Part I: The Last Few Weeks or Embracing Lessons Learned

Every now and then so much will happen in relatively short periods of time. And so it goes that during those times when things are happening one right after another, one wants to share it all with people they love. And the great irony of this is that because so much is happening, there is very little time to sit down and write out a blog or make a call to catch everyone up who gives a shit about all of these happenings.

So here is this. It is 1:30AM on a Sunday night/Monday morning and because I no longer have any kind of a job (not even a minuscule, part-time, distorted version of a job), I have nothing better to do at this moment then to tell you the short version of the last few weeks of my life and give a brief description of what I think the upcoming months of my life could possibly have in store for me. Although, the brief description of what I think is coming will be shared in part II of this blog that will be posted soon.

So let's start with the quitting of the job- round two. On May 26th I completed my very last day EVER at my old job. For those of you in the know, this was my very last day EVER at my old job for the second time, the first time being in August of last year before I left for California. For some reason I felt like I would be cool with another round of working at this haphazard pharmacy, but alas, it lived up to its very low expectations of being a great temp job to give me an income while I completed a semester of organic chemistry and that was about it. Super. Good job, job. You at least met one very low expectation. Hopefully, you will meet another one for someone else somewhere down the road. But my disappointment in my old job is another blog for another day blog; it is in the past and I wish for it to stay there permanently this time. Let's just say that I was on the fence about quitting for a while, but then my position completely changed so that all I was doing for an entire eight hours a day, five days a week was "sitting and entering orders." I shit you not, that was the entirety of my job description as stated by one manager- "just sit and enter orders." It was at that point when I finally said something like, "uh, heeeeeelllllll no," and I bounced and now I'm unemployed. This is the first time in like 10 years when I have not either been employed full time or enrolled in school full time. Strange. Exhilaratingly strange. But Lesson Learned: Do not go back to old job for Round Three.

So yes, I quit on May 26th and on May 27th I flew out to Tahoe, California to visit some friends back on Fallen Leaf Lake that I had the joy of meeting while working there last fall. It was a fantastic time, filled with good parties, beautiful scenery, and one 10-15 foot fall of the side of a mountain. The place is a haven for anyone looking to get away and enjoy the wonders of nature, but unfortunately the mountain and the old staff director both couldn't wait to kick me out, so I doubt I'll be visiting that gem of a lake again. So four days, one sprained ankle, and several scrapes and cuts later, I am now back at home in Texas for about seven more days.

Lesson Learned: Do not return to place of old employment no matter how pretty it is if you are not %100 sure that the person who let you go is okay with seeing your face again. Oh, yes, and do not go up a mountain off the beaten path in gym shorts.

But I have to at least briefly mention the trip back to Texas. I wish I could have carried a little recorder with me so I could relive all the fantastic conversations I had on the way back home from Tahoe, but unfortunately I didn't anticipate meeting so many fantastic people that day. Everyone was absolutely fascinating from the cab driver who picked me up at Fallen Leaf who had lived through the deaths of two husbands from prostate cancer and was still trucking right along all the way to the drummer of Dramarama and his wife that I sat next to on the final flight of the day back into Dallas who later invited me backstage at their House of Blues concert on the following evening. I can't even begin to explain it. Every one I stood next to or sat next to or walked alongside seemed to want to share a fuller moment of life with me than usual. For some of you that are far more socially adept that may seem like something not so far out of the ordinary, but for those who know me will know that days like that in my life are rare and therefore noteworthy. So I suppose I will hide the details of that day away in my mind under the title, "That one day I traveled by myself through four states by cab, by shuttle, and by plane and yet didn't meet a single stranger."