My 56th Birthday in These Foolish Things

On Thursday, I woke up to my fifty-sixth birthday. I gave a little kiss to the dog (she had been at the foot of the bed, sound asleep), and I said, “It’s my birthday!” with a hint of enthusiasm that actually surprised me a little.

I got up and did a quicker-than-usual workout because I needed to drop the dog off early at daycare because…

Even though I have just started a new job, I had an in-person interview lined up with a super cool company that morning! The good news was that the interview started at 8:30am and ended at 10am, which is the start of business for my current company on the West Coast, so I knew that there shouldn’t be any questions about my whereabouts with the Calendar Nazi.

And the thing is, I still haven’t been announced at my new company! They wanted to give the layoffs some time to sink in before announcing me, so I’ve been working undercover anyway for the last two weeks. So it’s been kind of funny (weird, not ha-ha) doing my thing and, honestly, not working that much at all.

So. I got all ready and dressed for the interview and it was POURING down rain!

After dropping off the dog at daycare, I drove to the location of the interview with plenty of time to spare. In fact, there was so much time to spare that I decided to do a drive-by of The Cutie Pie Company. As it turns out, the company I had an interview with was right around the corner from Cutie Pie! How insane is that? I mean, this is not a small town…it’s a large-ish city and the odds of working on those same blocks of town are really small!

The drive-by was weird because it was early but the lights were on at the Cutie Pie office and I decided that it was probably a bad idea for me to drive by in case someone saw me, but it was too late. I was already driving by and then…the rain was making the roads flood and I had a tiny freak out. What if my car got stuck in a flood right in front of Cutie Pie??!

But it didn’t and I got the fuck out of there and around the corner and just sat in my car in the parking lot of the prospective company until I caught my breath and let my nerves settle and it was time to go inside.

Once inside, it was a little surreal. The company is actually the same size as Cutie Pie, and the set-up was similar. The actual office was larger and it seemed like people had a bit more space AND there wasn’t that tension in the air that I felt at Cutie Pie, but there were many similarities.

And while the product that this company makes is actually much more high-end and aspirational, the bottom line is that the job would be something quite similar to what I was doing at Cutie Pie - working with the founder and CEO (whom I met at this interview and the crazy was NOT at the same level, but…), AND I would be the only one doing it (versus having a team of my own).

So while I love the idea of this company, I also did my research beforehand, obvs. Of note, their Glassdoor reviews are just as bad as Cutie Pie’s (2 stars) - they just aren’t as direct as Cutie Pie’s reviews, where Chief Cutie is singled out as the reason why people just LOATHE working there and end up leaving.

Seems there’s super high turnover at this company as well. Hm.

Then. Midway through the interview, I was in a conference room with a whole panel of people (the CFO, the Head of Operations, and someone else who’s title is evading me), and my phone started buzzing like crazy. So I apologized and grabbed it to stop the buzzing and I see that it says that Door Dash is trying to call me. Hmmm.

So I was like, “I don’t know why Door Dash…” and then I realized that it’s my birthday and that someone was probably sending me something!

Sure enough, when there was a break between this panel interview and my interview with the founder of the company, I was able to look at my phone and see that MY NEW BOSS had sent a birthday Starbucks order to me via Door Dash and I was not at home working!!

Oof.

I quickly sent back a text telling him that because the weather was bad and my internet sucks - especially in bad weather, I’d gone to a coffee shop to work where they’d have better internet service.

He was like, OH SORRY! I should have asked!

At this time it was only like 7:15 on the West Coast - why is this guy texting me??!

But I finished up the interview, honestly with pretty flying colors - these guys have been looking for someone to fill this role for a while, it seems. But they were interviewing all over the country, and this would be a role that would need to be in the office full time. It’s hard to find that now! And I could tell that they really liked me - especially both the founder and the COO. But it’s mainly because they need someone in this role pretty desperately!

And when they discovered that it was my birthday, they insisted on letting me pick out one of their super cool products as a gift! Y’all. This stuff is super cute and quite expensive. It was a NICE GIFT to give someone who’d just come in to interview! Honestly, almost over the top.

I also finished up LATE, so I didn’t really get home until nearly 11am (an hour later than I thought I would). Thank goodness I am not buried in REAL work yet!

After all of that excitement, I finally got home and settled into some emails that I’d been needing to get out to one of the factories I’ve been working with behind the scenes. And I ended up working until 6pm anyway because the Calendar Nazi (my boss) decided that he needed to talk with me at 5pm my time. So, for the most part, I made up for my lost interview time.

Anyway. Weird birthday, right?

I went to pick up the dog at around 6pm and I wanted to make sure I got her walked and home by 7pm so that I could watch The Golden Bachelor with [Athena] on FaceTime. That has now become our routine on Thursday evenings. I FaceTime with [Athena] and then I set my phone up in such a way that she can see my TV screen and we watch The Golden Bachelor together and laugh and watch Gerry cry and it’s so much fun.

My friend C., the one who took me to get the Mohs surgery on my shoulder, decided that he wanted to pick up a birthday dinner for me and bring it over after my Golden Bachelor time with [A], so he brought over a GIANT dinner from our favorite Greek restaurant and we laughed and had a fantastic meal and split a bottle of bubbly and it was sooooo filling and wonderful!

And then I made him leave because I was exhausted from all of the excitement of the day.

All in all, a decent birthday.

So much more to tell you, but I need to close and finish straightening up my place. I might have a visitor tonight. Not C.!! But a blast from the past is coming into town to take me to dinner tonight.

More to follow!
GS