Looking at the "Big-Picture-Jackpot"

So, for this new State-job gig, I had to go to the DCF central office in Hartford to be fingerprinted. Well, first of all, the directions I got were THE WORST directions in the whole history of directions. I had given myself a fifteen-minute traffic buffer (because you never know with I-91). Well, getting LOST in DOWNTOWN HARTFORD takes a while, so I just barely made it to my fingerprinting appointment at 11:00. I'm shown to this waiting area and told to . . . well, wait. But there were so many people that all the chairs were taken up, so I had to stand. In heels. FOR AN HOUR AND A HALF!!!!! I didn't get fingerprinted until 12:30!!! Unbelievable.

So, the fingerprinting is over. I am sore and tired and still a little shaken up from the rough drive in. Then, this lady tells me I need to go to the DAS building to get my photo taken for the state employee ID badge. So, she gives me some more bad directions, I get a little more lost, i panic a little more, and finally I make it to the DAS building. I walk inside the building, nervous and shaking from the driving around in HELL, and tell them I'm here for the photo ID thing. She smiles and says "I'm sorry, you'll have to come back next week. That machine is broken today." So . . . long story short, I have to go through all that driving horror again on Monday. Ewww.

But, this is completely worth it. Look at the Big Picture. Or, the Big Jackpot, if you will. I am going to be able to have week-nights free, for the first time in almost two years. I will be able to hit evening jiu jitsu classes. I will be able to meet friends for dinner or coffee or something. I will have time to SIT IN MY APARTMENT AND DO NOTHING.
Wait, what? RELAXATION?!? JACKPOT!!!!!!!

Things in general are going well. I think i might manage to pass my Chemistry class, and I just went over the class schedule for my last two semesters, and I will actually graduate on time, wow. I am committed to enjoying this summer -- my sister actually sent me a nice "congrats on the job" postcard, and she wrote something about how being so busy takes away time that I'll never get back. That made me think. I really want to make this MY summer.

Workin' My Inter-Personal Magic

There was a job posting online for a Childrens Services Worker at DCF, right in the town I live (not 50 minutes away, like my current job.) So, i sent in my application last Thursday. Then I got a phone call on Monday for a job interview, which was scheduled for today (Wednesday) at 2:00pm. So I show up. Apparently, over 100 people had applied for the position, and they had interviewed 80 people already -- this was the last day of interviews. But i didn't let that upset me. I walked in, gave my best, warmest smile, my heartiest handshake, and tried to work my inter-personal magic.

The first part was with HR -- all that silly paperwork, making sure the application was complete, all that crap. Then I waited for about 20 minutes with a handful of other applicants before I was called in for the "real" interview. This went well -- I was feeling pretty good. Then, all the other applicants were getting called up, hand-shaken, told that they were being put into a "Candidate Pool," and then they'd leave. And suddenly, after about two full hours, I realized that I was the only applicant left. They called me into a separate room where I met the director of HR, and was offered a position.

Once the fingerprinting and drug tests and physical exam and fbi background check are all complete, I will be an official Childrens Services Worker for the State of Connecticut Department of Children and Families. Yay! It's a part-time position, but enough of a pay raise that money shouldn't really be an issue. Plus, I will finally be able to have weeknights free, so I could even pick up a part-time evening job, if I needed to. I will be working as a counselor to children and adolescents with mental health, substance abuse, and behavioral issues, in an inpatient hospital setting. I absolutely love the job I have right now, but I think it's time for a change, and I think this is the right change. I feel good about the whole thing -- the fact that it went so smoothly, I really liked everyone that I had the pleasure to meet, and . . . .this just seems perfect.

. . . Anyway, so The Summer of Meg's Cultural Revolution is going quite well, I must say. My Doppleganger co-worker has been giving me wonderful art history lessons, I have been reading some good classics (Nabokov, Fitzgerald, Kafka, Dostoyevsky), I watched an old movie with Humphrey Bogart the other night, I have been soaking up the Brahms and Rachmaninoff and Miles Davis, and my friend is giving me Spanish lessons (in exchange for lessons on reading music, and music theory.) Good stuff. Very good stuff.

Plus, the music director at my church asked if I'd be willing to play with a small group of musicians on Sunday the 24th. Would I be willing? Are you kidding? The band I am in has a show every saturday through the month of june. We are playing at a tattoo shop opening reception on the 9th (how cool is that?? I might get meself some more inkin'), then in NY on the 16th, then Up Or On The Rocks on the 23rd. Then we also have shows coming up at The Space, in Hamden, and Webster Theater. Yay! This is like, a super-musical summer! What was that? LOTS OF MUSIC PLAYING AND SINGING??? JACKPOT!!!!!

Dude . . . life is lookin' good . . .