Not Busy for Employed

[I'm running out of relaxing, weekend time to write. Better something than nothing, eh?]

It was good that I took the 2 pm interview. It made my Tuesday absolutely crazy, but it was good that I took it.

The interview at the temp agency was a breeze. It was mostly chatting and discussing my resume. The hiring lady there said she might have something in sales for me... "uh... not sure that's really my strong suit..." I left, reassured that though I wasn't really interested in any of the office jobs they had to offer, I might at least be qualified for some and that - worse come to worse - I might be able to earn some money from them.

I didn't have much time before hitting the road again. I kept my tie on, took a breather and drove Brooke to her job at a coffee shop, where I remained, did some office work for myself (while munching on a courtesy piece of banana bread) and tried to calm my nerves for the bank interview/stage double-whammy to come.

The bank interview went okay. I was uninterested, bored of these interviews (this was my third), and growing sick of corporate sales talk. "What was a time that you set a sales goal for yourself?" "We here at [giant bank] strive to provide excellent customer service. What does that mean to you?" Blah blah blah. It didn't help that I was due to leave for my stage at the cafe. After 20 minutes or so of bank interview I was starting to get antsy, and only after I started getting antsy did I notice that the branch manager still had three pages [!] of interview questions to go. When it got to the part where they asked if I had any questions... I didn't. "Thanks. Nice to meet you. Ciao!"

I raced to the cafe, changed my clothes in the car, didn't have time to eat my packed lunch and rushed inside. Great start. I had brought my newly acquired (thanks, Christmas money) chef's knife, and even with it I felt out of place. I was quickly given the tour of the kitchen and pantry, introduced to the shift manager and BAM: "Okay, we're going to start you off making the mirepoix." The mira-what?

Thus began what was for me more of a culinary school crash course than a second interview. Fortunately the night before I had looked up "knife skills" on YouTube and had picked up a few basic techniques, but for the most part I felt slow and stupid. My small dice consisted of crazily mis-matched rectangular prisms and worse! My "knife skills" were best summed up as cutting things and not cutting off my fingers (barely). The only redeeming aspects of the evening: hanging out with Mario (an Hispanic immigrant also working as a prep cook, who was kind, funny and whistled the Indiana Jones theme song all night), learning to chop herbs super-fast, and getting to nibble on some "not-so-seared" (hence the forfeiture of them to us) scallops. I came home exhausted. Rachel (of Rachel's Bread) spoiled me! Good thing she did too, because if my first major cooking experience had been in a cafe like this (not hers) I may not have walked away with a passion for cooking.

Moving on...

Wednesday: get bank job (from the people I all but blew off as I rushed out the door)

Thursday: accept bank job (only 20 hours/week, but hey, it's something)

Friday: get invited to interview at local bike shop where I applied (please please please I hope please)

Saturday: interview for bike mechanic position (correctly explain why right-side pedals are reverse-threaded; fail to explain the difference between a 3/8" and 12 mm box end wrench) and GET HIRED AS A FULL TIME BIKE MECHANIC AT A SHOP ONLY 3 MILES FROM MY HOUSE!!! (only downside, as my dad pointed out: I will be tempted to spend all of my hard-earned monies on totally awesome - and employee-discounted - bike stuff!)

Did that catch you off guard? It did me. I accepted the job and now have nothing to do* until my training starts in a few weeks. Once again, I narrowly evade the corporate workplace and secure a nice hands-on job to nurture my soul. I've had enough job searching adventures for now.

*Well, I do have some painting I could/should be doing...