I'll Play Along Too

Ten Years Ago:  Trying to remember back ten years is tougher than it sounds.  I was still raising my children, a twelve year old and a 9 year old.  I was advocating endlessly and what I'd hoped was tirelessly for Emily at school.  I thought my mother was in desperate need of more help than I could give her and still I managed to squeak out just a little more time.  I felt my marriage slipping away from me back then and honestly, I let it go for a long time.  I was too tired taking care of too many people far too much and too often.  Things didn't get better for many years.

If Five Years Ago was included in this meme ... it'd sound much the same.  But worse.

Five Things on Tomorrow's To Do List:  I'll keep this simple:  Golf.  Payroll. Gather and organize receipts to send in to agency for respite funds.  Some form of housework, be it laundry, dusting, floors.  Sit down and write some personal notes and address some greeting cards.

Billionaire?  I would strategize, organize and begin a school for adults with special needs.  Their learning should not stop because they age out of 'the system'.  My school would be residential or day and would be year round with four semester breaks.  One week every three months.

Three Bad Habits:  Gee, I have so many I don't know which to choose.  Let's start with ... if I break a finger nail, I chew at it instead of clipping and filing.  I pile up the plastic recycling items in the small side sink until they are falling into the larger sink or onto the floor or I'm knocking them on to the counter.  (one might say overall it's a good habit to recycle, but my process needs work) It is roughly ten steps to the bin on the back deck.  I let myself get cranky and irritable when something is bothering me instead of addressing the issue.

Five Places I've Lived:   Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Massachusetts.  (say that three times fast)

The First Five Jobs I Ever Had: 

Mother's Helper-Babysitter for three boys, a set of five year old twins and a two year old.  They were the cutest, but freshest little boys. 

Sales clerk at Deerskin Trading Post; The original on Rte 1 in Danvers MA -- it was something of a tourist destination back in the 60's and 70's.  I spent most Saturdays and Sundays there for two years, buttoning the buttons on all those leather and suede jackets that folks tried on.

Kitchen crew-dishwasher at a nursing home.  Have you ever had to dig through a barrel of garbage for a set of dentures?  Only to find out they were left on the table at the restaurant the owner's family took the owner to lunch at?  Oh yeah, baby, that was a job!

Laundress at a nursing home.  The good part of that job was the wonderful Polish woman who spoke no English but came to visit me every day.  She would tap her hand on the table for folding clothes, I'd hop up and sit with my legs hanging over the edge.  She'd pull up a chair and she would massage my lower legs, all the while speaking and singing to me in Polish. 

Darkroom Tech in a radiology department at a local hospital.  I loved that job!  It was quiet and peaceful and when there was a lull in the patient flow, I could sit and crochet with the lights on.  Sometimes the girls and I had 'eyebrow' parties.