A while back I had an interview with Michele’s old boss Ray at the headhunting firm she used to work at. They didn’t have any positions open at that time, but Ray and his assistant were very nice and gave me some pointers and told me they would give out my resume to their people… I would be a “free” placement (since who would pay someone to find me). It was good practice interviewing, and Ray said I had a very interesting resume (but he said it with a positive tone of voice). He also told me to tell Michele she should come back when she got better (she was their top recruiter).

Well, who should call me on Thursday but Ray, saying their current top guy needs an assistant, and wasn’t I asking for $30k a year? Of course, it would probably be more than that with commission topping it off…

I told Berck. He said something like, “Well… rats.”

I told Michele the next day, and she told Duncan. They came and talked to me at the laptop where I was futzing with the webpage (which I still haven’t been able to put up yet because the Internet connection was down… too much wind). “Obviously, we want what’s best for you,” said Duncan, sounding very much like my dad. “Our preference is that you stay and work for us, of course.”

“I think you should go interview,” said Michele. “That way if it’s a fit, you’ll know, and if it’s not for you, you’ll know for sure. Although, if I teach you how to do what I do, the potential for making more money is greater with me than it would be with Ray’s group.”

“Well,” I said, “I don’t really like the idea of a job where I’d be on the phone all day.” That’s what Michele does. And she loves it. And she’s great at it. She can have an engineer she’s never met chatting about his family, his last vacation, or his current research project in 20 seconds flat. I’ve timed it. And every time she ends one of these conversations, she pushes back her chair, sighs, and says, “I LOVE my job!”

“If you worked with Ray, you’d be on the phone ALL DAY,” Michele said.

So I haven’t called Ray back.

Actual Fact: In 1903 the Vatican declared the saxophone gave reasonable concern for disgust and scandal.