Nekkid, Clueless and Feelin' Good: July 19, 2001

Thursday,
July 19, 2001

On to the Lightning Round

You want to know, don't you? Admit it -- you've been sitting there, wondering if I'm going to be working in the heart of Americana.

Well, the answer is -- I dunno. Yet, anyway. I did have my followup interview today, which consisted of a potted version of what the NPO does, what their IT Department does and what I'd be doing. I then recited my spiel, bonded with the big manager over science fiction (the woman who originally interviewed me told him that I wrote SF -- we talked about the Campbell years, Edgar Rice Burroughs and my languishing novel), and we went on a more in-depth tour of the building. At the end of it all he shook my hand, told me I made it to the short list, and that if all went well Human Resources would be contacting me about salary requirements, benefits, that sort of thing.

Barring a drop-dead perfect candidate or some bizarre twist of fate, I'm about 75% sure that I have the job. In the meantime, I still have a few more days to check out other positions, so that's what I'll be doing up until I actually get a phone call with the offer.

At which point -- well, let's jut say that I'll be prepared.

The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul

I'll be prepared mainly because I had some very long, bleak hours of despair last night. Everybody gets them when they're in this sort of position -- it's normal, like chewing your foot off when you get caught in a trap.

You know what I mean. Anyway, I spent about four hours between 3:00 am and 7:00 am staring at the ceiling in the living room, feeling my future implode ahead of me, convinced that Lyndon was going to feel trapped and absolutely miserable here, wondering why I was doomed to failure and poverty when I'm actually pretty talented and don't have any self-destructive habits like drugs, credit fraud or mouthing off to bosses.

As I said, the usual. Some of this was probably fueled by the fact that I was starving but didn't want to eat just before I went to sleep (so hunger pangs kept me up, of course). I did manage to shut off the Voice of Doom and drift off after eating some sesame seeds and chugging a glass of Diet Dr. Pepper. Woke up feeling a hell of a lot better, which was something.

So I'm back in "poised to leap" mode, waiting to snag the perfect job. In the meantime, I already have four MSS I have to critique for next week's FutureClassics meeting (one of them a huge horking chapter of a fantasy novel), and "Dress Rehearsal" seems to have acquiesced to my selfish decision to finish it. All in all, life ain't that bad, really.

And if I keep telling myself that, maybe I'll even believe it.

TOP