A Mighty Fine Life

I have a job!!!

Well, on a trial basis, at least. I'll be doing editorial support/web editing for an HIV resource; that's about as specific as I want to get in a public entry. But needless to say, this is VERY VERY VERY EXCITING.

I start Monday!

SO HAPPY.

So I got all my information from Albany today. I do indeed qualify for unemployment! Um. I qualify for $100 weekly. But hey, I'll take it; it'll just about cover my student loans, phone bill, and maybe groceries for the month. With that coming in I probably have enough in my bank account to stretch for another month or two if I have to. (Obviously I'd rather not, but hey.)

I had an interview today that I thought had gone pretty well, but may have turned out even better than suspected--she just called me to say there's a second position they have opening up that I might be qualified for (basically web production stuff), and would I like to be considered for that, too? (Um, duh. Yes plz.)

So there's that.

Meanwhile, I've been channeling all of my anxiety and nerves into writing...um...a HSM fic. Which may or may not be 30 pages long. And may or may not be about Chad and Ryan, post-movie. And, um. I need help.

Speaking of HSM, there is excellent snark by poisonivory here and here (and a Ryan/Chad ficlet here), and harriet_vane takes on the soundtrack over here.

Okay. That's all.

Well, I don't have either of the jobs I went in for multiple interviews for. Which sucks, obviously. I'm getting a decent response rate for resumes I send out; I've been playing phone tag with someone trying to set up an interview, and got an email over the weekend inviting me in for an interview for a pretty good position.

I'm still trolling job listings, I'm still sending out cover letters and resumes every day. Mondays suck and have the fewest listings posted, but I'm doing what I can. Sigh.

And now, meme. This one makes the rounds every few months, but I've never done it before.

THE RULES:
1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like your favorite lyric to your current favorite song. Or your favorite kind of sandwich. Or your favorite breed of tropical fish/kind of bug/breed of dog. Something random. Whatever you like.
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. Update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.

( Questions from TSB )

( questions from Hilby )

( Questions from Kez )

I am absolutely NOT writing what has somehow become an EPIC fic taking place at Lava Springs about Chad and Ryan. Because that would be WRONG.

First off, ( So You Think You Can...Dance (dance, dance) )

In other news, I did have a job interview today. Cross your fingers. I had a good vibe, and that's all I'm saying.

Okay, so yesterday, Josh and I were planning to go to Ikea. Instead we went to the Yankees game; he'd been given last minute tickets through work. ( Shelley Duncan is my hero. )

This morning: the interview...didn't go well. I didn't have the good vibe from it that I did from the other few I've done, there and elsewhere; I kept getting the feeling I was answering questions "wrong". I was honest--talking myself up, but honest--so I guess I'd rather get a job where I fit in with their expectations and whatnot, but...Meh. You know, I really wanted that one. I'm not counting it out entirely, but I'm sure as heck not counting on it, either.

On the other hand, I hadn't heard anything from the other job I interviewed for, until I was in mid-sulk this afternoon and got an email asking me to come in for a second interview. Which means a) that interview did go as well as I thought, and b) I didn't bomb the copyeditor test the way I thought I had! It was crazy hard; I swear I was making up rules of grammar by the end. But that's something.

Other than that, today was devoted to rearranging the...well, almost the whole apartment. We bought some new shelf units, and decided to move around...not quite everything, but most of it. We finally got an actual media center, so we can get our coffee table back! (The TV has been sitting on it for the last year, which meant we'd been using a tiny fold-up table to pile all our stuff on instead.) I moved my books from a small, overflowing shelf, to a larger, perfectly sized one (and pulled out some books to get rid of, more on that in a moment) and cleaned up my DVDs and whatnot; after a few hours of work, everything is looking lovely.

About the books: does anyone know of anywhere in the city looking for donations or anything like that, cheap? We have a couple crates of them and obviously don't want to throw them out, so... Any suggestions would be welcome.

And as general questions go, here's one; does anyone know if there's a Newsies mood theme created anywhere? Or want to make one? :D

You know what's strange; at Success, I never had anxiety problems. Not before my initial interview, not when I started getting paid, not when I started full time. Even before I had any idea what the place was, I felt comfortable. That was really nice and worth a lot, it turns out. Because, while I didn't have an anxiety dream last night, it's mostly because I didn't get much sleep.

I hate not sleeping in general, and functioning on not enough sleep makes me feel pretty much ill.

I think I mentioned this to baelarion last night, but it's much easier to picture/remember being happy somewhere you've already been than to project that forward into a void you don't know. Hence reminiscing about what a great time college was, and even high school, despite my Teen Angst of Doom. Similarly, even though I know I whined about it on occasion and I wasn't always thrilled to be there, I'm having a harder time picturing myself at some kind of nebulous future job than I do idealizing the one I just lost, and it makes things all kind of annoying and stressful. (And I miss my coworkers. Sniff, sniff.)

I should really get a move on.

Meh.

(ETA: Completely unrelatedly, I redesigned--or at least, recolored--my LJ yesterday. I'm going through a fannish phase again. This is not exactly shocking.)

I'm leaving in a few hours to head off to harmonyangel's house for the night. Tomorrow, she, poisonivory, and I are heading to visit second_batgirl for a week-ish. Unemployment be damned! This was supposed to be paid vacation. Grumble. So yeah, I'll be out of town; probably with minimal email access for awhile. But i will have my phone if you need me.

Speaking of job stuff, the interview/test I mentioned thinking I did quite well on on Thursday I apparently did (knock on wood), because Friday they called to schedule a third (hopefully final!) interview. So that'll be the Monday after I get home.

In non-job, non-vacation news, I've been reading links and links about the LJ account deletions and their implications. I, personally, have no interest in leaving LJ; I didn't come here for fannish reasons, and despite the fact that there's been a lot of fannish stuff mixed in here in the last few months, I don't primarily use LJ for fandom. I'm quite attached to this place, so I'll likely be staying here.

That said, I do get why other people are deciding to leave. And I don't want to lose track of anyone on my flist! So if you're heading off, please tell me where. I'm queenitsy on IJ and GJ, and have an ancient, never-used account as temira on JF. Feel free to friend away. (My initial impressions, incidentally, are that I like IJ a lot more than GJ or JF, but I probably won't be using any of them much.)

How things are going on the job front: decently? I guess kinda?

I've had interviews at two different places, a computer mag and a real estate mag. Real estate the interview was Monday, then today they had me back for a copyediting/writing test; also this morning was the computer mag interview/copyedit test.

I had never done a copyedit test before. The computer one was hardcore and hard and I have no idea how I did on it. I know I got all the major things and some of the finicky details; I had a lot of queries and "check w style guide" notes in it. It took me about an hour and a half. Yeaaaah...

The real estate one, though, was much shorter and easier. I know I did well on it. They also gave me a writing sample test; two press releases to turn into short (an 80-word and 250-word) articles. I feel that I also did a very good job with them. Writing quickly and sharply is one of my skills (she says while tooting her own horn). If they like my test results, I'll get called for a third and final interview; said interview obviously wouldn't be happening until the week after next, as I'm spending next week in Georgia with second_batgirl (and also poisonivory and harmonyangel).

I don't know where my relatively new-found confidence in interviews came from, but I felt totally comfortable in both of them. Which is awesome.

No idea if either of these will pan out--I don't want to jinx them by being too optimistic. So we'll see.

I miss paychecks. Stupid bills.

The interview went reasonably well, I think; it's apparently a 3-step process and I am "definitely in the running" for the job and they want me to come back for the copyedit test. So...good?

Job interview today.

Anxiety dreams all night last night.

Feel sick and gross.

Meh.

What I'd really like to be doing right now is lying around on my couch like some kind of giant slug. It feels like a weekend to me, very disjointed; it's funny how quickly I got used to working full time. And now I'm not and it's disorienting.

I began trolling job listing sites yesterday and updated my resume. Actually sending out cover letters begins today...BAH. I hate writing cover letters with a deep passion. They are EXCEPTIONALLY difficult.

So what I'd like to do is keep sending out applications, at least a few a day. Rachel is also home; hopefully we will be doing deep cleaning of the apartment, which kinds of needs it. I'd also like to get some writing done. I seem to somehow be writing a HP, Marauders-era fic (wtf? I have no interest in HP fandom!) that will never see the light of day, but I'd also like to update what I've already got going and get some serious work done on one of the many non-fic type projects. I don't know which one or anything yet, though.

Sigh.

Okay. So here's why I was stressed earlier.

( Both options are good, so this is kid of just whiney. )

I haven't been able to sleep the last four nights. My head has been stuffed up for about a month now. I'm so exhausted that I nearly burst into tears several separate times at work today, because my boss snapped at me, because my salad wasn't very good, because I got a phone call, because I worry about ridiculous things. I'm so exhausted that potentially having to make a choice between two good options is making me want to hide under my covers and never get up. And yet every time I lay down, I just stare at the wall and can't sleep.

I may be MIA for a couple days. Maybe not. I don't know. I can't really think anymore.

"Hi, Becky, this is Rebecca from Success Magazine. We were very impressed with your interview, and would love to offer you our summer internship. Please give me a call back." !!!!!!!!

Both interviews went well; the first one especially, I think. (Though the second interviewer noted, "You do seem to be very organized," when I whipped out my folder with copies of the article I worked on at my journalism internship, my resume, and my references. Take that, every middle school teacher I ever had.)

I think, if I got to choose, I'd take the first one (a magazine internship) over the second one (a website), despite the fact that the second one is more hours and pays better. (It pays the same as Borders did, heh.) They're both limited in terms of how much actual writing and editing interns have the opportunity for, but the first one came across as... well, more professional. The staff of the second all seemed young and nice enough, and the disorganization wasn't really their fault, as they building is being remodeled and they've been shuffled around. But I feel like I'd much rather work on a magazine in general, and the skills I'd be building up when not writing and editing are more useful (primarily research, as opposed to HTML copy/pasting at second one). I'd also rather have clips from a magazine than a website.

Of course, that's assuming I have a choice. If I get offered one but not the other, I'd take it, either way. And if I get offered neither, I'll probably sulk for a few days and then get back to applying (sigh). But I do think I did much better in these interviews than in any I did a few months ago. I came away much more confidently, if nothing else.

Fingers crossed.

Well, I'm off. I feel pretty good about these, though. No anxiety dreams last night, even, for a change. Maybe because I was still consumed by happy thoughts.

I need a Melky icon.

So I ordered new checks; I'm sure my old ones will now turn up. But I think it was worthwhile regardless, considering I hadn't used, well, basically any through college, so my old ones still says 35 Shaffer. (For those who have no idea what that means, my folks moved between my junior and senior year, making those out of date; now I've moved again and am in New York, making them even more out of date.) I didn't get anything fancy except quick shipping, since I do have rather a large pile of bills to pay. Sigh.

Today, of course, I can't find the iron. I have both of my interviews tomorrow, and would like to wear, you know, not wrinkled clothes. Alas.

I knew it was going to be a good day. :D

When I got up (at the kitty's very outraged insistance, why wasn't I up and playing with her???) I had a voicemail from Success Magazine, offering me an interview for a summer internship. It would be about 20 hours a week and pay poorly, but it would be experience. Mostly they're looking for a researcher/fact checker (in other words, what I was doing at the Institute for Investigative Journalism last year) but there would be light writing and editing involved. I'd never heard of the magazine until I found their job listing, but hey. They list knowledge of Macintosh software as a job necessity, and that's cool.

When I called to set up the interview, the woman had stepped out for the weekend and the gentleman didn't have my information; we chatted a little and I told him my number one goal was to gain experience, which he said they can definitely provide. (It's a small staff, so everyone gets lots to do.) She'll give me a call over the weekend to set up an interview; if I get it, I'd probably be starting the end of next week or the beginning of the week after. Which is a positive thing to hear, right?

This is a much quicker response than I've ever gotten before. I sent the resume to them on Wednesdsay. Woo!

The same company has posted a number of different job listings, all with identical descriptions. (Basically, looking for assistant editors in different departments. Same job, different boss.) I'd like to apply to all of them. They're all the same job. Is it okay to use the same cover letter? Ideally I think I'd like to tweak it a bit, but it's already optimized for the job description they gave, which is the same for all three departments. Does anyone have any clue?

Yes, I'm making myself late to work so I can apply to better jobs. Work can deal.

The other thing I did yesterday was look up and bookmark a bunch of joblistings for entry level editors. I just sent out a two cover letters for the first time since... February? Starting this again is such a pain in the ass, but I really, really hate my job...