Crazy Few Weeks

Ok, so we're all aware of what's happening in the South. That's beyond sad and now ranging more into scary with all the stuff I've seen from TV and bloggers on the scene. Then I get my walking papers from the company I've served for the past four years based on an arbitrary "line in the sand" that was drawn in July (and subsequently never crossed by yours truly.) On top of that, my sister and her boyfriend parted ways and she's pretty upset about it.

Regarding my job, it's not how I had planned on moving my career along (getting fired), but I have a severance package and an opportunity to find something better matched to my skills. I'm good at sales, for the record, but my job went from matching helpful solutions to customer problems to straight up telemarketing.

Worse still, I'm sure I have ADD to some degree, so sitting in that chair and having a really hard time seeing the job in any way other than an insurmountable mountain of tasks with no order to it was crippling. I got half way to work on more than one occasion and just turned my car around and went home. It was that bad.

I never wanted to be in a commission-based sales job, but this one seemed to be less evil than I had imagined. Also, I really liked the people in that office and I'll miss them quite a bit. Some of my day tomorrow will be on IM catching up with them, I'm sure. Then there's the money. I know I've come across as materialistic in the past but the truth is - I hate money. I hate how it gets people to do things they wouldn't normally do (myself included.) Imagine the movie Office Space and the play Glengarry Glen Ross combined - that's no exaggeration.

All that said, I love our new house. My car is almost paid off and I'm not too stressed out about being out of work - all thanks to the same job. It's afforded us a lot and it looks good on a resume.

This is the time when I wish I had a goal that I'd been wanting to accomplish my whole life. This would be my opportunity to try to make it work - but I don't have one. I want to teach but I'm not sure I'm ready for that. I'd like to own a bar but I'm not sure we could afford to start one and it's a lot of responsibility (not sure I'd want the stress, either.)

I'll be casting a fairly wide net to try to avoid a similar situation. This time, I'm looking for fair pay for a fair day's work. I'd like some benefits, of course, and it would be ideal if there was tuition reimbursement in that package. What's my long-term goal? Where do I see myself in five years?

I don't know.