Ten years ago: Still recovering from the ordeal of my sister’s death and trying to find some meaningful way to relate to her daughters. Couldn’t find a decent job to save my life; my marriage had become a part-time arrangement. And my Dad was exhibiting increasingly distressing symptoms of the as yet undiagnosed cancer that would take his life less than seven months later. Not exactly the best of times. But, hey… it got worse…
Five things on tomorrow's to do list:
1. Plan menu and pricing for June catering event at the fairgrounds.
2. Clean upstairs of house (downstairs was completed this evening…)
3. Pot some outdoor plants, if it’s not pouring rain
4. Run around like a crazy person preparing for "Senior Night" at the café.
5. Obsess about the five hundred other things I’m supposed to be doing that I won’t have time for tomorrow.
Things I'd do if I were a billionaire:
1. Pay off the café’s debt…and then sell it. I’m afraid if I had a billion dollars, I just would not want to work this hard! Yes, I’m an official weenie…
2. Hire a landscape architect to turn my yard into a "Better Homes and Gardens" photo spread. Or maybe I’d just buy a new house that already looked like one…
3. Buy the company my husband works for and see if we couldn’t make it profitable. This would entail letting husband actually DO his job; or, rather, designate someone else to bear his present title and let them DO the job, as husband would be sitting behind the executive desk making decisions more befitting his intelligence and experience level.
4. Figure out if I could throw enough money at the United States Government to fix it, or at least some aspect of it, like regulation of health care and insurance costs.
5. Set up a foundation to address…some global problem. I’d like to say "world hunger" or "medical care," but I really think the greatest evil facing the world population today is religious violence. And I’m pretty sure no amount of money could fix that…
Three bad habits:
1. I bite my nails and "peel" the sides of my thumbs (a nervous habit.) That is one reason why I loved having acrylic nails. Couldn’t do either one of those things with the fake nails.
2. I lose keys. And yes, I do it on such a regular basis that it qualifies as a habit.
3. I’m a stacker. I build little piles of stuff (eclectic piles of mail, dirty dishes, magazines, bobby pins, earrings, spare change, due bills) that I intend to deal with and then never get around to. I have teetering stacks adjacent to each of my favorite resting places in the house: on my bedside table, on my armoire in the bathroom, on the table next to my recliner…
Five places I've lived:
1. North Suburban Chicago (the North Shore before it WAS the North Shore…)
2. FAAAR North Suburban Chicago (as young newlyweds who could not afford to live on the North Shore)
3. Eugene, Oregon.
4. Southwest Portland (OR) suburbia
5. Columbia County, OR
The five first jobs I ever had:
1. Babysitter-mother’s helper during my last two years of high school. The lady I worked for had an interesting collection of sex "self-help" books (The Joy of Sex…Everything You Always Wanted to Know...). I learned a lot during my tenure with her…and not about babysitting.
2. Production worker for a home-based business that distributed home wine-making kits. It was run by a guy whose main reason for owning the business seemed to be so that he could surround himself with nubile young high school girls in hot pants and halter tops.
3. My first real job was as a retail worker at a department store. I got fired from that job after less than thirty days, for no real reason (honestly! Seems that a cost-cutting furor went through the store shortly after I was hired, and since I was not yet part of the union, I got the axe.) Unfortunately, that seems to have set the tone for my entire working life…
4. Pizza Queen! My "rebound" job after the ill-fated retail fiasco. I made pizzas for a living for ten years after that. (Well, I did more than make pizzas…I made it all the way up to "Night Manager" at one point…)
5. For a short time in the middle of my "Pizza Queen" days, I decided to try retail once again. Big mistake. Stayed at that job for less than three months. Retail sucks! Sorry…
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Okay...I'll Play
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1 comment:
You know, now that I think of it ... I learned a lot more about life while babysitting than actually doing the babysitting.
My 'to do' list is lengthy and I never get all of it done, but I like to make an effort at the least. I'm with Kat, I am always carrying around the thought that I'll get my photo files organized, on one computer and on disks as well. But since I'm still working on the actual printed photos for the last .... decade or two ... it might be a while before I complete the digital project. For now ... they are all loaded on to one PC and all are named in the same manner. At least that's a help.
I feel so fortunate that I haven't lost a sibling. I cannot imagine how difficult that must have been.
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