On Slippin' Into the Future

When I started this blog, I had so little going on that I needed something to fill the day, and I thought the blog-verse, specifically other people in the same boat as I am, would be able to relate to just not knowing what to do with oneself for all the waking hours in a day. Now, even with just part-time occupations, I actually find myself wondering where all the hours went! Amazing, isn't it?

I just realized I hadn't blogged since early October. My one month job-versary working with special needs kids came and went, and poof, so did the two month! Some days, when I look at the 40 pending membership requests to the LinkedIn group I manage, I just shake my head. Where before it was something to fill a half hour or so, now I look at it and think, wow, that's a lot of people. Forty people. Almost every day. The group went from under 5000 when I started, to over 14,000 two years later. That's some pretty exponential growth. And people join this group, ostensibly to network, but mainly, because they're looking for a job. The job market (for "good" jobs) just doesn't seem to be improving that much. As I look back at all the opportunities I've pursued that no one was ever hired for, and the job listings that keep reappearing (because there aren't people to fill them) it's easy to see the gap between what is out there, and who is out there. The two are just not coming together.

I feel really good about the work that I'm doing because I know that it is giving back to a very special community. It may not be the most effective use of my skills and talents, but at least they're being put to use, I am less stressed out financially, and I am still able to continue my quest for my next "best fit" in the time I have left over. Plus, integrating myself back into the groove of my current location (just a few miles from where I grew up, yet worlds away in some respects)is facilitated by the fact that many people who knew my dad are still around, and remember me. That's a little disconcerting to me, because I'm usually so good with names! It's different now, because people remember me as my father's daughter, but the last time I saw them was 30+ years ago!

I have probably said some of this before, but it's been on my mind so much lately that when I sit down to write, it's what comes out. Because the only other thing worth writing is the long list of MORE Prizes I've won over the last few months. Today's took the cake though: moisturizer with "elk antler velvet" in the list of ingredients. That's one heck of a magic potion. Part of me "doesn't even want to know." I think PETA is going to come after me just for accepting the package!!