Ha! A year ago, I would have torn into him. However, I'm stuck in one of the most impoverished areas of California right now. The economy is terrible and not recovering at the same rate as the rest of the US. It's famous for meth and being a good place to dump bodies. I heard a soldier call it "way worse than Iraq." People apologize when I tell them I was born here. There are a lot of hotels and gas stations because of its location, but most of them are family-run, and they don't hire anyone. I've asked. I can't afford to walk out on an interview or tell someone off.

One of my former professors knows the area well, because she used to live here. I got this message from her after the interview: "Sometimes I think most of the area is 50 years in the past."

Obviously, it's not all bad. There have been people who were kind, but I'm not necessarily the most qualified candidate for these kinds of positions and understand when they pick someone else over me. I can teach teens to do derivatives. That's about it. I'll figure things out and move back to the university as soon as I can.