Well, that was fast....

So, I went for a interview this afternoon at the Museum of Tolerance( in Beverly Hills) and they offered me the job on the spot! No credit check. No background check. NO NOTHING!!! Just "pending my referrences", and most of those should be fine. There's only one guy on there that I had to track down from my museum days that I'm not sure they'll be able to get on the phone ( because he never answers it OR checks his email...); other than that, I think I'm good to go! I start Monday, anyway, or so they told me...
Plus, the Head of HR lives in Sherman Oaks ( in the Valley, like me) so I got a few tips on how to get over there to Really Expensive Real Estate Land without the haul down the 405. That's a BIG relief. I'm not getting paid anything big to drive 35 miles to work and back....
Which isn't to say it pays TOO much less than I'm making now ( 25cents less than The Boutique), and I can work up to 29 hours in there if I so choose. I don't know if I'd choose that, since I went through the museum today and it is suuuuuuuuper depressing. Not like I'd think it was a skip-de-tra-la-la-la through park or anything, but they give you this "passport" with a real Holocaust victim on it, and at various points in the museum, you slip the card into a reader to find out how he/she is progressing. At the end of the tour you find out whether "you" lived or died. Mine was a 4 year old girl who, I found out later, was gassed to death in Terezin at 4 1/2. Naturally, that did not make my day.
I get that it is a powerful teaching tool, and this is important work. I just don't know if I can help people through all that every day of the week and not feel like going home and downing a bottle of Scotch! I mean, it's not like we're doing SO much better with society as a whole...with the reports I get from Anthony and my having to ask one of the curators "do they update these regularly ( the short films about 20th century genocides)?" you know? ( Of course after the latter I immediately blurted out "Oh, gosh. I'm sorry." The curator said, sadly, "No, unfortunately, it's a valid question...."). The guy who coordinates groups and tours led me through and said eventually you get used to it. That's kind of a weird prospect also, in its own way.
The first half of the museum is on the Holocaust; the second half of the museum is the Tolerance Wing, and that's a tad easier to deal with. It's about hate crimes and hate speech and bigotry, primarily. Never thought I'd say THAT would be the easier part of a job, but it is. It's more interactive and designed to get people thinking about themselves and what they think they know about others, and how what they say has meaning and power.
Although no kids are allowed in the museum under 10 ( I was even wracking my brain today trying to remember how old I'd been when I'd learned about Hitler and the Jews and all that. I guess the really awful details probably came to be taught to me formally about then, although it seems like I always knew about it in general. Maybe not. But the staff were saying that some kids today don't even know ANYTHING, even what it IS-- even older ones High school! I find that mindboggling... ::me shaking my head::. Anyway...) THAT ( the Tolerance Wing) section prohibits some things from being shown to grade schoolers, like stuff on exploitation of kids and sex trafficking, etc. ( Can you imagine? "Mom, what's a clitorectomy?" Oh, like I wouldn't lose my job after *that* phone call. And how could I blame them? Crap, I wouldn't wanna explain it to MY kid at 10...) Even the Holocaust stuff I thought was a little gruesome for kids , but compared to what they're probably seeing on cable, well....maybe a bit of understanding how serious murder is when it's real would help put some things back into perspective. I'm not sure about the trauma aspect, though, so I remain undecided. I suppose I'll find out....
THEN I was informed that part of my job in education would be to give tours to a.) various corporate groups, b.) the LAPD as part of diversity training , and ...... c.) skinheads and gang members who were court ordered there for a hate crime. . I think that's great and all, they should damned well have to be there and see exactly what it's all about. I'm just biting my nails a bit anticipating the mayhem. If some skinhead makes some slur, it's going to take all I have to keep the heel of my shoe out of his eyeball, KWIM? Sigh. But I have to remain cool- I'm the voice of reason, after all. The one doing the social justice, trying to teach them something good. Yes, me. The white girl with fair hair and blue eyes ( does that help or hinder me in this situation?). It's curious proposition to take on.
All in all, a job full of things I have to steer carefully of. But I'm glad I have it. I'm proud of the work overall, and FINALLY a job in museum, a nationally reknown one!

Additionally...... I stopped by The Boutique today to get my pay from last week ( of course, it was not there), and it was so weird in there. Some new chick behind the counter and whatnot, and all this new product....I WILL call her in two weeks, and see what she's got, because it's> an extra $160 a week I could be making for essentially standing around. I STILL don't know if she was serious about my coming back, but who knows? I can only do as the woman says....
Even so, I DID go ahead and apply at a nearby Extremely Expensive Asian Furniture and Imports Store today, and the buyer there ( not a native English speaker, clearly) seemed to be impressed that I knew about art and about Buddhism. His brother is the one who does the hiring, and he won't be back til Mon. I'm going to follow up on it, though. I just don't want all my income to rely on teaching kids about the Death Camps, since I don't know how much of it *I* will have tolerance for. Especially when I have to drive to Beverly Hills to do it.

I am hopeful. Hopefully, that turns out to be a good thing!