no, literally. im who knows how many thousands of miles in the air as i type this. i wont actually post this til im safe on land again, of course. but right now, im on an airplane. i flew out of philly at about 10:15 this morning. destination: cleveland, oh. got to cleveland just before 12:30 and got on another plane. destination this time: home.
:o)
at about 1:44ish, i'll be landin in good ol louisville, ky, after being away from semi-southern soil for nearly a yr (i think the last time i was at home was christmas/new yrs, which isnt too far away). ive been meaning to come here for nearly a week to document the story of this pending trip, but ive been busy. or ive just been black. whatever the case, im just now gettin to it.
so. let's rewind to, oh, let's say... i dunno, whenever i had that interview with those young handsome black 50% unmarried technology CEO execs. when was that? it was a wednesday. can't have been this last wednesday, so the wednesday before. which was... the 11th. wednesday, october 11th. it was raining, i remember, cause i used hairpins to keep the bottoms of my pants from dragging the ground and getting wet. i won't spend too much time on the actual interview, cause i think ive already blawgged abt what happened here. i want to spend a minute on this part, though, cause its important:
as the interview drew to a close and we got to that part that i hate, the part where they ask you, the interviewee, if u have any more questions (i never do). my question was, 'so when can i expect to hear from you guys again?' i had told them earlier the story of the bastard @ penn who took his sweet time in the form of 2 whole weeks to let me know that i didn't get the job, and they rolled their eyes and shook their heads and just cldn't believe that ppl actually do business that way. so they assured me i'd hear from them friday, because they needed someone ASAP. sweet. i had one day to fret and wring my hands over whether or not they'd offer me the position or not. and then i'd know, one way or the other. which is really all i wanted.
so, friday comes. im at work with my cell phone out on my desk, watching it and waiting. i knew that they all left their office promptly at 4:30, so if i didn't hear from them by then, i was pretty sure i wldn't be hearing from them at all. so time ticks and tocks its way to lunch. then to 2:00. then 3.
i guess it was around this time that my phone did ring. but, it wasn't them; i let it go to voicemail, then retreated to the bathroom to check the message the caller left (the production nazi's at that office don't want us to even touch our cellphones while we're on the clock). leaving the message was a woman named alex, very young-sounding, saying that they had received my resume the week earlier and wanted to schedule an interview. when she said the name of the company, i recalled sending my resume to them, but until then, i had forgotten all abt it. i really wanted to hold out for the job @ drexel, but it's best to cover all ur bases, right? so i called back. set up an interview for 5:00 the coming tuesday.
back at my desk, i fumed a little bit as 4:30 came and went without a peep from the dudes, but really, i wasnt too surprised. that's happened more times than i cared to remember, and i resolved not to dwell on it. or to roll past their office and and spraypaint 'XYZ TECHNOLOGY HATES CRACKAS' on their storefront window, as i had an urge to do. i just took the L and kept it moving.
i called the other place i was to be interviewing with--it was an engineering company downtown--the day before to confirm. i spoke with alex again; she reminded me to bring my references with me.
tuesday comes. i get to work. start thinkin abt the interview and notice i left my references at home.
*sigh*
and it was raining again. pretty hard.
*sigh again*
i'd scheduled the interview for 5 so that i wldn't have to leave work early, and i ended up having to leave at 3 anyway to go aaaaall the way back home and then come aaaaall the way dwntwn. i didn't wanna be unprepared. so, i go get my references and get back to the spot with nearly 30 minutes to spare. the interview started shortly after; i was met by the vice president of the company, whose name is mark, i believe, and i think i liked him immediately. he looked like liam nieson. i like liam nieson.
for awhile it was just he and i talking, and mostly it was he talking. i pretty much just smiled real big and laughed when i felt it appropriate and shook my head and made my eyes wide with attentiveness. he's an easy goin guy. married, i happened to glance at his ring finger (not with any intent, mind u, but im sayin. ....im just sayin.). it's weird, he's got the kind of demeanor that's easy to mistake as... aloof? kinda rough edged, maybe; i cant put my finger on it, but it's something almost bordering brash and short-tempered. but he's not. at least i don't think he is; he just comes off that way.
im gonna speed this up b/c i think they're gonna make us put up our electronicalistical devices soon, and i wanna get this done before then.
soon we're joined by another guy, short and kind of odd looking. very long, thin nose with lots of nostril, salt & pepper hair, very near to having a unibrow, and an overall unpleasant face. or an unpleasant expression, at least. he doesn't seem that he laughs a lot.
anyway, long story short, they talk a lot; they ask me why i went to a school named transylvania and what kind of writing i do. they talk some more. towards the interview, unibrow looks at liam nieson and says
'okay, so what do u wanna do?' then he looks at me and says 'i already know he wants to hire you.'
outwardly, of course, i do the 'im highly amused at the joke you just made' professional style laugh. inside, however, i am doing the 'muhfucka this aint nothin to laugh and joke about!!' eye roll. i started thinking abt my meeting with the tech CEOs and my interview with the assjack at penn and how well they both went. i picked up the pattern pretty quickly, and now here i was again on a great interview. i decided not to get excited abt what was just said.
..until i heard liam lookalike say:
'yeah, let's do it.'
*record scratch*
er, scuse me? do what?
.....
son. SON. SON!!
them cats offered me the job on the spot!!
!!!!
WTF!
at this pt im having trouble keeping up with what is being said cause im gushing and panicking because i don't really have much time to think abt the job and i don't know how much it pays. while im trying to stay in my seat i hear them telling me that they'd been interviewing people for two weeks and had been tardy with making their decisions; the first two people they offered the job too had taken positions elsewhere, and they decided that the next time they found someone that they liked, they'd go ahead and offer him/her the job on the spot. they told me they liked my resume and my personality. i guess that was enough.
they also laughed at what i was currently being paid @ my temp gig. like, literally. they laughed. more like a guffaw, if the distinction means anything.
'heheh, yeah.. that's not much at all.'
in my head im like... muhfka fix it then!
and they did. oh, they did.
ill be getting paid ten thousand dollars more per year than i was gettin @ the temp gig. plus opportunities for overtime. plus 2 wks paid vacation. plus sick days. plus BENEFITS. BEN.UH.FITS!!!!
dude. im goin to so many drs, u dont even know.
and get this! they asked me when i wanted to start. !!! i told them id like to be professional and do the whole 2 weeks notice thing--of course not intending to finish my two weeks @ the temp job. i wanted that time to rest up, plus fly home and see granny nem. but, they said they comdpletely understood and that they wldnt mind at all, cause that's what they'd want from an employee of theirs. then the hardassed unibrow cat says
'yeah, and im sure u'd wanna take a couple days for yourself just to rest up before u start this new job.'
!!!
so, i start the new gig november 6th. :) as soon as i officially accepted the job, which i did the next day (it's a really simple admin assistant position, by the way), i started making plans for this trip home. and my next day at the temp gig was my last. i went in and quit that day. first i called my staffing company and broke the news to them. i was very polite and apologetic, but the lady i spoke to go real nasty with me. she mad cause she losin money, of course, but i mean, really. if she had to choose btwn bustin her butt at a failing business office with no benefits and zero job security in the face of a fulltime gig with full benefits, WAY more money and paid time off, what chu think she'd pick??
exactly.
typically i'da told her about herself, but i was in a good mood and felt like showing her up by being nice to her. everyone in the office was sad to see me go, but happy to see me get out of that sespool of stress and depression.
so yeah. if things are gonna go the way i think they're gonna go, things are really gonna start changing for me. for the better. for the waaaaaay better.
this will be an interesting week at home. im nervous to see everybody. ill update tomorrow or sometime soon with some notes on how it goes.
: 4:15 PM, October 25, 2006