Work & Family

Over the fourth of july holiday, my sister +family and my mom visited us… our house is normally very quiet, except for the TV or radio that I typically have on, so it was been a big change to have two young children running through the house.
For those of you who always seem to be hoping that experiences like this might change my “kid free” life plan, I’m sorry to say that it has not. My nephews are good kids, but I still don’t see the appeal in being a parental unit. Sorry. Luckily, there are plenty of other people willing to populate the planet, so, in the grand scheme of things, this choice isn’t a big deal… Plus, I’m saving some poor kid from the possibility of growing up as a redhead. Why subject someone to that? Speaking of people with big families, Karen and I saw this horrific sight in the Moe’s parking lot Monday night. Can you imagine? This will haunt me for a while…

With the kids around, especially the super smart 6 year old, I did take notice of how they look at things differently than adults do and it made me wish that I could remember what I was thinking about back then. Unfortunately, my memory is crap and I can barely recall what we had for dinner last night (actually, it was chicken casserole with green beans from the garden). More specifically, I wish I could remember more about what I wanted to be when I grew up and compare that to where I am now. I know that my parents say that, when I was little, I always wanted to drive a garbage truck. Big aspirations, I know. Sometime around high school, that changed to wanting to be a Landscape Architect. It was a fairly unusual profession selection, but since a family friend was an LA and I liked a lot of aspects of the field (design, plants, being outside, etc.), it made sense.
I followed that “dream” through a college degree in Landscape Architecture and I’m closing in on the 13 year anniversary of graduating from UGA. I can’t honestly remember what I imagined my career would be like at this point, but I am 100% sure that I’m not where I thought I would be. Over those 13 years, I have been fortunate enough to work on some interesting projects but now I feel like I’m in a bit of a professional funk. My current position isn’t exactly ideal and the job market around here hasn’t been very fruitful. The only thing that is keeping me halfway motivated at this point is the professional development work that I’ve been doing. I’ve gone to two conferences that reminded me about what is cool about this profession, but then I return to work and realize that what I’m doing isn’t what I want to do.
It is official, I’m in a professional “midlife crisis” or perhaps a more friendly title would be “a professional crossroads.”
Do I keep slogging through where I am now, hoping it improves and/or something better comes down the line, or do I jump ship to venture out into another realm and basically start over? 36 doesn’t seem like it is too old to start over, but is that wise? If I did start over, what the hell would I do??? I had a 9 month foray into auto sales right after we moved up here, and, while I enjoyed parts of it (and was salesman of the month twice), I don’t see that as a career I’m willing to commit to for the next 20+ years.
So, where does this leave me? Maybe I should go to my original plan of being a garbage truck driver?! I drove a bus while in college, so why not? Realistically, I know that neither of those would tap into my potential, so let’s rule them out for now.
The CFO suggested going back to school to get my masters in LA, so that I could be a professor too. That sounds like an interesting idea, until you look at college prices… Then you add in the fact that it would be nearly impossible to find two teaching jobs close together geographically. I don’t think that is realistic.
I could go back and get a teaching certificate and teach younger kids, but part of me would consider that only because of the schedule. It would be nice to be off when the CFO is off, that way we could spend more time traveling. It’s kind of like my own little version of the movie “Bad Teacher,” where the main character proclaims, “I thought that I was doing it (teaching) for all the right reasons. Shorter hours, summers off, no accountability…”
Other ideas that have come up are getting a paralegal certificate, applying at the insurance company that has a huge presence in the area, or possibly something in the medical field… but, I’m not sure I could handle being around blood and stuff, so that is off the table for now.
Enough of that for now… In other news, while our grass is brown, dry and crispy, or garden has been doing pretty well. We’ve collected several pounds of green beans, and probably 9-10 each of zucchinis and squashes. We’ve made several batches of zucchini bread and probably should make another batch tonight. We’ve also started giving stuff away because the two of us can’t eat it all. My corn is suffering pretty badly, so I’m not expecting much out of it. The tomatoes have had some blossom end rot, probably from inconsistent watering, so I’m trying to be more methodical about watering. I’m also mentally designing a drip irrigation system for next year.

With the sudden inundation of veggies, we’re starting to experiment with other ways of preparing them. My favorite so far came from good ol’ Paula Deen: fried green beans. They were very tasty, but I’m sure the frying negated any health benefit. We also fried some squash medallions that were almost as good as the green beans. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

This picture didn't do the frying justice, for some reason the green really shows up in the photo.