WAIT A SEC ... YOU'RE GOING TO PAY ME TOO???

My God, how I love me some new jobbage.

I mean...first and foremost ... it's nice to work at a place where in two weeks I will actually BE PAID for the work that I've done, rather than ignored until an hour before closing time and then told "Oops! Guess we should have said something! There's no money in the bank, so we can't pay you. Hopefully we'll have some money next week."

Second ... man. I've got me a HUGE corner office with windows on two of the walls. One side looks out at the River while the other side looks out at the city. A gorgeous view.

I've got a credenza (sp?) that I could live in. It's huuuuuge.

I've got a flat screen computer monitor. It's huuuuuuge.

I've got a big butt. It's huuuuuuuuge.

The office is so big that I have two phones. One on my desk and one in a seating area on the other end of the office.

And...get this ... I've got my own freakin' bathroom!!

Well...granted ... I'm the only guy in this section of the building, so the men's room is basically my room. But apparently it hasn't been used in months.

Yesterday, after I met everyone, the morning was spent downstairs as we huddled together to ride out the tornado warnings that kept going off. From 8 am until 10 am, we stayed downstairs in the theater as it's the only room in the building without windows.

Then I went back upstairs and started working on a tourism script. Y'see...we've got this vintage trolley that takes tourists all around the downtown area to show them all of the historical landmarks. But there's no narration on the trolley to tell people what they're seeing right now.

So I'm writing a script that one of our more well-known radio deejays in town will record on CD that will be played on the trolley. This is one of the Mayor's pet projects right now, so I'm working with him on it.

Met up with the evil former boss, now fellow employee Wendigo and we went to lunch.

Before I go any further, may I just say that Wendigo is by far the absolute coolest chick in the free world?

She went to bat for me with this job, recommending me highly for the position. Even though I have absolutely zero experience in marketing, she convinced my new boss Dawn that I was the right person for the job and that I would fit in perfectly with the group of women down there. With Wendi firmly by my side, getting the job was a piece of cake and I am forever in her debt.

Because of her, tonight I get to hang out and meet not only the state legislators, but also the governor of the state. Had it not been for Wendi, I'd be back at my old job with the only excitement being if I'd win the office pool on which actual date the place would fold (my guess was this coming Friday).

So thank you Wendi. You're my goddess.

Anyway...

Worked on the script. Wendi gave me some stuff she needed proofed, so I need to do that.

Brought 20 cases of beer inside for the legislator party tonight. Yes, the party is after hours, so it will be a long day.

But I get to leave several hours early tomorrow. Or come in several hours late. It's completely up to me.

I was given a new golf shirt to wear to tonight's shindig, since it's a golf-themed party. Starting at noon today, I have to help construct a miniature putt-putt golf course for the legislators to play on tonight while they get drunk.

Had I still been at my old job, starting at noon today, I'd be writing a business profile about an insurance company in Atlanta and waiting to hear word on if we were going to be getting any more of our paycheck.

Did I make the right move by coming to this new job?

Shit.

Do you really have to ask?

People wanted to know about my "last day" at the last job, since I forgot to mention it yesterday.

Technically, my last day was last Wednesday and was pretty uneventful. It was spent waiting on the call from my new boss to come down and have a second interview with the president of the Chamber of Commerce.

Once that call came, I spoke to Wendi who told me that the second interview was a formality and since I had made it that far, the job was in the bag for me.

So I cleaned out all my personal stuff from the office and took it to the car. I told one of my co-workers that there was a good chance that I wouldn't be back after that day. They couldn't blame me and said that everyone was trying desperately to find something else and if a position came open at my new job to let them know.

There is a position down here that is excellent for them. And I called that person yesterday and got their resume to give to Dawn this morning. So hopefully I will have rescued at least one of the people from my former job before the ship finally sinks.

Thursday I had my second interview which I thought went pretty crappy because I was extremely nervous. But at the end of the interview, I was hired, so it didn't go nearly as bad as I thought.

Friday I went in to the office to turn in my resignation letter, effective immediately.

I'll admit ... I've never quit a job without giving two weeks notice. That's just not my style.

But I didn't feel confident that had I given them two weeks notice, a miracle would happen and they'd be able to pay me for those last two weeks. Whereas if I jumped ship and came on board at my new job, I would get paid.

It wasn't a tough decision to make. But I did feel kinda shitty doing it.

Anyway, said my goodbyes to the few people in attendance (most had went out on job interviews Friday morning) and skedaddled outta there for the last time.

Pretty anti-climactic. Only one person raised an eyebrow over the whole "effective immediately" clause on my resignation and that was one of the higher-ups who I don't think saw this as being a "team player" mentality.

Sorry. I'm a team player. As long as the team's getting paid. But the food that goes in my son's mouth is more important than my image as a team player.

(Oh...almost forgot ... some of you had my work email address and used that quite regularly. You need to send emails to the email link at the top of this page now. My "ccimail" account is no longer accessible. Duh.)

And lemme say one thing...I hold no ill will toward my former place of employment. They're yet another victim of September 11th and the Iraq war. We produced books that cost companies thousands of dollars to participate in. When the economy started to get shaky, it was difficult to get those companies to shell out dollars. We had some great salespeople that had always done fantastic in selling ... but companies were shutting their doors on them now. I don't blame anything on management or anything else. I blame it all on Osama and Saddam.

Well ... and George W.

Because it's looking more and more like the weapons inspectors were right and that there are no chemical weapons in Iraq.

Granted, we haven't finished this war yet. I'm just saying that by the reports I've read ... it's LOOKING that way.

Actually, I hope that everyone there rebounds and lands on their feet in new jobs that will offer them the opportunities that I'm now loving.

Yes ... even "Honest Abe", the former co-worker who tried to disguise themself as just another reader but knew too much about my position with the company to be "just a reader".

Abe ... good luck to you.