Funny how things go

Megan decorated a fabulous cake for Valentines Day! It was good too. It gave her and her husband a reason to come visit the following Sunday evening (he loves cake) and while they were here Masterpiece Theater came on. It was the first half of Oliver Twist. Son-in-Law got so caught up in the movie that they both came back the next Sunday to finish watching it with me. Megan comes to visit a lot, but he doesn't usually come. So, that was really cool. The cake was really pretty too!

I've been working really hard. Not many hours, but the hours I get in count. I just got a couple of new clients, so that should bring me up to full time! Yes!

I remember when I got this job that I was nearly in a full panic because I didn't think I was going to find one at all! I worried that people who offered me jobs and withdrew the offers had been given a bad reference from a former boss and not because of bad luck in losing hours. So I was so grateful for this opportunity (I still am!), but I worried that whatever it was that caused the other offers to go south would catch up with me here. My fears weren't all consuming, nor did I dwell on them much, but they hung out in the back of my mind from time to time.

Things weren't what I feared.

Tuesday, I got a call from the agency that was going to hire me for sure, and then the day before I was supposed to get an interview, an emergency happened and they wouldn't have a position after all. They had a job offer for me.

Thursday I got a call from the dept of labor. They had a job match for me.

Today, I got a call from the agency I interviewed for the day after I got this job. They had a position for me.

Apparently, I didn't get those other jobs because hours really were drying up. And now, I don't know why, but people are moving on to other things. One guy was moving off the mainland, a woman was having a baby, and It was too late for them to get me. They snoozed.

I really love this job. It might seem strange to some, but this is the first job I have ever had in which I actually feel like a grown up. No one is breathing down my neck making sure I can account for each second of the time I work. Well, I do have to write notes, and turn in hours to be paid, but no one is telling me "you be here at 7:30 a.m. sharp and don't leave until 3:30 p.m., or later. It really is kind of hard for me to describe. No one feels they have to hold my hand, and no one is behind me cracking a whip. I am treated like I have a brain and know how to use it!

The think I love most about my job is that it is so diverse. I have clients that range from 4 to 55 years old! I get to work with at-risk teens, behaviorally challenged school children, and people with developmental disabilities. I have even started attending drug groups to start accumulating hours towards getting to a place where I can run them myself!

I also like that if I should get accepted into grad school, my hours are flexible enough that I won't have to quit to go back to school! I really like the idea of that!

And, thankfully, I get to start paying off bad debt that I accrued when the ex stopped paying child support. I am so lucky! I get the opportunity to begin paying immediately, even before I managed to get caught up with monthly bills! I can only look at myself for accountability. It was frustrating the first night, but now, I am happy. At least I have a job I love, and I know everything is going to be wonderful. One of the reasons I went to school was so I would have the ability to pay off the debt I racked up trying to raise my high school aged kids (that is when they get expensive, you know). I know I will never see the $15,000 that the ex owes me (a sum of money far less than the few thousand I owe others), and I don't torture myself over it. I always was and will always be the most responsible person in that relationship. I'll never really understand why it is that dead beat dads are not hounded in quite the same was as dead beat credit card users are. It would be a different world if they were. You see, it won't be any time at all until I am not longer a dead-beat credit card user, and in a little more than a year, the ex won't be a dead beat dad. For different reasons (once the youngest child reaches a certain age, the dad no longer has to pay), but the same result.

Life is good. I can't always control what happens in my environment, but I can always choose how I respond. People say life isn't fair. I say life is a challenge. Bring it on! (a remnant of the superstitious part of my psyche wants me to erase the bring it on part just so the unseeable, unknowable powers don't take up that challenge. But I know that is just silly - I'll let you know how that goes!)

Oh! I got my diploma today. It's sooooo purty! (spell check thinks I spelled that wrong!)