Googling

Today was my first day as an official, permanent employee. Ever, actually. Anywhere. This is the first job I've ever had that was really "for keeps," and not a summer internship or a temp job. Well, I suppose "permanent" means something rather different now than it did fifty years ago but still, it's pretty cool. The foreseeable future is looking good, at least, and I'm really happy to be working at such a great place, with great people. Congratulations also to fellow newbies Kimmy and Biz. Yay us!

This might be an interesting time to share a dream I had a while back, seeing as how dream interpretation can be rather easier in retrospect. This was about a year and a half ago, when I was applying for a different job at Google. I dreamt that I was sitting at the entrance to a building selling tickets to a line of people, when a man came up to me and asked if he could get $100 cash advance on his credit card. Somehow I must have been able to do that, because I said "Sure," and gave it to him. He handed it right back to me, along with the credit card, which was marked with the Google logo, saying "It's a gift — compliments of Google recruiting."

Of course, this got my hopes up quite a bit, so I was rather disappointed when I didn't get the job. But it gets more interesting when you look at what's happened over the last year and a half. First, notice the contrast of the two main symbols in this dream: cash and a credit card. Both represent the same sort of thing (being able to buy stuff) but in different ways. The cash is finite and ready for immediate, one time use. The credit card represents much greater purchasing power that is also more sustainable, since you can use it over and over. But it also has the connotation of delay, since you don't actually shell out the money for a purchase untill a few weeks later when you get the bill.

So then it turned out that I got a temp job at Google for a couple months early this year. I was making some money, though not a whole lot, and only for a short amount of time. I got to work at Google, though, which is cool in and of itself. But now, after several more months, I'm back, and I'm permanent this time. The temp job was cash; this is the credit card. Delayed gratification. Pretty cool.

So anyway, was that a prophetic dream? Well, back in May of 2002 I certainly couldn't have predicted how things would work out. It does seem like a nice symbolic foreshadowing, though, once you go back and stick an explanation on it. So you can just believe whatever you want about it.