A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I had to turn down a job because they don’t pay enough and I’m too busy. What I didn’t say is that they kept asking me to work for them, and they did it the right way.

“Are you *sure* you can’t make it,” the coordinator said. “Marianne said you were the PERFECT person for this job.”

I was driving when this email came through on the BlackBerry, and I found myself texting a response back while I drove.

“What do you mean ‘the PERFECT person’?” One might think I was fishing for compliments at this point perhaps, but really I was just trying to get a feel for what type of job people think I’m the PERFECT person for. (Yeah, right…. and I was fishing for compliments).

Long post short, the job is teaching a half-day Advanced MS Outlook class to the young, aggressive sales staff of a young, aggressive company. This is a make up class because the group chewed up and spit out the first instructor, fired him at the break and demanded a new class. I just got the full story yesterday, because I was too hung up on me being the PERFECT person for the job to really figure out what was wrong with the first person.

Ugh.

So the class starts first thing this morning. I’ve been studying advanced Outlook stuff off and on for three days. I’m worried about how to look hip yet teacher-y to this group of 20-somethings. The coordinator told me, “Look, I’m going to be there, and I’m not going to let them abuse you. I’ll pull you out of there before anything bad happens.”

Holy smokes. What has my ego done to me now? I love teaching, but this challenge coupled with a very busy work period has my eye twitching.

The good news is that I used to teach College English in a prison for boys when I lived in Colorado. I say “boys,” but these guys were bigger than I am. I had to take their training on what to do in a hostage situation before I started teaching. After those guys, I think I can handle ambitious sales people for a company on fire.

But really, what the hell do I wear?