As Eminem would say, CRACK A BOTTLE!!

photo via here

So, blogosphere, I feel I owe you a big apology. I have been MIA for quite some time now, and with no real explanation. Usually if I were going to take a blogcation, I would, you know, give some notice, but this time, I just got so damn swamped with things. But there's a story behind all this insanity, and a happy ending. Read on...

So to begin with, two weeks ago, I got a random voicemail from my summer job boss who, well aware of my fruitless job search despite hardcore pounding the pavement in May/June, had heard of a job and decided to send my resume to the guy who was interviewing. He called me within an hour of me getting her message and asked me if I'd like to come interview. By the way, this would have been an awesome job, so of course my response was YES! Anyway, he followed up last week to schedule an interview for last Friday (hence no Friday dance!). Mind you, this coincided with the last week of my summer gig. So needless to say for the past week and a half I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off! I was trying to finish up one job, and prep for my interview last Friday.

I normally don't really prep for interviews. Having been an interviewer, I know it's not so much about what people say but more if A. they're normal, and B. if they're personable. This time, though, I prepped like hell! At first I had A.P. do a mock interview with me, but that didn't work out too well. Basically he kept forgetting his role, and asking me follow up questions that were more out of his personal curiosity than actual interviewer curiosity (in other words, some of his follow up questions were way more personal than an interviewer's would be). Plus, twice in the middle of my response, he got up, crossed the room and just started petting the freaking cat. Way, way distracting!! Anyway, eventually I flipped out, partially because I was stressed, and partially because I was frustrated he wasn't taking it seriously. To the amusement of A.P., I continued my mock interview by sitting in our bedroom and talking to myself for an hour or so, answering every prep question I could find online. Not to mention that all Thursday afternoon/evening, I updated my resume, reviewed and improved my portfolio, etc. Not only am I in dire need of a job and money, but I also wanted this job very, very badly. This would be a fantastic place to start off my career, and I knew the area well. Plus, well, no one else had called me for an interview, and I was starting to see the same faces from my grad program at job fairs. I was getting really, really discouraged. So to say a lot was on the line is an understatement.

So last Friday came and the interview went swimmingly. I met my friend who lives nearby for lunch afterward and I was confident things were going well. I was excited to hear back the next week and relax and enjoy my weekend. Um, yeah...they called me back that same day and said they wanted me to come back for another round of interviews today. So, yeah, relaxing weekend out the window. I didn't do anything for the interview over the weekend, but it's all I could think about. I did end up prepping like hell again all day yesterday, though. Then today, I interviewed with another panel, and then I was supposed to interview with the head honcho...only she had gone to another off site meeting. I happened to be meeting another friend for lunch nearby, so I agreed to come back later, specifically around 3pm. Well, I waited and waited, and finally around 3:40, the head honcho calls me into her office. Then she starts talking and talking, which is fine, but she wasn't asking me any questions. Finally she goes, "I just want to make sure that if I offer you the position, our interests are going to align. Well, let me rephrase that, I'm offering you the position, but I want to make sure your interests align with ours." I LITERALLY squealed!! I was so, so happy. I reassured her that our interests very much aligned, talked to her some more (with a shit-eating grin on my face, no less) and then she officially offered me the position, and I accepted!!!!

I know I said this before, but really, truly, I am so, so happy!! You have no idea. I was really starting to freak out that I wasn't going to have a job and wasn't going to be able to deal with all my school loans that are coming due. Plus I have a little bit of credit card debt, and really wanted to pay that off. Plus, now we can really save for our wedding, and (the best part) we can buy a car!! (Because even though we live in a big city, I'm getting older...carrying sacks of groceries on buses and trains sucks.) Needless to say that I'm tickled pink!!

A.P. offered to take me out to dinner to celebrate, but I was so tired (I couldn't sleep I was so nervous last night, plus I was on edge all day today), so instead we ordered in some Middle Eastern food and he ran out and bought a bottle of cheap champagne! I popped the cork...it flew across the room! Then we took silly pictures of me with the champagne! Anyway, the whole point of this post is to say, I'M EMPLOYED!!! YAY!!! And I'm back to blogging...and be prepared. Now it won't stop...there was so much good stuff last week that I found...seriously...wait...for...it.