My New Favourite Day of the Year

After my phone interview this morning, I dashed to Manhattan to jump through hoops for an employment agency (I'm not a fan of having to drag myself into the city for a 10 minute face-to-face in order to be submitted for a position).

That's where the day took a nice nose dive. First, the recruiter had neglected to give me precise directions to her building. Instead, when I arrived at the noted address, I found myself staring at a Starbucks. I walked a little further, consulted my sheet, determine that Starbucks was the right address, then started looking for a dry place to make a phone call. That's when my umbrella broke. There I was, getting pummelled by rain, shoes already squeaky, trying to find that darned building. You can imagine my chagrin when I place the call (and waste yet more money for a pretty much useless exercise) and find out that the address stretches around from the avenue to the street. I have to walk halfway down the block after turning the corner in order to arrive at her location.

By the time I reached her office, I was not in the best of moods. It was bad enough that she had to have me come in despite my having had the interview in the morning, but to give me incomplete directions on a day when it's down pouring? Not cool. I announce myself to the receptionist who then gives me a huge wad of paperwork to fill out. I start to fill out my name, birth date, etc. and then figured the heck with it- why am I providing all this information now? The client hasn't even seen my resume!

The receptionist was displeased, but I consoled myself with the knowledge that she was dressed inappropriately for her position (can we say jean miniskirt and low-cut t-shirt under some sweater thingie?). Naturally though she thought that I was the one who was amiss. Well, maybe she was right. After all, I was declining to complete the sacred paperwork.

The recruiter was only slightly better. I had been told on the phone that I would be meeting both her and the account manager for the position. Of course the account manager had had to step out. More to the point, the recruiter just asked me really basic questions (which I had already answered on the phone) and barely listened to my responses. I refrained from correcting her, since I figured she wouldn't be registering that either.

To console my drowned rat self, I bought a beautiful peach-coloured pashmina. Definitely the highlight of my Manhattan experience today. Because blast it- at 3:30 on a Thursday, the metro was already packed with sardines. When I arrived home though, all the aggravation (and moisture- I was drenched to the skin) melted away. For lo and behold, B'H' for Oct 15- I opened the front door to discover that the heat was on!

Now that's the way to end your day, y'all!