A Christmas Miracle

Important news, friends -


I GOT A JOB!


Wow.
That feels good.
That feels "11 months, a million resumes, a ton of informational interviews, a few real ones, a heartbreaking no, hours on the phone with Shell, help from friends, help from strangers, recruiters doing good, offers of help left and right, being a temp, being shocked at Mr. Perfect's ongoing, unfailing support, finally finding the PERFECT JOB that I'm excited about and dying to get to working" in the making GOOD.

Soon, when Carm tries to hang up on me so she can work, I will no longer be able to berate her for being silly and have a "real job with a 401(k)."
That might have happened.

Other than no longer making fun of others for having a job, what does this new employment mean? Well, this job is legit - I know right now that from the day I start on I will be working my already small hiney off. And I can't wait. The days of Temporary Insanity are (finally!) over. But, so, like the sands of the hourglass, are the days of my internetting. That's right, I will no longer have hours upon hours to fill perusing the internets to find the choicest nuggets of weirdness to share with you.

Oh, Interwebs. How well you have served me over the past 11 months. I shall miss you. I don't know how to thank you enough for keeping my brain at least minimally stimulated when my work environment (or lack of) didn't suffice.

I'm sure the first few weeks of our separation will be confusing, not knowing what people mean when the reference the latest meme to race through your pages. I'll admit it - I'm a bit scared to leave your faithful and constantly entertaining side. What will it be like to have one browser, with one tab open? Can you even do that anymore??

Oh Internets, in the words of my favorite gay cowboy, "I wish I knew how to quit you!"

I don't know how to quit you, so I'm doing the next best thing.

Erin's Farewell Tour of the Internet, featuring:
Perez
People
Reblogging
Lamebook
Texts from Last Night
Smitten Kitchen
Amazon
Gilt and Fuse
Matt Logelin - whose amazing and heartbreaking journey through the loss of his wife 24 hours after the birth of their first daughter has perhaps made me tear up in the cubicle a few times. Maybe. I was able to go back to the start of his blog - my goal (happily not yet achieved - tantalizingly close) was to get to present day before starting a new job.
Washingtonian
Washington Post
Twitter
Facebook
Etsy
Failblog
2birds1blog - along with all my friends' and fav blogs (links on left bar - updates soon)
Travel websites
and last, but not least, my obese Google Reader which contains a ton of the other sites I visited daily. (Google Reader was invented for temp workers. Every day it would greet me with more than 120 new posts (I subscribe to more than 100 blogs - which will soon drop down to pre-underemployment numbers). Usually they would get me through the morning, then a few updates in the afternoon would nicely supplement my usual interwebbing and protect my sanity. God Bless you Google Reader!)


I would also like to take time to thank other supporters of my underemployment: moving, wine, pool memberships, volunteering, taking the wrong metro train, Jillian Michaels workout video, visitors, lunchtime walks and phone calls with Pat, Sean, Mom, Mr. Perfect, Melinda and others, shopping, books, epic G-chats, theme party planning (Swine Flu BBQ, birthday parties, Christopher Columbus Day, etc), Project Runway pool which consumed Thursday afternoons with in-depth research and debating on the internets, Stupidest Loser and calorie counting on Livestrong.com, vacations (California, Seattle, Florida, KC, Philadelphia), sleeping in, yoga pants, beer, the Central Branch of the Arlington Public Libraries, eyebrow tweezing, movies, museums, baking, mailing letters and postcards, day drinking, nail painting, pity parties, keyword search results, staring at people on the metro, getting lost walking around - more recently lost while driving, Pentagon City mall (empty) on a Wednesday afternoon, Georgetown bus route, text messages, magazines, jokes about unemployment as told by Josh, Snuggie, ponytails, staying up late, to-do lists and You.

In closing, I feel you should know that every time I think/say "I got a job!" it is done a la "I'm on a boat."