The Beautiful People, or, Adventures in Paranoia

I haven't been blogging as often as I should and I'm behind in reading other blogs....life gets in the way sometimes!

But, I had a job interview yesterday! At a very unlikely place, at least for me.

The town I live in is where the headquarters for a national clothing chain are located, and I applied for the position of "Adminsitrative Assistant to the Director of Operations." Sounds high-falutin' eh? lol

But the reason it's an unlikely place for me to work? This chain sells clothes targeted to teens and young adults a'la The Gap and Abercrombie and Fitch.....you know the kind.....where you have to be a size 4 or 6 to be able to look good in any of their hip and trendy clothes that the Beautiful People wear. Back in the day, in high school when I *could* wear those types of fashions, I shopped at this particular store frequently. It was THE place to shop; in my era if you didn't get your Guess jeans from there you were considered so uncool.

This is one of their ads

Fast forward 20 years.....and I'm a frumpy, plus-sized woman who couldn't care less about trends and fashion. And I'm applying *there*? Holy Schnikey! Well, I'm desperate to get out my current job, that's the only reason for that kind of insanity!



Now, of course, I realized that I was applying to work in their corporate office, not in the retail store itself (where only thin young folk work), but I was irrationally expecting the office to be full of the Beautiful People too. I know from other people who have had friends or their kids work in the retail stores that employees are given a 40% discount because there's an unspoken expectation that you're supposed to wear their clothes to work. So, yesterday I was browsing their online store to see if they had any plus-size offerings......I found four things. Three pairs of jeans, and one blouse. That's ALL they had in a size above a 16! I thought, "If they have that clothes expectation in their offices as well, I'll be in trouble if I get this job!"



I arrived for the interview and the girl behind the front desk was.....a Beautiful Person. Oh No! I felt doomed before the interview even started. She directed me to the lobby to sit and wait.....surrounding me on the walls were blown up photos of models wearing the fall fashions. I averted my eyes and tried to calm down; I could already feel the nervous perspiration beginning. A few minutes later out walked the woman who was to interview me.....and she was normal! To show my petty side, I silently reveled in the fact that she was slightly older than I, AND her hair was thinning even worse than mine! Sometimes, in desperate situations, the only things that matter are the shallow ones.



*disclaimer: now please don't go thinking that I'm a shallow person who doesn't think people are worth anything unless they're a "beautiful person," I'm writing tongue in cheek here and poking fun at my own insecurities.

Carry on.



I was pleasantly surprised that the job wouldn't have anything to do with clothes or fashion at all. The director I'd be reporting to oversees the logistical side of the stores: new construction, maintenance, dealing with vendors, architects, etc, which would be right up my alley as that's what my job at the university has entailed. On paper, I'm more than qualified for this administrative assistant gig.....it remains to be seen though if she liked how I presented myself and will call me back for a second interview.

Keep your fingers crossed for me! :)

*and lo and behold, as I was typing this blog I got a phone call for another interview at a different department on campus I had applied for weeks ago....doesn't rain but pours I guess. Something had better come of all this soon!!