A phone call

Most of these posts are taken from another blog.

02-14-08

I didn't realize it was Valentine's Day. I had been in the habit of leaving my cell phone in another room at night. If you have nowhere to be then why take the chance of waking up. But I thought a friend might need a favor in the morning so I had my phone in my bedroom. Indeed she did call but to say she wasn't feeling well and would not need my help. I was too tired to take the phone downstairs so I left it there.

The phone rang a little while later, the voice on the other side was obviously rather old. She yelled to be heard and had a crankiness to her voice. She said she was from the XXXXX Times and she heard about me from a name I had never heard of. I found out later it was a headhunter service but I had never contacted the place and they had never contacted me. Anyway the voice wanted to come in for an interview. I said sure but I was leaving town and would not be back until Tuesday. This upset the woman on the other end. I said I could come in today but that also upset her. So we made arrangements on Tuesday the 19th. I will always remember that because she said at least five times. TUESDAY THE 19th she would scream over and over. Yes. WILL YOU BE THERE. YOU BETTER BE THERE. TUESDAY THE 19th! I DON'T WANT TO COME IN IF YOU ARE NOT COMING. TUESDAY THE 19th!

It was an awful phone call. But I didn't really have anything to lose. It had been 17th months since I was fired from my old paper. The first few months were really tough. I felt like I had let down a lot of kids, especially the seniors. I would check the paper at the library and it broke me my heart all the stories that were not being told. All the teams that were no slipping through the cracks. And how it seemed no one else really cared.

I didn't even try to get a job for the first six months. I was getting half my salary a week from the government and the paper had to pony up because they knew they didn't have a legal leg to stand on for dismissing me. I did my job very well. I did the jobs of several people at the paper. And any antics on my part were greatly exaggerated. I heard from the grapevine some of the things they claimed and it was a joke someone would lie like that. The simple truth was I was the only person there on the editorial staff or layout staff that truly cared about being the best possible. For everyone else it was just a crummy job. For me it was a passion and at times I would get upset that no one else was on board for the task of doing the best you can. Mediocrity breeds a fear of passion and that is why I didn't fit in.

After I was fired the paper won two first place awards for my work and of course never mentioned it to me. The Hooper Awards run from August 1 to July 31. So the paper won a 2007 Hooper for my June 2006 work and then a 2008 for my August 2007 work. The general manager claimed otherwise and I don't think he was lying just misinformed. He claimed the second award for my replacement's August 2007 work and that the first award was for my August 2006 work. But those times frame don't work in the rules of the awards. When I pointed that out in a email- I never got a response so I assume I was correct.

If I would get the job at the XXXXXX Times, I would be a direct competitor with my old paper. That sounded intriguing but I just knew working with that voice wasn't going to work. But I had nothing to lose.