How you feeling now?

Been okay since then

I'm fully capable of making myself sick, and that's what goes on.

Maybe it's time to get back to the doc... or the gun shop open floor plans are useful in a spree. Seriously though, don't let this drag on.

You know that myth about the frog that sits in a pot of water that is being brought to a boil?

This pot is getting kinda warm.

26 years at this place. I'm feeling like I need to reinvent myself. Maybe it's because my 26 year anniversary was Saturday. Maybe it's because I turn 50 next week. Maybe it's because my boss has a new boss and he's got a reputation as an executioner. She called me into her office and said she's about ready to retire because she can't deal with the shit in this place any more. I feel like I have about a 10% chance that I could get her job. I feel like there is about a 50% chance that her job will be eliminated if she retires. I don't even really want her job, although I want her salary.

How do you go about reinventing yourself when you are 50 and need to keep a steady income to pay bills and get 2 kids through college? Lots of opportunities out there for me to jump ship and earn half of what I make now.

Not looking for answers. I know I have to figure this out myself. I just have no idea where to start.

I could go back to school for 4-6 years and become a pharmacist. Tons of secure good paying jobs in that field. I could have a 10-15 year career doing that after going into serious debt to get through school.

Well, the cruel thing is to mention what J said once about my situation: Honey everybody hates their work! She takes a pill and gets on with it.

What if this is as good as it gets?

~

Pharmacy is cool. Although I think the old people in it are as tired as we are. I considered doing pharmacy when I was 17. It's like the accountancy of medicine. In accountancy you don't get any of that money, or make any decisions about it, but you do get to count it.

Facing the gauntlet 8 years ago y'all remember -- I taught myself web design! Boy that'll make me desirable to those cool startups downtown! No, it doesn't work that way. Turns out they have plenty of youngsters looking for those kinds of opportunities and so why would they EVER consider hiring anyone age 50 to do it? They DO NOT! EVER! Even if the fossil is willing to take a pay cut. Some jobs are merely Right Out for us because OLD.

Well, you could start by reshaping your eyebrows, shaving your pit hair and listening to old Liza Minnelli records...:jig:

I'm at the point where I don't have a lot of ego in my job. I like the work, I do some good on a daily basis, the pay is shit, and I'm probably going to stick around until the politicians break the social contract. At that point, I feel like could be happy driving a UPS truck, opening a diner, or some kind of bike park. Who knows? Make your own bed.

I love my work. The pay barely covers my expenses, the commute, while pretty, is long enough to be tedious and expensive. I really like the people I work with. When I first composed and then lost this post, I didn't have the benefit of Griff's post.

I echo his point that he feels like he's doing good each day, I do too, that's a big psychic benefit for me. Just as working with people who aren't incompatible with me. I've had some doozies, you all have. With my other minimums met (barely, $ and travel time), I decided to say yes. It's worth it every day.

You know the cliche about finding a way to get paid for doing something you love and then you'll never have to work another day in your life. Ha ha. But there's some truth to it. Quality of life *matters*. You get to fucking define it, and change it, and change it again, if you wish.

Sure. Sometimes changes fucking define *you*. Ouch. But is absolutely possible. And absolutely worth it. Find out what's important. Go. Get. That. Jesus, that sounds trite, written out like that. My apologies. It's true, it's just dumb sounding out loud like that.

You have to watch out for changes, cow orkers come and go, management changes, personal life changes. If you keep saying, that's ok I love my job, you can find outside the blinders your world has gone to hell.

Yep.

Pharmacy is not nearly as cool as it sounds. It's just a whole ton of finding shit alphabetized on a shelf, and counting pills. Don't get me wrong, my pharmacists are nice people, but they thought they were going to get to use their brains a lot more than they are.

And the required record keeping is a nightmare. :rollanim:

Looking out the window of the office across the hall, I see that it is pouring out and two people have inside out umbrellas