I met the owner at an Italian Restaurant. In his hands he held a manila folder. With very little fanfare (Where was the Mariachi band?) he opened the folder and handed me an offer letter. We went over it together and I had a few questions but nothing shot out at me as being fishy. We talked about college– he went to Villanova (or Vanilla-nova as us Rosemonsters used to call it back then) which is right next to Rosemont. Our conversation turned to the economy and the media. And he said, “The media is doing it’s best to keep the public in a state of fear, panic, and anxiety!” Suddenly it clicked. Immediately upon meeting him, I felt a very strong sense of familiarity with him. That was one of the reasons I wasn’t overly spooked by the weird fixation on my short email. It seemed almost normal to me that he would act a bit insane every now and then. And I couldn’t explain why I felt like I knew him for ages. But then it clicked. He is a dead ringer for Glen Beck! How could I have not noticed this earlier? I knew a woman who also commanded this same false sense of kinship because she looked like Jody Foster. People just automatically assumed they knew her and liked her based on her uncanny resemblance to “Nell.” This worked out well for her– unfortunately she is today sitting in a jail cell because it was discovered she was running a Meth lab and prostitution ring from her house. I think she also dabbled in producing false government IDs. Nice girl all the same. Looked just like Jody Foster!

So I got an offer letter. It’s a good offer! At this point on my life’s journey, it looks to be a better deal than what I had been doing. Who honestly knows until I start working the territory if it really is better but it seems better on paper. I have until Tuesday to get back to him. If I accept, I start the 16th.

I wonder if my resemblance to Celine Dion affects how people react to me? Maybe that’s the reason I get spit upon so often? Not convinced of our similarity? Click here for a side by side comparison of Celine and me— Celine’s on the right, I’m on the left.

I started getting ready at 7:30. I don’t need to leave until 10:30. Three hours is too much time to fill. I ate, I showered, I dressed, I powdered, I made-up, I rolled, I brushed, I scrubbed, I moisturized… And I have an hour left. This interview process has been extreme. I doubt Carol Bartz had to jump through so many hoops. In a way I feel like I am back on eHarmony.com. And one of the problems I had with the dating Web sites is that I lost focus on what I really wanted. Back then, I wanted to find a boyfriend who possessed certain qualities but after awhile I started forgetting about the boyfriend bit and started fixating on just trying to get a second date, trying to find someone, anyone who liked me. And I am trying to make sure I am not making that mistake again. I haven’t followed this through because I just want someone, anyone to want me; I am following this through because it’s a killer opp.

So I am wearing my black with blue piping, asymmetrical Issac Mizrahi pseudo-wrap dress from Target. I feel good. I am ready. Closure will be had soon– one way or the other.

When I was a young girl I had a sticker book. It was actually a red photo album but rather than shove photos in it, I stuck stickers. My little schoolmates and I used to trade stickers on the playground during recess– 2 apple stickers for your Brainy Smurf– 4 kitty cat stickers for a Smurfette. The Smurf stickers were much sought after. The other favorites were rainbows and unicorns. Those could go 1 on 1 against a Smurfette.

The other day I saw on the Gmail blog that if you sent them a self-addressed stamped envelope, the Gmail team would return it to you brimming with gmail-inspired stickers. The little girl in me couldn’t let this opportunity pass. I sent out the SASE and promptly forgot about it. Yesterday my envelope arrived! I got all the stickers promised EXCEPT the unicorn sticker. I am a little disappointed but I know how popular unicorn stickers are and I can understand running out. The part of all of this that I thought was really cool is amongst the stickers was a handwritten note that said, “Enjoy the stickers! The Gmail Team” Gives it a real folksy feel. I LOVE IT!

Tomorrow I am going to have lunch with Mr. Hyper-Sensitive. Yes, I have decided to keep following this opportunity. Who knows. By the end of lunch I will either have a job or I will have dumped a glass of water on his head.

Time flew since my little phone meeting ended! I cant believe it’s after 4. I feel in a bit of a daze. Almost like I was in a fight for my life that just ended. It’s a good thing I am going to work out tonight. That makes it three days in a row I worked out. Yesterday I went to a Latin Impact Aerobics class. It was a lot of fun but I really struggled. My internal rhythm is not salsa. My feet were mimicking the instructor’s feet just fine. The problem was that she was clearly dancing the Cha-Cha while I appeared to be doing the Charleston. As in most things in life, I have found that if you put a big silly smile on your face you can get away with almost anything. Probably because most people just assume you are retarded. At one point the instructor said, “The group to my left is B, the group to my right is A. Group B, we’re gonna Cha-Cha right. Group A you will Cha-Cha left. Donna, you lead group A!” Well I just about fell over! Maybe I was doing better than I thought! I looked over to Lisa and said, “Can you believe it!?!” Lisa said, “Not you dumbass— there’s another girl named Donna in the group.” Just then a girl in a half top stepped to the front of Group A and started leading the Cha-Cha left. Ultimately I was relieved because I had no idea how to Cha-Cha left or right.

I named this entry Freckles because I started noticing I am getting a smattering of freckles across my face. I am wondering what is causing them to pop out? I have been spending a lot of time sitting by a window that gets quite a bit of sun. It’s my own way of combating Seasonal Affective Disorder. Could the sun through the window be the cause? …OR MAYBE THEY AREN’T FRECKLES BUT AGE SPOTS!?!?! ARGH!

What an interesting conversation I had with the owner. Last week he said, “Send me a quick email just letting me know you took the evaluation.” When I finished the evaluation, I did just that. I sent him a real quick email telling him I finished the evaluation. You won’t believe this but 80% of the conversation we had this morning was concerning how terse that email was and how it really made him doubt making me an offer. Yes, I found myself apologizing because the email I wrote was too short. He also said he felt I was over-confident. The good news is that the psych profile showed that I was on the cusp of good/best match for their company. Of the 5 traits they look for in a person, I possessed 3. Of the other two traits, my process orientation is apparently really lacking. I said to him that I don’t recall any questions that specifically asked about process orientation. He said they can tell this by asking me my favorite color. Why did I say red?! (I think he was joking) He wants to meet with me on Friday. Unless he continues to over analyze our phone conversation and deems I didn’t use enough words to describe how I could improve my process orientation and then he may just decide to scrap me totally. I wrote him an email after our phone conversation confirming the date and time of our meeting. I then started to worry that maybe this too was too short of an email and so I added: This email serves an ulterior motive: I want to prove to you I am capable of writing a better email than that last one. I hope he appreciates my stab at humor– if he has a problem with this email I will know this job is not for me. But I have learned my lesson. The email I wrote was too casual. I am still in that wooing phase and I should have made it more formal. I am not used to being so heavily scrutinized! (Or at least aware that I am being scrutinized) But I do understand where this man is coming from, I really do. He doesn’t want to make a hiring mistake that will cost him time, money and lost opportunity. The thing is, I am in the same situation! I don’t want to make a mistake either– like finding myself in a job I hate. And I am worrying that I am taking the easy way out by accepting the very first job offered. But that’s how I always do it. Mainly because I HATE looking for a job. But also because I feel like I am blessed. I truly believe that I am being guided and that this is the opportunity that was meant for me. Jump and a net will appear. I felt that way the last time too and it worked out for me… until December, that is. It’s going to be okay. Like I said, things have always worked out for me and I just need to trust it– all will be okay. (Do I sound over-confident?)

Last Tuesday I had my 3rd interview with a company. It went well. All signs pointed to positive. The recruiter called and said they would make me an offer by Monday. I fell asleep on Sunday certain I would have an offer in hand shortly. Monday came and Monday went. No one called me, no one emailed me. Tuesday morning came. Nothing. Tuesday afternoon came. Nothing. Why aren’t they calling me!!!!! The last bit of communication I had with them happened last week. The owner asked me to take an online assessment. “Sure! Just send me the link!” I assumed it had to do with assessing my sales skills. It turned out to be a psychological evaluation. As I went through the questions I felt extremely uncomfortable. I can understand asking a potential employee to take a drug test but a psychological evaluation seems like a huge breach of privacy. I considered closing the browser window and letting them know I refuse to take such an assessment. But I really like this company and I like the job. I NEED to work! I WANT to work. “Suck it up, Donna,” I said to myself. I finished the assessment feeling violated. And then came the silence. I suddenly started to worry that they got the report and decided I was too much of a risk. Did I answer the questions incorrectly? Am I psychotic? My stomach started to dissolve itself.

My Gmail notifier finally chimed. I got an email from the owner asking to call him tomorrow. It should take about 30 minutes. Perhaps my psychological evaluation didn’t show me to be as mentally incompetent as I thought? We shall see.

I was over my parents’ house yesterday helping my dad with his computer. I opened donnaville in IE and I was really surprised to see how it was riddled with layout errors. The WordPress theme I had been using was pretty old. I looked to see if there was an update to it but no such luck. What to do? What to do? Even though I use FireFox and donnaville looks fine in it, there are people out there using IE and I can’t have my Internet outpost looking shabby! Guess it’s time for a new theme. I whipped this baby up rather quickly using the fSpring widgets theme. What do you think? Is it okay? Is it readable? If you don’t like it, let me know. Maybe I’ll just go back to the old theme and to heck on IE. I dunno.

Looking over this new theme, I am really surprised at the sheer length of my archives column. I’ve been doing this a very long time. I can’t believe I’ve been able to produce so much on so little. I remember awhile ago Charles had an entry in which he gave a template of his typical post. I think if I was to do it, it would like like this:

I [generic content]. I [generic content]. I [generic content]. Stupid remark for conclusion, probably beginning with I.

I watched most of the Oscars last night. That was not my intention. Last year I turned it on, caught Alec Baldwin’s smug face and had to turn it off. Quickly. Very quickly. Yesterday I had dinner at my parents’ and afterward my mom and I were sitting in the living room and it seemed like a good time to put on the Oscars and catch the opening number. I love musicals so I got a kick out of it. And I was able to handle the acceptance speeches better than normal because I kept seeing old actresses from the past that got me excited: “SOFIA LOREN!!! EVA MARIE SAINT!” The one thing that I found extremely silly and I couldn’t help but scoff at were the number of celebrities that kept getting teary-eyed! What is wrong with these people? I will tell you. They are drama queens. And it’s a good thing they are actors because the real world would whip their cry baby asses. My favorite moment was when Japanese filmmaker, Kunio Kato (I looked him up on Google) won for his animated short, La Maison en Petits Cubes and he said, in very halting English, “Thank you very much. Thank you, pencil. Thank you, all my staff. Thank you, academy. . . . Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.” He totally cracked me up!

I missed the very end so I didn’t get to see Mr. Sean Penn calling the crowd a bunch of commie, homo-loving, sons of guns. I do miss the old days when calling someone a commie… was a bad thing. Yes I am a little ashamed I watched the Oscars but I enjoyed Hugh Jackman’s song and dance routines– he kept me entertained.

Isn’t Dave Foley the spitting image of Zooey Deschanel?

Over the weekend I watched the movie Hancock for a second time. It’s not that I loved it so much I had to watch it again but when I saw it the first time I knew pookie would love it so I watched it again with him. And truthfully, I really did enjoy it. I love superheroes! The one thing I really liked is how Charlize looked like a super heroine even without having to don spandex. I kept trying to figure out what it was that made her look so Wonder Woman-ish. Unfortunately I think it has to do with her being breathtakingly gorgeous. I was really hoping the reason was more attainable like wearing clothes that she bought at Ann Taylor Loft— that way I could look like a Super Heroine too!

Yesterday I had my third interview with a company that I quite like– I wore my kickass wrap dress that I bought at Macy’s last year on sale. I also put my hair in hot rollers in the morning so I could achieve that Mary Tyler Moore, Paula Prentiss, Mrs Emma Peel FLIP. The meeting went well. Apparently I said the right things since the owner just called me and said he would be calling me later in the week with an offer. What am I saying? It had nothing to do with what I said and everything to do with my flip, my wrap and how I tried to channel the vibes of a SUPER HEROINE. 🙂 I hope to gosh this is the right move for me. It’s not like there’s a lot of stuff out there right now. But even more so, I am honestly going crazy not working. Truth is, I think this is a good opportunity. So let’s see how it continues to unfold, I don’t have it yet.