The Interview Was Across Town!
I am the worst mother ever.
Shane had his first job interview yesterday. Since I was originally scheduled to be in Nashville that day, I started panicking about logistics at least two weeks in advance.
I sent an email to my husband, cc’ing Shane, providing the specifics: name of interviewer, phone number, address, date, time. Then, sure that they would lose the email anyway, I sent the email to myself so that I would have it available when they called me in Nashville and asked where to go.
As luck would have it, Dylan changed his plans and I did not need to pick him up in Nashville. Woo-hoo! I was able to take Shane to his job interview. No more worries!
On the 15-minute drive, for which we had 30 minutes, I grilled Shane with pre-interview questions. I had printed out a copy of his original job description from Indeed.com. After he reread that, I asked him what questions he had about the job.
“I don’t really have any,” he said.
“Then you aren’t going to stand out as an applicant,” I said. “You are smart, you look nice, and you are going to do a great job. But if you don’t have any questions for her, she will think you don’t really care about the job. So you need to think of some questions!”
We were already in the parking lot when he finally came up with some good questions. And they were actually great questions! I couldn’t have thought of them myself, nor could I have answered them. I was very proud of his brilliance. I knew he was ready to go inside.
Plus, he was 10 minutes early: the perfect amount of time for him to get inside and casually, calmly do his thing.
“So where am I going?” Shane asked, looking around. The parking lot was nearly empty.
Suddenly I remembered the email I’d sent to Bill a week earlier. Wasn’t there a different address on that email…?
I quickly pulled out my phone and checked – then I panicked. The interview was across town!
And it was happening in nine minutes.
We took off like a shot. I ran a red light coming out of the parking lot and skidded onto the main road.
In my race to get to the right place, I ignored the GPS and completely missed my turn. I came flying back up a side road, catapulting over speed bumps that were meant to slow me down. The whole time, I was bashing myself aloud for being such an idiot, and half-apologizing to Shane, who wasn’t really that panicked.
“Should I tell them why I was late,” he asked, “or would that just make it worse?”
“You should absolutely tell them,” I said. “And blame me! It was my fault for not knowing where I was going.” I didn’t mention that Shane should have known the address, too; but why miss an opportunity to be a bad parent? As long as Shane got the job offer, I didn’t care if they thought I was a moron.
With less than a minute to spare, I drove straight up to the door. I felt like an Olympic skier doing a victory skid at the bottom of the hill. Shane hopped out and very calmly went inside.
His interview went well, although we have no idea if he got the job. But the important lesson for the day: I should never believe I know what I’m doing. It’s probably at the root of all of my issues.