Ugh.. Ohh?

Wellll... I don't think it's really "safe" to post something about jobs yet because it's probably premature. But I'm going insane waiting for things to come of my hard work and stress last week trying to land interviews or turn in applications. I'm tempted to keep writing here until the phone rings with good news. The position I'm holding on to right now is with a boring-sounding company called Infosystems. They have an opening for a receptionist, which I actually started getting a little excited about, until I learned today that my chances are between that and some customer service position. Customer. Service. Yuck. Maybe I will get the receptionist, though. The company sounds decent enough, for an IT business, and it's less than a mile from my apartment. The woman I talked to spoke highly of their relationship-oriented focus, medical and 401k benefits, and flexible vacation. I'm sure that a position like this would pay more than the art and fabric stores I'd been considering.

It is extremely hard for me to do this. I feel as though I'm letting go of my artistic/designer aspirations as a profession for something hum-drum just to get back on my feet, where I'm actually saving money again. I prayed with Jon about it the other day, and with Joy about it at church yesterday. Both certainly give me peace about my worries, but I'm afraid I just haven't been able to get over doing something that I once cursed: Corporatude. Cubicals! ugh.

I still plan to freelance on the side, but I worry that it'd make me so busy on nights and weekends.. which gets me back to a topic I discussed many times while I was bored at Noble: valuing life and relationships versus working myself to death like I tended to in college for my degree. That, as well as working full time, tended to make me less inclined to do extracurriculars, like church projects, which is why I was hardly involved with the Springfield Mo Vineyard. It was hard for me to commit to those things. I'd hate to see that happen again, not that I intend it will, but when I get busy I focus on the things that make me so, and little else, because things have to get done and that's just how it goes. The nature of the beast, we used to say in the design program....

Whoah, hold the phone.

My Infosystems contact just called me back with some information about a graphic design position with a company called Createhere. It's a non-profit organization that sounds like it does work for a lot of different companies around town. I talked to the contact the Infosystems gal referred me to, and he said they'd already interviewed four people. There are positions open and they are hoping to fill them in the next week or two. It sounds like to start it isn't full-time, and they assign work as it comes. Some are 5 hour projects, some are 20 hour projects depending on what you're capable of and what comes. But he said eventually they'd like to make full time positions.

I shared with him my abilities for web and animation and he seemed really interested in me. I went ahead and applied right away. I thought it was interesting that they ask for two samples of writing with the application (I asked if the designers do copywriting and he said sometimes they do) so I found some good short articles I'd written (actually I took them from my previous xanga blog and spiffed them up a bit for professional consumption) that I felt were good examples of my writing, and were also selections that say a bit about me and my personality. One was comparing the "high-art" style of older cartoons to the "assemly-line commodity" cartoons we see today.. and the other was my review of the latest Indiana Jones movie, ha.

Gosh I really want this. Even if it isn't quite full time.. it really sounds like it has potential, and I'm sure it would pay more than an art or fabric store job, and it'd certainly be a better use for my abilities than a customer service representative. I hope my prayers were just answered. You saw it happen, if this is true....