Sunday, July 22, 2012

The Beat Goes On


Let me start by stating the obvious: I was thrilled by the job offer.

But.  There was one teensy problem, and it went a little something like this:

 Umm.. have I mentioned that we share a car?  And that we don’t live anywhere near public transportation?  Soooo in the midst of my job-finding glee, there was a dark cloud hanging over that was bellowing YOU MUST FIND NEW HOME in a deep, somewhat worrisome monster voice.

Craigslist and I became total BFF(FF!!)’s for the weekend, and we found a grand total of one, yes one apartment that we could afford in the neighborhood we were lusting after.  So we went to an open house that Sunday, and oh friends, I should have taken pictures.  You and I could have sat in a coffee shop and just laughed and laughed over these pictures.

We had to duck to enter most rooms, including the bathroom.
There was one coat closet in the entire apartment. I have an awful lot of shoes, ya’ll.
We had to climb three flights of very narrow windy stairs to enter this dreadful place.

So, we left.  And I worried.  And I checked in with my new BFF(FF!!) and he told me about this other place that was just posted two hours before.  I was on that phone number like a hungry rat on some stanky cheese. 

The next day, I suckered a friend into visiting said apartment since hubsud was off being responsible and working, and even though it wasn’t my dream home, it felt like a good fit.  In a good neighborhood.  At a very good price.  I sent the boy some pics and one day and one application fee later, it was ours!

I’ll post some pics at some point, but can I just tell you that I’ve slightly fallen in love with this new home?  Here’s a list of reasons why this apartment makes me happy:
  • The hot water only lasts for about a 20 minute shower.  Water conservation, anyone?
  • Our cat careens around corners on the wooden floors chasing hair bands and balls made out of aluminum foil.
  • I’ve already had two neighbors introduce themselves and two others shared a significantly friendly smile with me.
  • We have natural light.  Finally!
  • Storage space in the basement?  Bring on the creepy smells and spiders!
  • The floor has a slight bubble that makes our bookshelf lean perfectly against the wall.
  • The walls are the strangest colors of green, yellowy-tan and rusty orange.  You can't help but shake your head and hate it, but kind of love it at the same time.

And the neighborhood, oh my heart.  When out for a run, I ran past sayings someone wrote in sidewalk chalk.  They said things like “Isn’t the sky beautiful today?” and “Stop texting!  Look around!” and they made me smile

There’s a park a block from our house where people go on sunny days with picnic blankets and good company.  We sat on our couch with the windows open and listened to a concert in said park last night.  Beautiful.

And this?


Feels like home. <3



Sunday, July 15, 2012

Windows and Pencil Skirts and Fancy Soaps, Oh My!



Hokay, so, the interview. 

I started applying to jobs about 2 weeks before my job ended.  I’m going to go ahead and admit, I was being pretty picky.  After having a job where I woke up every morning full of anxiety, I was ready for something I felt confident that I would enjoy.  Also, my super hubadoo made it very clear that he would not allow me to accept a job unless I really wanted it and was excited about it.

All of this added up to me preparing to be patient and go through quite a few applications/interviews before finding something.  When I got the call for this interview, it went pretty much how I expected it to go.  The man on the other end said something along the lines of “So I see you’re a nanny… what experience do you have that’s relevant to this position?”  To which I responded politely, “Why, none at all sir!” in my cheeriest voice. 

No, I didn’t do that.  I made up some answer good enough that he invited me in for the interview.  But I was not optimistic.

Now in order to give myself a teensy bit of credit, I prepared crazy hard for this interview.  I did research on the position and the industry and practiced the answers to like 40 common interview questions.

The morning of the interview, I walked into the office and my first thought was “What am I doing here??”  When you walk in the door, you’re greeted by a huge glass wall that offers views of the river, the city, and the mountains.  The bathrooms had all those fancy soaps and things that scream “I AM EXPENSIVE AND YOU WILL NEVER USE ME!”  And oh baby, did I feel out of place.

However, once I sat down, the man who was interviewing me made me feel immediately at ease.  I had practiced most of the questions he asked, and felt like the interview was going well.  He talked a lot, which helped me have time to gather my fleeing thoughts, and he had me meet with 2 other people, the manager of the office and his daughter, the other person I would potentially be working for.  By the time I left, I had been pretty much guaranteed the job.

And it was surreal, friends.  This job was an upper-level job where I would work as an assistant to these 2 financial advisors.  The pay was at the top end of what I was hoping for, plus had bonuses and paid transport and other such fun additions!  In short, I was completely unqualified for the job and had no idea why they were offering it to me.

But I am sly and clever, and I did not let on!  I smiled and nodded as my brain was doing flip-flops of joy, and I sat professionally in my pencil skirt with my legs crossed (at the ankles of course!).  I walked out confident and with my head held high, and then I sat in my car and stared at the concrete wall of the parking garage, trying to figure out what had just happened.

But I think I know what happened… there is simply no explanation for this whole chain of events other than that God was behind it.  And I’ll be honest, I was expecting to be out of work for weeks, if not months, simply because I’m impatient, and haven’t you heard that God always does things that make you crazy in order to make you a better person?

But for some reason, God decided to give me a break on this one.  I’m not going to try to explain why, but I am going to continue trying to be thankful.

Now if you thought I was done with storytime, you were sooo mistaken.  I won’t let you off that easy, silly!  Stay tuned…

Monday, July 9, 2012

Storytime on Steroids

Holy Smoky Mountains, readers.  I hope you have noticed my absence, because I have missed writing!

Basically, I now lead a completely different life than when I last wrote, but we'll get to that.  I'm going to backtrack like mad, and tell you some stories about what has been happening in the last 3 weeks.  It's pretty crazy stuff, so please hold on tight.

Let's start with the last day of my nanny job.  I knew it was coming, but it was still bittersweet.  Saying goodbye is always hard for me, can I get a witness?  Here's some snippets into the way my last week or so went.

Monday: "Nolan, I need to tell you something.  Starting next week, I'm not going to be around much.  Mommy will be done with work for the summer, so she'll get to be home with you all the time, and you guys will have so much fun together!  But that means I won't be around much, since mommy will be here."

Nolan: "But why?  I think you should stay".

Me: Tiny fissures appear in my heart. So. Sweet.

Tuesday afternoon, while doing something completely unrelated: "Hey Kaitlyn, I have an idea!"

Me: "What's your idea?"

Nolan: "I think you should stay with me and mommy and daddy and Colby, and we can all watch Geotrax! (movie)."

Me: Fissures becoming larger. Oy.

Thursday, my last day together: We spent the whole day doing fun things.  We made puppets, went to the park, and then ended at Nolan's favorite place in the world, a Chuck E. Cheese-like indoor amusement park and arcade.  This pretty much sums it all up:




Anyway, it was just a really hard day, and I do miss the boys and the family. But at the same time it was such a relief to be done and begin to look toward the next stage in life, whatever that may be.

Well, how interesting that you brought that up, because I happened to have my first job interview the very day after my nanny job ended.  Would you like to know how that went?  Because I would like to tell you.  More on that later my friends. (Cliffhanger whaaaaat??)