One that satisfies my artistic needs...

Or not.

Or just healthcare needs.

This coming Monday will mark my first day as official employee of Big Corporation. March 1 I'll have health insurance coverage with no preExisting waiting period. And vacation days. Paid. And sick leave. Paid. *giddy*

This must be a mark of sashaying into middle age-- I give a crap about the healthcare benefit. Then again, I am an habitual pneumonia-getter, so the medical coverage definitely rates...

Funny thing was I was mistaken about when I went on break Thursday morning. Thought I'd left at 9:50, but I'd actually left at 9:45. So I was back at my cube, goofing off and my boss called me and said "You've been on break for 19 minutes. I need to see you in my office. Immediately."

Liqui-poo. Seriously. I could have soiled myself right there. She never gets mad at me and today she sounded really pissed. Crap! I got over there and she told me the temp service wouldn't be employing me any more because the company was hiring me permanently. In a scene which was actually much less rife with cliche and gooey sentiment than you'd imagine, there were tears and hugs.

She told me that she finally was at liberty to tell me that people all over the building (especially some of the folks in quality) were demanding that she find a way to get me hired. She said they were all saying "we can't let her go!"

I didn't tell you at the time, but there were a couple tiny issues (resolved in my favor) that happened at the worst possible moment-- when they were considering bringing the temps in as permanent employees. I was still on a probationary program (along with the others), but they offered jobs to all of those people at the end of October. Since November, I've been the only temp in customer service at the company, and I've just been trying to fly under the radar and not call attention to myself, in case they should decide to let me go. The irony was that most of the quality hiccups of mine were overturned, and I made it off of the probationary program around the beginning of the year with very high marks, and I know that some of the people they'd hired were on the probationary program well after I'd gotten off of it. One of life's little ironies, I suppose.

Anyway, the good news is that things feel much more secure in the employment arena, and that's a nice feeling. I've earned this.