way back in the day, october 2002, i thought everything was going perfectly. i had just proposed to my girlfriend who is now my fiance, bought the customized (size:3.75!) ring, and everything was going well. i had just moved into a new group at work, and was excited about the prospects of the new position.

then it all went to shit. my company went through yet another round of layoffs, and suddenly i found myself unemployed amidst the terrible dot-com decline. i looked and looked, still being hopeful of finding a new job. i thought i had the skills that someone would be looking for. i was wrong.

now, it's a year an half later, and i had just about given up. thankfully, my old company brought me back on as a part-time contractor (thanks tim!), doing pretty much what i was doing before i left, but hourly, and for a substatial decrease in pay. but, it was something that helped pay the bills, now that my unemployment had run out.

the job searching thing was at a standstill. i'd get my weekly emails from the job-search sites, with the same job postings week after week that never seemed to get filled. since being laid off, i had a grand total of three (yes count them... one, two , three) interviews that i thought had gone well, but does anyone have the respect to call me back? even a "thanks, but we're not interested?" heavens no!

so, two weeks ago, when i got my weekly email from monster, and saw a new job posting, i was a bit jaded. there was a new job posting, from a company that i had never heard about, so i checked it out. the job posting read like someone had taken the objective from my resume, and re-written it as a job posting. it sounded interesting, so i took the time to write a nice cover letter, and went about my life as usual, expecting nothing.

a few days later, literally, they called, and wanted me to come in for an interview. they sounded genuinely interested. i made an appointment for the next day.

the interview went really well, they had a good concept of what they were looking for, they really liked my background, and from their description in the interview, they were looking for someone with my exact skill set. they said they would call in a few days.

but, i was so jaded from horrible interview / no call backs in the past, that i did my best not to get my hopes up. i told my fiance, and almost no-one else about the interview. in the past, i had gotten burned by telling people about the interviews, and then not gotten even a call back, and had everyone asking about it. it would bring hatred everytime someone would ask "so did you get that job you were excited about?" i didn't want that to happen this time, or ever again.

a few days past, and i started to get doubtful. i was driving home from my temp job, chalking them up as yet another company that didn't have the balls to call me back when my phone rang. they actually called. with the news that i had been wanting to hear for the past year and a half.

they were offering me a job.