Oct 26
In the past week I suppose a lot has happened. It's hard to decide where to begin, so i figure right in the middle will do nicely. On Sunday (two days ago) I was watching Coyote Ugly and there is this scene where the main character is on the rooftop and just starts jamming on a keyboard. For some reason I really wanted to jam on a keyboard, too. A few days before that Roberto (this dude at work) was talking with me about music. He was suprised that I didn't play any musical instrument. His reasoning is that music is very mathematical, and since I am pretty awesome at math it would follow that I would be pretty awesome at music. I played the trombone for about 6 months when I was in 4th grade. I really hated it and have sworn off musical instruments since then. I was in choir for a few years and took some piano classes here and there, but ever since I started high school I have been a hardcore non-band-geek. Anyway, the conversation with Roberto + wanting to jam on a keyboard got me to thinking. I figured this was just an impulse that would go away after a few days and I should wait it out. Naturally, I didn't. (See “Gullible” below). So now I have a pretty sweet keyboard and an itching to jam. I figure after a month or so of practicing I will wail pretty hard. I got a few laughs and “what the hell?” from my family when I told them, but we'll see who's laughing when I am rocking the fucking rooftops.
Let's see. So this past friday I went to a really sweet improv club in the city for Brett's birthday. That was awesome. Most suprising was the transition from apathetic cynic to happy laugher. The improv troupe (awesome word btw) came running out and doing stupid stuff that might get them punched in the face under normal circumstances. After only a minute I actually thought that same stuff was really funny. The hell…. maybe being in a room of laughing people makes you want to laugh too. Anyway, it was sweet. We went to a bar later, but that wasnt sweet, so no point talkin about it.
For the few who don't already know, but also read my journal, I am in the process of interviewing for a consulting job. I have had like 5 phone interviews and 1 lunch interview so far, and they still havent found sufficient reason to hate me (which is pretty nice). The thing of it is, I bounce around about whether I want the job or not. Most of the time I really do, but occasionally I am not so convinced. See, when the job I have now sucks, I want nothing more than to start a new job. That is the case perhaps 80% of the time. This past week things have gotten a lot better, though. There are a bunch of things that I would like to do with our company and when I think about those things I get excited about how awesome it would be. Unfortunately, whenever I am not actively creating new and exciting projects for our website, the job becomes super boring. So yeah, basically this job could be really fucking sweet but isnt. Also thrown into the mix is not having health insurance of any kind. I went to the dentist last week and got a filling only to find out that my dental insurance has been revoked. The new job would hook me up with all the insurance I could use. It is one of those things that you wouldnt ever think important until you don't have it anymore. I have always taken it for granted that i can go to the doctor when I am sick and the dentist when I need oral fixation. (that doesnt mean what I want it to, but it should).
My most recent interview was a little over a week ago when I had lunch with some Indian dude at some Indian restaurant (incidentally the place's name was Gaylords, not important, but still funny). Since then I have been largely ignoring the process and have given up hope of being called back in a timely fashion. Big ups for me, I got a phone call this afternoon from the principal recruiter at Mercury to set up a time to interview with someone named Andrew. I think the guy is a part of management somehow. He said that things should go pretty quickly now and that I should expect to talk to one to three more people and then be extended an offer. He sees no reason why I wouldn't be hired by this point since I have apparantly already done all the hard work. These last few people are senior management types that just want to say hello and talk briefly with me. True or not, that is still pretty exciting. He expects that I will be made an offer sometime next week and will “start making a lot more money” than I am now… which is nice (though it wouldnt be terribly hard to make more than I do right now). What is a good salary for a college grad? I dont have much of a frame of reference because my friends make money all across the spectrum. Do people ever counter job offers along the lines of “hmmm, well I want to work for you, but I will only do it if you add 10% to the offered salary.”? It is something I have always wanted to do. “Well, Mr President, thanks for the offer. But I would really only consider going to Northwestern if you cut my tuition in half…” Awesome.
Anyway, hopefully I dont fuck up on the home stretch and give these guys a reason to think I am anything short of brilliant.