Just when I decide that I'm done caring and I can't go through the stupid cycle of hoping only to have those hopes dashed another time, something else dangles another carrot in front of me. I've seriously applied to four jobs down here and could actually see myself thriving in each of them. Other applications have been throwaways to see if anything comes of it, but those four I had the qualifications and actually wanted to be chosen for the job.

This time it's exactly what I was doing before, a business researcher for a different, smaller bank (I'll be optimistic and call it SIB since if all goes well I may be writing about it in the future), but this is a night shift (much better for my natural sleep/wake time and I have no social life to speak of here anyway so that's hardly a handicap), most importantly for now it is fully remote, but based in NYC so that if I do decide to move back or have to do hybrid schedule at any point in the future I get to go home to NYC instead of being trapped in NJ! Even though it's been two years since I left my job at LIB I still retain enough database and search expertise that with a quick refresher I can be fully up to speed in probably about a month max, and the salary would likely be equivalent to what I left at LIB since they screwed us so hard on bonuses/raises for the last nine years I was there.

So despite all prior experiences I'm hardcore hoping that I can get this deal closed. I know the job. I know the field. I would get all of the parts of my prior job back that I loved while jettisoning the political part which was a major sticking point with forces pulling in all directions, none of which benefited me. I could just do my job, and do it well. That's really all I want from a career at this point.