Worker Bee


So, I may have mentioned something about interviewing a while back.  Here's how the whole thing went.


I have a recurring contract position, however, each time the cycle completes (which it did yesterday, in fact) there's always the possibility that it won't go again.  I project manage a large traveling museum exhibit and there are agreements to be made with a foreign government after each tour.  So, near the end of the tour I start looking for work, whether it be "permanent" or more contract work.  


During my search, about 4 or 5 months ago, I sent a resume to a place I used to work, which had a posting for a project manager.  The specs for that job weren't quite what I do, but when you're looking, you tend to go for an 80% fit and keep your fingers crossed.  On the day we were moving out of the house, as I was literally driving the moving van to our storage locker, I got a phone call from the museum.  The position had shifted a bit and they were now looking for a project manager who was also trained as an exhibit's preparator.  (Which, just happens to be my training.)  I explained my current situation and said that I would like to talk with them.  We set up an interview for the next week.
Late that afternoon I got an email from my contractee (is that right?  If I'm the contractor, they'd be the contractees??...)  Anyway, I got an email saying that they'd like to talk about the next tour.  Then, two days later I got a phone call from a museum in Fort Collins asking for a phone interview.  So, I was about to have three work conversations in 2 days.  We'd spent months fretting about work and then, as it became too late to stay in the house Dave got a job and I get three conversations.  The universe is curious sometimes.


First I had my phone interview.   I knew that I wasn't the right fit for that job, but again, the 80% rule.  My applying for the job had really been a "what the hell" moment.  15 minutes after that interview I had my conversation with my contract holder.  The next day I drove to Denver to talk about the project manager's position.  Then came the pondering. I'd thought that once we'd decided to give up the house, we'd gotten past the "what path do I choose????" part of our right now.  But, no, here it was again.  Back to running various scenarios through our heads.  Was it better to have a full-time job with health insurance for both of us, but be in a large metropolitan area that we couldn't afford on one salary?  Would Dave be able to find work?  Where would we live?  And, would I enjoy it?
I knew that I would love the subject matter I'd be working on there, and they graciously thought they could accommodate my existing commitments (house/dog sitting for my folks and then moving the Tut exhibit in the fall) but I've come to realize that I don't like having Dave and I apart from each other all day, then coming home, making dinner, taking care of things that have to be taken care of, having an hour or two together and then off to bed.


I know that it sounds childish and perhaps a bit spoiled, but I think it's just the opposite.  I've reached a point in my life where I want to spend as much time as possible with my husband.  I don't want to look back in twenty years and regret that we spent our lives going to two separate jobs and spending only a few hours a week together.  So, I decided not to go back into a museum - at least for now.  I'm going to keep my contract work and we are going to try to develop some sort of business that we can do from wherever we land.  It may be a couple of years before we leave northern Colorado/southern Wyoming, but I want to figure out how we can live in the desert, on our beautiful property.  There has to be something we can do from there that we sell over the internet.  That, or win Powerball.