A chance to breathe.

My Lady and I were sitting at the kitchen table last night listening to Internet radio on Pandora.com (if you haven’t found it yet, go. It is wonderfulness).  I was having a bottle of one of my favorite beers, she was drinking her favorite brew, Mountain Dew, and we were chatting cheerfully about one thing or another when the phone rang. She checked the number and rattled it off to me, it was the number of the place I had interviewed with on Friday.  ”Answer it please.”, I said. It was the HR director, calling to offer me a job!

Rewind to Thursday. I was grumpy. Feeling depressed that I’d applied to so many different places and no one had called me back.  What does a girl have to do to get a job that is NOT in a call center in this town?! Feeling a little defeated I began looking through the customer services jobs. I knew that I am qualified and would get any job that I applied for in that field so I thought I would look through all the listings and pick out the ones that pay the highest and seem to be the least stressful.  The very first one I found STARTS paying more than I was making at my last job when I left after working there for nearly 4 years.  It was described as a “small” call center and is located just down the road from where we live.  I read the requirements for the position and somehow knew that if I applied I would get it.  I moved my cursor over the “Apply Now!” button and hesitated… “Do I really want to go back to a call center?!” I asked myself.  I reread the job description and decided to go for it, find out more detail about the position, and if it comes down to it and I don’t like the feel of it, I can always turn it down.  So I applied. Within 30 minutes I got a call.  She had to leave the office at 5 but she really wanted to get me in for an interview on Friday. There was a form I had to fill out and sign and an on-line assessment to take before they could interview me, so she emailed it to me. I finished both and sent them back promptly. She called me back to let me know I was the only one she’d ever had to make a 100% on the assessment, lol.  I got scheduled for a phone interview the next morning with the HR director. That call went very well, we walked through a mock call and she seemed impressed so she scheduled me for a face-to-face interview with the center managers that afternoon. I prepped, dressed, and put my game face on then got stuck in traffic.  I ended up being 10 minutes late for the interview.  10 minutes!  I couldn’t believe it, but hoping that I hadn’t ruined any chance I had, I gave the interview my best and then had to take 5 assessments in their office.  The first of which was a spelling test!  I laughed when she showed it to me and she looked at me questioningly.  “I’m a bit retentive when it comes to spelling.” I told her with a smile.  I didn’t mention that I will sit and play Bookworm for hours on my PC. (Yes, I’m a geek.  We’ve established this, moving on.) As I was leaving one of the ladies met me at the door to let me know that I did “very well” on the assessments and that once a decision was made they would be calling the candidates that very evening to let them know.  I left feeling pretty good about it, despite my tardiness, and thoroughly expected to get a call on my cell phone later that evening.  I even told my Lady, “I will be surprised if they don’t offer me the position.”.  But Friday evening came and went, as did Saturday, and I didn’t get a call.  I’d planned on calling first thing this morning to check on it and see if they’d made their decision.

I didn’t have to obviously, as she called me on Sunday night.  Turns out she had to leave work early on Friday and did not have the chance to call anyone.  I took the phone and went out to sit on the front porch to talk with her.  I accepted the position and set up an appointment for a drug screening today, thanked her and ended the call.  When I walked back into the house I shouted “I have a job!”, throwing my hands up in the air.  It was a great end to a great weekend.  Granted, it’s customer service, but it’s customer service for the government… yeah, I’m kinda sorta gonna be working for the Department of Homeland Security. Fucked up huh? I’ll be taking calls from businesses with questions about the new guidelines for the handling and disposal of chemicals. It’s verbatim scripting so it’s pretty much gonna be a no-brainer. It’s also a very small call center and the call volume is low to moderate. I anticipate being bored a lot, but with a much lower level of stress than what I was taking on before. It offers great benefits, insurance all around, and paid vacation and holidays. As far as a call-center job goes, it sounds ideal… posh even. We’ll see, of course, I haven’t started doing the work yet. But I think this is going to be exactly what I need to get me through the rest of my schooling.

Friday I took a roadtrip to my birthplace with a good friend of mine to shoot a low budget horror movie.  It was much fun. I can’t wait to see our death scenes.  I was stabbed to death.  She was strangled.  I came home tired and road weary, my clothes stiffened with dried fake blood.  It was good times.  : )

 

 

The smell of beer, BO and pheromones.

Yes, you guessed it, I went to a concert last night.  The SO’s and I tripped down to Hotlanta to see my Lady’s favoritest band ever, Duran Duran. I like them well enough for my part but I admit that her presence in my Life has brought me much more exposure than I ever would have sought out on my own. We saw them in Columbus, Ohio about 3 years ago. At that time I didn’t know much of their music at all and had remarked about feeling like a poser lost in a sea of Duranies. This time I actually knew most of the songs and could sing along a bit. I danced and sang and shouted and had much fun right along with the other 30 to 40-somethings that were there shaking their asses and longing with every bit of their being for a chance to be alone with one or all of the hunky Brits that were on stage. I love live music. Truly I don’t even care what genre, if the band is good and they love what they do I can find some enjoyment out of it. But when they’re great, when they know how to engage the crowd, it’s truly phenomenonal. Last night’s concert certainly was.

We started the evening with dinner at a fairly decent Mexican restaurant with two of our very good friends who live near Atlanta. K introduced us to a new love of his, Mexican Mojito’s! Then we checked into the hotel to rest up a bit and get ready for the concert. My Lady was giddy and nervous and completely beside herself waiting for the time to come for us to go.  She looked stunning and was absolutely glowing.  K and I were tickled to see her so excited but we looked forward to it as well.  We knew from our experience in Columbus that regardless of how you feel about their music, Duran Duran knows how to put on a damn good show. So we prepped and the time finally came for us to make our way to Chastain Park.

We’d never been there before, so we had some awkwardness and uncertainty about where to go but we finally got it figured out, found a parking spot, and, with tickets in hand, made our way to the amphitheatre. When we saw them in Columbus it was inside a large auditorium, we had floor seats in the last row of the house.  Waaaay in the back.  This time my Lady got tickets on pre-sale through the fanclub so we were in the pit, 13th row.  It was the closest seats any of us had ever had for ANY show at such a large venue so we honestly didn’t know what to expect. The entrances to the amphitheatre are at the top and the seating basically goes downhill toward the stage so we began our long decent toward our seats. It seemed the closer we got the tighter my Lady gripped my hand and the bigger her eyes got. When we finally reached our seats she was nearly breathless, and not just from the 200 steps we’d just walked down either, our seats were a stones throw from the stage.  I laughed, “You’re going to be able to see Nick’s sweat from here lovie!” And we could. Sitting that close to the stage was nearly as intimate as having had them play a local bar or club.

We waited patiently for the show to start. The opening band was fantastic and a good warm up but it was clear that the crowd was there for one thing only, their Duran fix. Soon the lights dimmed and the first member poked his head out from backstage. This is what I love about a good concert. The energy level rises to near tsunami proportions and the moment the artist first arrives it is unleashed in a mad wave that crashes toward the stage.  The noise was nearly deafening. I could feel it vibrating inside my ears (which probably is NOT a good thing) and when the wall of excitement hit me my breath escaped me and tears filled my eyes as a huge grin spread slowly across my face. I know why it is so easy for people to get caught up in this lifestyle.

I spent a lot of time watching the people in the crowd around me. Most everyone danced and jumped and sang along, but there were so many that had their faces upturned toward the stage completely enraptured in their adoration and worship of the men that were performing in front of them. I saw women weep and scream uncontrollably. I watched and giggled and played along myself as the band pulled the crowd in and encouraged them to sing and participate in the concert.

They opened with my favorite song from their new album, The Valley.  It didn’t take long for me to dance myself into a sweat. I couldn’t possibly remember all of the songs that they performed, but it was a nice long show. I do remember that they played my favorite of all Duran songs, A View To A Kill.  And they played the first song I’d ever heard by them, Ordinary World. It was then that I sat down, closed my eyes, and sang along with Simon; remembering, for a few minutes, what it was like as a teenager sitting alone in the solitude of my purple bedroom, listening to the radio and writing poetry. *laugh* Later in the concert, I leaned over to kiss K and saw the Moon rising over the top of the stage and again smiled. I couldn’t help but wonder if I was the only one there who noticed that Moon beyond the musicians dancing and singing below Her.

It was a nice weekend.  I thoroughly enjoyed the brief get-away but now, I’m afraid, it is time to focus on what is ahead and get on with it. I’m going to focus the majority of my energy now to getting a new job; continuing my Spiritual work; and incorporating time for creative outlets for myself in my routine.