Nerves

Next Thursday I have an interview at a daycare center in a town about an hour away from my apartment right now [JB and I are planning to move to this town if we can both find jobs in the area. I can't remember if I've talked about it before; it's more complicated than it should be]. I've done some preliminary research on the center and it seems like it would be a great place to work. I love kids but didn't want to go into teaching; I had never considered working at a daycare until it popped up in my Craigslist job search.
The one thing I'm completely totally way too apprehensive about is the drive from my house to the center for the interview. I have never been a confident driver to say the least: I haven't driven on a highway since my driving lessons when I was 16! I've mapquested the directions a few times to get myself used to the idea, and I'm trying to remember that I'll be driving only an hour in the middle of the day during the week, so traffic won't be that bad. There's always the slow lane. Stay to the right...

I also have a preliminary phone interview with this seemingly pretty intense office in Boston. It's for an office manager/executive assistant job. I'm more confident in my ability to do well in this job than the daycare because I have a ton of experience doing office bitch work, and I honestly like being able to quickly and efficiently get tasks done.
Plus I'd get to wear cool office clothes and not have to worry about getting baby puke on them. Seriously. I'm obsessed with the whole Mad Men 60's secretary aesthetic with awesome stuctured dresses and monochromatic sweaters and pencil skirts. Outfits are no reason to choose a job, I know, and I'd be way happier working with kids all day, but it's a check in the Pro column for this job.

I applied for a teaching position at a dance studio, but my vague-ass resume objective ["Seeking a full-time position that incorporates personalized interactions with group management while utilizing my skills in multi-tasking and public speaking."] didn't please the studio owner. He requested that I rewrite my resume and send it back to him.
I figured this would be the case, which is why I have a few paragraphs that I wrote in to body of the email I sent that explained my dance credentials. I wonder what the response would have been if I had something like "Seeking part-time employment teaching whatever dance class has the worst behaved children because that's the only reason studios hire new teachers" and everything else was the same. I don't have any prior experience working at a studio, but I have 20 years of practical experience. Not to mention that every single one of my extracurriculars is dance related. Whatev. Part-time dance teacher is a job I can look for after I find a full-time situation.

I didn't realize it when I set up my interview for the daycare, but I don't have an appropriate interview outfit. I have a few button-down shirts and a couple decent bottoms, but they don't really match. I feel like my white pants aren't an option for a daycare center because the chance to get dirty is very high. I have several skirts, but, again, not the best clothing for working with kids. On the phone, I was told that the interview could last "anywhere from a half hour to a couple hours, depending on how the kids are behaving" and I'm very unsure how to interpret that.
Roomie and I were going to take a trip to the mall to get me some slacks [I think "slacks" is a really funny word, by the way. Makes me laugh whenever I hear or say it] yesterday but it fell through. I suppose I could drive myself to the mall, but...ehh...not only is there the driving aspect, but it's boring to go to the mall by yourself. How will I know if pants actually look good on me if I can't ask a friend?

I'm going to ask that yous wish me luck on a couple things: 1- finding some nice work pants. 2- kicking ass during the daycare interview. 3- doing well on the preliminary phone interview for the other job. 4- to stop being a little bitch and just drive my stupid car already.

Oh, and one real question: When should I ask my old boss to send a little recommendation letter? Will jobs ask for one? Before or after I'm contacted for an interview? Before or after the actual interview?
$180,000 on a college education and they don't teach us anything we need to know. Don't even get me started on how confused I am about tax forms.

What was your first job out of college? How did you go about finding it?