So after my holiday-centric meltdown about being unemployed --- compounded with having a lackluster industry-relevant headhunter working my case and then having spirit-crushing experience of having to ask my parents for enough money to keep the heat on and the roof over my head--- I did manage to get two job offers at the tail-end of December.
The first one, a job local here in Chicago, came through with a company whose owners are really great folks. Only problem is that they wanted to have me multi-task into the sales arena rather than just project management and being the "face" isn't my forte. I'm more of the "gal behind the curtain" type, the one who gets things done...the Ms. Moneypenny to the salesman's James Bond. So the bummer part was that they wanted to make the compensation relative to the sales part of the gig (ergo, smaller base salary with commissions) which mean HALF of my requested salary.
So frustrating.
The other contender was for a short-term contract that only lasts thru end of July. The upside is that the duration of the gig would last beyond the end of my apartment lease, so I could be relocate-able AND the hourly wage was more than I was making at my last job...which would allow me to pay off most of my creditors, many of whom gave me a break during my layoff.
Needless to say, I took the second job, but told the first option that I'd contact them to see if their offer was still available as I neared the end of this contractual obligation. They were ok with that idea.
- - - -
This brings me up to present day, wherein I was hired to work on a local, Chicagoland area project, but then asked to assist in the wrap-up of the previous phase of work in this same project in San Francisco and San Jose, CA!!
WOWZA!! Having never been to the west coast, I agreed immediately.
Crossing off several of my "its not a bucket list, bucket list" items: wiggling my toes in the Pacific Ocean, crossing the Golden Gate bridge, seeing Haight-Ashbury, driving down Lombard Street, and picnicing in Golden Gate park...and of course, making a "pilgrimage" to Sonoma, Napa and the Russian River Valley wine country!! On the weekends, of course...So lately I've been jet-setting between Chicago and San Fran, living out of my suitcase and only coming home to do laundry and pay bills on the apartment that I am, once again, not really living in but which is costing me an arm and a leg.
These visits to CA will only be until mid-February, after which time, I should be able to settle back into my Chi-town groove and get back into my customary circle practices rather than having to "make do" with solo, adhoc rituals in hotel rooms.
I have found that it is harder to connect and commune with Them when standing in a hotel room with the congealed energies of transient guests and questionable standards for cleanliness. This lends itself to rituals that are 'skyclad plus socks' and lots of hand sanitizer being part of the purifications right along with the sanctified salt water! *grin*
More news to come soon...
~Albiana of the jet-lagged broomstick!
