Mold and Moping in the Desert (Part II of the story)

Continuing the story from the post below. . . .

Before we left San Diego, Terence had found a few police agencies he had decided to apply with. I had printed off the applications from the internet, and we had started the onerous process of filling out the background info packets. (They do want to know EVERYTHING about your life. I spent hours searching through the filing cabinet trying to find a copy of one of Terence's speeding tickets, since you had to give the date of "the violation.") Also, before you can even get them to look at this stuff, you have to pass a basic written exam (sorry, you have to be literate to be a cop) and a physical exam. I got really worried for him when I saw some of the things you had to do to pass the physical part. For Phoenix PD it said you had to scale a six foot block wall. The runs for everyone had to be done in a reasonably short time period, plus they wanted you to do a gazillion push-ups and sit-ups (at least it seemed like that to me.) Terence just blew the physical part off. He'd been in shape so long and working out at gyms for years, even the block wall climb he dismissed as no problem.

However.

I didn't want to beat him over the head with the fact (because it would have been so mean) but he wasn't exactly in as great shape as when he got married. Nearly two years of working full time and going to school full time had left no time for exercise. I guess I was feeding him well, too, because he had gained something like 30 lbs. Also, his asthma was acting up so badly he was using an inhaler frequently, which he hadn't had to do since he was a kid. The sobering fact finally dawned on him when we drove over to the local high school for a practice run at the track, and he couldn't even finish the run, let alone make it within the cutoff time! At this point, our move was within just a couple of weeks, and his first tryout was with DPS, only a few days after we would arrive in Phoenix.

During all my time packing, I fretted over this. At first we had planned to immediately rent an apartment, having assumed Terence would have at least quickly gotten some kind of job, but so far we hadn't gotten a single callback from any of the applications we had sent in so far. So my parents stepped in and generously provided miracles #1 & 2-- they offered us their basement as a temporary home and they paid for the moving costs as a graduation gift to Terence. My whole family came out for Terence's graduation, and then helped us move to Phoenix (one big Leavitt caravan) the next day. Thank goodness for family!

In Phoenix, we had miracle #3: Terence's asthma disappeared. Immediately. Turns out it was being caused by the mold that had overtaken the living room walls in our apartment. So just a couple of days into our Arizona life, he breezed through both the physical and written entrance exams for DPS and was immediately called back for the oral test. (Here they kind of shot out hypothetical situations and questions, and you had to tell them what you would do.) He ranked OK, but not wonderful, and they told us we had probably an 8 month wait ahead of us before we would be next up to get hired.

It was still good news, but I wasn't able to see it that way. One of the unfortunate things about the move was how I fell apart emotionally. Terence was the one who had been so homesick and reluctant to leave CA, but once we got to AZ he was fine. I, on the other hand, was a mess. I worried constantly about the lack of a forthcoming job for Terence. (We spent the first week driving around and dropping off yet more applications, but got no calls back.) The morning sickness for the pregnancy was just as unpleasant as it always is, and I had the nagging fear of miscarriage haunting me. Winter is always hard for me, as far as depression goes, and the brown, barren, dead-looking desert did nothing to lift my spirits. Terence tried to apply with the Maricopa County Sheriff's office but got lost on the way to the recruiting meeting. Oops. He did get there (late) only to be told he probably wouldn't qualify due to the civil judgement on his credit record.

At this point, I admit, I was beginning to wonder if we had gotten the right answer to our prayers.

Then, through some family networking, Terence got a job offer with Orkin Pest Control. He didn't take it right away, which surprised me. Then, he explained to me that something about the job just didn't feel right. He really had a strong feeling that he should not take the job. I was thoroughly disappointed. Of course, if he felt that way, I wasn't going to argue, but at the time, I began to despair of ever being able to move out of my parents' basement.

Enter miracle #4: Not long after that, Terence got a call from DPS telling him that he was hired and he needed to report for the pre-academy training the very next week. We were astounded and elated! The lady from the employment office explained that Terence had been pulled out of the list way ahead of everyone else because he wasn't currently employed, and they had a last minute opening. They assumed anyone else would need to give notice at their job. Miracle #5- They didn't care about the obnoxious civil judgement on Terence's record! (He had gotten slapped with the costs from his parents' eviction right after his mission since he was an adult living in the house.) My parents took us out to dinner to celebrate, and Terence and I went shopping using our credit card with the firm belief we would be able to pay it off soon. (They had quite a hefty list of things he had to have, and that was even before the uniforms. It is expensive to get started as a cop!)

At this point, I mentally rebuked myself for the lack of faith I had been showing and spent a great deal of time in my first haze of good feeling since we had moved. Too bad it couldn't have lasted a bit longer . . . .

(To Be Continued again)