Funny - I posted about Miranda July and Keri Smith in the same entry as well :)

You are both top notch.

http://megmcgrath.com/blog/2006/07/15/artists/

Oh this is too funny! You know I worked a short stint at Leo Burnett here in Norway. I got hired as an ad-assistant, my first "real" job in the business way back in 96. I even left my internship at a design studio to go work for them. It was a total disaster, after only a week I was absolutely miserable but I dared not say so because everybody kept telling me that they had given me such a big opportunity by hiring me.

By the end of my trial period (6 dreadful months) the boss called me into his office at the end of the day to give me his review. He asked me how I liked it there and I lied and said “fine” and then he went on to tell me that they did not think I was the right fit for their company.

I was so relieved and finally admitted that I did not like my job at all. In fact his news about them not wanting to keep me on made me so happy and beaming that he somewhat befuddled told me that “I should try to show more of that side of my personality in my next job”.

To this day I am so glad that I got fired – I was to young and green to dare to quit myself and who knows how many years I might have stayed on a job I absolutely hated.

I loved this - the wish jar takes me on the most unexpected and juicy travels - in one of those restful (which worries me sometimes) in between places - this is most nutricious

thanks

xox - eb.

Oh man-weren't you just gobsmacked by this. (I have to say gobsmacked whenever I get the chance)

Yay for you and I can't wait for Wreck and July's book to come out.

Please please please do my 3 questions!!

That is so so true.

Hehe. So now your book is basically being "advertised" on an advertising agency's blog. That is rather... ironic.

Ah, the irony. :) I had just come across Miranda July's website for her new book yesterday and it seemed appropriately goofy and creative, as she always is. (And I mean goofy in the best sense.) I remember when she lived in Portland during my years there...I wish now I'd paid more attention to her work then. You might like this post at Evelyn Rodriguez's blog...it's sort of about this very thing...how sometimes we have ideas of what we think we want to do...yet they don't work out because they're really not right for us...

http://evelynrodriguez.typepad.com/crossroads_dispatches/2007/04/cheat_sheet_to_.html

I always like to read about the universe & our experiences with timing. And thank you for the link - I had no idea that Miranda July was publishing a book. That was a nice surprise :-)

That's a great story. And so true! I've experienced some disappointing rejections in the past, but when I think about it now, I'm grateful for that experience, because nine times out of ten, it was an area of illustration, cartooning or design that I really didn't want to pursue in the long run. It's all part of a 'big learning plan' that takes time for us to figure it out.

Makes me think of the lyric from Chili Peppers Tell Me Baby- "Some dreams were meant to be declined"
sometime the best things in life arent necessarily the things you would choose for yourself, because better things are destined for you...

oh this is beautifual and how_it_should_be.

I hope that one day I have a similar story to share.

I think it's akin to some of the discoveries being made in your How to Wreck a Journal group. That the least-considered is often the most fruitful, and that there are no failures, just lessons in how to let go of our expectations of what success should be.

amen!

i like what mike dooley said on the unexpected (especially the crappy kind of surprises)

"whenever the unexpected lands in our path, it is a stepping stone in a journey to a place that we have been thinking of."

thanks for sharing, keri. you continue to inspire. :-)))

You're so right... so many times, over the years, I've been disheartened when people didn't call me back or hire me for a project, but when I honestly look back - not being hired for whatever kept me open to what I was supposed to do.

I'm in one of those places right now - not getting a project I hoped for, and therefore being free as a bird to finish the other thing that I know in my heart I must complete.

It's all good. Very, very good.