the week that was

having a bit of a sleep in on a sunday morning becomes nearly impossible when you have a kitten. behind my closed door i hear the most pathetic mewing and scratching at the door and digging at the crack under the door. and you'd almost think that after a bit she'd get the hint and wander away. oh, no. not our zelda. she literally just won't stop. she goes on and on and on. so i finally get up, cuddle with her, feed her, play with her and then two minutes later she's upstairs doing the same routine on my roomie's door. there's just no winning with zelda. it's almost like she's saying, 'there's a whole day of fun and playing and annoying to do. get outta bed!'

this past week i've been feeling almost like i've been in career purgatory (yes, i have escaped my early catholic upbringing, but obviously, not completely!) i've been at an old employer of mine. it's a music licensing agency and there is a lot of paper there with unit sales, percentages and total amounts payable. publishing and copyright is quite a tricky thing to understand. i think it's the most least understood aspect of the music industry, in fact, i've worked for at least 2 different publishers who, i'm sure, didn't understand all the moving pieces either!

basically, this past week i've been doing whatever they needed me to do. which, unfortunately for me, consists of clearing up old projects that they haven't had the bodies to do earlier. so, i've been sorting 8 quarters (2 years) worth of royalty statements from zomba music payable to a large number of publisher clients represented by the agency i'm now at. and by sorting, i mean taking a stack of papers about 5 inches high and alphabetizing them by publisher name. and also making sure that any statements that total $0.00 are out of the pile and placed in a separate pile. then i need to photo copy them. and repeat this 8 times until all the quarters are complete. and just to further illustrate the tedium i'm now dwelling in, then i have to merge all quarters together and total all the totals. urgh.

at least i'm not 2 of my friends who called me this week to let me know that that they'd just been fired. one on tuesday and one on wednesday. and no, they don't work at the same company as each other, in fact, they don't even know each other. one had just started as an associate manager at a large tier one company in their online marketing department. after 3.5 weeks she was let go. turns out one week after she started, the hiring manager went to hr and said she wanted my friend to go. the for the next 2.5 weeks hr and the hiring manger's manager tried to keep my friend, but alas... it was not to be. sucks.

the second person to be fired (the wednesday gurl) was someone i worked with at a publishing company. she is from switzerland and about 1.5 years ago this company had gone to the trouble of completing all the paper work and going through all the legal fees of getting her to work for them. because she spoke 5 languages, she was doing all of their international licensing - and from what i could see, was quite good at her job. i haven't actually had the chance to talk to laura yet to get the details, but he message did say 'fired'. urgh. the place we worked was an absolute hell-hole. i left after 3 months and was very happy to do so. basically though, the owner was one of those folk who had worked in publishing for about 20 years (he was an entertainment lawyer first) and that i don't feel really understands the basic concepts of publishing.

a ray of shiney happy light happened on friday evening though. i had an interview at a record label earlier in the week and got a message back on friday. of course, i missed the call and now have to wait until monday to speak to them, but i'm hoping the news is that i'm on the short list and being called back for a second interview. the job would be incredible with new challenges every day and it would be very different than most things i'd done before. it would also include a car allowance. after living here in toronto for 15 years, it would be strange to finally have a car again. not to mention quite convenient for picking up groceries and such!

it would be scary working for a major label again (especially one that HASN'T merged yet), but at least you know that you are given a package if the wheels fall off! but then again, i am not trying to lend any negative energy to this... only positive thoughts. i know, sounds a bit like i'm cracked and some new-age believer-in-angels (for the record, i so am not!) but i do believe that if you make something your reality that it becomes your reality. so no more thinking that i have a black star following me and more thinking that i'm a force of nature that just can't be denied what she wants. ;->

[music | david usher, "white christmas"]