For once I'm starting to have a little clarity about my work situation. Kind of like an alcoholic sees the light at the end of the tunnel after going on a five day bender. What has brought about said clear headedness? Allow me to discuss.

Yesterday afternoon my good friend Erin called me up and asked for my help. She is a Mary Kay lady and is working her way into the management levels in the company. What she needed me to do is participate in a little "survey" conducted by one of the ladies she was working with. We would be on conference call so Erin could hear how to conduct an interview. That should have tipped me off right there. Being the helpful soul I am, I agreed to do the interview. What could it hurt? So after a particularly crappy day at job #1 and rushing around to get an obit story interview done for Saturday's edition I finally got home around 8 p.m. to make dinner. I was so flustered by this point I had completely forgotten about the phone call. We started talking and doing the mock interview around 8:05ish. At first the other lady (who's name is escaping me at this moment) and I exchanged pleasentries for a few minutes then we got into it. The idea was to help Erin with her interview skills. What really happened was I got a quick lesson in the ways of Mary Kay and let me tell you, the thought of actually being able to work for myself is damn appealing. The program they have for training and support of their people is very well organized. Doesn't take much to start up and well, just sounds like a good thing. All day today I kept telling myself. I could do this. I really could do this, how hard can it be to sell this stuff. The more I got dumped on at job #1 the better this whole deal is looking.

Soooo, Erin is coming back here for our reunion next week and we're going to discuss. The plan that has been formulating in my head involves me quitting job #1, keeping job #2 and picking up part time shifts at Red Lobster. Yes, that would mean working with Bob. But heck, if it means keeping my sanity then I'm all for it. Working like that would a)give me more writting time and would free up my days to get more background done for my obit stories and b) save my brain from exploding everytime I walk into job #1. Lately I've realized that life is too short to do something I hate that much. Why waste time and energy at a place that doesn't appreciate all of the hard work I do? I'm almost 28 (in 10 days!) and this whole being miserable because of my job thing has got to stop!

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Your history lesson for today...Nov. 22 is the 40th anniversary of the assasination of President Kennedy. The man had so much potential. Honestly I think he could have been one of our greatest presidents. Unfortunately a well placed bullet and a non-bulletproof car in Dallas 40 years ago brought any chance of that happening to an end. My parents always can tell me where they were when they heard about the shooting (dad was in 9th grade, mom 7th grade art class). Just like I can tell you exactly what I was doing when the Challenger exploded in 1986. Fifth grade, indoor recess, we were trying to suck up to the teacher for more treats at the end of the year by sitting quietly at our desks. Ms. Topper entered the room, told us to be quiet, turned on the television and we all watched, shocked and horrified by what had happened.

A day I will definitely never forget.

And on that cheerful note, I leave you with this bit of weirdness. Is it just me or does Michael Jackson look more and more like a woman each year?