Friday, July 23, 2010
Vacation...All I Ever Wanted
I haven't had a vacation in years. Vacations require time and money and I have neither. I am the queen of the "stay-cation". I can find free and inexpensive activities in town to keep our family stimulated without breaking the bank. However, there is something uniquely gratifying about leaving your everyday environment behind for a change of scenery. The mind can temporarily suspend the thought marathon it competes in on a daily basis. The body can release the tension it carries between your shoulder blades. You can really relax. You can decompress. You can breathe! That's what I haven't been able to do. Breathe. The house. The neighbors. The scenery. It has all been conspiring to suffocate me. I couldn't breathe. A lake. A mountain. People smiling, asking me what I want, no need, to make me comfortable. Air. Take it in. Deeply. Hold it, then release. Ahhhh, now I can breathe. Can't wait to go back so I can breathe again.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Swallowing Your Pride
Are you laid off? Have you ever been laid off? Have you had friends and family members say stupid things to you like this, "You just aren't looking hard enough." "You just don't WANT whats out there." "You're just going to have to swallow your pride and go to McDonald's or Walmart." Have you managed to keep from smacking this well meaning loved one?
Its as if these people have just met me for the first time. I have maintained employment for more than 20 years and all of a sudden I have become allergic to work! Let's examine this situation realistically shall we?
Truth of the matter is that many of us would eagerly accept a job flipping fries and packing happy meals, if McDonald's would have us. But they won't. If the last job on your resume is Senior Vice President of blah-blah-blah, Mickey D's is not going to invest their valuable monetary resources training Mr. SVP on the wonders of Big Mac special sauce. It's obvious that those dollars will be money thrown down the drain once Mr. SVP finds another job more fitting of his title and professional background. But don't try to tell Aunt Pearl that. As far as they are concerned the only reason you can't find a job is because you don't want one.
If I weren't such a lady I'd tell Aunt Pearl where she can go.
Its as if these people have just met me for the first time. I have maintained employment for more than 20 years and all of a sudden I have become allergic to work! Let's examine this situation realistically shall we?
Truth of the matter is that many of us would eagerly accept a job flipping fries and packing happy meals, if McDonald's would have us. But they won't. If the last job on your resume is Senior Vice President of blah-blah-blah, Mickey D's is not going to invest their valuable monetary resources training Mr. SVP on the wonders of Big Mac special sauce. It's obvious that those dollars will be money thrown down the drain once Mr. SVP finds another job more fitting of his title and professional background. But don't try to tell Aunt Pearl that. As far as they are concerned the only reason you can't find a job is because you don't want one.
If I weren't such a lady I'd tell Aunt Pearl where she can go.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Buckling Down or Buckling Under?
Pressure. Stress. Pressure. Stress.
I remember what it was like to be 10 years old on a summer day. Wake up. Eat breakfast. Get dressed. Go outside and play until lunch. After lunch go outside and play until dinner. After dinner rinse and repeat the next day. So went the days of summer. Interrupted only by picnics, summer camps, trips to the zoo and the like. I often joke that I would like to be 10 years old again. My job was either school or play. Boys weren't on my radar unless I was beating them up and Barbie ruled my kingdom. But when we are 10 years old it's all we can do to keep from exploding with frustration we want to be grown up so badly. As girls we want to grow breasts, get married and have babies. We think it is so glamorous to drive a car and go to work. Even though all of the adults around us try to slow us down and quiet our longing with tales of how we should enjoy our time as children. Being grown up will come soon enough. We should have listened.
Fast forward a few decades and here we are. We are that wife, that mother, that employee, that stressed out individual trying to figure out how to manage it all. We discover that money does not come in an endless supply and there is never enough of it. We discover that trying to make sure your kids have those same carefree summer days you enjoyed is actually a lot of work. We have mates who may help or may hinder. Maybe we don't have a mate at this point and we have triple the load. (As women the load is double with a mate, so just triple it without one.) We are constantly bombarded with images of perfect mother, wife, sister, friends who have it all together. The obvious conclusion is the problem lies with me. If I just buckle down, get organized, be more disciplined I too can be Martha Stewart. Um, no. Well if that works for you then great. For me, it makes me more insane. My family doesn't do well with structure. They rebel. Which stresses me out. They complain. Which stresses me out. They ridicule. Which stresses me out. They exceed my limits, push my buttons, try everything they can to restore the chaos to our lives. Is it worth it? No.
There are levels of stress and pressure within all of our lives. We can buckle under it or buckle down and deal with it. Or, we can do neither and go with the flow. I'm flowing. Just like I did when I was 10 years old.
I remember what it was like to be 10 years old on a summer day. Wake up. Eat breakfast. Get dressed. Go outside and play until lunch. After lunch go outside and play until dinner. After dinner rinse and repeat the next day. So went the days of summer. Interrupted only by picnics, summer camps, trips to the zoo and the like. I often joke that I would like to be 10 years old again. My job was either school or play. Boys weren't on my radar unless I was beating them up and Barbie ruled my kingdom. But when we are 10 years old it's all we can do to keep from exploding with frustration we want to be grown up so badly. As girls we want to grow breasts, get married and have babies. We think it is so glamorous to drive a car and go to work. Even though all of the adults around us try to slow us down and quiet our longing with tales of how we should enjoy our time as children. Being grown up will come soon enough. We should have listened.
Fast forward a few decades and here we are. We are that wife, that mother, that employee, that stressed out individual trying to figure out how to manage it all. We discover that money does not come in an endless supply and there is never enough of it. We discover that trying to make sure your kids have those same carefree summer days you enjoyed is actually a lot of work. We have mates who may help or may hinder. Maybe we don't have a mate at this point and we have triple the load. (As women the load is double with a mate, so just triple it without one.) We are constantly bombarded with images of perfect mother, wife, sister, friends who have it all together. The obvious conclusion is the problem lies with me. If I just buckle down, get organized, be more disciplined I too can be Martha Stewart. Um, no. Well if that works for you then great. For me, it makes me more insane. My family doesn't do well with structure. They rebel. Which stresses me out. They complain. Which stresses me out. They ridicule. Which stresses me out. They exceed my limits, push my buttons, try everything they can to restore the chaos to our lives. Is it worth it? No.
There are levels of stress and pressure within all of our lives. We can buckle under it or buckle down and deal with it. Or, we can do neither and go with the flow. I'm flowing. Just like I did when I was 10 years old.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Happy New Year
It seems as if everyone has a blog. There are blogs about every topic you can imagine and many you have never heard of before. I have been asked repeatedly if I have a blog. Truth is, I have had several. I've tried to come up with some kind of cutesy name, topics, target audience all to no avail. I just don't do cutesy. I consider myself to be pretty well rounded so how would I focus my writing on just one topic? What would that topic be? I am the mythical "Jack of all trades, master of none". I am a married 30-something laid off corporate minion with a 6 year old daughter. Like many of us in this position I find myself at the crossroads of life asking the question, "What's next?"
So what is this blog for. No reason. No reason at all. It is for everything and nothing. One day I may have something prolific to say and the next I might just want to talk about cheese. It may be funny or it may be profound but whatever it is it will be mine and I commit to writing in it regularly. Hopefully someone will find it entertaining. After all, what I have to say is important, my name is L.A.W.
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