This is the initial reaction

HOLY CRAP!!!

So, here I am... working away at the Belgian Monk, trying to write my dissertation during my time off, waiting for another viable archiving job-offer to come up, when all of a sudden there's an e-mail from one of the people that interviewed me for the London job. He tells me that one of the people they hired has gotten a job elsewhere and will be leaving in a week... need a replacement as soon as possible... would I like to do it? I have a minor heart attack (not really). Typical, I've "moved on" and then I get the job!

The thing is... I sort of saw this coming. Last week, "L", one of my classmates in the archiving course who got the London job, was offered a job at the archive here in Norwich. We heard about this on Friday when we saw her at "A's" house, another one of my archiving classmates. We talked about the "what if" of them calling me as a replacement and I said that I would first have a nervous breakdown and then accept the job. Walking home that night, K and I talked about the "holy crappedness" of the "what if" and told ourselves, "Nah... there are others they'd call in." But in the back of my mind, I was getting pretty nervous about it.

I know... why get nervous about it, it's a great opportunity, etc.? Well, I'm not a normal human being. I operate under a whole series of strange neuroses and odd codes of conduct. I was nervous/freaked-out because a) I have just started my job at The Belgian Monk and to have to tell them "Sorry, I'm taking a job in London" after only three weeks (and pretty much doing the same thing to them as K did last year) is not going to be a fun experience and I really don't like screwing people over; b) once I get into a "routine" (this one being: work at the BM, write dissertation, apply to other archiving jobs or see what happens with K's applications... yeah... she hasn't told you about that yet) I get a bit nervous about changing it; and c) trying to figure out the logistics of starting a job in London (as far as figuring out a place to stay temporarily, or getting a place that we can completely relocate to, or commuting from Norwich every day until we figure out something else) is daunting if you ask me. But despite all that, I certainly couldn't possibly turn the job-offer down. And I didn't. (I did have the mini nervous breakdown (so to speak), but a tall beer and a shot of whiskey has calmed me down a little.

After getting the e-mail, I forwarded it to K with a caption saying "OH MY F*CKING GOD" (the asterisk wasn't there in the e-mail). She called me back immediately and told me to call that guy immediately. I told her I would rather throw up and then finish doing the dishes, which I lapsed into doing because I didn't know what else to do with myself for a moment. Nonsense! So, I finished doing the dishes anyway (but didn't throw up) and I called the guy. He said that if I wanted the job, they would like me to start as soon as possible, but asked if I needed time to think about it. I told him I'd definitely like to take the job, but the only thing I need to think about is when I could start, that I needed to give notice at my part-time job and sort out a place to stay in London. He asked me to call him back tomorrow. Will do.

Now we just need to figure out how to pull this off and then I need to give notice at the restaurant (I like those guys!).

Still too shocked to think about the positive side to this turn of events...

-RP-