I laughed, I cried, it was better than Cats.

For those of you who have watched TV in New York in the last thirty years you may remember the title of this article. The unfortunate thing for whoever wrote that commercial is that the line is so memorable that nobody remembers the play that was being advertised.  I googled it to see if I could find out, but it mentioned an SNL skit that used the line and gave a ton of links that also said they couldn't remember the play that was being advertised.

I can see it clearly, a couple is walking out of the theater and the 'man on the street' reporter holds up the microphone and an older, heavyset lady with a strong Brooklyn accent gives her personal review for the non-memorable play, "I laughed, I cried, it was better than CATS."

Since then, I have used that line with the members of my family enough so that they become nauseous and turn green whenever I say it.  It is a catchall phrase that I used to describe great entertainment, totally lousy entertainment and life situations that brought out an emotional reaction.

This has been one of those weeks where I laughed, I cried and it was better than Cats.  On Monday I received word that I had been eliminated from consideration one of the two jobs for which I had interviewed,  I learned this as I was driving to the final interview with the other company where I had made it to the final three candidates.  Still, my interview went well and my hopes were raised.

Then on Thursday my current manager who was one of the main causes of my urgency to leave my job called me at 3:50 PM, his first question was, "Where are you?', when I told him he said, "you're too far away we'll have to do this on the phone."  He then told me that he felt that it was in my best interest to accept a transfer to another district because there wasn't enough business to justify my current role and he wanted to collapse the territory and not backfill it.  At that moment I felt that I had hit the lottery, this man was by far the least effective leader I have ever worked under and he was offering me a transfer to a territory managed by one of my best friends in the company.  While it may have it's awkward moments, this is an opportunity to go back to work for a human being.  Having done their job for 15 years I feel that I am qualified to evaluate others' ability to perform that job, I feel like am going from being managed by Stump Merrill to being managed by Billy Martin, for you Met fans, think Jerry Manuel to Gil Hodges.

So, if you are following, Monday bad then good, Tuesday hate my boss, Wednesday hate my boss, Thursday say good-bye to the boss I hate talk to a boss I like and respect, Friday say good bye to a bunch of good co-workers have a teleconference with my new team, Friday night find out you didn't get the other job and while the reasons for leaving are diminished, the prospects for leaving are non-existent at this time.

So all in all this was a week that made me laugh, it made me cry, and it was STILL better than Cats.