Good news on the job front. I got called back for another interview with the woman who is the boss of the three people who interviewed me on Friday. Whether I get this job or not, I'm just happy that I had a good interview with another group to counter the horrible interview I had two weeks ago with a different group at the same company. The people I interviewed last Friday even said the company is so big that working in a different group is like working in a totally different world.

It's nice to know that I can still interview well. At the last company I interviewed with back in August and September, I interviewed four times and even got to talk to the head guy back in Connecticut. It was that last interview that killed my job prospects I think. I wasn't on my game. I had just gotten back from my weekend with M-Square, which I wasn't planning on. I thought I would have the interview before Labor Day, but there was a mix-up. Oh well. I was iffy on that job anyway, which I told the HR person and they insisted on putting my resume through anyway. That healthcare company is a huge national player! They are publicly traded and their stock price is huge! But they were going through a major reorg at the time I was interviewing, and you could tell that group and position was very much in flux. They wanted and sounded like they needed a sales person and not an analyst. I can so sales because I've had to but it's not my strength.

I want a job that plays to my strengths and not my weaknesses and I want to work for a company that's doing really well. And most importantly of all, I want to work for nice people.

The thing I've realized about my current job is I'm not trusted here. My immediate boss trusts me, but her boss doesn't. And it's not like I can't do my job, it's just a personality thing. The woman and I just don't get along; I don't trust and like her and she doesn't trust and like me. And from past experience, my performance and my enjoyment at any job has suffered when I'm not liked.

I don't even see it as personal. It's just a personality conflict that can't be helped and which neither of us can change. You can't make yourself like someone or trust someone. This job has always been a iffy fit and I knew that going in. All the signs were there, but I needed a job so I took it. And for the most part it wasn't bad, but the part that was bad just got worse.

What's worse is how much I realized yesterday how my work self-esteem really suffered at this job without me even realizing it. When you're trusted and like at a job, you feel confident in your abilities to get things done. When it's the opposite sitation, you start to doubt yourelf, your work and your ability. I started to believe I was incompetant, and I know I'm not. I've had jobs with way more responsibilities than what I have now, way more accountabilities than what I have now, and yet in this job I felt so stupid.

I think the problem is I let myself believe I was stupid because I wasn't trusted. Talk about playing to expectations. I think it's bad karma if you do that do someone, but that's just my feeling. At least I figured it out in time to realize it and to get out.

And I will get out, one way or another, I will move to greener pastures. The creator of the Dilbert cartoon was quoted as saying once "creme always rises to the top if creme is willing to the bottle." I think this is so true. You might not be a superstar in one company but you might be in another. This has certainly happened to me in my job life.

I went to see the ACT's revival production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". I sort of vaguely remember watching the movie from childhood, but really knew nothing about the story. Now I think I need to rent the movie version just to see what the differences are with this new 1974 revision from Tennessee Williams.

Here's the SF Chronicle review of the play; ACT's 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' prowls quietly until Big Daddy storms in and rocks the house.

I don't normally agree with theatre reviews from the Comical, but this one is right now. The firt act fairly dragged, and it was hard to see why Maggie would stay married to Brick other than the fact she was poor and had married into a rich family and didn't want to be poor again. The actor playing Brick was so unresponsive and he had his shirt off for most of the first act and seemed to just be posing the whole time. He had a great body, but I don't think there was any sexual chemistry between the two of them.

I loved the actor playing "Big Daddy", and like Maggie adored her father-in-law's crudeness and devastating honesty. Williams gave Big Daddy some really great lines! One thing Big Daddy talks about is how you put up with people in your life even though you don't really like them, and there's very few people you do like even if you're married to them or if they're your children. This observation of life is so sadly true. I find so few people that I do really like, and when I find someone it is such a joy. But unlike Big Daddy, I try not to have anyone close in my life that I don't like. Life is too short ... why put up with "mendacity"? I have to do it at work, which I absolutely hate and which in these last two years is becoming harder and harder for me to do.

What was really striking is how clearly the audience was able to see everyone's agenda. It was refreshing really to see people's real motives displayed like that on stage. Nothing was hidden and it was all out for everyone on stage and for the audience to see. That's probably Williams' genius as a playwright coming through. You can despise characters on the one hand, but sympathize with them as well for their motivation because it's so naked and so human.

I think Brick is the most problematic character because he's not as clearly drawn. I think you could make a case either way as to his sexuality because of the confusion. Was he swish? Maybe, maybe not ... I think all you can say is Skipper was, but the Skipper story is all second-hand observation and told from Maggie's and Brick's point of view.

I don't think the play is on par with "Night of the Iguana" or "A Streetcase Named Desire" or "The Glass Menagerie" or even "The Rose Tatoo", but even a bad Tennessee Williams' play is better than 99.9% of the modern plays out there.

M-Square was so sweet last night. When I told him I had a horrible day at work, he said he was sorry he couldn't be there for me. But he was! Just talking to me made me feel so much better. What a joy to talk to the man you love after you've had a hard day at work.

M-Square is really trying to work on our relationship. I had such a horrible day at work today, and somehow he knew and he called me as soon as he got home from work and we talked and he made me feel so much better.

I so adore him!

I am watching this very long world series game and it so feels like the Whitesox are a team of destiny. It would be really cool if the Whitesox won just because it would match that time when the Redsox won and the Whitesox won the next year. Baseball history is repeating itself and that's very cool.

I heard from a very good source last week that he expected indictments in the Whitehouse because of the Plame case. He said that Rove and company would be indicted, and that when that happened by implication it would mean that Shrub and Cheney were also guilty. We'll see.