This lady of leisure stuff is for the birds, I tell you. I was so bored last week I detailed my sewing machine… no really, with q-tips into the little ventilator grilles and all. And today, I put in fresh shelf-paper in the dish-cupboard. It’s a thrill a minute around here, waiting for the temp agencies and potential employers to call.

There is nothing so far about a starting date at the very promising start-up which offered me gainful employment after a very nice interview three weeks ago, and indicated that the middle of August would be the tentative start-date. Candidly, I have the feeling that as a start-up, it may have been on somewhat more shaky ground than indicated, and continued scoping out other possible sources of a regular and generous paycheck; it ain’t for real until you have the paycheck in hand… and it doesn’t bounce, of course.
I still haven’t heard, although I have called the agency on Monday… they were supposed to call on Tuesday, and let me know something definite, and here it is Thursday with no news at all, and the conviction that A) I am being gaffed off, B) The investor is doing the same thing to the eager start-up entrepreneur, and C) The agency is hoping that I won’t keep calling.

So, yesterday I strapped on my “Serious Interview Outfit” (grey light-weight Talbots suit, white blouse with white and purple silk scarf, amethyst earrings, string of pearls, black shoes and black Coach handbag) and drove over to interview at another start-up, which had advertised itself as being in dire need of an Executive Admin Assistant… and oh, my god… my heart began to sink when I turned off the main road into a side street lined with… well, mostly warehouses. Warehouses and auto body places— dreary, shabby and emphatically low rent. It was in the nineties yesterday, and a half-hour drive, so I wasn’t going to put on the scarf and suit jacket until I got there, but I took one look at the place as I parked, and figured I was overdressed enough as it was.

Well, it turns out they are working out of a warehouse because the rent is cheap and no one would ever think there was anything to the place at all… and the entrepreneur didn’t even wince when I answered his question of what salary I was looking for ($27,000 to 30,000 yearly, depending on the benefits, or lack of same). But when he asked me what I would do first, I couldn’t help myself…. I said;
“Well, organize things for you…. And vacuum this carpet.” Not that it would do a lot of good, as it appeared— under a layer of dust, paper scraps and assorted other detritus— to be the color of dog turds. And the ceiling tiles had marked water stains on them, from leaks in the roof. Blondie said, “Don’t be a snob, Mom… you can always find something else, later.”
The entrepreneur was going to be interviewing other people, and would make a decision on Friday. I’m in two minds about my hopes for this one. On one hand— A paycheck. Possibly an interesting job with interesting and brilliant people. On the other: A long drive, to a dubious neighborhood, and a workplace that is… to be charitable, a bit of a dump. Decisions, decisions.

But another agency called this afternoon— this is the one that specializes in high-end staff. I have a initial telephone interview Monday morning, for a position as executive admin assistant at a very large industrial concern that is opening a new plant, locally… which would be, if it worked out, be about as good as it gets as high-end executive staff in this town. I’d take it in a heartbeat, if seriously offered. But I have to get that offer soon— I have the pension, and the part-time work at the radio station, and some incidental work from my previous employer, although I have had my last regular paycheck from that. I also have a couple of writing projects out there, although I have yet to get any income from them.

Although if anyone offers a lovely bonus at this point, for the Book, or some of the really good stuff I have stashed away, I certainly would not say no, at this point. (The Really Good Stuff I am saving, for the future, for a literary agent waving a large advance. What I write here is for everyday, I write it to keep my hand in, and to keep you all amused and informed.) Wish me luck and a dazzlingly good and productive interview— I will need it.