Dan Phipps Sells Out

So, today I doubled my income and gained a whole new world of self-respect. And let me tell you how!

This all goes back to Thursday. I come home from work and all the girls are out travelling to some conflict region or another. Veins in their teeth, Kalashnikovs akimbo, doing what Fulbrighters generally do. So I'm bored and I call Will who's a good friend of mine and put me on the right track to pick up a suit. (obviously, the previous sentence was redundant. Everyone in Tbilisi is my good friend.) So he calls and he says he's at Mark's house, who I promptly confuse with Matt who is another friend. So I go down the street and find the place and its like the nicest apartment I've ever been in and I am introduced to Mark, who is not Matt. But, hey, whatever, he says we're gonna play a board game called Acquire. I laugh, because this is a game I do not recognize, and jokingly ask if he has Settlers of Catan. He seriously responds, "yes". I am cowed.

So we play in his totally rockin' den drinking box wine without the box (so, sack wine) and I manage to tie for second with Will which, i am assured, is a rare event. Then I play around with and try to destroy this really cool wooden puzzle box thing. All is going well, and then I mention that I edit for kish kash on the side but the well done dried up. We go back and forth on the topic and he tells me to "swing by on monday afternoon", and something about interns.

So, Okay, I hang out all weekend and come Monday (today), I go to his house. He is not there. I call him. Oh he's at his office. OK, Where is his office? Right next to the grocery store that is right next to the CAC which is where I work. Rockin'. So I hope on the 4 and take it down and find the place and have to call him to get in and realize i'm at a government building, outside the ministry for tourism. Ok, cool. He lets me in, and tells me he got the go ahead for this project to advertise georgia tourism, and suddenly I remember he told me all about this and I even told him I knew how to make a google bomb (not that I would ever do such a thing b/c I am a good person). He's got a description of the project and its cool and he tells me he wants me to edit and write content for Georgia Tourism and work with the non-native english speakers and that's rad and he wants to know how many hours a week I can work and I say 20. So we talk price and all of the sudden ladies and gentlemen I've doubled my money.

I know what you're thinking: Dan! This is silly. You are silly! You will be working too hard!

And you know what? Maybe you're right. But Check it, I get a desk, a computer, and a chair. If you've been paying attention, this has been my golden standard: All I want out of a job is that I get my own damn chair. This is the grail.

Oh, and now I don't have to say "i teach English". I can say "I work for the Georgian Department of Tourism in their online advertising department".

Of course, this isn't set in stone just yet. I'm working for the next two weeks to see how it works out. I'm hoping it will. I should be able to take on extra hours later on.

So, ladies and gentlemen, this is one of the strangest days i have ever had, and I managed to stumble into a job without really knowing what I was getting myself into after a series of serendipitous events. And now I'm getting real for serious actual work experience. Not "teaching english" which is marginally a real job at best. I am now, for serious, working. I am, in point of fact, thrilled. This is going to cut into a lot of my free time, obviously, and I might ask to cut out one of my classes from the CAC because working on satUrday sucks ultra mega. Still, it sounds like the work I'll be doing will be a lot less stressful.

Query: does this mean Dan is going to blow off yet ANOTHER teaching obligation? (Sources point to "mebbe".)