Holy crap, y'all. I think I may have a new job, just as utterly randomly as you could possibly imagine. Late this morning, Beloved!Ex-Boss happened to run into the senior analyst in a tiny but high-intensity division; he asked her how she was doing, and she laughed hollowly and said, "We can't find an analyst who can edit and write, and we're dying without one." He said, "I think I have someone for you. Give me five minutes." He called me, I made faint geebling noises, she called me, I met with her this afternoon, and she's submitting all the paperwork to HR tomorrow.
Ho-lee crap. All those years of flailing and begging and pleading and going nuts trying to get out of my admin dead end, and this thing just flops into my lap out of nowhere. Beloved!Ex-Boss is an angel, I tell you what. A grumpy, balding angel.