Early Morning Mood

Today my "Early Morning Mood" (by Chet Baker) is much better than my "last night mood". (although you won't believe that when you get to the end of this eMail)

I went to writing class last night. I thought I had a 3-step process for dealing with critiques (when they don't go well)  - but when I told my friend about "my three steps" ... it morphed into SEVEN STEPS. (ops!)

Step One: Sit and listen and say "I won't cry, I won't cry, I won't cry"
Step Two: Continue to sit and listen and say, "I won't be defensive, I won't be defensive, I won't be defensive"
Step Three: Get the hell out of dodge (or class)
Step Four: eMail Jason and assorted other friends - and act like a small overly sensitive cry-baby
Step Five: Go to bed
Step Six: Wake up in the morning with plans to tackle the re-write
Step Seven: Re-write carefully evaluating the suggestions and implementing most of them

I guess the 3 steps should really be:

1. Hold it together
2. Complain
3. Get to work! 

So - I woke up this morning ready to tackle the day. The first piece of business was signing my Letter of Acceptance for the temporary position I've been offered.

I thought I'd do that - just so I have it out of the way. Then I could get to my writing. 

DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME I  FINISHED?? (9:30 am ET) I started on this "quick" project at 7:00 am ET. Holy Cow!  Two and a half HOURS to fill out all the paperwork? *shudder*

Part of it is tracking down all the info. 

Besides the letter of intent, there was the ok for a background search, the actual application which wants to know where I've lived for the past 10 years (like I keep track of all those addresses???), where I've been employed for the last 3 jobs (again with the addresses and phone numbers and supervisor names!) - which is extra challenging when the companies are no longer in business, or everyone has gone back to Japan/Australia or to work for other companies.

Then they want a list of the churches I've attended (this is the south). Thankfully I do have a list of churches (excluding my heathen-loving time in Az) - but still - do YOU know the phone number and address of YOUR churches ... possibly back to childhood? If I didn't I it would reflect negatively, I think I'd just write "atheist" just to save some time.

A list of my educational past (once again addresses!!!) And universities are the WORST - because their addresses are always PO Boxes with some horrendous code for a department and there is no such thing as a "general" phone number.

And my high school now has a name (I refuse to use it). It was always (I think) just plain old City Name High School. Now it's got some (dead, I assume) person's name attached to it.

PLUS A HOMELAND SECURITY release. ??? I guess it's a good thing I've never lost my temper in an airport.

And then the banking info - for paycheck deposit. Which is GREAT since I bank out of state - BUT - once again - not so easy since I don't bank at the main branch and trying to find the phone number and routing number (why is this such a big freakin' secret?) is a TIME CONSUMING hassle. 

And THEN - Federal AND State tax forms!!! More numbers - more adding - more decisions to make.

I have now entered all this information into a document that I can print out if I need to - in the hopes that sooner (or later) I'm going to need to do this again.

And then there's the personal reference info: 3 people from your past. I thought it would be wise to do one from NC, one from AZ, and one from CA. Except who do I know in CA who I still keep in touch with - who'd be a good reference for me - that isn't also a "friend" or "family member" ????

I have written to several business acquaintances prior to this time asking if I could use them as professional/personal references - but for this particular job - most of those people wouldn't be very good.

Well - with that all done - it was off to eat breakfast, take a shower, and get busy on the day. Would you believe I was behind on my schedule all day? 'Cause I was. Ah well, the plans of mice and men, eh? 

Happy drippy, frustrating Tuesday everyone!