I Used To Be........

I have been sort of retired for a year at the end of this month. Even though I still work a few hours most weeks I think being mostly retired is pretty much the best "job" I have ever had. Thinking about that reminded me of some past jobs I have had.....not exactly a career path, but some fun along the way. (Some of this is from a post I wrote a long time ago about the pain of writing a resume.)

My first job, other than babysitting, was when I was 14. I opened mail for a newspaper columnist. He wrote a humor column for the Tulsa World, so he, in turn, got some pretty funny mail. Not a bad first job.

When I was 16 I worked after school in the stationery department of a fancy department store. My favorite part of that job was eating in the store's hoity-toity tea room on my breaks.

Then came college and a journalism degree. That got me a job at a newspaper with stellar assignments like writing obituaries and covering school board meetings in Norman, OK.

Next  came Motherhood, my most important and most lasting job, but not exactly a resume filler. Over the next 15 or so years, I had several part-time jobs in several cities. I taught pre-school (loved it) for a few years. I did some free lance writing for local publications. I worked as an assistant producer for a radio talk show, which was one of the most fun jobs I ever had. I did some modeling and taught a class at a junior college called "Poise for the Professional Woman". (I hated that name). I wrote feature stories and a weekly column for the Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City.

After some life changes (divorce) and some additional schooling, I went to work full-time for the first time in years as a paralegal. After a few years I decided I needed something more lucrative and worked for a factory rep firm that sold furniture to hotels and hospitals. I was a dismal failure at that job, but to this day I can identify the manufacturer of the fabric on a chair in a hotel room.

A couple of zigs and zags after that  I spent 15 years in the job I still do part time in financial services. I will be more fully retired with time, but for now I like being able to work if I want to and not work if I don't.

What is your favorite of the jobs you have had?

Good News and Really Good News

I have said here before that I am no computer genius so when something goes wrong I am at a loss about what is causing it or what to do about it.  

 Thus, I have spend the last few weeks with a verrry slooow and very undependable computer. Sometimes I could get on the internet and sometimes not. When I could get on it was painfully slow getting something like a blog post to come up and leaving a comment was nearly impossible. I finally took my computer to my computer guy for a clean up. While it was there I used my laptop and was having the same problems. Aaarghh! It turns out that the answer was all new equipment from my internet provider which got installed yesterday. All minor in the whole of life, but it is good news for me to have things running right again.

Now here is the really, really good news. 

Addison, the son of my daughter's good friend, has been such an inspiration to so many during his years of treatment. There have been some really rough times during his treatment and he always found some good even in the worst times. He has truly lived up to his own motto: I don't have time for cancer!

Six Word Saturday

They'll be eating kale chips later

I had to laugh about what my daughter said about this picture she posted on Facebook yesterday.

Waiting for the Fabulous Fridays show to start at the library! I'll just ignore the disapproving looks of the moms with their healthy snacks while my kids chomp on their suckers. We'll have our organic kale chips later ladies, I promise!

Not to worry....these kids eat (or are at least offered) a very healthy diet. That may change when I stay with them for a week next month. I've told them we are having only Popsicles for breakfast and lunch every day.

To participate in 6Ws visit Cate here

A Beautiful Wedding, Lost Luggage, Seasickness and Chickens....All In All A Good Trip

Even though it started out with a late flight, a missed connection and lost luggage my trip to Hawaii was a good one. I didn't need clean clothes or a hairbrush to appreciate the beauty of the place I was staying.

The view of this pool in one direction and the ocean in the other direction helped ease my concern about when my luggage might show up, which it did at about 10:30 the next night. A little shopping for clothes and toiletries got me through.

The wedding was a beautiful traditional Hawaiian ceremony. It began with the blowing of a conch shell to signal the beginning of the wedding.

The woman who performed the ceremony was a perfect fit for the role she played and she created a very beautiful and moving ceremony. 

(And it wasn't too long)

The wedding ended with a gorgeous Hawaiian sunset in one direction,

and a rainbow in the other direction.

One of the outings I really enjoyed was to a coffee plantation. 

The beautiful plantation setting and all the coffee you wanted to drink made it a place I didn't want to leave. 

On a relaxing sounding sunset dinner cruise I managed to get this one picture before I started getting seasick. The water was apparently rougher than normal and the cruise turned out to be very rough for me, all 4 hours of it.  I have been on lots of boats, big and small, and the only other time I have ever gotten seasick was a long time ago, also in Hawaii. I was nice enough to break the ice by being the first person on the boat to start throwing up off the back of the boat, but I was far from the only one. Lesson learned.....no more boats in Hawaii. 

Any visit to Kauai requires pictures of the chickens that run wild all over the island. 

They are fun to see, but not always so fun to hear. The roosters start crowing before sunrise and keep it up throughout the day.

Despite the vagaries of travel it was a good trip. It has taken me a little longer to recover from the overnight flight home than I would like, but as long as I keep my feet on solid ground for a while I will be fine.

Have you ever been seasick?