I started off this morning with a positive attitude, and I am so thankful for it.  The residue of last week’s money panic lasted through the weekend and unfortunately had an effect on the trip I took with Ben.  There’s nothing worse than being surrounded by a beautiful setting when your brain is stuck on money and career issues.  Gross.  But today I started a three-day temping gig in the West Village.  There is nothing lovelier, in my opinion, than strolling to work through this neighborhood in the fall.  It is the land of dogs, people sipping beautiful lattes in cozy coffee shops, and friendly organic food stores.  I don’t care if the people here are all so wealthy they don’t have to work.  Heck, I don’t have a normal job schedule either.  I grabbed my lunch and the organic food store man (his name, I bet) told me  how lovely it was that I came.  Hey!  Thanks organic food store man!  I kind of expected to skip out of there and hear some Sesame Street Music.

Secretarial Zen

I was a bit nervous since this is a brand new company for me, but I have luckily found a place of secretarial Zen over the past two years.   What the heck is that?  Well, after jumping around from one office to the next, always as random temp girl, I have learned to let myself off the hook a tad.  First of all, I don’t know these people.  I am still unsure what the difference even is between a PR, Marketing, and an Ad Agency.   If you can explain this to me, I would greatly appreciate it.  Either way, when people call and demand to speak to “Joe,” I don’t feel bad asking anymore who they’re talking about.  I usually get an answer like, “You know, Joe!  He runs the company!  He is the master of the universe.  You met him.  He bought us breakfast.  Joe!”  I used to feel bad about not being able to immediately learn the company’s ins and outs.  But I realized that was stupid and made me dread the ring of the telephone.  So now I just accept that I am passing through, and I can only learn as much as I can in a few hours.  Everything will be fine if the milk is not reorganized in the fridge until tomorrow or if I don’t know who Joe is.  The more I laugh at my situation, the more quickly I seem to make friends in these offices.

Don’t drink the Kool-Aid…or should I?

When I got here this morning, I found out  that the name of the company had changed.  My temp agency, though very sweet, had their old name.  Then I got up here and there was no one in sight.  Off to a bad start.  I finally found my desk and noticed immediately that this was a bit of an odd place.  Not necessarily odd in a bad way though.  The receptionist who is usually here has crafted darts out of paper, paper clips, and push pins.  She also wrote me a note encouraging me to steal the flowers before the cleaning lady did.  Oh, and there’s an adorable blood hound running around the office.  I have gotten about 5 calls, 2 of which have been in foreign languages that I don’t speak.  Holy curve-ball Monday.  Everyone seems to be in a low-energy haze, maybe it’s the lack of windows?  Or something in the water?

The best part though, came when I went to met with the head receptionist for instructions.  Upon meeting her, I introduced myself and then there was a good 5 second pause.  She’s an older sweet lady.  She then said, “You’re cute.” Okay.  I said thanks!  And then asked a few questions.  But nope, not moving on yet.  “Did you notice that the city is lighter today?  Everything just seems…lighter.”  Well, I wasn’t going to disagree with her.  It was a pretty nice morning and I wasn’t about to say, “Naaah…it’s gonna rain.  You’re wrong, lady.”  I knew what she meant though.  The city does feel calmer today.

She then told me that I seemed bright and could figure most things out for myself since I was in theatre.  Glad we have that reputation!  Her main instructions were to chase the pastry cart before everyone took all the good bagels.  (Even though she also told me she was amazed I ate bread since I was so thin.)

About an hour later, I got a call from her.  “You are a winner!” She exclaimed.

“I am?”  I tried not to sound weirded out.  “Thanks!  What did I do?”

“You don’t even need this job.  You are already a winner!”

“Oh.  Thanks!  That’s very sweet.  Okay, well…”

“Talk to you later, Virginia!”  End of call.

It’s odd that when a stranger gives you an enthusiastic compliment out of the blue, you immediately think, “Okay, weirdo.”  That’s not fair.  How sweet was she!  She knows nothing about me but just called out to the blue to say “I am a winner!”  For the rest of the morning, I chuckled to myself and answered each strange phone call with the thought in my head, “It’s okay that this person is yelling at me in German, because I am a winner!”  “It’s okay  that I accidentally hung up on the angry Southern woman, because I am a winner!”

I hope that I can return the favor at some point today and tell a stranger that they’re awesome.

In an attempt to do that now (even if you aren’t a stranger.  If you are, how cool that you’re reading my blog.  Hi stranger!) , I will just say it:  YOU ARE A WINNER.  Yes, you there.  It’s a really funny phrase to say in your head over and over, especially if you’re having a crap Monday.  I hear it in my voice as a startling enthusiastic yell, like from Richard Simmons or Oprah.

Well, I’m temping all week, so hopefully there will be many blog posts to come.  Much love and enjoy your day, whatever you’re up to.  And remember, YOU ARE A WINNER!!