2 for the price of none - rejection, I knew ye only too well

You're such a wonderful audience, you're so great, I'm back for an encore today.

Let me say a few words about rejection. Personally and professionally I am intimately familiar with the word no. My interaction with the ladies before Wife was a multi-car pileup of unrequited adoration, a wonderfully varied story of friends and friends and friends and not a lot of heavy petting. And even when I did get the girl when I was starting out, it was always before they decided they liked bases 2-3 (4 being right out, as in the counting for the Holy Hand Grenade).



Later, I moved into the Friend Zone, where I established a truly magnificent estate, with rolling hills and endless vistas of really good friends with great smiles, heartbreaking eyes, and empty black hearts. Women, as a gender, have some serious creativity when they want to let you down easy. Or just let you down. Now they're all great stories -
"What the hell are you doing!" "
What if you have a really good friend that you want to be more than just a friend? Oh, that's sweet, you thought I was talking about you? Of course not, silly!"
"I know I said I'd go to the dinner with you, but I thought you were asking for a ride home. No, I'm not deaf. Why do you ask?"

ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

This is the part where Wife would come in and say "but you won in the end! Look, you've got me! And Child!" And all this is true. But for all the ladies who came before, you all sucked.

This wonderfully tragic trend continued into my professional life. Bizarre, convoluted scenarios played out around my job applications. Firms closed up shop, partner meetings were called for the first time in a firm's 50-year history, one firm swore they'd "have a final decision next week" for six months. For years I worked connections, networked, pressed flesh and put my game face on for crippling rejection after horrific blows to the ego.

Until yesterday.

Through a process of 12 - 12! - meetings, conversations with every one of my references, writing samples, and call after call from helpful connections, I got an offer for a job I really want. It's a community job, working for the Tribe in pursuit of "continuity," whatever that means. As for details, well, given the almost complete lack of filter I use on this site, certain things will have to remain a mystery, if only to protect myself and my organization. Suffice it to say that, just like when Wife gave in and decided to date me, this is well worth the wait, and the misery, and the stress, and the waiting, all the waiting.

As for all those other law firms and organizations? I happily wish you a year of venereal disease and flat tires on highways in the middle of traffic.