♫ New Job and a Haircut, At Last ♪

Well.  :)  Almost exactly nine years after I first interviewed for it, I can finally shout from the rooftops say I got the job. Way back in June 2008--here--I had my first interview for it ahead of me, and today, after (not having enough experience for it back then, and thus) a lot of volunteering, seven years of working toward it at my now-previous position, and applying for it and being rejected at least six times since spring 2007--I've just completed my first two weeks on the job.  Last month, I shared the job announcement with one of the people who had supervised me during some volunteer work back in 2009, and she shook her head and cried out, "Val, your story shows the power of"--long pause--"PERSISTENCE!  It's a good, GOOD story!"  ♥  Indeed.  As my dad has long said, I am nothing if not stubborn.  :)  I got the job!  ♥   

A few days before I was offered the position, I found this graffiti on my walk to work.  I took it as a nod from the universe, as I tend to do, as it appeared at a time when I really needed the encouragement.  Little did I know that there was a bigger nod in my favor just a few days away.  Likewise, I caught a bus home a few weeks ago to visit my family for the first time since hearing the news and found this--

just the paper message, no fortune cookie or wrapper with it--resting on the window ledge beside the seat I'd chosen.  ♥

The day before I began the new job was not the smartest day to get a haircut--Anxiety, Thy Name Was Val!--but fortune continued to favor me, and I'm happy with the cut.  It seems to look completely different from morning-to-morning depending on how I part it and who-knows-what-else, but it suits me in all its variations.  Another "whew!"  Let's hear it for stylists who know what they're doing and can correctly interpret verbal instructions and clipped photographs!  :)  

Last night was my first night off since starting the new position that I didn't feel utterly exhausted, so it became Celebrating-Two-Weeks-on-the-Job Cake-Baking Night.  I wanted something joyful and summery, and flowers and berries were the way to go.

 I added mint leaves for a touch of green.  It is a season of fresh starts in these parts, after all. 

. . .I got the job!  I got the job!  ♥

One Fine Day

Today was my last day at my now-"old" job. At the end of my now-former workplace's daily staff meeting, the manager asked everyone, "Okay, anything else?" And a few people mentioned that it was my last day. The manager replied, "It is Val's last day. Great job, Val. Thank you for everything." And suddenly, everyone was clapping! Applauding me! It was such a sweet moment and so unexpected. I worked there two and a half years and saw so many people come and go but don't remember anyone else getting that simple recognition their last day on the job. As I told my managers when I stopped by their office suite to say goodbye a little while later, the applause was just the sweetest note to end on, and it meant so much to me. I choked up while saying as much, and then choked up again a few minutes later when I punched out for the very last time.

 And as I walked home, I sent Mr. Mike a text message letting him know I was done ("Done-done!"), and he, who had taken today as a vacation day so that we could go out and celebrate this milestone, wrote back "Yay!" and then surprised me by meeting me along my walk home. We took a picture together and went to lunch, and it was a wonderful meal and a great time.

Just knowing that this stage of my life is over and that I'm moving on finally. . . !   Thank You, thank You, thank You. ♥

Overnight Success

When I was about twelve years old, I was a faithful reader of Tiger Beat, Teen Beat, and Bop magazines, and I remember a number of articles and interviews in them in which the heartthrob-of-the-day, actor or singer or group, would proclaim something along the lines of "Everyone thinks of me/us as an overnight success, but I/we worked hard for this for a really long time, so it doesn't feel that way to me/us!" The "new" sensation would go on to outline the years of fruitless auditions or off-Broadway plays or free concerts performed in their parents' backyards for the neighbors, and I would read these details with such incredible interest. The hours of rehearsals the New Kids on the Block put in, just like the Jackson Five before them! The faith a pre-teen Debbie Gibson had in herself to create a home "recording studio" consisting of a row of tape recorders set up on an ironing board! The perseverance a fifteen-year-old Tiffany showed in doing her first "tour" in shopping malls! The chutzpah of a still-unknown-and-too-broke-to-afford-a-home-phone Michael J. Fox as he negotiated his contract for "Family Ties" from a phone booth outside a fast food chicken place! I devoured these stories. I love them even more this week when finally, a full ten years after graduating from college and four years after finishing grad school, I have been hired to do a job I'm truly proud of, excited about, and eager to begin. I'm not exactly where I want to be yet, but I'm on my way, and closer than I was before. 

It is slowly sinking in that a new stage has begun. Tonight I have flowers spread all around the apartment from a congratulatory arrangement from Mom and Dad. Tuesday will be my last day at my current restaurant job. That evening, Mr. Mike, who has been my friend since college and thus seen me through all my "pretty little rough patches" these past ten years, is going out to dinner with me to celebrate. Soon I start my new job. And I feel strong and optimistic. And I did not give up. There are fresh flowers in the toothbrush holder tonight to prove it.