I really had no idea

As it turns out, when I manned the phones at the paper last week I was bombarded by calls. I hadn't realized this until tonight when my editor was telling the other new guy who's doing what I'm doing about my experience. First off, the other guy only had to handle one call on his first night answering phones. As my editor told it, however, my night was quite exciting. "He started off with three or four calls right in a row. Bam, bam, bam." (I'm paraphrasing in quotes here. Strange). "Then he had about fifteen minutes off and then three or four came in right on top of each other again." Then he looked at me. "You ended up with what, at least thirty column inches?" I didn't know, but I said, "Something like that." So my first night answering the phones at the paper (last Thursday) was pretty action packed the way he told it. Cool. I did have a good time, even though I didn't blog about it. . .

Which leads me to something. I kind of like working at this paper. Now that I'm past the frustration of not knowing what is expected of me and the irritation of finding out how little I'm going to be able to work there, it's not such a bad experience for me. My editor is very complimentary of my work and the work of my fellow newbee. And I'm learning quite a bit. Writing in an office full of phones ringing and people talking, writing on deadline, and writing while answering phones are all quite different from the writing that I normally do. . . Heh. On a side note. Tonight, some of the other writers from the paper just stopped in to visit and well, I wouldn't say they were drunk, but I wouldn't say they weren't drunk either. . .

What all this means is that, if at all possible, I'd like to keep this job for a while. I've devised a plan that involves a suggestion most recently offered by piwok, but offered by so many others in my life that I can't keep track. I think I'll apply to be a substitute teacher in the area. It's a pretty flexible job from what I've heard. Also, I saw an add for a workfromhome data entry job. That job together with a substitute teaching job and the job at the paper would probably provide me a livable income, not to mention the fact that taking all three of these jobs would satisfy three of the four career areas that test from yesterday told me I should pursue (clerical, teaching/social-work, and writing). I've been reading a book on guitar repair over this past week, so maybe that's how I'll fill in the industrial arts void.

I'm grateful that tonight I got to sit at a desk with a PC instead of a Mac (20).