Exciting Pre-Holiday Fun Post

plus cheese

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Writing My Mind. For those of you who celebrate things this time of year, I hope you have a happy time with friends and/or family.

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Exciting Pre-Holiday Fun Post

Listen to this post:

In February of 2015, I put in my two-weeks’ notice at the bank.

For twelve years I’d worked for men who were basically sexist bullies. My immediate bosses gave me those appraising head-to-toe looks that even I, fairly clueless to reading faces, could understand. When I showed up one day in a brand-new, base-model Honda Accord, my manager joked that they were paying me too much. Right.

I chalked it all up to having to “learn how to play a man’s game,” because that’s what my mom had done. For years she complained about how hard it was to work in the male-dominated aviation industry. So I thought that’s how it needed to be for me too, I guess.

I tried to fit in and tried to be a team player, oh how I tried. Now, of course, I realize that I hated trying to sell things to people and was horrible at it. I hated making phone calls. Reading people was difficult. All that is a perfect combo for failing at investment planning (which is really just another form of sales).

It’s also a recipe for exhaustion. I was miserable. I was tired of working at something that did not come naturally. I finally gave up.

Here is a photo my friend took on the morning I left my resignation letter on my boss’ desk.

that exit sign was so close i could almost touch it!

Shortly after turning in my resignation, an incident occurred that got me so upset, I complained to HR, who offered to let me walk out the door that day instead of finishing out my two weeks (that’s how scared they were that I’d sue). I told them I wanted to stay a few days longer, because some of our clients had become friends, or at least people I didn’t want to leave high and dry. How nice of me! In retrospect, that didn’t matter all that much, but at the time it felt important.

My boss was livid when he found out I wouldn’t be staying the full two weeks. And when he asked why I was leaving early, all I could say was, “Ask HR,” which as you can imagine, went over really well. (After I left, HR had a chat with him, but since he was the second most successful advisor in the company, of course nothing of consequence happened. A slap on the wrist and he was back in business.)

I took a big leap, leaving that job. My salary has never come anywhere close to what it was back then. And I sure do miss 401(k) matching and decent health insurance. But I don’t miss working for jerks. And lots of good things have happened since then. I fell into teaching yoga, decided to start writing books, and began an editing business in 2018.

Life has slowed down since 2015. In 2020 everything came to a standstill for everyone, so that doesn’t really count. And 2021 and 2022 were also exceptions, as I spent so much time in California taking care of my dad and getting immersed in new routines that seemed painfully slow yet blindingly fast all at the same time. Yes, those years were a little different.

But overall, there is now more time to be still (if I let myself).

This morning, I was trying to think of what I’d write about for this post. What have I done in the last two weeks that’s at all interesting? I did meet my first ex-husband for lunch, that could definitely be a post. Oh, and I bought a new water bottle, also very exciting.

So this morning, I sat here drinking my coffee and pondered the question of how to dazzle you with my prose.  I looked out the window to watch the juncos hopping through the dead grass and dried zinnias looking for seeds. They never go to the feeder, they only eat from the ground. Did you know that? And there were about ten goldfinches in the zinnias too. The dead flowers are quite unattractive this time of year but provide healthy snacks for our bird friends.

I noticed how the light coming through the blinds makes one of my favorite houseplants appear striped. How dazzling!

These are not things I noticed when I was younger. These are also things I didn’t have as much time to notice when I was working a “regular” job. I wasn’t home to see much of it.

I wonder what came first, though—did my starting to notice these small, amazing things eventually lead me to quit my job? Or did I really only start to notice them once I’d quit?

Maybe the answer to both is yes.

Wait, I’ve already forgotten the questions. The light sure does look nice on this plant.

New Book Coming Soon…

The Big Cheese, book 2 in my Old School Cozy Mystery series, releases on 1/16/24. If you like quirky, low-stakes mysteries, this is the book for you. It’s available for preorder, and if you purchase through my shop, you’ll be letting me keep a few more pennies than if you purchase it through one of Those Guys. Thanks!

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