Amusingly enough, soon after I decided to not expect to hear from Company B this week, their staffing guy emailed to apologize for the delay and ask how I was doing with regard to interest in the company and timing with the offer of Company A. Heh. I don't know why this even surprises me any more.

We're slowly converging on an offer, though, as they finish checking references, asking about salary, talking about starting dates. I'm having a lot of fun trying to get everything I want while indicating I'm flexible--this is a lot easier with starting dates than with, say, salary, where you don't want to say "I'd like this much, but I'll probably take an offer for less". Nothing devious, just trying to speak in a thoughtful and nonconfrontational way.

A new ingredient, Company C, has supposedly been trying to get in touch with me. (It's not exactly difficult, so I don't know what their deal is.) They apparently know I'm days away from an offer with Company B, but hey, whatever. I'm just kinda ready for this whole thing to be over: once I get done with the anxiety of waiting for an offer from a place I'm actually excited to go work at, I have to really accept the fact that I've just impressed people enough to pay me lots of money to do something I've never done professionally before. *grin*

Bleh. So, at the end of the day, the whole phenomenon of work managed to piss me off. A lot. I mean, I haven't been that angry yet this year. First, I'd told Company B I'd like to start on January 10th, or maybe even the 12th as my brother will be around. Today they say they "need" me to start on the 3rd. I really wanted that time off, and my current employer is reluctant to let me leave early--what the fuck is with these people? Five working days should not make a shit of difference. Then I realized that my current job is dumping all this new shit on me and expecting me to give a rat's ass, when they've known longer than I have that I was going to be laid off. It still makes me mad to think about it, which is why this weekend is all about not thinking about it, since there won't be any movement.

I went to the dojo. It was the only place to be. We did sword work, which is delightfully serious in its "if you put the sword here and your attacker insists on moving, he will sever his own wrists" kind of awareness. The anger evaporated a bit, lessened eventually. Now I'm just irritated. So more aikido this weekend, and I don't know what else I'll do with myself. Maybe I'll cut up a bunch of wood and screw it together and call it art, I dunno.

I did leave a calm message for the staffing guy this afternoon, suggesting that since we all seem to have different desires, we could resolve everything quickly by putting me, him, and the hiring manager in a room together and hashing out an offer and starting date we're all happy about. But really. Blah.