Year In Review

In the style of my friend Jamelah, I am going to be writing a 2006 Year In Review series of blogs. I say "series" because I may not finish it right away. Plus I have a lot to say.

2006 in General

It wasn't an easy year. The last half in particular was difficult. Mary Kay fell apart a little bit, and then on top of the feelings of guilt, disappointment, and sense of failure, we had the more immediate financial concerns to deal with. Michigan's economy is moving slower than a hibernating turtle, so jobs are few and far between. Also, I am not qualified to drive a truck or be in the medical field.

Career

As I mentioned, this was a turbulent part of my life. I spent the first six months of this year working MK to the point of absurdity, only to have it all fall through on June 30. Then came 2-3 months of having NO job at all, and that was really tough. I got a part-time job at Barstools & More (can we say, overqualified?) and another one at Phoenix Community Church (semi-overqualified, but it's okay). Then, the glorious day came when I found an ad online for an adjunct professor of English at Davenport University. This is, of course, the line of work I ultimately wanted to go into, and it seemed the perfect jumping-off point. I submitted my resume at about 8:00 a.m., and was hired roughly by 10:00. Hoorah! And since then, my working life has improved considerably. I put my notice in at BS&M, so I'll no longer be working for them after the first of the year. It's nothing personal....I really did grow to like the people there and the work's not hard or anything (plus I got to play with power tools occasionally). But the compensation, while appropriate, was not what I needed, and felt, well, not worth my time. It's hard to sweep backroom floors when you're weeks away from having a Master's degree.

I am learning that teaching is a wonderful profession, especially at the college level. Hard work, lots of planning, but it pays off. For once, I feel like I'm finally where I should be.

Finances

Well, this was probably the least pleasant part of the year. With MK not paying off in the end, and those few months when I didn't have ANY income to speak of, it wasn't easy. And while I'd love to say we're out of the woods now that I work at Davenport, sadly it will take awhile for things to improve to the point that we feel comfortable. We have some plans in the works that might help, though.

Okay, stay tuned....more to come.