The Perfect Job (Please Don't Snipe Me)

Oh my goodness, I have so much news.

All through January… and February… and March, I felt like I couldn’t blog because I only had two thoughts in my head: 1) Oh my god it’s so effing cold I want to die, and 2) No, seriously, it is SO COLD and WHY GOD WON’T IT STOP SNOWING? Therefore, it was an effort to blog about anything that didn’t directly involve complaining about how cold and dark it was, both outside and inside my heart.

But!

Now it’s SPRING, and I have tons of things to tell you about.

Most exciting: I have a new job! One I’m very, very excited about and which took absolutely no hemming and/or hawing on my part to accept – in fact, I was worried that I’d come back from vacation and find that they didn’t want me after all. But they did. So. As of yesterday, I’m the new assistant to the director of StoryStudio Chicago, and I am sooooo excited about it. First of all, StoryStudio is an amazing place that offers tons of writing classes in fiction, memoir, creative non-fiction, and business writing. There’s always something incredible happening there, and it’s always full of people who are really excited about – and want to talk about – writing! You know what a nerd I am for talking shop, so getting to work with a whole bunch of writers is a dream come true for me. In fact, I’ve been in the Advanced Writer’s Workshop at SSC since the end of last summer, and it has been endlessly helpful to me. So I know firsthand what a fantastic place StoryStudio is.

Second of all, my new boss – Jill – has been the leader of my writing workshop & my teacher as long as I’ve been at StoryStudio, so I already know that she is fantastic. In the great tradition of my life, I have another smart, strong woman to work with, and I couldn’t be happier. AND she is very committed to making sure that I work on my novel, and don’t let my job get in the way of my book. (What? Do bosses really say things like that?)

Thirdly, a huge part of my job will involve my favorite pastime…. blogging! About writing! And books! I swear to god, doesn’t it seem like they invented this job at the Perfect Job Factory? I’ll try to post at least one blog entry a day, so when you get bored at work – or you really just miss me – you can check out the StoryStudio blog Cooler By The Lake. Oh, and when I’m not blogging… I’m working on Facebook, and Myspace, and LinkedIn, and generally just trying to strengthen and support our writing community. For real. That’s my job.

I’m thrilled, because the search for balance between writing and teaching has been a challenge in my life for years. I remember, when I was maybe seventeen, telling someone that I knew I’d always write and I’d always teach, but I didn’t know exactly what that would look like, and it wouldn’t necessarily be teaching in public schools or even teaching in a formal capacity at all. Hell, for years I played with the idea of becoming a minister (am I allowed to start that sentence with the word “hell?” Maybe there’s a good reason I didn’t head down that path…). This chance, to work with the development and organization of a writing school and a community of writers, seems like it will be a fantastic chance to prove to myself that the balance can exist!

Okay, clearly I’m a little giddy here, so bear with me. Luckily, the Perfect Job doesn’t pay a whole lot, so I don’t have to worry about any envious existential crisis snipers coming after me. Seriously, you could probably have the perfect job too, if you were willing to be ass-broke while all the people you graduated with were texting their assistants from their iphones about the new houses they’re buying for their gorgeous perfect children and their independently wealthy spouses on their chartered jets with their six weeks paid vacations and maxed out 401Ks and full health benefits including dental, vision, acupuncture, massage, hang-nail emergencies, and bad hair day coverage.

But still: the perfect job! For me!

I ALSO have to tell you about my birthday, and Nadia’s wedding, and the Fun Nuns in Barbados, and the Gran Fiesta we had here this weekend… not to mention all that’s coming up in the next two months! But for now, I’m off to eat spaghetti and submit myself to Firefly Inculcation, so that next time I see you, I can tell you all about Inara and Val, or Amena and Mal, or, you know. Those space folks.

Until then… see you at The Cooler.