Working woman, baby!

Well, folks, I successfully completed my first official week as the Patron Services Coordinator for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra! I heart me. So hard.

Report:

* No explosions
* No computer meltdowns
* No emotional meltdowns
* No minor disasters
* No major disasters.....

.....well, except when I came in to my second day of work on Tuesday morning and realized that we had run out of coffee in the staff kitchen. I had to trudge through the remainder of the day in a bleary, caffeine-deprived fog. Oh, brief and glorious 4-month stint at Star*ucks!! What have you done to me??!! At one point I resorted to making crummy instant hot chocolate in an attempt to trick my brain into thinking I was drinking the elixir of life -- but it didn't work.

I'm totally digging this new gig. I'm especially digging the FAT (...and phat, yo!) paycheck I anticipate receiving in two weeks. Seeing as how I have been living at the Struggling Musician Tax Bracket (which, incidentally, is officially 75 cents over the poverty line) for the better part of the last 6 months, the prospect of being able pay my bills (All of them!! On time!!!) and still have enough to put about half of my paycheck into savings every month is enough to make me 'splode with overwhelming rapture. And by "put into savings every month" I, of course, mean "blow entirely on a fabulous new wardrobe and lots of unnecessarily expensive meals." As I jokingly (maybe) said to my older brother over the phone the other day: "Hmmmm...I wonder how much new clothing half of my paycheck will buy....." AHAHAHAHAHA!! I'm only kidding, Dad!!! ....or aaaam I??

Anyway, after training for a few days, I think I have a fairly decent grasp on the basic workings of the administrative and box office duties of this job. A lot of receptionist and general patron service stuff. I guess that would explain my job title. I have yet to encounter my first Grumpy and Mean Old Ticket Buyer, about whom I have received numerous warnings from the other people I work with. But, seriously, after working customer service at Blockbuster, Pier1, Pacific Marketplace (bleargh), and Star*ucks ... I think I'm ready for anything.

The really interesting (mmm...slightly frightening?) other part of my job is when I start doing my duties as J.W.'s (Executive Director) assistant. He has been out of town for the past several days and so I have only had the opportunity to talk to him briefly about my responsibilities as his Executive Assistant. Yeah, I capitalized that title to make myself feel more important. And?!?! Apparently, I will be helping him organize and situate his office (Not a problem. Thanks, OCD.) and will be working quite a bit with the members of the Knoxville Symphony Society's Board of Directors and Executive Committee. From what I can gather, my job will be to communicate with these rich and powerful Knoxville folk and cater to their every whim.

Now, this can be either a thrilling adventure or one gigantic impending implosion. In that, I mean I will either succeed magnificently in this role because I can (if I wanted to) be so unbelievably witty and charming that I will have you eating out of the palm of my hand, or I will self-implode due to my occasional tendency to get in actual fights (mostly verbal, but I'm not ruling the physical out...) with people who demand too much of my patience and/or ego (yes, even -- nay, especially -- the rich ones who have too great a sense of entitlement for my taste). On a related note, I met Jeff, the guy who was J.W.'s Executive Assistant previous to me, the other night. When I introduced myself and explained that I would be replacing him as J.W.'s assistant, he sort of chuckled and then said, "Ha! Good luck." What does that mean??!! Anyway, so it'll be interesting to see how that works out. Stay tuned!

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ps. I have been in this job for barely over a week and am already using company time to update my blog. Is this bad?

pps. Scott officially finished -- survived -- his Week of Hell (aka. his comprehensive exams) this morning at 9am. Hurray, Scott! I expect he will be doing a combination of sleeping very hard and celebrating even harder for the next few days and then I will have my boyfriend back shortly thereafter. Wheee!!