I got the job, I got the job, I got the job!

I GOT THE JOB!!!!!!!!!

An official offer is contingent on successful drug testing and criminal background checks today, of course, but I haven’t had so much as a poppyseed muffin or a traffic ticket. I think it will be fine.

On Monday, I had my “informal interview lunch” with the three members of the department, and I felt like it went really well. The hardest part was just figuring out what to wear (new black polo, black-and-tan flowered skirt, new brown sandals, in case you’re wondering). There was a lot of discussion of the job and the department, a little casual conversation and joking around, and I felt very comfortable wit them. I left them with a solid handshake and the sense that I had done well. But then, of course, I had to wait for them to call me, which is when my brain started its over-analysis of every casual comment and signal.

I know I promised an update sooner, but I was just too nervous to sit still and type anything. It’s been a long week of pacing around, nailbiting, and waiting for the phone to ring but being too scared to answer when it did.

Which it did, this morning, while I must confess I was still sleeping. (I won’t tell you how late it was, or you’ll hate me.) But I might as well enjoy sleeping in while it lasts. Soon enough I’ll be waking up to an alarm in the dark, and rushing off to work like the rest of the world.

The voice mail message they left (because I wasn’t about to answer the phone in my half-awake state and let them know what a layabout I am!) was fairly neutral, which was both good and bad: either they were calling with good news and wanted to give it to me live, or they were calling with bad news and didn’t want to leave it on my voice mail. Or maybe they had offered it to someone else yesterday, who had turned it down this morning, and now I was their second choice. Or maybe….

Erin, enough already! I planned out how I would graciously respond to either a yes or a no, and then called.

Which is how I learned that I was their top choice, they felt there was “good chemistry”, and they were going to offer me a very fair salary (more than I had been expecting!).

When we hung up, I actually jumped up and down like a lotto winner, fists held aloft, whooping. (In my pink pajamas, no less—there’s your visual of me for the day.)

And then I called several people who I knew were holding their breath on my behalf—my parents, my personal reference, my counselor. We were all excited. This was good news. Yay. Etc.

I’m just so relieved, that I will be coming home to a good job and a regular income and health benefits and all that! Now I can enjoy my trip to Europe that much more, and I know that I can spend a little on souvenirs and gelato without worrying that it will affect my ability to pay the electric bill this fall.

Thanks for listening. I may not write again before I leave for Europe, because I’ve got a lot to do and I’ve been putting it off this week, but I plan to update the blog with travelogues while abroad. The 2005 European dispatches were very popular, so feel free to share with your friends. More readers can’t hurt me.