WOW....... a new outlook.

Do I regret that I spent the last sixteen years staying at home and taking care of my family? Not.for.one.second. Every single minute of those sixteen years were the most important and most rewarding of my life. I did, however, miss having a job.

When I left IBM in 1990, there were only a few PCs around the site. We didn't have voicemail. Calendars were only beginning to be kept online. "Online" was being connected to the company mainframe, not a PC network. Laptops? Didn't exist. Local printers? They took up an entire 8x10 room and everyone in the department used the same one which was kept behind a locked door. Everyone needed a hardcopy of everything, so of course there was an entire department devoted to copying. Email was just beginning to be used on a regular basis.

As you can see, I am obsolete. Well, sort of obsolete. I started using the internet in 1994. Well, it wasn't exactly the internet as we know it today. I connected to the world via Compuserve. On a 14.4 kbps modem. It was amazing to me.... and I got hooked very fast. I didn't actually leave the safe little world of Compuserve until around 1997, when I started realizing I shouldn't be paying for this service by the hour!

And I'm now on my fourth PC. And I had email before spam was invented. And I keep our little family network of three PCs running and in order.

But, when it came time to build a resume, I had nothing. Nothing for sixteen years. And I really didn't want to step into full-time work anyway. I just wanted to get out and get a part-time job so that I could ease my way into things again.

I just kind of fell into this little job. Driving by, saw a Now Hiring sign (one of many) and stopped in. I walked out with a job. Now it's not a 'professional' job. It really is retail in all respects. And it's not much money.

But oh..... I do love it. I get to see lots of people every day. I get to go to work and do a job. And it is very strange to me that it has made me feel so damn good. Today is Saturday, and I'm not working weekends yet, so I went grocery shopping, built a lasagna for dinner, went with my husband to get his satellite radio installed, and just felt good about everything today! Those are usually errands that I loathe. But they felt great to me on this beautiful fall Saturday.

Last night, after my first four-day week, I was exhausted and asleep by 9:30. But I woke up at 6 this morning and didn't want to go back to sleep. I feel good. If I can do this job for awhile, then maybe I can get back into full-time work again next year. I don't think I'll be in a hurry to leave this one though. I really lucked out. It's great.