Old Times

I had a sort of job interview the other day.  Truth be told, it's been a long while since I've been interviewed by strangers.  I was what my friends gleefully call me, a "bank slut" in NZ and had worked in all the banks bar one, so I generally always knew whoever was interviewing me.  Anyhow different story here, and of course I prepared carefully for this interview by (ahem) popping a meal in my slow cooker.  Seriously!  I thought ...I have 10 mins should I ....
(a) do more online research and prep, and get my head in the right zone
(b) put our dinner in the slow cooker so when I get home from soccer practice/swimming with the kids our family doesn't meltdown.
No brainer right?
I also didn't take the address but trusted my instincts and memory.
And yes I was a little late.

Anyhow, the job was a smidge confusing, and the very affable man (like that word?  I think it's the right one?) who interviewed me got excited about something I said, and immediately picked up his speaker phone, banged in a number and  started talking away to an incredibly efficient sounding woman on the other end.  Let me describe to you what her fast talking, intelligent sounding voice looked like.... pencil skirt, dark rimmed glasses, sleek hair in pony tail, slim, Cue suit, sky high pumps, gym bag under her desk, young.  The faster and slicker she talked the slower and more mumsy I felt.  And don't those speaker phone, conference call thingees sometimes terrify you into silence.  I used to always say something just to break my nerves and feel like I needed to say something to justify my presence in that conference call.  But not in this interview, nope, maybe it was the smell of curry around me (from my slow cooker creation), maybe because my hair was anything but sleek but resembled more a birds nest, maybe it was because I was wearing flats and not heels or maybe because the job was very random and I just wanted to get home to my quiet house and my laptop, but I didn't even raise a grunt, or a cough.

Talk about feeling inadequate.  All I thought was that I used to be like that.  And now I wasn't.  And I sort of really wanted to be.
I think I've been quiet too long!