Hello, Newman

In July of 2008 I quit my job and moved to New York. Like Bobby Bonilla, Brett Favre, and the creators of the Fashion Cafe before me, I crumbled under the intense scrutiny that comes with living in the media capital of the world, and eventually ran back to the Midwest with my tail tucked between my legs. Or something like that.

I can now, with much relief, some satisfaction, and very, very little pride, announce that, for the first time in well over a year, I once again have regular employment.

Who's the lucky cutter of paychecks? None other than the Postal Service! No, I'm not the roadie for the "Such Great Heights" band. I mean the United States Postal Service, the one that just announced a loss of $3.8 billion in the last fiscal year.

But I'm actually not worried about losing my job due to downsizing or layoffs or anything. That's already happened. I am a Data Conversion Operator, which means I spend all day looking at scanned images of mailpieces that could not be read properly at the processing centers after they were picked up, and I type in the address information so they can be delivered. When these "remote encoding centers" debuted about 15 years ago, there were about 55 of them; now the one in Salt Lake is one of just two. So I feel my job is pretty safe, at least as long as I plan to have it.

Yes, this is (hopefully) not a long-term solution for me. I definitely view it as just a job, and not a career. But I'm very glad to have it, most of all because it removes the urgency from any job searching I may continue to do. The past 16 months have been so frustrating in that regard (this job was part of that frustration; I actually applied for it less than a week after returning to Utah--way back in August--but the application process was agonizingly, ridiculously long).

Here are the good parts of the job: the pay is surprisingly good; I can wear a t-shirt and jeans; we process mail from Utah and New York, so there's a chance I might be able to make creepy comments about what my friends and neighbors are sending or receiving like my old home teacher and fellow postal employee used to do; and I don't have to deal with the public in any way--I barely will even have to talk to any coworkers (and once I complete my 90-day probation period, I can even listen to my hypothetical iPod while I work).

There are also some drawbacks, which I will now spin into positives: I'm working a graveyard shift, but that means I'll have access to my parents' cars and won't need rides; and there are no benefits, but really, that just means I can spend my money on debt reduction instead of paying it into a health fund. And besides last year's gall bladder hiccup, I've probably been one of the world's healthiest non-exercisers for 15+ years. If I join the union I could get insurance that way, and I'm considering it, but right now it seems like I need hard cash more than health care.

So there it is. In many ways, after the anticipation that's been building on the blog for the past week and in my life for the past year, my new job is pretty underwhelming. But again, it's not like I had many other options, and I'm glad to have it. It will give me an opportunity to get back on my feet and on a course towards eventually doing what I really want to do--assuming I ever figure that part out.