Sunday, April 29, 2012

Very Nice Far Away Baby

My walk this past Tuesday took me, in part, from Mission St. and 24th to 24th and Bryant, a very nice strip (if you don’t mind possibly getting killed by a gang member’s stray bullet) with a lush canopy of trees overhead, many curious shops, and the significant visual amenity of Bernal Hill rising green and unexpected just south.

The following day was the informational meeting previously alluded to. I looked great, if I must say so myself, relative to how I usually look, anyway, and I took BART downtown feeling very good. I met my friend on the 24th floor of an office building on Market St. and we joined her colleague in a conference room for a session that really exceeded my expectations.

The colleague was smart and funny and generally delightful, and I liked him right away. In less than 50 minutes, he took us through an elegant, efficient, highly instructive and clear tutorial on the subject at hand, agreed to review my resume, tossed in “UML in Four Minutes” as a bonus, and told me what steps to take next. This was extremely generous of him. I’m positive that what he gave me for free in less than an hour you could spend thousands of dollars and many months to acquire.

I lost track of how many good deeds he did in those minutes. Ditto my friend, who reviewed my resume herself, spent a chunk of time and energy preparing me in advance so I wouldn’t sound like a nincompoop at our meeting, and after the session took some pictures of me outside the office building so I’d have a photo to post on the professional networking website. (And of course I had fond thoughts that day of my wardrobe consultant, Judy. Clothes that fit: wow! Judy has changed my life.)

There’s a very nice feeling in my apartment building lately, even beyond the Queens of the Stone Age that can be heard at all times (except for when “Sweet Dreams” by Probot is on). The grilling neighbor and his wife are going to have a baby, gender TBD (to be discovered, that is; I suppose the determination is already done), due May 5! This is very exciting. I love knowing we’re about to have a baby in our midst, and also love that their apartment isn’t adjacent to mine, which will allow for fuller enjoyment.

On Thursday, I ran into C. while on my walk, which is how I met him in the first place: He’s simultaneously everywhere. In the evening, we went down to the main library for an overview of how to use social media for job hunting. This was mainly for C.’s benefit, as I’ve learned all the same things from Dwightly and her colleagues, but it was worthwhile to sit through this session.

On Friday, my friend who set up the informational meeting passed on her colleague’s feedback about my resume, which is that it doesn’t exactly look like a resume for the intended position, which of course it isn’t and can’t if out-and-out fibs are to be omitted. Even though the colleague is in charge of hiring people who are very experienced in this job, I’d harbored a wee fantasy that he’d think I was so awesome, he’d find me something, or send me to someone who has a job appropriate for my current skill level, and this disappointment soon morphed into something that felt global: I’m a frumpy old freak and no one is going to hire me for anything.

Oddly, this had a distinct upside: my attitude has been so durably excellent that even a handful of hours of feeling discouraged felt extremely strange and horrible, whereas if I’d been going around entertaining negative thoughts every day, nothing would have seemed amiss, and because my superb outlook is so well practiced now, it was easy to recover.

By the next day, all was well again psychologically. Indeed, this kind of job would be or will be a new thing for me. I’m therefore not a shoo-in for it, but I do think it’s something I could be very good at and enjoy, along with various other jobs. If I’m able to make a successful transition into a new thing, which people do every day, that will be great, but maybe it will come out some other way entirely, which will also be great. Unless it’s really not great, in which case, great! Yes to ungreatness.

Yesterday Tom and I went in a City CarShare car to Sacramento to see Ann and Mac at the facility where Ann is recovering from a bad fall and Mac is keeping her company. The place is quite plush. We ran over to get darling dog Sophie from her temporary home—she’s staying with kindly neighbors of Ann’s and Mac’s—and bring her over for a visit.

By late afternoon, we were back in the city and C. and I had Ethiopian food and then went to Community Music Center for an evening of music inspired by working people. Some acts were more satisfying than others, but all had their enjoyable moments, and the evening in general was highly satisfactory.

2 comments:

J said...

I hope that by now you've found a wonderful job that's just right for you. My husband lost his job in early May, and he's out looking and networking like crazy.

Our neighbors brought their new baby home from the hospital yesterday. SO exciting. Their 3 year old is having a bit of an adjustment, to be sure.

Bugwalk said...

Hi! I confess I haven't made much progress on the jobhunting front, but will be moving ahead a bit faster soon, I hope.

I'm so sorry about Ted's job. That is lousy. I hope he'll find something great soon.

I'm glad you have a new baby nearby, too!