It was a rainy day in SF yesterday. I like the rain, but I don’t like it when I have to walk to my friends’ house to feed their cats. It’s all good. They just got married and they are on their honeymoon. I’m a good friend, you see, and actually, I don’t mind the walk. I get to do free laundry, and free laundry is worth walking in the rain. You can mock me but unemployment has forced me to redefine my definition of clean, and by that I mean doing my laundry in my bathtub. You’d be surprised the amount of arm strength it takes to clean jeans.
So it already feels like Thursday and it’s only Monday. I had a meeting about a job yesterday that I would absolutely love. I’m not going to say too much because I’m pretty excited about it, and if it works out it would be great career move both personally and professionally. I really love the company and it fits my goals — a company with passion, ideas and growth potential. I’m trying to not to put all 50 eggs in my stomach because for one I am not worthy enough to eat them in an hour and two I’d totally get sick. Fifty eggs may be the champion of breakfasts for some for some but I’m still learning to like cereal and milk. Hey, if I learn to like milk and cereal and get my life lessons down to 30 minutes then these past few months will be worth all the after school specials I watched.
So here I have a great prospect for my next move. I will say that from the beginning I’ve been honest with my contract work. A lesson I’m not willing to learn is one of burning bridges. I learned long ago never to take for granted the people that reach out and help. Even if I remove my slight neurosis, I never know how people are connected, and with Linkedin and Facebook, it is better to rely on being upfront with my efforts than to drop out at the last minute. This does mean that one of my contract positions is now sidelined because of timing. It’s hard but in the end I’d rather have that contact and personal connection than leave anyone in a predicament where they’d have to explain my sudden departure.
I’ve been talking with friends the past few days about how growing up I always thought there was a right career move and wrong one, that every decision I made was either good or bad. I never believed my mom when she told me decisions were just that — choices. She’d forcefully tell me to decide. Rachel, it’s just a choice. Being the drama kid, I would scream, slam my door and profess how unfair life was. I really hope my future kid doesn’t like theater. I am learning that choices, decisions, and the path we take aren’t intrinsically good or bad. We are in control and when we decide what’s most important to us — money, career, family or other — is when that decision is most successful and powerful. It doesn’t make it any easier when you do decide, but it does put things in perspective when you realize that the control is always in your grasp.
So for now I wait. It just leaves me more time to practice my French and possibly go for a run tomorrow. I could always boil 50 eggs and eat them in an hour but who would time me and what would I do with my box of Franken Berry?
