On being a Capricorn.

The first time I went for a REAL job interview (whereby REAL=not fast food or phone sales) I sat down, nervously fidgeted with my skirt, and was promptly asked "When is your birthday?"

At the time, I was too young, naive and stupid to realize this was a highly inappropriate and illegal question, so I stammered out "January 16, 1974."

"Ah, so you're a Capricorn, then," my interviewer said.  "Capricorns make the BEST employees."

She really didn't ask me much after that, except to test my obscure author recall ("Who wrote Cry, the Beloved Country?" "Alan Paton."  "Who wrote Brave New World?""Aldous Huxley."), and 20 minutes later I had the job.  So basically a mind full of random trivia and the fact that I was a Capricorn netted me a 17 year career in bookselling.  Oops.

Until that time, I had never paid much attention at all to anything at all horoscope related.  But this first manager of mine was sort of obsessed with it, and she liked to point out to me all the ways that I was goat-like.

"You're such a hard, steady worker," she would say.  "So careful and patient.  But I knew you would be when I hired you, since you're a Capricorn."

"You got all that shelving done so quickly and accurately!" she would gush.  "But of course you did.  You're a Capricorn, after all."

"I love how you took to that challenge," she would gloat.  "Capricorns are SO competitive."

So slowly, over time, even I began to admit that there might be something to this horoscope business, even though it was in direct conflict with my practical, cautious, realistic, pragmatic CAPRICORN-LIKE nature.

And to be quite honest, when I read a description of a Capricorn's traits, it's like reading straight from my own personal rulebook of life...  Hard working, determined, practical, realistic, dedicated to the point of stubbornness, industrious, organized, unwilling to make waves, blessed with common sense, quirky sense of humor that many don't appreciate, self-critical, competitive...  Yeah.  I'm a Capricorn all right.

Whether I believe it or not.