Largely, I'd been looking in one field, trying to be something entry level in the same field that I began graduate work for this past spring. However, as I've been realising that I'm unlikely to continue with grad school this fall, and perhaps ever, and with the need for obtaining a new apartment approaching quickly, it seemed a good time to widen my search, so that if nothing else, I could tell a prospective landlord that I do indeed have a job.
So, with this in mind, and having no idea what it is that I hope to do next, I posted my resume on Monster this past Sunday. The next day, I received two nibbles. The first was with a staffing agency that is providing one of the many local colleges with temporary help for their bookstore. Now, you have to understand, that I am a reasonably bright, hard-working, creative person, who through chance, desperation, and ultimately type-casting has spent most of the past decade working in restaurants in one type of capacity or another. A month working in a school bookstore? At least it's putting some other type of work on my resume, and if they throw other assignments my way? Hurray. So, after following up on that today, I am set up to begin in a few weeks.
So, in the late afternoon, I turned towards nibble number 2. This one, I looked upon with more trepidation, as it comes from a local restaurant chain asking me if I have interest in waiting tables. Isn't that what I just said I wanted to get away from? Yes. But there are benefits to the biz. Particularly if I approach it from my own terms. So, in corresponding with the recruiter, I made it clear that I intend to be working another job, and that I'd be looking at this as part time supplementary income, a few nights a week. She wasn't put off, so tomorrow I meet with a manager at the nearest locale. Really, I just want the security, while I see where temping (and hopefully temp to perm) leads, and if I do 3 nights a week waiting tables, I could minimally hit rent. And yes, part of this entry is me convincing myself that this is a good plan.
The thing I hated most about the last restaurant I worked at was that they were surprisingly inflexible. Admittedly, we were often short staffed (not usually on a shift, but more that people had to be scheduled more hours than management liked to schedule people ie overtime), but I wonder how things would be different if they readily accepted more part time workers. Instead of continually driving out people who couldn't balance 40+ hours of waiting tables with school and having a life, working with those people.
Speaking of the restaurant I used to work at, tonight somebody else contacted me through Monster:
I am an attorney.  I represent several former servers for the The Hell Hole.  My clients will be filing suit alleging that The Hell Hole violated Federal wage and hour laws.  My investigation reveals that you have worked as a server for the Hell Hole during the past three years.
I never thought job hunting would be so much fun.