Moved in, but foiled by bureaucracy

The move to Chicago went smoothly last weekend. Shane's sister Alana and her husband Rich came down from Albany to help us pack up the truck on Sunday, which was a huge help to us. After we got everything in the moving truck, Shane and I drove for a few hours. We stopped in small-town Pennsylvania for dinner, at this fabulous restaurant called the Dutch Pantry. I had country-fried chicken with mashed potatoes and over-boiled carrots that reminded me of tv dinners, while Shane had a slab of ham with a canned pineapple slice on top, mashed potatoes, and a salad consisting mainly of iceberg lettuce. The grand finale was heavenly dessert -- I had blackberry pie and Shane had a hot fudge cake with ice cream. The perfect experience to alleviate the boredom of driving all the way across that long-ass state!

I wanted to drive more that night, but the truck's headlights were so dim I could see fireflies right in front of me. This did not make for good night driving, so we stopped at a hotel just short of the border with Ohio. The next day, we made great time across Ohio and Indiana, arriving in Chicago earlier than expected. Shane's friend David met us and helped us move into our place, right before a spectacular thunderstorm. Another thunderstorm hit in the middle of the night, lightning striking very close and thunder shaking the house while reverberating in the silent, open night air. It scared me, like a bad sign for moving to Chicago, but once the storm passed I fell right back asleep. Several traffic lights were out for days because of the storm.

The next day, I went to the public schools' HR office to start the hiring process. After turning in a giant stack of paperwork, getting fingerprinted, and an hour of waiting, a lady with a mullet told me that I had to come back -- in person -- with the evaluation of my Illinois teaching certificate application. This, I discovered, had just been mailed to my address in New York, and I could not see it online yet. I was discouraged that the process might have to wait until I returned from New York with this piece of paper, but I resolved to try my best to get everything done over the two days I had left in Chicago.

The next morning, I went to the regional office for the State Board of Education, where I was able to get a print-out of my certificate application deficiencies, which I then took back to the city public schools' HR office. (It's incredibly frustrating that the city public school system and the state board of ed do not communicate with each other, and that everything has to be done in person with both offices, forcing teachers to literally run back and forth between the two locations.)

After more waiting, Mullet Lady coldly informed me that I could not have the job I had been offered by the principal and which I had accepted, because the state would not give me a bilingual teaching certificate.

Let me explain: I have New York certification in elementary education with a bilingual endorsement; while the elementary education certificate may transfer to Illinois, endorsements do not. I will have a provisional certificate in Illinois, which allows me to fulfill any missing requirements for the regular certificate over nine months, but this, Mullet Lady explained, does not cover the endorsements. The position for which I had applied requires a bilingual certificate from Illinois, which I do not have, therefore, I cannot hold any bilingual teaching position in Illinois this fall.

The only alternative suggested by Mullet was to speak with my principal to see if there were any regular education positions for me, and if not, to find another job in regular education in other schools. I left the office in tears and walked several blocks of run-down warehouses to the train. I called my principal, who said he would talk to his staffing person to see if he could change the position to a non-bilingual one while still being in compliance with bilingual regulations.

I didn't know what else to do, so I went back to the state certification office. The ladies there were actually much nicer, and they helped me. Apparently, Mullet Lady had misinterpreted my certificate evaluation and lacked knowledge of the certificate system. All I had to do was apply for the transitional bilingual certificate, promise to take the language proficiency exam in September, and bring my application receipt to the HR office. There, I was to speak with one person in particular, someone whom these ladies knew.

Back at the HR office again, I discovered that they were right; all I had to do was drop this person's name and show this receipt, and I was fine. Mullet Lady came out with my gigantic folder for the third and last time, ready for processing. I was too relieved to be rude to her, but I wanted to say all sorts of unsavory things to her. Shame on her for making me think I had to find another job!

I finally got home in the early evening to find the apartment in beautiful order. Shane had been cleaning and unpacking throughout my entire hiring ordeal. It was great to come home without being overwhelmed by the smell of stale cat pee, which the previous tenant had so ungraciously left for us. (The smell is still there, but now the landlord is going to try to do something about it. If he can't get rid of it, Shane and I have discovered through internet research that hydrogen peroxide may work.)

Shane and I went out to a cute Mexican restaurant in the neighborhood for a celebration dinner. Then we spent the evening in our lovely living room, listening to music and playing Settlers of Catan. I lost, twice, but I was finally feeling happy to be in Chicago.

Now that I am certain that I have a job, I will be able to relax and enjoy a vacation. We're back in New York City for a couple of days, hanging out with the cats with no furniture. We leave today for Albany, to celebrate Alana's birthday, and then we drive with Alana and Rich to the Thousand Islands, where we will spend the week with Shane's family in a cabin on a lake. I'll be knitting, reading, swimming, boating, and fishing without any more red tape to bother me for a week!