Ridiculously Over Paid or Easy Money?

Sometimes you can just be rolling along and living a boring life and then WHAM! Something exciting comes along...

Last week a former co-worker, Kathy, from a job I had years ago sent me an email telling me that one of my former "bosses", Troy, was looking for someone to do some Marketing work part-time and she gave him my email address. I half-jokingly asked Kathy if he asked for me or was just telling her that he was looking for anyone for this and she said he called her specifically looking for ME!!!! Talk about flippin' flattering! (Thank goodness I've kept in touch with her over the years, even if it's only the occasional email!)

Here's a little background...

Years ago I went through a temp phase job-wise and had all sorts of administrative/clerical & data entry gigs. One assignment was for a company called CUNA Mutual.

The job was to provide administrative support for a Financial Representative in a credit union, The woman I supported was named Lynn and she was awesome. Doing that temp gig was the coolest in all the assignments I'd had up to that point. I got a kick out of being someone's "assistant". (Finally felt like I'd found a job I really liked again after spending years getting nowhere doing another type of work I loved, arts ticketing and then dealing with the drudgery of office work)

After that assignment ended, I had some other jobs...(not that I remember what I did after that since that was like almost a decade ago now!) Anyhoo, a little bit of time passed and then since they/CUNA liked me well enough, they asked specifically (there's that word again...couldn't find a better one) for me to come and do another temp assignment with some Rep's at Postal Credit Union. Troy was one of the 2 Rep's I supported between a couple of their branches.

The woman who had been doing the job, Kelly? was going on maternity leave. After her leave was up, they kept me on with her, but part-time. Eventually they were able to make it permanent and full-time because Kelly decided to quit (she was moving out of state with her husband and the baby if I remember correctly?) The other Rep (I don't remember his name) eventually left, so it was just Troy and I doing our thing between the North St. Paul and West. St. Paul branches. As the nature of the beast that is life, things changed. Had the PCU had not decided to take over the Financial Services program and have their own Representative and decide to have one of their own employees supporting the Rep, I would have kept working for him and might still be working for him today.

I was totally bummed but that didn't last long because fate intervened and it turned out that Lynn, the first Rep. I'd supported needed someone to support her at US Federal Credit on a permanent, full-time basis as well. You know I'm not religious right? But that experience was one of the few times I truly felt that someone was looking out for me (you know, the big guy "upstairs"!).

While I was sad to not be working with Troy anymore, Getting to work with Lynn again was enough to make it not seem like the end of the world. They both were completely different in their styles and how they worked. Troy's strength was/is in dealing with his clients in person and would leave pretty much ALL of the administrative/office side of things to me. Lynn, while wonderful, was very self-sufficient (just a tiny example of that was that I would take care of his voice mail with writing down the messages and then reviewing them with him and she always listened to her own and kept track of them...not that I was complaining...I got to get really good at my job and later actually grew bored because it was not a challenging enough of a position...but we'll just skip the rest of that story)

I still say, to this day, that both of them are on my top 5 "bosses" of all time list.

So fast-forward to now.

After I got the email from Kathy, she sent me his phone number and I left him a slightly babbling voice mail last Tuesday. We finally touched base this morning before I left for work (thank goodness, the suspense was killing me!) and there have been lots of changes for him career-wise. He is no longer a practicing Financial Representative/Planner but now is on the Wholesale side of things and sells a specific Variable Annuity for a company called SunAmerica to other Financial Representatives and Stockbrokers. He said he pretty much works out of his car, has an office in his car and spends most of his time out on the road making sales calls. It's his own business and his wife does most of his administrative work. He also has a scheduler and an internal wholesaler who helps with the follow-up on the annuity once it's sold.

What he needs, is looking for, is he'd like [me] to be part of "Team Troy" in being the person who is responsible for the mailings that are sent to out prospective clients -everything thing from thank-you's, "trinkets" (pens, etc.), to mailings of what I can only assume are introductory letters and information about the "product".

He would supply everything, supplies, printer, postage, etc. And I would only have to spend about 5-7 hours a week on this. And the pay is $25/hr.

$25 an hour.

$25 an hour.

I can work from home (will have to create a "home office" environment and find a place to store the supplies and "trinkets"). I can do it when I want. I don't have to get up early (hallefuckingjulah) or go anywhere, except for the post-office. I don't have to "dress" up. I don't have to interview for this! It's mine if I want it. OMG.

Am I fucking dreaming or what?

We have a lot more to talk about and will be talking again on Friday morning. I've already got a bunch of questions for him and will have a million more by the time Friday rolls around. I'm going to want to do a good job and make the most of this opportunity.

I've got to remember or figure out mail merging again!

So wow huh?

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Boy, can life ever be interesting sometimes. It's time I remind myself of things I have to be grateful for. (Maybe by focusing on some positive things it'll distract me from the actual pain in my neck that I woke up with today. It hurts like a motherfucker. But I don't want to go to the doctor because he's only going to recommend more physical therapy instead of a chiropractor...actually you know what? Fuck that, I'm getting nice amounts of tax refunds this year (thank god!) and along with catching up some rent w/the Fabulous and paying off my ticket from that damn accident (the guy is finally paid off though, Yee Haw) I might just go ahead and pay for an appointment with one...and I think it would be a reimbursable expense from my FSA funds...?) Anyhoo...where was I?

Oh yeah, the things I'm grateful for.

I found cheaper car insurance. It helps that I can use my new upcoming address (did I mention moving is happening mid-March? Yup, gonna rent from Ryan. Totally excited about that but I'll talk about all of that in a bit) and signed up for renter's insurance. The savings of like $75 or so bucks a month will help my bottom line.

Hmm...what else? Well, the moving thing.

Ryan found a really great house and the closing will be on Feb. 18th barring any unforeseen complications (of which I hope there are none that can't be overcome)

It's in Robbinsdale and has the perfect set-up for renting to someone with it's finished basement with a toilet and shower. It also has a 2 car garage and a cute little patio/deck.

The commute to work will be similar, maybe a wee bit longer, but easy as it's mostly freeway (please let Suzette keep runnin'!) of Highway 100 and 494. I will be sad to leave the home that the Fabulous has given me the last 2+ years but life is changing for her big time and it's time for me to move on. I don't know how long I'll be with Ryan but I'm going to take the time to really get my financial shit in order so that maybe someday I can get my own place again. I'm so tired of moving. Thank goodness I don't have a lot of stuff. (I'm actually tempted to get rid of even more of the few things I have, but a lot of it is what I call my "history" in the form of journals, photos and date books/calendars that date back years and years.)

Sheesh, it's late and I've yet to devote any time to the zillons of FB games that I "play"! Maybe I'll just take the night off and let the crops wither and the food/drinks spoil. I've got the latest Nora Roberts novel "The Search" waiting for me to dive back into and of course work tomorrow so maybe I'll even try to get to bed at a reasonable time...Oh who are we kidding?

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Valentine's Day is coming up and other than 2 great cards I found for B, I have no idea what to do for him this year. I think I'll need to spend a little time thinking about what he'd like (besides the obvious! :P). I hope he gets me at least a card that is as absofuckinglutely awesome as last years...that one was the best card he's EVER given me (and then the birthday one, the significant 40th birthday one was the most boring and impersonal card ever..what was up with that? Uh, guess I'm not quite over that yet am I? Get over it Sam! He shows his love to you in a thousand other little ways and it all counts in the big picture!)

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Work sucks as usual. Between the pressure to maintain stats (calls per hour, talk time, etc.) and the massive amounts of canceled flights from volcanic ash, improper scheduling of flights w/out the crews to work 'em and fucking winter storms/snow, it's been a nightmare for months. But I'm thankful I have a job. I'm thankful I have a job. I'm thankful I have a job. I'm thankful I have job. (Oh to only really truly believe that)

Well...I think I'll just stop here for tonight. I'm sure I'm forgetting to write about something but I can't think of it (obviously :P ) so I guess just...

Onward. With scads and scads of things to do to be prepared for this new part-time gig.