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6/14/03 I have been doing nothing with my time lately, nothing of any substance anyway. Appearances may indicate otherwise but I swear to you, I promise you, I am fully leading the life of the unemployed. People keep telling me to enjoy myself. That would first require me being able to enjoy anything at all. Yesterday Cinde (who is also about to be unemployed in, we're guessing, a matter of weeks) and I rode into the city, me acting for a moment as her personal trainer on the bridge and encouraging her to make it all the way across without walking (she totally did it just fine). We rewarded ourselves with a big fat smoothie from Lucky's on 11th and 2nd (they're calling it Liquiteria now, but it will always be Lucky's to me), and sat outside on one of the benches and chatted while taking turns calling Moviefone, a service which is totally useful but only tolerable for two minutes at a time. Cinde had been interviewing a bit but hadn't found a new gig yet. I have been interviewing not at all and have achieved the same amount of glorious success. I was less concerned than her because I haven't been throwing myself on the front lines. I clearly have no clue what's going on out there. "What if..." She sipped her drink. "What if I can't find a job?" "Oh you'll find a job. I'll find a job, too. What, are we not going to find jobs ever again?" She nodded. "You're right." "That's what we do," I said. "We find jobs." And it's true. We're part of that feisty single gal population in New York who work. We don't have much luck in love. Men don't buy us presents or pay our rent. No one is ever jetting us off to someone fabulous island for a weekend. We do not go clubbing until 6 AM. (Although we have, and we're lucky we're still alive.) No "Page Six" name-dropping. No party photos in Paper. We do not appear in reality tv shows. But we do work. We have degrees, advanced or otherwise, from good colleges, kick-ass resumes and references standing in line around the corner. We will shake your hand firmly and make eye contact in a job interview and no one ever even told us to do that. It was just instinctual. We have known since birth how to get a job, a good job, even, and we definitely know how to keep it. And we get jobs because we know what we're doing, not because our daddy (or our daddy's best friend from his Yale days) says we do. We take pride in what we do, and do not tolerate less than perfect.
I never moved to New York to find love. I moved here to find a career. And I'm fumbling now, ever so slightly, but I'm sure I'll right myself, adjust my blouse, straighten my shoulders, snap my neck, and crack my knuckles. And then find a job. |