The home repair went well. I'm glad to have that project over with.

On the job front, I tried re-directing my efforts and shifted from the last four months' format of applying to national remote work positions to local non-remote work. I found that, while there were hundreds of applicants for every national position where I was lost in the pool, my professionalism and intelligence were immediately recognized by local career opportunities where an actual human was reviewing the submissions.

I was immediately contacted by a local law firm who has an opening for a records clerk in their mail room. I had a phone interview where the Employee Relations Generalist I spoke with repeatedly exclaimed, "Wow!... That's incredible!... That's impressive!" as I enumerated my prior projects. Halfway through the interview she paused me to say, "Hold on a moment; I'm messaging our director about you right now..."

At the end of the interview call she said to watch for an email in the next hour to schedule an in-person interview with the records director and supervisor. Instead, she called me again just five minutes later asking if I could come down this morning.

I think I could master the job quickly. It's basically mail room work, and I explained to her that I independently constructed an entire paperless workflow automation system for another local firm complete with email and calendar notifications and document routing, along with other competencies with the office applications they use daily.

The only drawbacks are that:

1) the position is in-office full-time whereas the federal Veterans office position would be three months of training downtown followed by work-from-home full-time.

and 2) that I'd have to pay $90 a month out of pocket for parking downtown to work at the firm.

Which brings me to the update on the Veterans Administration.

I was keeping this news under wraps until I receive their next communication, but on the evening of April 24 I received an email from them saying, "Congratulations! You have been tentatively selected..." with a web-link to accept the job offer and to complete pre-hire onboarding documentation. I accepted the offer and completed and e-signed all the documents that evening, and if I understand correctly I'm just waiting to pass the background check before the job is officially mine. My friend who works in that department stated that as I've not committed any crimes or anything like that, that this should be no problem.

I tried reaching out to the local supervisor contact I was directed to asking how long that usually takes, but they couldn't provide a concrete answer. Googling it I found it could take anywhere from less than one minute to as long as 30 days.

My unemployment is running out so I really hope they send me a confirmation that I've landed the job with a start date any day now.

My interview at the law firm is May 2nd. If it goes even half as well as the call went they should offer me the position immediately.

I also contactged my talk therapist whom I've not seen since last winter due to my lack of medical insurance while unemployed. I have a flood of notes of things I want to discuss with him about all this so I was thrilled when he confirmed he can see me this Thursday.

Last night at 5PM I received multiple emails from the VA. They sent me background check forms with hundreds and hundreds of questions ranging from, "provide the full names of every member of your family, their addresses, and all their maiden/marriage/divorced name changes and dates" to "what is your ex-wife's birth date and at what county address is your divorce paperwork on file?"

I had to do a lot of digging to find all the info, but in exactly 3 hours I completed the entire hundred-odd page background check documentation.

The next step in the instructions was to submit my fingerprints to the federal government via a third party company. The website they provided listed two agencies in my city. I called the first one and got some guy's personal cell number. The second one had a recording stating, "we've closed our office due to COVID but try emailing us at..." So I did, not expecting much.

The emails stated that I had only 5 days to submit the background check and fingerprints otherwise I would be removed from the hire list. So it was an incredible relief when I received a response email from the second office at 7:58AM this morning inviting me to come down! Better still, when I looked up their office address, it was LESS THAN ONE MILE from the law firm I was interviewing at this morning! I replied immediately asking if I could come down at 12:30 and made sure to ask specifically what identity documents I would need to bring. They replied before I left for my interview confirming that I had everything in order and could come down after my interview!

I aced the interview and really liked the department supervisor and director I met with. It looks like a great company culture and I think I could be really happy there. So if the VA doesn't decide to hire me for some strange reason I could potentially have another option.

I let my VA contact know that I completed both the background check and the fingerprints within 12 hours of the request and they replied confirming that the next step is the formal job offer.

And as an extra nice treat, there was a break in the 8 days of continuous rainfall for exactly the three hours I was walking around downtown trying to find the office buildings for my interview and my fingerprints, dressed in an ultrasuede suit.

Things might finally be turning around for me.

I hope the third-party processes my background check and fingerprint submission quickly for the VA so I can finally have a confirmed start date to provide to the unemployment office to get them off my back.