I was dreaming when I wrote this.

The day I finished my Sony project I recieved email from a previous client asking if I’d be available to work on the next release of his product. It’s fun stuff – music related – and the team is easy to work with, so of course I said yes. Almost the minute I hit send on my reply, the floodgates opened. I get a call or email almost daily from a recruiter who has an immediate opportunity right now for someone with exactly my skills right now right now! (Calm down, missy, plus, did you read my resume? Because if you had, you would not be contacting me for that one thing. A-hem.)

I’ve also received email from various former coworkers asking me when I can start. It’s so great, I love being asked, and how nice is it that one of the things I don’t have to do on re-entry is look for work? So nice. Right now, my biggest worry is what to turn down. Hallelujah! I know multiple humans with multiple gigs right now. It’s madness.

Yesterday morning I had a long talk with a carpool companion about the job market. He’s your executive level VP type and he’s looking for a job. This is the first time he’s been out of work for as long as I’ve known him so I asked him how he was enjoying The Secret World of Daytime. “Well,” he said, “I’ve been so busy interviewing that it’s just like working. Only instead of going to the same office everyday, I go to some place and have coffee with some manager type.” He sent me his list of potential employers – more than 30 different companies are on it. He’s talked to 18 of them. 18 interviews. Holy cats.

Naturally, I asked him, “What the hell?!” Apparently the city is once again awash in money and jobs. Accompanying the job glut is a shortage of people to do those jobs. To repeat what another one of my former coworkers said when trying to get me to take a job with her earlier this year, “We’re gonna party like it’s 1999!”

This time around, however, in addition to partying like it’s 1999, we are going to plan properly. We are not going to get paid in paper options and if we somehow get suckered in to that, we’re going to make sure we don’t have the kind that get cancelled when the place goes belly up. And if we get suckered in far enough to actually find out what flavor options we’re getting, we’re certainly not going to exercise them until the absolute last minute that we have to. We are not squandering our money on lofts in buildings named after fruit or artists. We are not buying convertibles that get four miles to the gallon. We are not going to get screwed by weird gains taxes on our imaginary money. Finally, we are going to save for when it’s over, because when it’s over and our unemployment runs out, rather than slouching about the city, we are going to go to New Zealand and go camping for, like five years.

Okay, I say ‘we’ but at my house we didn’t actually do many of those things, only the getting suckered in by worthless options. But hey, we didn’t borrow against our worthless options to buy real estate, so while we did not hit the mother lode, we also avoided bankruptcy. That nine month income free stint was painful, but we came out the other side of it without having to sell the house or the priceless 85 Tercel.

It’s nice to have the boomtown mentality back, but it’s also nice to have perspective on it. When it ends this time – party over, oops, out of time! – I will be prepared. In the interim, I’m looking forward to a whole new set of branded bags, fleece pullovers, baseball hats, mouse pads, etc etc amen. My 1999 gear is getting a bit tired by now. Plus, if you’re going to go work the mines, you want the latest gear. For free. With some kind of logo on it. For some company you won’t remember five years from now. I still have a really nice windstop jacket from Nimble Technnology, but I could use a new laptop bag.

You know what music to play now, right?