The Home Office of Perseverance
As Mooney said, I’ve had a day.
Don’t worry, though, I won’t go after you with a knife or kill a fat barkeep.
Anyway, I’ve plugged away at my copyediting course today. I fell behind on a couple of chapters over the weekend, but am now caught up with it all. In between that, I jotted down and bookmarked jobs to be applied to and resources to be perused. My boss did not contact me about new work; since a big event is airing this weekend, I fully expect to get a couple of tapes of that event, but at least I’ll only be looking for one thing (I hope). I also sincerely hope that my boss doesn’t try to dump the entire project on me like he did last year. That’s reasonably harder to do when I’m out of office and car-less, but he might try. Hope that he won’t so I can continue my job search, won’t you?
Besides all the work I did, it was a tough day on the friend-front. I have a friend who is also looking for a job in another city, and she never stops talking about it. I like to think that, this blog aside, I don’t regale my friends with tales of apartments I’ve found online, jobs that I’m in the running for (though not, in my case and in hers), and how my boyfriend thinks that I’m going to start getting interviews in December, so I’d better start brushing up on my interview skills. It’s a little bitter-tasting because she does have network connections that I don’t, but as in my case, nothing is assured. Hell, I have no idea if she’s sent out any resumes, or if she’s just depending on the kindness of hiring managers to give her interviews thanks to the persuasion and needling of her friends. A few weeks ago, I cried on the phone to my boyfriend, saying that I just knew she was going to get a job first even though she’s only been searching all of two months, while I’ll be stuck in this god-awful place forever. My boyfriend, sensible as ever, reminded me that her talk was just that: talk. Were there any offers? Was there anything beyond the vague promises by her friends to look into possible openings? No, not anything concrete at all, and of course her friends aren’t top-echelon employees at their companies with any degree of influence, but ach, does the woman talk like there’s no tomorrow. Our group of friends actually ended up postponing our Christmas party because she "might" get interviews in mid-December. Okay, my question was, what was wrong with scheduling the get-together just in case, and canceling it if she did end up having an interview? I was mildly perturbed because I could’ve waited to order the gift I got for another friend; I’m also mildly perturbed because I just know I’m going to get shafted when it comes to gifts in this exchange. I always am–I get a nice gift for someone, and I end up with candy canes or some crap like that in exchanges.
I’ll say it here and now: If I get something marginally better than candy canes, I’ll apologize.
Anyway, rather than blow up and abandon my homework and start a crying fit (and a blogging rant that would be heard in Beijing), I told myself to take deep breaths, step away from the e-mails and the instant messages, and just think. Things will turn around for me; I’m not a lifer in this position by any stretch of the imagination. My time will come, and I’ll be rewarded for my patience and perseverance with a nice job that lets me get a latte maker that’ll be kick ass (and look quite fetching in my future kitchen). Her talk is still just talk, and it is very possible that mid-December will pass in relative quiet. I told myself to keep calm, finish my work, and search for more jobs after I was done. I also let myself be distracted by the thought of buying a turquoise pair of GAP mittens, a hat and a scarf. That’s been my defense for the past few weeks (since my meltdown in which my boyfriend got to hear me loudly sniffle into the phone and bitch that I was sick of everyone’s good news)–when the going gets tough, go to the job sites and find a few more positions. That always makes me feel better, so it’s been a good strategy so far. I walked away from the entire exchange more irritated about having to postpone the get-together than anything else. The gift I’m getting might only be candy canes, but damnit, I want my candy canes!
So, that’s my tale of how I managed not to go nutso on this website, instead waiting hours later after I had finished my homework and searched for more jobs to discuss it more or less rationally. Sure, I’m positive there are some dramatics in the above paragraphs, but at least I’m not all "Woe is me!" and flagellating myself with the thought of never escaping Ann Arbor, Michigan. Instead, I’m dreaming of a $400 latte maker. Aren’t you guys proud of me?
Instant P.S: Whoa. Someone found my resume on Craigslist and wants to know if I’ve ever had experience with managing the development of websites. I just posted my resume today. Unfortunately, this might not be my thing (I’ve never worked on it), but I am one hell of a project juggler. I’ll have to carefully formulate an answer, but bottom-line is that it might not be for me. Still, though, nice to have such a quick response, seeing as how the last time I posted the damn thing I never got any hits.
