Ithaca is Gorges!

The phone call went well. Very well.

I'm confident that I will get a second interview. In fact, he basically said that he would be calling me at the end of the week or early next week to set up a second interview next week. Ideally, he would want to make an offer before the end of the year (Merry Christmas!) and have the person start in January.

It would be a great job. I would actually be "doing" things, rather than pushing projects from this person to this person, rather than having meetings to talk about how busy everyone is, rather than dealing with the office politics of a college campus. I would dealing with the media again, creating long-range marketing and advertising plans, holding press conferences and writing press releases.

So what's the down side? Because, of course, there is a down side. And it is what it always comes down to -- money.

He did quote me a salary range -- that would be in the range of $8-10,00 less than I currently make. I asked if the salary was negotiable. He said that he wouldn't want to weed out a potential candidate over a dollar sign, so yes, he would be willing to sit down and negotiate.

That sounds promising enough, but I already have debt that I am paying off, from taking a job that sounded great, but didn't pay that well. A job that I stuck with for five years, waiting for the pay-off -- all the while, sometimes needing to pay for groceries on my credit card.

I don't need to be making more than I make now. I just really can't make less. Or I'll never be able to buy a house and have a baby, which are the goals. And perfectly possible under the current budget.