Happy and Unhappy Rejections of All Kinds

For DAYS now I have not been able to log into Blogger. Sorry all. I don't know if it is a fluke in Blogger or my computer--which, I must say, is looking worse for the wear. In addition to funky grinding noises, it turns out my keyboard files are corrupted so I can no longer disconnect the external keyboard and use the laptop keyboard, which sort of defeats the purpose of having a laptop.
Luckily, I live with a computer programmer. Soon I'll get him to fix it.
Anyways, what I've been itching to put up is an email I received last week:
Jasmine,
My name is John O'Neill, editor of Black Gate magazine. Last month Black Gate's managing editor, Howard Andrew Jones, forwarded a copy of your story "Her Own Accord" to me, part of a very small handful passed along for serious consideration for publication.
First I'd like to thank you for your exceptional patience with us. Please accept my apologies for holding your story so long as we clear away our substantial submissions backlog. It really is inexcusable.
I was very impressed with your story, which I found very well written. But it's too bleak for Black Gate, I'm afraid. I'm afraid I'll have to return it, with genuine regrets.
We've worked hard this fall to improve our response times, and I hope you'll try us again.
Warm regards,
- John

Now, before you ask what's so great about being rejected by a respected, well-paying magazine, let me refer you to the first line of the email. He's the EDITOR. Only 1 or 2% of all stories (I made that number up) ever make it through the slushpile to the editor, and it sounds like I just barely missed it. It is a rather depressing story, so I can hardly blame them. So I thanked him and fired off a less bleak story back at them, then found a "dark" magazine to send this one to again.
My Big Interview I had last week I thought went really well. I loved the company, and I wasn't nervous at all. I bought a brand-new suit jacket to wear and even had it tailored.
Two days later they called me up and said, nope, I didn't get it. In fact, they were so kind as to inform me that I came in sixth out of six applicants. What was the point of that? Kicking me while I'm down. Apparently the guy (it's always a guy!) they did hire was a DP (i.e. camera guy) with "years" of experience in the Bay Area. How can I compete with that? I don't have years of experience in anything.
So that afternoon I called Multivision and I start there Monday. It will be nice to have a paycheck again. It was time to suck it up, and it will be interesting to explore Oakland, anyways, though I'm not excited to spend $5.50 a day on public transportation.
We finally bought our Christmas Plane Tickets to Green Bay! (Mom, I tried to email the itinerary to you, but your inbox is FULL. What's up with that?) Joe and I looked for hours Wednesday night and couldn't find anything under $650. That's right. So I said we'd have to just wait and see if they added more flights or figure out something else. I had nightmares about it that night! The next day an affordable flight popped up and I bought it on the spot. Luke, Joe and I will be in Wisconsin for almost a week.