A Direction A Day

I'm all over the place regarding jobs and homes and the future. Each day finds me thinking in a different direction than I've ever thought before.

I started this whole epic mind game thinking my IBM manager, Ken, would allow me to telecommute from Youngstown. After all, Al's a contractor in my group and he telecommutes three days a week when he's in Tucson, and works remotely from Montana from June through September. We both are former IBMers. The precedent has been set.

But Ken doesn't like my contract manager, so he's not going to do anything to help me out. Just my luck for being employed as a contractor. Every person within IBM to whom I speak about job possibilities tells me, "We've got plenty of contractors in our group who telecommute."

Sometimes I think I'd be happy working in Tucson three weeks out of the month and the telecommuting one week from Youngstown. If I could coordinate with Tyler's travel, then I could help Jaci during those weeks when she's a "single" mom.

Then I look at jobs on Monster and CareerBuilder and various other job sites, and I see three month or six month contract positions. I think, "Hey, I could go live in San Francisco for three months for a tech writing job." The world is my oyster. I can do whatever I want. I just don't know what I want to do!

Why does it take employers three or four months to respond to a résumé?! I feel certain that my background in development means the YSU development department is considering me, but they had my résumé on or about April 15th, for crying out loud. The very least you could do is let a person know you're either interested or disinterested.

It's very frustrating.

And then I get up early and grab an hour of sewing time, and think how much I'd like to be able to sew all the time, intermingled with volunteerism and babysitting. I fantasize about selling this house and the NC property and buying a small house in Youngstown and just retiring once and for all. I'm already networking in Youngstown. The FirstBook people would love to have me help them read to the schoolchildren and distribute books. There are about 15 Pi Phi alums and no alum club, so there's an opportunity. I'd love to teach some beginning sewing classes to young underprivileged children. So much to do, so little opportunity in my current state of chaos.

Too much. It's just too much for my weary brain.

The NC property will go on the market in a couple of weeks. And I vacillate about the Chula Vista property (my current residence). Do I keep it and go back and forth, therefore making possible continued activity with Tucson Chamber Artists and Tucson Symphony Orchestra Chorus? (Yesterday I agreed to take on two more responsibilities on the TCA board.) I wrote to Cleveland Symphony Orchestra Chorus, who took two weeks to respond, to see if they planned August auditions. (I learned about the May 4-5 auditions on May 7!) The woman who responded said they don't anticipate any further auditions until next May. C'mon! Where's flexibility? Where's grabbing somebody who's good and has lots of experience?

It's around the corner. I'm sure it's around the corner. Work and housing and life — I don't know the details of any of those facets of life, but I'm sure they're all just around the corner. Now if I can just perfect my patience!