Thank You Sir, May I Have Another

Two more interviews. Two more turn downs.

I swear I'm starting to get a complex.

I know it's a tough job market, and there are literally hundreds of applicants for every position, but for crying out loud, I've been searching for eight months and the best I've got is $10 an hour and an entire trashcan of rejections. It's enough to make me question whether I have any marketable skills left after more than 35 years working in the public sector.

A wise person once said to me that all I needed to be was myself and I would never lack for opportunities. These days however I question more and more who I am and what I have to offer to any organization. Sure I'm older than most of those being interviewed, but why do I feel like age is a minus, not a plus?

But then I remember I'm on a journey, and I have no control over how long this road will be. Nothing will be mine before I learn what I must learn to progress to the next phase of my quest. The problem is, I'm not sure what is being asked of me.

A friend at work said, "God is preparing you for what is to come next." Those words frighten me to the core, because what I've been going through has broken me. I am only a fleeting wisp of the woman I used to be, and what I wouldn't give to find that person again. However, the slow path only runs in one direction and a locked door will not open again.

So I will continue paying my penance in purgatory, because that's what I need to do now. I need to win back those things which I have lost and the first of those is myself. Who am I when the lights are out and I'm alone with my thoughts? Not the person I hope to be, that's for sure. My confidence is shaken, my spirit not quite broken, but fragile nonetheless.

Perhaps I will stop looking for a while, and let the wheel of fate turn as she will. I want to be in a certain area, at a certain rate, and those jobs don't come along every day. I need to make sure I am worthy when the time comes. There are a few quirks of my life that needs smoothed away, made right before I tackle the next phase. I'm almost ready to make the leap to the next ledge.

I wait.

'M' is for Mondays

Good Morning from the letter 'M'.

There are many things I could have written about that start with the letter 'M': menopause and all its joys, maternity and the joys of motherhood. But as the letter falls onto a Monday, how could I write about anything else?

As the Ramones once proclaimed, "I don't like Mondays." Even when I was in school I would prefer to have nothing on Mondays, just to ease back into the week from the excess of weekends. Today is no exception.

I just produced the largest of my spring events and I am pooped. In ten days, my company built a small city, which for eight hours on Saturday contained more than 18,000 people. It was a beautiful day, perfect weather, perfect food, perfect friends.

Sunday I spent most of the day in bed. I did some writing. I did some sleeping. I watched some bad movies but mostly I just worried about what comes next. When you put on an event of that magnitude, there is a letdown afterward of will I be able to top this? Is this all I can do or is there more?

I want more. I just want it to come Tuesday through Friday.

Happy Monday everyone, and may yours be a productive, profitable, pleasurable day.