Last week, I came home from work tired and angry, much the same way I've done every day for the past year. My mom caught me at the door and showed me a want-ad she'd highlighted in the local paper. It was tiny, as want-ads go. "BIG APPLE CIRCUS - seeks HORSE GROOM to feed and care for horses. Tours with show. No experience necessary. Contact XX@XXXX." What the hell, I thought. I'd been shotgunning resumes out into space for the past year with no leads, trying to move forward. What would one more e-mail hurt? It certainly wouldn't be the weirdest thing I'd applied to.
So, I shot off an e-mail. I kept it simple, no more than three sentences. Basically, "I have horse experience, which consists of x, y, and z, and I'm interested to hear more about the job". Send.
I left it at that, and forgot about it. Who really runs away to join the circus?
Then, on Tuesday, my phone rings. The circus is calling. Long story short, they're very interested. I take the night to mull it over, with an invitation to come visit them the following day at their home base of Walden, NY - a mere 45 minutes for me.
Wednesday rolls around and that afternoon I find myself in Walden, walking up to a nondescript building. I meet my Point of Contact. After chatting in his normal, business-like office, he offers to take me back to the horse stables to meet the Lead Trainer, who would be my immediate boss. I'm lead through a warren of offices and halls, and emerge in a giant warehouse full of cranes, welding equipment, sawdust, and massive, mysterious tarp-covered objects. He lead me through a small door and I had to fight not to do a double-take.
Another large warehouse, only this one brightly lit, set as the circus reherasal space. Trapeze rigging, padded floors, and acrobats and tumblers practicing all around us. It was like a movie, or a dream. Weaving through acrobatics, we finally came out to the back of the complex.
My POC handed me off to the Lead Trainer (who also performs the horse/animal acts) and the real tour began. The clean, massive horse stables. 12 beautiful white Arabians. A porcupine. A pot-bellied pig. Several ferrets. Several yappy little trained dogs. And a capybara (Look it up!). These animals would be my purview. They are the performers, I am their personal assistant.
I was shown the rest of the grounds, the sleeping quarters, showers, laundry trailer, cookhouse(!!) and finally, the bigtop itself. So. Fucking. Cool. The center ring, the trapeze rig, the red velvet audience seats, the colors, the sheer space of it. What a thrill!
We kicked back in the audience seats and just chatted. The new Swedish directors for the new season, the international cast and language barriers, the circus life, on and on. And then, almost as an aside, LT mentions, "Oh yeah, the new directors have this vision this year of complete involvement. Everyone is in the show. So, when I'm on stage, you'll be out there too". I had a horrible flash of myself sweating under the bright lights in a pink tutu and like, sparkly tights. Damn my imagination!
We'll see how* that* goes.
I met back up with my POC. He and LT again stated how impressed they were with my qualifications (2 sentences in an e-mail guys!!!) and that they really liked me (a "vibe"?!). Basically, the job is mine if I wanted it. Now, I've got to digress for a moment. I don't know if it's my background, and the jobs I've had in the past, or residual cop instincts (which I'll probblly never loose), or what, but my brain kept shouting "YOU GUYS DON'T KNOW ME!! No resume, no background. I could be Daniel Radcliff from Eqqus and be crazy and slash horses at night!" Meh. I guess I'm so used to being vetted at every step of a hiring process, grilled in panel interviews, warned of criminal prosecution if you falsify information on your application, blah blah, all the gov't jazz.
Back on track! It's actually refreshing. A fresh start. I could be anything here. Do anything. Leave everything behind me.
It took two seconds for me to stick out my and shake on it. "I'm your new horse groom."
"Welcome to the family."
I gave my two weeks notice yesterday. The day after that two weeks, I move int0 the circus. Two weeks of learning the ropes, dress rehearsals, who knows, and then we roll out!
In four days, I ran away with the circus.
