my metamorphosis…

serendipity (n) an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident, good fortune; luck

metamorphosis (n), a complete change of form, structure, or substance

…by the time it is all said and done – I will have made it a little over a year. Actually it will have been 13 months and 13 days to be exact. That equals out to about 408 days or 587,520 hours. I suppose that is a long time – but unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your outlook) it did not feel like a long time.

To be honest, I am not sure all that I did in those 408 days but I’m quite positive that I did plenty and I am happy I did the things that I did – even though for some reason I can’t remember all what I did other then be part of the unemployment statistic.

Fine I guess I could go out on a mental limb…I spent a quarter of that time or about 100+ days in India and I have some great and some not so great stories. For example,

• as a result of a car accident I ended up in a hospital where the dr. concluded that I did not have a concussion because I wasn’t paralyzed.
• i was essentially violated by two woman during an ayurvedic massage
• oh yes, there was the ‘fabulous’ 300km bike tour through Rajasthan, which by the way is a desert
• i was part of a state election campaign. This meant going door to door campaigning for the candidate (who was my aunt) by pretending I was her daughter. Apparently Indians are more inclined to vote for a candidate if they feel the candidate showed them some “personal” attention.
• i went to the pharmacy located in the hospital to buy medication….for the dog.
• i traveled by plane, train, automobiles, rickshaws, scooters, horse drawn buggies, bike, boat and the dreaded camel
• and the list does go on…

Anyhoo – I also traveled to Cuba, to San Francisco and few other places. I got leaner but not meaner. I got myself a mangetar. And I suppose I exorcised some demons, got some perspective and I did that wishy washy thing of finding myself.

All of that has now come to an end - I wasn’t even looking for a change but sometimes it is just serendipity…which means I now have a job.

Now, I can no longer go to the gym leisurely at 8am and spend hours there, I can’t watch back to back episodes of ER in the morning, or keep abreast of General Hospital or even find out what Dr. Oz had to say on Oprah. I can no longer visit Michaels (that would the Arts and Crafts store) every Friday afternoon (and I thank all of the people who continuously passed along their coupons my way) and more importantly – it is the end of ghetto lunches.

I have been my own boss for so long that my biggest supporter sleeps on my left side and my biggest critic snores peacefully on the right. I was pretty content with the situation but all good things must come to an end so I grabbed my pillow and prepared myself to jump into bed with someone else.

For those that remember – I had defined my “ ZOPA” last year, which resulted in me leaving my job. I had said that my previous employer had lost out on me and I had won because I was about to embark on this journey – that no job could equal. And I was right and I can’t help but be a little smug.

Just to keep life interesting, my new employer was once a client/competitor of my old employer. From the rumours that I have heard – that relationship ended on a sour note and there are still a few residual effects of that. As a side note, I was very honest with the people who had agreed to be my references in letting them know which company I intended to work for. However, I was naïve in thinking that all of my trusted people who had chosen to help me – would in fact help me. Unfortunately, someone did have a problem with the company I was associating with and chose not to support me. I just fail to understand is why. After all isn’t a reference - a character endorsement of ME and not a reflection of an industry rivalry that may continue for years? It never ceases to amaze me what you can learn about people.

In any case, I am now officially employed and not only was I hired by them but they created a position for me…CREATED. Whether they hired me for all of the secret information that I possess (wow I could just be like chuck bartowski) or because they feel I could actually be an asset to their mgmt team is irrelevant – the fact is my old employer lost out and this is why I can’t help but be a little smug.

So now I have to answer to someone else. I’ll have to deal with people I may not like since I can no longer just turn around and walk away (which is quite a fabulous thing to be able to do). I’ll have to pay taxes. I’ll have to do all of the things that I guess we have to do in life…but this time it’s on my terms...well more or less :)

The sad part is that one day of employment has quickly erased 13 months and 13 days of unemployment – overall I may be in a better place but I’m right back into the dreaded routine. But there is good news – I have located a Michaels nearby ….only 0.98miles away…get the coupons ready…