About Me Part 2

Kitchen Tip Tuesday is taking two weeks off, so I thought I'd better come up with *something* else to post about, eh? :>) I managed to come down with a terrible head cold this week and am trying to get more things canned, so that's keeping me busy. Yesterday was a LOOOONG day - I couldn't sleep and finally got up around 4 AM to make salsa, thinking I could get it done and get a nap later. I didn't want to run the food processor thinking it might wake Goose, but by the time I got everything chopped and simmering, she was up for the day anyway.

By the time I put Goose down for her nap yesterday, I was *so* ready to eat my lunch and lay down, but she didn't take a very long nap. When I finally went in to get her, I discovered why - I'd accidentally shut her very best friend, our white cat, in with her. I think they had a good time, but there wasn't much sleeping. We all made it to bedtime without too many trials, thankfully.

So. As noted here in part 1, I knew within a few months of working my first job after college that Sam's Club didn't hold much of a future for me. I worked with head hunters, scoured the classified ads, networked the best I knew how, and applied anywhere and everywhere.

I finally landed at a marketing research company. The president hired me and told me I could pick one of three or four departments to work in, but just kind of tossed me into one of them for the afternoon. They took pity on me and treated me very well, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted. The next morning, I went in and said I wanted to write reports.

That job was actually pretty fun for a "stats geek" like me - and actually, that was my suggestion for the name of our company softball team. In my department, we would get a data file of statistics, create graphs, and then write out explanations. I met a fellow from the neighboring department who was also on the softball team and we began dating. At that point, I was still very lonely, and I fancied myself in love. We wanted to get married, so I co-signed for a diamond ring (and didn't exactly see THAT as a red flag yet, sigh) and he proposed.

My parents were less than impressed, and our co-workers were surprised because we had kept our relationship pretty quiet. I jumped into making wedding plans because I so badly wanted to be in love and married, but within a month, I knew it was never going to happen. I didn't break things off, though. I was in a city where I didn't know many people, and we did have fun. Plus he needed me, and for some reason, women seem to like to be needed.

I commenced another job search that summer. I had piled up my vacation time and spent a month traveling in Mexico. My roommate from the Puebla trip and I traveled La Ruta Maya and visited a number of lovely ruins starting in Cozumel, hitting Chichen Itza, swinging down through Chiapas, across Guatemala, and into Belize. It was an amazing time. I returned about the time of my two-year anniversary with the company and turned in my notice. A former co-worker (who just happens to own a lovely calico cat quite similar to mine) had connected me with a job in Colorado, and I was ready to begin the newest chapter.

Looking back now, I still don't exactly understand why I hadn't broken off my engagement yet. I knew it wasn't going to work out. But as I moved to yet another new city where I knew no one, I needed something familiar.

My job was fascinating - I was hired to coordinate a mission that the three dioceses in Colorado sponsored in Mexico. The office had been at the Archdiocese of Denver but moved to the Diocese of Colorado Springs when I began. I was lucky that a number of women there were nearly old enough to be my mothers, and they took me in.

As part of the job, I traveled around the state speaking at parishes for mission appeals to raise funds for the mission and just to raise awareness of our activities. I wrote articles for the diocesan newspapers. And I got paid to travel to Mexico! Our mission was located in Hermosillo, which is a few hours south of Tucson, Ariz.

Hmm, I think this is a good place to stop for now. Note that I moved to the Springs in 2000, and as a "teaser", I'll tell you that September 10th, 2001 was as significant for me as September 11th, 2001. Until next time . . .