Spider Prophet

The publishing industry is like an ex-boyfriend.

He’s treated me badly, beaten me up, left me without a notice and more or less in the worst shape of my life. But somehow, I can never really leave him behind. After days left waking up with nowhere to go, all of sudden he’s on the phone promising me things, and I can’t deafen my ears to his silver tongue. The promises of late nights, skipping lunch to go to a last minute “meeting” and being showered with free gifts makes a fool of me every time. After an hour of teasing (and maybe a bit of oral foreplay), I end up in the same place I was before. Nervous, waiting for a phone that never arrives, until finally, went my withdrawal is almost through, I get a letter from you saying that you’ve left all over again.

Though this description may be a little bit of too much verbal masturbation, it is the best way I have of describing the experience of trying to enter the publishing world. Despite all the mistreatment, I can still feel my blood race when I get that literary world gets close to me. Perhaps enough is never enough?

It seems like I’ve been on a whirlwind of interviews. It makes it hard for me to keep track of where I’ve been, what jobs I was actually interested in, or where else there is to go from here. Mostly because, I’m not even sure where it is that I am now. I feel like a kid trying to find the pinata. After all the spinning around, I’ve been dropped back on the ground and may very well  be walking in the opposite direction of all the goods. However, there aren’t many, if any, guideposts to show me otherwise. (The lack of guideposts is something that shall be discussed in a different entry.)

And yet, at this moment, I still hold out faith in it. In him.

- Spider

Within my first two days of working in Office I was obscured from sight about four times. By the end of my first week, I totaled at eleven. Two weeks: nineteen. Three weeks: thirty-two. “Are these accurate numbers?” the reader may ask. Did I create an excel spreadsheet to properly track my instances of invisibility? No. But you should still take my word on the figures, since I probably down-played how often it actually did (and continues to) occur.

And let me tell you reader, no Disillusionment Charm or Invisibility Cloak borrowed from Potter could work any better.

I’ve been working for four separate offices for a little over a month now and it seems to hold no end. Their power either rises from the fact that they’re in a foul mood or that they’ve decided that whatever bochinche they’re about to spill is so important, that it will block my ears as they speak it.

This was the most recent scene:

I’m standing at a filing cabinet and am putting away some books. As I slip the last book into it’s place, I turn to see the head of the department walk into the office. I say good morning and he responds with something between a grunt, word and mumble. How one could manage so many different tones is beyond me. I ignore the near-response and return to my seat. He begins to speak with the person I share the office space with. I go about my checking my packets and reading e-mails until my ears pick up on:

“… and you should have Miguel go around the building and ask everyone for their copy.”

I’m sitting right there. Less than two feet away from him. I just finished saying good morning to the man and he talks as if he can’t see that I’m there. Once he began talking, I somehow spontaneously teleported out of the room so that he could speak freely.

At these moments, all I want to do is shout out in the name of self-respect and common decency, but I know that those are not currencies that run very well in the publishing world. Or any office for that matter. You’re built up on careful plotting and precise execution.

Personally, I’d worry more if my underlings developed cruel streaks, as should others.

- Spider