Catching Up

I need to write down what's been going on recently, which may be a long update.

On the job front: The Pointright job didn't work out..they told me that they felt they "needed to see other people", as they had only interviewed two people. Despite the fact that the 2 women i interviewed with really liked me, and even the manager said it "looked promising". I hate to say that I was "everything they are looking for", but I thought I was pretty close. I met with the CEO, and for some reason, I'm guessing that he thought they could do better. So, onward and downward.

After that I scheduled (and paid for) 3 sessions with Arnie Fertig, who is a career coach I know from the TENG list. I've had two sessions with him, and he redid my resume very nicely. I used it to apply to a job in the music department at Northeastern, as an admin assistant. I asked JJ to put in a good word for me and deliver my resume, which he did, but I don't think it helped. I'm not sure he did anything more than dump it on the hiring manager's desk, actually. thanks JJ. Arnie believes that most jobs are only found via networking and personal contacts, but my friends and my own experience say otherwise. I wish it was true.
Arnie, I discovered, is also the Rabbi at the temple in Melrose... I had no idea of this.


So, I concentrated on the High Holidays. After the HC minimester, I really neglected the music studying. I needed to find more things to sing, try to maybe apply some nusach, etc. and let the rabbi know what I was doing. But after Alan's mother passed away, the summer went swiftly, and I just gave passing thoughts to all the work I should have been doing.

But everything worked out fine. Alan came both days on Rosh Hashana, and I did my usual. Nat and Gary and kids came for dinner YK night and came to hear me sing Kol Nidre. It was nice to have them, but it's always so chaotic and rushed. I said that I'd really like to have them for a nice dinner some weekend night when there's no rushing around, and Gary, ever the pessimist, said "that's not likely to happen"...They are just SO busy!!

I should mention, because it's an ongoing bone of contention at the temple, that Rabbi D is now the rabbi at both AAEI and TTI. We had a 30 minute Erev RH service and then he rushed up to TTI for THEIR service. Alan and I followed. Well, WE had about 15 people at ours - they had about 70 people at theirs, plus their HH cantor, and Bunny and her choir. That service lasted about 1.5 hours.

I had a nice chat with Michael S on YK - when I was sitting alone (Alan was in Waltham), and Michael said that if Rabbi D brought his guitar again on Simchat Torah, he'd rip it out of his hands. Nice! Which is why, if DK goes to TTI, I will probably go with him - ha ha. But they don't need a cantor, and DK has been very encouraging to me. Which leads to the next point....

I invited Debby H to come hear me sing Kol Nidre... she's not Jewish, and her Jewish boyfriend was home with his "people" in Canada. Since she comes to everything else and knows people, I knew she'd come. But what she wrote to me afterward was surprising and embarassing, but I am copying it here for "posterity". I guess maybe I need to hire her as my "coach"...

Part of it is pure hyperbole, part rings true, part is fantasy, but she did spur me to action. I signed up for a nusach course at Hebrew College, which starts next week. Baby Steps.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phyllis,
You were amazing. Flawless. I know good singing and your soaring, perfect delivery thrilled me. You need to quit looking for crappy jobs and get to Cantorial school. Put your condo on the market. If the market is too soft, try to rent it for the cost of the monthly mortgage paynment. Boston.com gets gets good tenants for you. It costs you a one-time fee, $150, or $300. I don't remember the exact amount but it's tax deductible and the great tenants I got are on their fourth year here.
Tell Alan he has the choice of either paying your tuition himself or letting you move in with him for free until school is done. That seems reasonable to me. It's finite, so he's not agreeing to an endless arrangement but it would give you a chance to try out living together. Maybe, in the midst of it, you guys would decide to marry.
The thing is, you should spend the next fifteen or twenty years doing something you are good at the gives you and brings others joy. You deserve that and that is the path you should be on. Yes, it's expensive, but it's an investment in the rest of your life. And don't forget to explore whatever they might offer in the way of financial aid based on merit and/or tuition assitance at low interest rates. I have a girlfriend who went back to school at Brown U. in her late 40s and found there was financial aid available to older women going back to school. Ask, you never know what might be available if you don't ask.
Also, you should have a Phyllis Werlin website and you should have links people can click on to hear you sing. The jobs will book themselves. You need to find out what other soloists charge so that you have a ready answer when someone asks to hire you. We still have to figure a way to drive the right Jews to the site, but anybody who clicked on a link to you singing the way you did tonight would hire you in a minute.
Debby
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~