Domestication Hiatus?

On Monday, March 31 at precisely 9:00 a.m., Rowan graduate student and self-proclaimed “domestic newbie” steered away from her path towards domestication by officially attending her first day of work in Philadelphia, one of many cities housing jobs of the Real World variety.

Student Elena Beth Pushaw earned her B.A. in May 2007 and since then has only been employed part-time, going weeks on end without work.

On March 4, an HR representative e-mailed Pushaw to see if she was interested in interviewing for a permanent, full-time editorial assistant position at a book publisher. Pushaw replied she would indeed be interested and the next day the HR representative phoned Pushaw for an interview.

Having passed the initial phone interview screening, an interview was set up by the HR representative for the following Tuesday, March 11.

On March 20 as Pushaw was packing up for Easter weekend at her parents’ house, Matt from HR called and offered her the position.

“I was so thrilled that I just accepted without asking any questions,” Pushaw began. “Matt asked me if I’d like to know the salary before I accepted and I just laughed and said, ‘no, I accept.’ He laughed too, it was funny.”

 But as Pushaw spends 12 hours commuting to work, working at work, and commuting home from work for two days a week and 15 hours commuting to work, working at work, commuting to school from work, attending class, and commuting home from class for three days a week, she has inevitably put her domestic duties on the proverbial back burner.

She has not washed her pots and pans, unpacked from the weekend, or done any sporadic cleaning around the apartment. Pushaw has not sewed, cooked, cleaned, or done anything domestic that she has been working up the skills for in the last few months.