Further, with your apparent quickness to take a few strands of thought, your own experience and biases, and jump to conclusions, may I say for the profession: Thanks for leaving it.
 

What IS this affectation? I see it all the time. At once, it says "I am superior," "I am about to enlighten you," and "I have a type of authority not yet employed in this discussion:

"As someone with a similar education who was thrilled ..."

I see ti all the time.

"As a retired swamprat sexer, I must point out ..."

"As a former Republican, I have to say ..."

"As a ..."

"As a ..."

It's become as common in letters to the editor, blog comments and certain other venues as "Dear Sir or Madam" used to be. Interesting, is all.
 

ER lumps all Anon's together I think he thought you were another.
He is really a nice guy.. uh a good man.. well generally tolerable, but as always there is more to the story.

As for being caught in a web of debt, I've done that,when I had three kids in college and was at the mercy of assholes who knew I was at their mercy. It doesn't matter how you get there, it ain't no fun. Now, ER, your delima isn't quite that locked in it sounds like, but it don't feel good.
You'll do just fine.
 

(Edited by ER to eliminate allusions to personal information, and reposted)):


Dear ER:

A few clarifications.

First, I did not intend to insinuate that you were denigrating the institution, merely noting that despite the low wages of the people who work there, it is nevertheless a superior historical institution.

Second, I stumbled across your blog this morning as the result of an automated search. Through the act of posting your blog, you have invited comment. While I do not know you personally, I do know the institution you mentioned, and I do know about struggling with inappropriately low salaries in the history / museum field. ...

I was simply trying to point out that rather than bemoaning the lower salaries and higher cost of living in Denver, you might want to be thankful of your current position / cost of living and instead offer sympathy for those whose circumstances or love for their field have deposited them in low paying positions like those at CHS. I completely agree with your sentiment about the priorities of state budgets, but as your other commenters have already pointed out, that didn't seem to be the main thrust of your writing.

Finally, though I did take a second job selling shoes at night and on weekends to support my family while I worked at CHS, I did not leave the field for CostCo or anything similar. I'm proud to say that I continue to work in the museum-field, as I have for more than 20 years.

So, my sincere regrets and apologies if I offended you. I never intended to "enlighten" you and don't know what the "affectation" you refer to is, but I do hope that you might take a moment to appreciate your own good fortune in relation to others in the field.

Beyond that, I wish you the best of luck in your job search.

12:00 PM
 

Anon, I apologize for the "kiss off."

Of course, I invite comment. I'm just always surprised when a post on a clearly very personal topic atracts the same kinds of comments and judgments by strangers that are common on topics of public concerns, politics, news and such. Again, sorry I blasted ya.

My frustration is my wife is in Boulder, at what really isd a dream job for her, and has been there since April, and a variety of obstacles keep me from joining her just yet. Bills, a house that needs work before it can be sold, the difference in cost of living between here and there and many other things.

As for the field: I am a working journalist by day, historian by night. Journalists and historians are in the same boat, generally, paywise. I make better-than-decent money as an ink-stained wretch because I HAVE done it for 20 years. I HAVE lived on the beanie weenies. I HAVE lived in the cheap apartments. The thought of having to do so again to live in the same town as my wife just galls me.

Anyway ... sorry to get so rankeled so quick. I am SO READY to get on the other side of the present unpleasantness! But the limitations are real. Dr. ER and I agree that me taking a significant pay cut is not wise -- unless I decide on a course so radically different than the one I'm on now -- seminary, a pee aytch dee maybe -- as to make any comparison impossible.
 

Errata:

I am not in "senior management," as Geoffrey remarked. And thank Trixie and Teditor for not hotting in my face over the assumption. :-)


Without going into too much detail: In my haste, I overstated somewhat, but not drastically, the difference in the history job pay rate and my current. Suffice it to say that I make significantly more now, and ANY decrease involved in a move from low-cost-of-living OKC to high-cost Denver will be painful -- actually, it just ain't gonna happen until and unless some other significant things happen first.

One of which I just initiated. Y'all cross yer fingers in hopes that the roof damage I have from the ice storm is enough to warrant a new roof, and not just a patch, which would go a loooong ways toward getting the house ready to market.

Oops! More personal stuff. Here, I'll duck for thne inevitable: "As a person who lives i a house with a roof, I need to point out that ..."

Hoot. Just jabbin' ya, Anon. :-)
 

You need to find a friend to go smoke a cigar with in Bricktown.
 

Um, I meant "not hooting in my face," not "not hotting in my face." Hoot.

Cigar. Next week. I'm kind of on a mini-Lent thing right now.
 

Sip on some of that B.J. Holiday Private Stock you got then.
 

Actually, drink, not smoke, is the thing I'm doing a mini-Lenten thing on. Just for a week. Which might seem like not much time at all, but hey, I've been self-medicating lately. Hence the pause.