the first

"You're brilliant. We can't afford to lose you."

After realizing I have a dozen blogs I visit regularly, I decided it's finally time to write my own. Let me just say up front: I hate blogging. It's just another thing to add on to my plate. Don't I have enough to do already? So I can't guarantee I'll have a lot of new stuff to add, or interesting for that matter. On the other hand, I could really get into this. Oh, and please, to my writer friends, I am not a writer. I know you don't end a sentence with a preposition, but that's the extent of my writing abilities. Oh, but if there's a typo I'll find it in a matter of seconds.

But I digress.....

In the last week I've had five people ask, "What are you doing these days? I hear about your girls, but not about you." So this first entry is about me. Because, um, I matter too. We have a whole lifetime to talk about the girls anyway....

The last two weeks have been insane! Apparently I do matter. A lot.

A couple weeks ago, much like tonight, I couldn't sleep. So just out of curiosity I started looking at some jobs. For those who know me, this is common practice. I like to see what's out there. By 3:30 a.m. I had applied to four jobs. By 9:30 (that same morning) I had heard back from two and set up interviews. One interview was that afternoon at 3:00. By 6:00 that night they offered me the job.

Holy crap!

It was fun to call Jason that day: "How's your day? Oh by the way, I had a job interview today." Pause. Quiet. Registering..."You had what?"

It's with DownEast Outfitters in their corporate offices. It's a one-woman team (i.e. me) and I would be doing all of their design work for their catalogs, merchandise, in-store signage, web etc. I'd even be involved with photo shoots with the models. I'd work 20-24 hours a week, setting my own schedule. They even said I could work from home part of the time.

I called the second job to cancel the interview. They called me back 10 minutes later and said they loved my portfolio so much and they still wanted to meet me. How could I refuse that?

Long story short, at interview #2: We love you but need someone fulltime (I don't wanna do that, I say). Can we work freelance with you with a guarantee of 50-60 hours in the next month, at $50 an hour? (Duh! I'm thinking.) We have a project we're willing to spend a lot of money on: diecuts, embossing, lots of paper ideas, etc. (Score! says the designer wench in me.) Did we happen to mention it's $50 an hour? (Okay, they didn't repeat that, but I was repeating it in my head!)

But it doesn't end there. (If you need a break from my pride, feel free to return later when I start to write about the goofy things Ella says.)

This week I started working on the freelance project and presented my ideas today. What did they say about it all? You read it at the top: "You're brilliant. We can't afford to lose you."

Please, a moment of silence to honor the passing of my insecurities. Aahhhhh.....

I left the presentation with a sweet new job offer in hand. Still 24 hours a week. But: More money. Sign-on bonus. Paid vacation/sick. And a Sam's Club card.

Did I happen to mention it's down the street from where I live and across the street from my girls' school? It was meant to be.

I start Monday. Well, officially my paycheck will show that I started last Monday. It's a start-up design studio who has some great connections to the music industry and pharmaceutical companies. I'll be doing everything from simple, clean design for healthcare, financial, and publication companies to crazy, all-bets-off, show-us-your-dark-side music cd packaging. And a few other things in between.

Whew! It's tiring to write about just me. Or it could just be that it's almost 4:30 in the morning.

I can probably guarantee the next 20 entries will be about my girls. But at least you know something about me!