It's ironic. Every time I start to seriously pursue some non-9-to-5 course of action, it seems like a potential temp assignment crops up. It happened in 2003 when I was considering asking if I could be an interpreter observer (like we were when we were students), with an eye toward getting re-accustomed to more, different types of interpreting and starting to take interpreting assignments. Then I got the long-term temp job at the insurance company that lasted over a year.

This time, I've gotten the info together for taking organ lessons, which I still intend to do regardless of WHAT kind of day-job situation I'm in. The same day I got the phone number for the instructor, I got a letter from Unemployment Compensation instructing me to attend some sort of session in early July that's connected to their job-finding service. My goal, when I got there, was to find out more about their service AND to find out what kind of impact it would have on unemployment benefits if I were to return to school full-time with the intention of receving training in an entirely new field of work (orientation and mobility and/or vocational rehab ).

Once again, as I'm putting all my ducks in a row, something else comes up. This time it's a potential temp job in another medical insurance place. The person I interviewed with yesterday is giving my resume to his manager, and she's supposed to call me regarding more details such as job description, location, compensation, length of time, etc.

If it comes up, I'll take it. But I have a different outlook now than I had with previous temp assignments. Before, I *wanted* to get back into the 9-to-5 world long-term. It's predictable and I LIKE predictable.

Actually, I STILL like predictable, but I'm also tired of all the things I ranted about in a recent post. "We're sorry, you're overqualified." "We're sorry, we transferred someone from another department into your job instead of hiring you as a full-time employee. We always hire internally whenever possible." (That's happened at two different temp assignments so far.) "Sorry, we're looking for someone with RECENT IT experience." (This was from a recruiter who called ME, enthusiastically, to discuss an IT job opening after locating my resume online.)

In short, I've reached the point where I want to write my OWN ticket instead of trying to fit myself into other people's little pigeonholes. So, of course, just when I decide this, along comes another potential day job. But I don't know the circumstances surrounding it, so I don't know if it's long-term, short-term, temp-to-hire, or much else yet. (Except if it is where I THINK it is, the commute will be way easier than having to haul myself out to Fort Washington by 7:30 AM.)

We'll see what happens.