I think we don't prepare to interview enough--it's something I think I'd find value in doing even if I'm not looking to move--just to take stock and assess. Like a self-eval, but useful. However, you can't wave a wand and make what-if go away with no scar.

I bought a muffin (hell, two muffins, idiotic me) for $4.75 a piece at the training I attended. Hotel muffins. So the next nice thing you go to at a hotel that gives you free muffins--those are GOLDEN. I got another muffin (never mind the gazillion at home) in the Paseo mall, a giant one, for $2.25. The hotel ones are pretty level across the cupcake liner. I actually want to go back to the restaurant and wave the big muffin in their face.

ita, you're hilarious.

Pix, what Le Nubian said. I know it's disappointing right now, but it was not wasted time. Also, I am convinced that networking is never a bad thing. I've hired people two years after an interview (or getting their resume the first time) because the right thing came along and I remembered them.

Someone's got to take up arms to end this muffin injustice. I'd recommend a musical, but my pipes are shot.

So I had a big oops today (not in my pants--different oops). I've been wearing this shirt (Amy high five!) to training today, and I got a "Hey, you like firearms?" And I have no real idea of how to back out of that without sounding like some sort of (clearly not!) obsessive fan or a head of the local chapter of the NRA.

Ha. That's awesome.

I had a similar need to explain myself but no good way to do it, when my buddy's band was in town. We set their son up to do his homeschool in my office, and my buddy did a doubletake looking at the target (and bun of power photo) on my wall. Not a fannish thing, but I wanted to launch into this big explanation of how I enjoyed shooting that one time, but that I was still big into gun control and that I was a pacifist, really, honest. But there was no way to say all that without looking pretty nuts, so I just let it go.

And also, I realized after he left, that I still looked totally bad because in the office were prominently displayed: framed photo from the festival his community puts on, framed print of artwork from the specific tent at that festival where his old band played, framed poster of his former pastor's former band, and a chain of patches from his band, his friends' bands, and a band from his neighborhood. Pinned together with his band's pins.

Yeah, it was basically a shrine. I mean, there's other stuff in there too! Kids' photos and my suicide prevention training certificate, and the federally required posters. But still, it looked pretty bad, and I'm sure I came off as way more fannish than I did to his bandmates prior. But hey, they heavily influenced my life, and I want people who do that to know.

You should have asked him for a lock of his hair while he was in the office, Liese. :D

Or his dry cleaning bill. (Sweater vests?)

I know, I should have trapped him in there and blocked the door. I did confess that I'd been on an apparent quest to lure all his bandmates out to the desert and abandon them. Since we'd been hosemates with his bassist and then moved, and I'd been trying last summer to get his frontman and his partner to housesit before they moved to Maine.

Just remember that to them, you're not some Anonymous Possibly-Dangerous Stalker Fan, but somebody they've had a friendship with for a considerable period, plus, you're a fellow musician. If your office was a Justin Bieber shrine, then you might consider being embarrassed. As it is, you're more like a relative who is Very Proud of their work.

Yay Nilly + baby! I was going to ask the other day if she was still preggo, but couldn't figure out the polite way to do that....