A half century gone. A very early MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Missed the edit window.
Well, I was supposed to be a Writer. But I did not get along well with my mother as a child/teen and on some quixotic impulse, I decided to go to nursing school (she was a nurse). My dad offered to send me to med school, but I was sure I was not smart enough for that. I stayed in nursing because I was not a quitter (not being a quitter is more problematic than one hears about). I had had to prove I was not a quitter because as a kid, I quit piano, ballet, tap, and swimming as soon as I could (I swam for 6 years competitively and really didn’t like it. All of us swam–we had to. Mom said.)

So, here I am, 20+ years of being a nurse. I’m good at it, too and not really liking it all that much. It’s ok and I like to help people, but it’s not a calling for me. It’s a way to make money. I do it well because I was taught to do things well, no matter what they are.
So, I went to library school and found it easy (most of it). Looking back, I think I could have gone to med school and done well. Am I glad I’m not a doctor? Well, yes–they truly can’t call their time their own. The money would be nice, though.

Re this library thing: with our finances being what they are now (and for the foreseeable future), public librarianship is not a viable option; the cut in pay is too great. I knew that going in–I just wanted to shake up my world and life. I did. Now I KNOW I have options (which, no matter how many people told me before, I didn’t believe) and I am on the lookout to make the most of them. But I will never again take a job just to have a job–it will either be a stepping stone to something else or the job I want. I would love, love, love to be a reader’s advisory for a largish suburban library, but that’s not happening right now.

Still, I miss writing. I think like a writer. I am happiest typing on this keyboard. I have half a murder mystery written. My problem is not writing (although I have no idea if I’m any good or not), it’s discipline. Every day (almost) I wake up and say, ok, you’re off today, so take a look at your mystery. And (almost) every day, I piss away time here or baking or cleaning etc.

I am trying to establish a routine where I run 3x/week and the days I run, I also devote one hour to writing. This may sound like an excuse, but my life has seriously suffered from a lack of routine. Used to be my work days changed every week, so there was no predictability. Then I had kids–coupled with random days of work, it was hard, if not impossible, to have much stability. Now that my kids are older, I hope to have that again.

This got longer than it should have. Sorry to bore you all! Great OP, Rosie–a good time to reflect back and appreciate where you are now.

22

I’m having a really hard time getting going today. Perhaps it could have something to do with eating two large pieces of chocolate cake yesterday.:D:smack:

23

Good morning!

I wanted to be a veterinarian when I was young, but the hormones and the 70’s won out, and I became a rebellious little hellion. So I didn’t go to med school, but I did learn a trade, and it’s been a great way to make a living and I genuinely love what I do.

My computer got “reimaged” over the weekend and now I’m waiting impatiently for some IT guy to call me to help me reload drivers.

Off to surf…

24

Bagpipes are occasionally OK, but I can be easily annoyed by them.

It’s tradition in parts of the US that Amazing Grace is played on bagpipes during the funeral for firefighters and police when there’s a line of duty death.

I’m of German and Scandinavian descent and Lutheran, not Presbyterian or Catholic, so I’m not too hip to Amazing Grace. I made my wife promise on pain of haunting that there will be no bagpipes and definitely NOT that particular hymn if I cash in at a fire or rescue.

Is it possible to put a pipe organ on a trailer so they can play A Mighty Fortress instead?

25

Happy Birthday, Rosie!

I, too, did not end up anywhere near where I expected or where anyone else expected. My parents wanted me to be in medicine; I wanted to dance. They wanted me to get married and have kids, I am not married and having kids is long since off the table. I’m happy, though. I could stand to earn some more money but that’s on my head after all.

I like to write, too, but I am afraid to even think about making money off it in case the writing gene should just shrivel up and die. Still, here I am, and I’m not beholden to anyone, as they say.

I am also shocked rosie is almost 50. You don’t sound like it. Not that 50 is old, not nowadays and not in this country.

26

Up, full of coffee, done at the gym (cranked the level up to twice normal on the machines so I’m super pumped up right now and sweaty!!) and running late so I just stopped in to say:

spotlight please, in a darkened room, me in awesome dress, turned a bit sideways as the right shoulder drops off, chin close to chest so I look at you with doe eyes…

Hap-py hap-py birthday ba-byyyyy
Happy Birthday To You, You’re So Young,
Age Is Just a Number, Don’t Stop Having Fun

And then, the clowns!!

:smiley:

27

blurf.

I’m here and awake…kind of.

Happy Early Birthday, Rosie!!

I have much to say about the Chinese wedding I went to yesterday, but it’s going to have to wait for later.

28

Hippo almost-birdie, Rosie!

I’m not where I expected to be by 30, but I’ve reached a sort of existentialist acceptance of it. Part of me thought I’d be like my parents - married by 25 to my First Love, working in a Respectable Career and endowed with several fancy letters after my name (MD, PhD, LLB, whatever) before 30, and raising a brood of curly-haired dark eyed kiddies before 35.

I’m none of those things. I’m not married, my job isn’t glamorous, I don’t have any letters after my name, and I’m pretty sure the only curly-haired kiddies I’ll be chasing around will be nieces and/or nephews. The thing is, I could be very unhappy worrying about everything I’m not and that I don’t have, but that would diminish all the wonderful things I am and that I do have.

Hope your 50th brings you nothing but health and happiness. You totally deserve it.

{{Pie}} Fingers crossed those flyers drum up some business for you.

OK, time to do some work. My head feels like it’s about to float away and I can’t focus my eyes, but calling in sick isn’t really an option. :frowning:

29

Great OP. It seems to dovetail nicely with last week’s: we talked about our daily routines last week, and now we’re talking about how we ended up in them!

Actually, I have a follow-up to last week’s assignment. I biked to church again yesterday and took a couple pictures. This tree is really pretty. I probably should have moved a bit so I could have gotten the picture without the telephone poll, but I was on a relatively busy street, and I didn’t want someone getting nervous about me stopped and taking pictures.

Thisis my favorite part of the bike ride. It always makes me think of fairy tales and princesses. Like maybe a troll’s going to jump out and stop the princess’s carriage and try to kidnap her. Or maybe it’d be Robin Hood who jumps out. I don’t know but it always makes me think up stories set in medieval times.

Apropos of nothing (I will get to how-I-ended-up-here eventually!) I made a pumpkin cake with cream cheesefrosting over the weekend. It was tres yum!

Oh and since we’re all bacon fans around here, KT just sent me a link to a bacon blog. So if you need a daily dose of discussions of bacon, your needs can be met there. :rolleyes: :stuck_out_tongue:

Anyway, I’m coming up on 30 in a few months, and I have to say I’m pretty happy with my life as well. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I was young. My mother had known for her whole life that she wanted to be a teacher, but I had no similar experience or calling or whatever. So I went off to a liberal arts college like you’re supposed to when you don’t know what else to do. And I hated it. So after a year I transferred to an engineering school and completely found my place in the world. It sounds corny, but it was how I felt. I found people *like me *for the first time in my life, and from the start it felt like home.

After college, I got a job, but I absolutely hated it so I went back to school with plans to get a Ph.D. and then to teach. However, I hated research more than I’d hated the working world so once I finished my Master’s I decided to call it quits. I took a job with the company I’d been interning with, in an area that had little to do with my degree, but at least it was something I enjoyed.

I stayed there for 2 1/2 years, getting increasingly bored with it during which time I met KT and we decided to get married. He was from the Midwest and got a job out here so I started looking for a job and making plans to move. Somehow I ended up with a job that started 6 weeks before his job so I was here alone for a while before he moved here, knowing no one. It was a challenge, but I found I really liked it. I love my job (most of the time), and we’re making a good life out here. After two years, we’re still working on making friends - we only have 1 couple that we do stuff with regularly and that kind of depresses me - but on the whole we’re very happy with where we are and what we’re doing.

I have no idea what the next 20 years will bring and what I’ll be saying as I approach the half-century mark, but that’s what makes it fun. I love the unpredictability of life. I never ever ever would have expected I’d end up in the Midwest, but it’s been a wonderful adventure, and I’m hoping for many more twists in the road that take me to different and unexpected places.

30

taxi, that bacon blog is awesome. OMG, I’m so totally making bacon bowls! :slight_smile:

Big meeting at 1pm. Damned if I know what it’s about, but I’m praying it doesn’t involve pink slips or bad news of any kind. Urk.

31

Y’know what I really want to do…

I want to have a Children’s Book Store. I would really love that. I’ve even made steps forward but for many good reasons, right now I shouldn’t.

I never knew that was what I wanted until recently. Being a college prof was all I wanted to do since I was seven years old.

Things change and so people sometimes…

32

Morning all, and Happy Almost 50th Rosie!!

I got nothing. Slow day at work and a weekend of doing homework.

33

Happy Burfday Rosie!!!

Gah, last week was wild and crazy, but I appear to be normal again.

As for what I’m doing - I can pretty much promise that no one wakes up in the morning and says “I wanna be the Bus Guy”

Most people doing what I do came into it one of two ways: They either started as drivers, and gradually learned their way up and up til they ended up running a small branch or district and grew from there; or they have some sort of business management experience and found themselves in a bus place.

I was more the second than the first. I was managing high rise office buildings in Chicago, and had been for about 13-14 years. One day, a friend of mine that’s a VP in a large school bus company, said I should go interview for the job running their CPS (Chicago Public Schools) contract - about 275 buses, 350 people in two locations.

So I interview with his boss and at the end, the guy asks if I have questions for him. I said, yeah - what in the HELL makes you think a guy that does what I do, can do this? I will never forget his answer. He asked me what systems I am responsible for in my job, who I report to, and what kind of people work under me? I described elevators, escalators, HVAC mechanical things, fire control systems, security related systems, etc. I said I have tenants to be accountable to, as well as the building owners who need me to make my budget and their profit, and I have elevator/escalator contractors, security guards, engineers, custodians, etc.

He said, ok in this job, you have buses - their maintenance, safety, buildings, mechanic shops, and property. You work for a bus company, and manage a contract that services about 25% of every kid that rides a bus, report to the CPS, principals, parents, etc. And I have drivers, monitors, mechanics and staff people.

Same thing, different players and toys. I was sitting there with a stupid look on my face, and he laughed. Said, “see? you got management skills!!, congratulations!!”

That night I had a job offer. Now, as in right now, the friend that got me in there in the first place- he works for me. He’s with the same company, and he’s the VP that runs my $1.7 Million contract.

Circle of Life and all that, huh?

34

Good morning everyone.

I’m at work and I’m not lovin’ it, but what else is new?

In regards to where I’m at in life now, although as a tyke I wanted to be a dancer, as I got older my calling was “wildlife veterinarian”. I wanted to work the lions and tigers and bears. As I neared high school graduation, I amended that to Forestry. I wanted to work in the great outdoors. I love the outdoors and the Pacific Northwest is a place that inspires people in that direction.

I also thought that I’d travel the world before I settled down to work and that I’d never get married and have kids.

Hah! Life likes to surprise us.

College fell through as we didn’t get enough aid for me. So, I had to work for a living. I took the civil service test and started working for the government. I met my husband at age 19 and we were married when I was almost 22.

At 25, my daughter came along. She was a surprise, as I was told I couldn’t have children. Next came my son.

Anyway, as I aged I thought about going into environmental law. Are you seeing a theme here, folks? Real life interfered, work, kids, etc and I just couldn’t commit to going to school. Part of that was probably laziness.

So, I’ve just sort of stuck with my govt career. I started out as a GS-2 clerk-typist and am currently a GS-11 Health System Specialist/Management and Program Analyst. I don’t know if I’ll progress any further in grades. Gs-12s are hard to come by here, and frankly, I don’t want to be under NSPS.

I’m not really happy or content doing what I do, but it pays the bills and I take pride in always trying to do my best and doing it well. I believe in doing something well the first time and really hate being told to come up with the “85% solution”. I think that’s a waste of everyone’s time, including mine.

Well, I should see if I can post reports now.

35

I actually have access today but no time to thoroughly read.

I will try to remember the trashed OPs and post snipets at some point (I deleted them)

Thank you all for the b-day wishes (actual time will be 1:30pm 9/30).

L’Shana Tova Tikatavu

I’ll be back after dinner.

36

I’m older than Rosie, but younger than Puggy (sorry pugs!). LOL That’s all I’ll admit to! And a very nice OP, Rosie.

I’m 31 years into my career with the fed. govt.; I’m CSRS and could retire, but it wouldn’t be enough to live on at this point. I started as a GS-4 clerk-typist, and am now a GS-7 administrative asst. My agency does not have many grades, at least not many I could qualify for, unfortunately. I tried getting into an upward mobility program years ago; they don’t even have any basic career ladder positions right now. At any rate, I’ll probably work another 4 yrs. or so, then retire from here but get a p/t gig elsewhere, so I can get my 40 quarters in for social security (I have some quarters, but not 40)

Gotta get back to work. Happy Monday all! :slight_smile:

37

Happy Birthday, Rosie!!!
Enjoy your 50s, they go by way too fast. Yes, I’m older’n Puggy, by a little.

As for myself, I planned on being an archeologist or a paleontologist when I grew up, but one of Uncle’s less necessary wars intervened, and I got drafted into that, and then drifted into a few other things, and ended up as a computer programmer for about 30 years. Then I got unceremoniously, and involuntarily, retired. So now I’m an over-60 expert in a computer language for which there is a small and ever-declining market, at least around here, and so I make soap. It doesn’t pay much, but it gives me something to do besides chase you kids offen my lawn. The way the current administration’s economic policies have been savaging my IRA, I may be doing this until the day I die. Fortunately, somewhere along the line, Wifey acquired a real estate franchise, and that’s what pays the bills, but just barely.
I also, (and this is the cheerful part) am the grandfather of five wonderful kids. They aren’t biologically mine, but I married their Grandmother before four of them made their arrivals, so I get to claim them.

For those of you who wanted to be writers (and are still reading this); we have a friend who started writing after she retired and is having a fine time at it. Okay, she writes smutty romance novels, but still, she enjoys it. I haven’t read any of them mind you, but Wifey says they are’t too awful, and her publisher apparently makes some money off of them, so if you want to write, go for it! Even if the only place you publish is the internet, you’ll enjoy it, and that’s what counts.

Welby???

38

Only got time to check my emails tonight but I just had to stop in by to say hi and of course I wanted to wish Rosie a very very happy birthday! Save a bit of cake for me! :smiley:

39

Happy almost birthday! (birthday?)

Pictures of half-completed dress up. What type of buttons, and what type of cuffs?

Running very fast here. See you tonight or tomorrow!

40

Howdy Y’all! Home waitin’ on the bug guy to come do the annual termite inspection. Hopefully he’ll be here soon. I have beef stew that I made last night in between episodes of Mary Tyler Moore heating up in the roaster oven thingy. It’s gonna be good and I’s already hongry! Ima make some cornbread to go with it.

CutiePie hope your new menu works out for ya!

BioRosie I’m holdin’ off singin’ until tomorrow. It’s much more special on the day after all!

Shana Tova Soapy, Special1, BioRosie and to any other Jewish Mumpers I might have missed. Speaking of which, I have a question. I was told today that it’s traditional to attend Rosh Hashana services dressed to the nines and that women, especially, go all out for this. Is this true or just sump’n somebody who, while Jewish and I guess should know, is flakier than a crescent roll, told me? Seriously, the woman is straaaaaaaaaaaange and wears really outrageous clothes all the time anyway, so I remain a bit skeptical given who the info came from.