Catching Up

OK, so it's been over a week since I last posted something. Sue me. I've been busy. I started a new job (seasonal, and retail, but it's a paycheck), got through the holiday (mostly by working) and have been prepping a freelance writing job that will translate into some real exposure...if I don't screw it up.

Still, in the interest of full disclosure, I guess it's time to share.

Hey, it's my blog. I'll write about what I want to write about. Don't like it? Go start your own blog and tell everyone what a lousy host I am.

So, the new job. As I said, it's a part-time seasonal stock job at the Sony store in Cherry Creek mall. It's about 32 hours per week at a time when any hours (even for just a week) are welcome. So far the job's been really cool, if not entirely busy. It's one of those jobs where you're glad you don't really get paid that much - the desire to buy everything in the store is pretty strong once you've stood amongst it all for eight hours. Trust me on this. Plus, carting out 55" LED TVs for people kinda makes you crave one of your own. Oh yes, Envy is a wicked mistress.

The people working there are all great. Haven't met a bad egg yet, to tell the truth. Not sure if that's a good thing or if I'm just slipping, but at this time in my life I'm willing to let it slide. The job's scheduled to end on or before Jan. 15, which works perfectly if Utah comes through. (More on that later.) I'm told I'm making a good impression with my hard work; to be honest, it's mostly so I don't end up standing on the sales floor with everybody else for an entire shift. Not saying they're not fun to talk to (they are), only that it's boring and makes for a really long day.

I started last Tuesday, two days before Thanksgiving. As I posted that Wednesday, I knew the holiday was going to be tough. And it was. Thankfully though, it went a lot smoother than I feared. There was an hour or so I had to go bury my head in the sand, but overall the day was good. I know next year will be better, and I'm definitely looking forward to that.

Now, about this freelance gig. I was up in Thornton a couple weeks ago helping my brother with some things. While there, I got a phone call from a gentleman who told me he got my name and number from a woman I've done some freelance work for in the past. This lady is also a former instructor of mine, and has been extremely helpful in getting my meager (to date) freelance career up and running. This fact alone convinced me I was going to take the job, regardless of what it turned out to be.

The guy who called is the editor of a trade journal that caters to ski resorts and other companies in the skiing/snowboarding industry. For one reason or another, a story his journal was working on lost its writer, and he needed a new one. So here it is - my first honest-to-goodness, professional writing assignment. I've been hired to write an estimated 1,500- to 2,000-word article on the advances in, and uses of, technology in ski resorts around the country. The journal gets first-publication rights, then those rights come back to me to be used however I choose. We're talking a byline in a trade journal here. Not exactly the public-at-large, but it's something I can take to any job in the future and show as evidence of my talents. (It turns out this blog, while insanely funny and full of nuanced character development, doesn't really qualify as solid journalistic experience. Personally, I call bullshit.)

So all in all, it's been a pretty solid week. The new job's going well, and the freelance gig is amazing. The only storm cloud on the horizon? Utah. Until about a week before Thanksgiving, if someone had asked me my chances of getting the job, I would have told them it was better than average. Then a funny thing happened. The video selection exploded and suddenly videos that had been ahead of me in both votes and views were now behind me...and my video started plummeting down the list like a lawn dart streaking toward the dirt. By the time the deadline hit on Thanksgiving Day, I found myself no longer in the Top 10 in either category. Still not sure what happened there, but it was humbling, I have to say. The final decision is being made on Dec. 15, which is now 12 days away. So far, no calls or emails for an interview. It could still happen, of course, but every day it doesn't my optimism levels drop just like that lawn dart. I know, without any hesitation or doubt, that I can win that job if I get the interview. But it's hard to convince someone when they don't want to talk to you. I'm hopeful, and will remain so until the 15th, but it's getting harder with each passing day.

But I digress...

To sum up: job's going very well, made it through the first of two holidays during my "rebirth", and I've got the makings of a great career start piled in various notes around my laptop. All things being equal, I can't really ask for much more than that.

And for right now, I'm not even going to try. I'll just end it here and keep y'all posted later. Til next time...